འཕགས་པ་གསར་འད་དམ་པ་མད་སྡའ་དབང་པའ་རྒྱལ་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 213

213

Chapter 24: Ending All Illness

“Noble goddess, what were those past prayers? In the past, in a time gone by—an inconceivable, vast number, more innumerable than an asaṃkhyeya of eons ago—at that time, in that time, the tathāgata arhat samyaksaṃbuddha, the one with wisdom and virtuous conduct, the sugata, the one who knows the world’s beings, the unsurpassable guide who tames beings, the teacher of devas and humans, the buddha, the bhagavat by the name of Ratnaśikhin appeared in the world.

“Noble goddess, at that time, in that time, after the tathāgata arhat samyaksaṃbuddha Ratnaśikhin had passed into nirvāṇa and the Dharma had vanished and there was just the outer appearance of the Dharma, there was King Sureśvaraprabha, who followed the Dharma, who was a Dharma king, who ruled the kingdom through the Dharma and not through that which was not the Dharma, and who was like a father and mother to the beings who dwelled there.

“Noble goddess, at that time, in that time, in the kingdom of King Sureśvaraprabha, there was a head merchant by the name of Jaṭiṃdhara. He was a doctor, a physician, perfectly skilled in the humors, and was endowed with all eight branches of the Āyurveda tradition.

“O noble goddess, at that time, in that time, the head merchant Jaṭiṃdhara had a son named Jalavāhana, who had an excellent body; was attractive and handsome; had a perfect, well-developed, excellent complexion; was learned in various treatises; had the understanding of all treatises; and was perfectly trained in letters, numbers, finger-counting, and calculations.

“Noble goddess, at that time, in that time,