 Mahayanavimsaka
of Nagarjuna
Edited by
Vidhusekhara Bhattacharya ©1931 Visvabharati
Bookshop, Calcutta
ADORATION TO THE
THREE TREASURES
1
I make my obeisance
to the Buddha who is wise, free from
all attachment, and
whose powers are beyond conception, and
who has kindly
taught the truth which cannot be expressed
by words.
2
In the
transcendental truth there is no origination
(utpada), and in
fact, there is no destruction (nirodha).
The Buddha is like
the sky (which has neither origination
nor cessation), and
the beings are like him, and therefore
they are of the same
nature.
3
There is no birth
either on this or the other side (of the
world). A compound
thing (samskrta) originates from its
conditions.
Therefore it is sunya by its nature. This fact
comes into the range
of knowledge of an omniscient one.
4
All things by nature
are regarded as reflections. They are
pure and naturally
quiescent, devoid of any duality, equal,
and remain always
and in all circumstances in the same way
(tathata).
5
In fact, worldings
attribute atman to what is not atman,
and in the same way
they imagine happiness, misery,
indifference,
passions and liberation.
6 - 7
Birth in the six
realms of existence in the world, highest
happiness in the
heaven, great pain in the hell,--these do
not come within the
perview of truth (i.e. cannot be
accepted as true);
nor do the notions that unmeritorious
actions lead to the
extreme misery, old age, disease, and
death, and
meritorious actions surely bring about good
results.
It is owing to false
notions that beings are consumed by
fire of passions
even as a forest is burnt by forest
conflagration and
fall into the hells, etc. As illusion
prevails so do
beings make their appearance. The world is
illusory and it
exists only on account of its cause and
conditions.
8
As a painter is
frightened by the terrible figure of a
Yaksa which he
himself has drawn, so is a fool frightened
in the world (by his
own false notions).
9
Even as a fool going
himself to a quagmire is drowned
therein, so are
beings drowned in the quagmire of false
notions and are
unable to come out thereof.
10
The feeling of
misery is experienced by imagining a thing
where in fact it has
no existence. Beings are tortured by
the poison of false
notions regarding the object and its
knowledge.
11
Seeing these
helpless beings with a compassionate heart one
should perform the
practices of the highest knowledge
(bodhicarya) for the
benefit of them.
12
Having acquired
requisites thereby and getting
unsurpassable bodhi
one should become a Buddha, the friend
of the world, being
freed fron the bondage of false
notions.
13
He who realizes the
transcendental truth knowing the
pratityasamutpada
(or the manifestation of entities
depending on their
causes and conditions), knows the world
to be sunya and
devoid of beginning, middle or end.
14
The samsara and
nirvana are mere appearances; the truth is
stainless,
changeless, and quiescent from the beginning and
illumined.
15
The object of
knowledge in dream is not seen when one
awakes. Similarly
the world disappears to him who is
awakened from the
darkness of ignorance.
The creation of
illusion is nothing but illusion. When
everything is
compoond there is nothing which can be
regarded as a real
thing. Such is the nature of all things.
16
One having
origination (jati) does not originate himself.
Origination is a
false conception of the people. Such
conceptions and
(conceived) beings, these two are not
reasonable.
17
All this is nothing
but mind (citta) and exists just like
an illusion. Hence
originate good and evil actions and from
them good and evil
birth.
18
When the wheel of
the mind is suppressed, all things are
suppressed.
Therefore all things are devoid of atman
(independent
nature), and consequently they are pure.
19
It is due to
thinking the things which have no independent
nature as eternal,
atman, and pleasant that this ocean of
existence (bhava)
appears to one who is enveloped by the
darkness of
attachment and ignorance.
20
Who can reach the
other side of thc great ocean of samsara
which is full of
water of false notions without getting
into the great
vehicle (i.e., Mahayana) ?
How can these false
notions arise in a man who thoroughly
knows this world
which has originated from ignorance?
Here ends the
Mahayanavimsaka of Acarya Nagarjuna.
Edited by
Vidhusekhara Bhattacharya ©1931 Visvabharati
Bookshop, Calcutta
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