འཕགས་པ་གསར་འད་དམ་པ་མཆག་ཏ་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བའ་མད་སྡའ་རྒྱལ་པ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.107

intro.107

This chapter does not have the homage to a series of buddhas and bodhisattvas that begins the equivalent chapter (chapter 10) in the twenty-one-chapter version. Sthāvarā, the goddess of the earth, promises the Buddha that she will come to wherever The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light is taught, and with her head she will support the feet of the dharmabhāṇaka. Having heard the sūtra, she will make the earth fertile and make what is grown in it nutritious and life enhancing, and the population will increase. She states that if someone who has heard the sūtra returns home and repeats even a line of verse from it, that home will prosper. The Buddha states that anyone who has listened to even one line of the sūtra, or makes offerings to it, will be reborn in a paradise after death, enjoy happiness for countless eons, and eventually attain buddhahood. The twenty-one-chapter version concludes at this point. In this version, the chapter continues with Sthāvarā teaching mantras and rites to invoke her protection.