Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājasūtra/Full text
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सुवर्णप्रभासोत्तमसूत्रेन्द्रराजसूत्र
Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājasūtra
The Sovereign Lord of Sūtras, The Golden Light (84000)
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Description
The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light has held great importance in Buddhism for its instructions on the purification of karma. In particular, much of the sūtra is specifically addressed to monarchs and thus has been significant for rulers—not only in India but also in China, Japan, Mongolia, and elsewhere—who wished to ensure the well-being of their nations through such purification. Reciting and internalizing this sūtra is understood to be efficacious for personal purification and also for the welfare of a state and the world.
In this sūtra, the bodhisattva Ruciraketu has a dream in which a prayer of confession emanates from a shining golden drum. He relates the prayer to the Buddha, and a number of deities then vow to protect it and its adherents. The ruler’s devotion to the sūtra is emphasized as important if the nation is to benefit. Toward the end of the sūtra are two well-known narratives of the Buddha’s previous lives: the account of the physician Jalavāhana, who saves and blesses numerous fish, and that of Prince Mahāsattva, who gives his body to a hungry tigress and her cubs.
This is the second-longest version of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light preserved in the Kangyur. It comprises twenty-nine chapters and was translated into Tibetan primarily from Sanskrit. (Source: 84000)| Reference | suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājasūtra [सुवर्णप्रभासोत्तमसूत्रेन्द्रराजसूत्र]. 'phags pa gser 'od dam pa mdo sde'i dbang po'i rgyal po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་གསེར་འོད་དམ་པ་མདོ་སྡེའི་དབང་པོའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [The Sovereign Lord of Sūtras, The Golden Light (84000)]. Kangyur, RKTSK 551 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=551&typ=1. |
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| People | Jinamitra, Yeshe De, Śīlendrabodhi |
