Toh 312The Noble Mahāsūtra “On Entering the City of Vaiśālī”

Summary

Invited to visit the city of Vaiśālī, which has been ravaged by a terrible epidemic, the Buddha instructs Ānanda
to stand at the city’s gate and recite a proclamation, a long mantra, and some verses that powerfully evoke spiritual
well-being. Ānanda does so, and the epidemic comes to an end. One of the mahāsūtras related to the literature of the Vinaya, this text, like other accounts of the incident, has
traditionally been recited during times of personal or collective illness, bereavement, and other difficulties.

Acknowledgements

The translation is an extract from a translation of the Bhaiṣajyavastu (“The
Chapter on Medicines,” the sixth chapter of the Vinayavastu, Toh 1) by the
Bhaiṣajyavastu Translation Team. The translation was made by Fumi Yao and proofread by Shayne Clarke. The extract has
been adapted and annotated to the context of this source text by the 84000 editorial team, who also compiled the
introduction.

The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the
Buddha.

Introduction

On Entering the City of Vaiśālī is a text with a rich network of textual, historical,
narrative, and literary connections. It is also one of the mahāsūtras, whose primary use has traditionally been a ritual one—they were recited to provide
protection (rakṣa) from sickness and other calamities.

The association of this mahāsūtra with healing, the banishing of misfortune, and the restoration of spiritual
well-being is clearly derived from its narrative context. In essence, a terrible famine and epidemic has been
ravaging the city of Vaiśālī, and the text comprises a commanding proclamation, a long mantra, and a set of verses
for auspiciousness (svastigāthā) that the Buddha instructs his
attendant Ānanda to pronounce at the city gate in order to put an end to the disaster. The first half of the text
has the Buddha telling Ānanda what to say, and the second half repeats the first half verbatim as Ānanda executes
this mission.

There are several different lists of mahāsūtras in works that recommend their recitation. Compared to the
other mahāsūtras in the Kangyur, On Entering the City of Vaiśālī is something of an
outlier, in that it is not included with the other nine of that category in the early text inventories. Its title
and what is known of its history, however, identify it as closely related to the others. No modern discussion of the
mahāsūtras would be complete without reference to Peter Skilling’s two-volume magnum opus on the subject, and his
study of these texts not only covers the nine that are mentioned in some lists but also adds On
Entering the City of Vaiśālī as the tenth, with the special status of an “independent mahāsūtra.”

Like the other mahāsūtras, this text belongs to the literature of the Mūlasarvāstivādin school. The mahāsūtra On
Entering the City of Vaiśālī corresponds almost exactly to a passage in the very long sixth chapter of
the Mūlasarvāstivādin Vinayavastu (Toh 1), the Chapter on
Medicines (Bhaiṣajyavastu). The present, standalone mahāsūtra version provides minimal detail of
the narrative context in which the event it describes takes place, but from the passages that precede and follow the
version in The Chapter on Medicines we can understand why this event was considered so
significant.

In The Chapter on Medicines, the episode is set during a long and detailed
account of the Buddha’s final journey toward the north, not long before his parinirvāṇa, which parallels in many
other respects the narrative of the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra in the Dīrghāgama. While the Buddha is staying in Rājagṛha under the
patronage of King Ajātaśatru, an emissary sent by the Licchavis from their capital of Vaiśālī arrives, bearing news
of a terrible epidemic that has decimated the city’s population and a request to the Buddha to visit and quell the
disaster. The Licchavis have been at war with Ajātaśatru, so the Buddha first has to obtain King Ajātaśatru’s
assent, and he then sets out under the king’s protection, stopping at several places on the way to teach before
crossing the Ganges into Licchavi territory. He again stays and teaches in several places, including Nādikā, where
an epidemic has also struck (there is no mention of it being the same as Vaiśālī’s) and many of his disciples have
died, providing the setting for a famous teaching on the twelve factors of interdependent arising. Here, The Chapter on Medicines inserts the less somber episode (perhaps out of sequence ) of the Vaiśālī courtesan Āmrapālī’s invitation, her meeting with the Buddha, his teaching to her, and his
interactions with other Licchavis.

Then comes the episode of quelling the epidemic in Vaiśālī, just as it is told in this mahāsūtra, except
that in The Chapter on Medicines Ānanda’s proclamation at the city gate is followed by
the statement, not present in this mahāsūtra version:

“When Ānanda had spoken these words, there by the blessed buddhas’ power of buddhahood and the gods’
power of the gods, the epidemic was quelled.”

The words that the Buddha instructs Ānanda to pronounce at the city gates can be grouped into three main
categories: (1) commands mainly addressed to nonhuman beings to depart, disperse, and stop causing harm, backed up
by the invoking of the authority of other more powerful nonhuman beings both awakened and worldly; (2) the long
mantra, most of which consists of syllables without evident semantic content and is presumably intended to work its
effects through supernatural or magical mechanisms in relation to its sounds; and (3) the svastigāthā verses, most of which are addressed principally (but not exclusively) to the
city’s human inhabitants and convey goodness and well-being by proclaiming and describing the qualities of the Three
Jewels—compassion, purity, wisdom, and spiritual power. Some elements belong to more than one category: the
commanding words retained (in the Tibetan translation) in Sanskrit, perhaps in order to conserve their authoritative
power, which are also in a sense mantras, and the verses at the end addressed to spirits to tame them by invoking
their better natures.

The presence of mantras in this text is noteworthy, particularly as the Vinaya version of the text includes
them too. The mantras are designated in the text itself using the term gsang
sngags kyi gzhi (mantrapada in parallel Sanskrit
texts); the long mantra is not described as a dhāraṇī and does not seem to have the function of encapsulating or
epitomizing a longer teaching, as a dhāraṇī normally would. The mahāsūtra version of this text has consequently
presented problems of classification to the scholars who compiled the different Kangyurs, and in most it is placed
in both sūtra and tantra sections. In the Degé Kangyur it is present as three copies: one in the General Sūtra
section (Toh 312), one in the Collection of Tantras as an Action (Kriyā) tantra related to the Tathāgata family (Toh 628), and one in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (Toh
1093). If the Chapter on Medicines passage is
included, the text has the unusual distinction of being classified in all four of the main divisions of the
Kangyur. Not only does it exist in
no less than four different places in Kangyurs that include a compendium of dhāraṇīs, but in addition, an extract
comprising the nineteen stanzas of the verse section is found as a standalone text among the prayers of dedication
at the end of the Tantra Collection, Toh 816, with the title The Verses for
Well-Being Extracted from the Noble Sūtra “On Entering the City of Vaiśālī”
and which is also duplicated toward the end of the Tengyur (Toh 4406).

Both the present, standalone mahāsūtra version and The Chapter on Medicines
were translated into Tibetan in the imperial period, and both are mentioned in the two imperial text inventories
dated to the early decades of the ninth century, the Denkarma and Phangthangma. The translators of the mahāsūtra version were Śīlendrabodhi and Yeshé Dé, while the Vinaya version was translated by
Sarvajñādeva, Vidyākaraprabha, Dharmakāra, Palgyi Lhünpo, and Kawa Paltsek. Given that the wording of the two
Tibetan versions is almost identical and that the translators in the two teams were active in the same period, we
have to assume that there was some collaboration or borrowing between the teams with regard to this passage. Despite
the close correspondence of the two versions, it nevertheless seems unlikely that the mahāsūtra version started life
simply as an extract from The Chapter on Medicines, chosen as suitable material and
presented as a separate text by the translators in Tibet. It was almost certainly based on a text that had existed
on its own in Sanskrit, too—however closely that Sanskrit text might have been related to the wider
Mūlasarvāstivādin corpus. Further evidence for its separate existence comes from the opening lines of the text and,
in particular, its setting in a somewhat mysterious location not mentioned at all in The
Chapter on Medicines, as well as from some significant if minor differences in the verse
passages.

Nevertheless, no separate text in Sanskrit with this title has come to light, and no such title is mentioned
in any Sanskrit work. However, one of the Nepalese Pañcarakṣa texts, the Mahāmantrānusāriṇī, preserved in a number of Sanskrit manuscripts (but not in Tibetan), is very close in content to the
present text, the chief differences being the title, the setting, and the absence in the Sanskrit text of two of the
verses present in the Tibetan. The title of the Sanskrit work is interesting in that mahāmantrānusāriṇī is also the name used by the Buddha within the text to refer to the
mantra. The initial setting mentioned in this version of the text varies across the different manuscripts: some have
it as the Veṇuvana in Rājagṛha, some as the Markaṭahrada (the “monkey pond” near Vaiśālī), and in some no setting is
mentioned. These comparatively recent Nepalese Mahāmantrānusāriṇī manuscripts are
the only available witnesses in Sanskrit apart from a few newly identified fragments of The
Chapter on Medicines.
Unfortunately, the incomplete Gilgit Vinayavastu manuscript includes only some
parts of The Chapter on Medicines, and the passage in question is missing.

A commentary by Karmavajra, possibly written in the eleventh century, in which some chapters are devoted to
both the Mahāmantrānusāriṇī and On Entering the City of
Vaiśālī (and other chapters to another Pañcarakṣa text, the Mahāmantrānudhārisūtra, Toh 563 ), is to be found in Tibetan translation in the Tengyur, Toh 2692. The commentary appears to focus more on the ritual
practice of the texts than on their historical or narrative aspects, and it would no doubt merit further
exploration.

The Bhaiṣajyavastu was translated into Chinese in the early eighth century
ce by Yijing, and while there is no Chinese translation of the
independent mahāsūtra version as such, a tenth-century translation by Fatian of a text similar to the Mahāmantrānusāriṇī, the Fo shuo da hu ming da tuo luo ni
jing, provides another parallel.

The mahāsūtra was studied and translated into French by Léon Feer in 1883, but subsequently little Western scholarly
attention appears to have been focused on the mahāsūtra until Skilling’s exemplary comparative editions, notes, and
invaluable references were published in the 1990s. An English translation by Tenzin Bhuchung Shastri made under the
auspices of the FPMT and distributed online has been available since 2008.

More broadly, the story of the Buddha’s arrival in Vaiśālī putting an end to the epidemic figures in a
number of textual traditions. The Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravādin account is spread over several chapters of the Mahāvastu, in which the Buddha’s arrival near the city is enough by itself to expel the harmful spirits that
have caused the epidemic, and which culminates in his reciting, still outside the city, a set of nineteen svastigāthā extolling the Three Jewels as the source of blessings and
well-being. In the Pali Canon, an almost identical set of seventeen verses makes up the Ratana-sutta, a text very widely recited
as a protection or paritta, as will be discussed below. The Ratana-sutta itself consists only of the verses, without any narrative setting, and in
Pali sources what is recorded of the background episode comes only from later commentaries: the Buddha teaches the verses to Ānanda at the city gate,
Ānanda goes around inside the city reciting them, and finally the Buddha himself enters the city and recites them
again. The Ratana-sutta and Mahāvastu verses are
not the same as the verses in the present mahāsūtra, although some elements are shared and the general theme is very
similar. Unlike the Mūlasarvāstivādin account, however, these traditions place the episode earlier in the Buddha’s
life, during the reign of Bimbisāra rather than that of Ajātaśatru, his son, and perhaps even on the Buddha’s very
first visit to Vaiśālī.

A further text relating the incident, and in which the same verses as the Ratana-sutta and Mahāvastu are found, is another of the Pañcarakṣa
texts, the Mahāsāhasrapramardanī, this one surviving not only in Nepalese
Sanskrit manuscripts but also in a Tibetan translation in the Action Tantra section of the Kangyur (Toh 558,
available in English as Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm) and in Chinese. In this text, too, the
epidemic occurs while Ajātaśatru is reigning in Magadha, and the Buddha himself utters a mantra and the verses while
standing at the gates of the city. The bulk of this complex (and probably composite) text, however, digresses from
the Vaiśālī episode and is centered on the origins and uses of the mantra. Some verses extracted from it comprise a
standalone Kangyur text with the title The Aspiration Spoken in “Destroyer of the Great
Trichiliocosm.”
The existence of these selected verses as an extract is interesting in that—out of all the
many verse passages that could have been extracted—the verses in question are those that correspond to the Ratana-sutta, and they must surely have been selected in the awareness that they had
their own, more ancient origin.

Yet another version among the Nepalese Sanskrit manuscripts is the Ujjvālikādānakathā, the seventeenth story in the post-canonical Dvāviṃśatyavadāna collection. It shares narrative elements with the Mahāsāhasrapramardanī, and the verses that are recited in Vaiśālī by five hundred bhikṣus headed by
Ānanda contain phrases similar to the prose rakṣa of the mahāsūtra as well as verses identical to some in the Mahāmantrānusāriṇī.

Epidemics must have been relatively frequent occurrences at the time of the Buddha’s life, but the epidemic
of Vaiśālī seems to have been particularly severe. Some of the accounts mention that it had been preceded by a
famine, no doubt weakening human defenses. There are passing references in The Chapter on
Medicines to both famine and epidemic in a wider region in the same period. All the accounts agree in
ascribing the epidemic to the presence of harmful spirits and nonhuman beings, and some of them associate those
unseen influences—whether as causes or effects—with the loose morals, licentiousness, and defiled mental states of
the inhabitants of Vaiśālī.

The Buddha’s confident, masterful intervention in this disaster and his swift restoration of well-being to
the inhabitants of Vaiśālī seems to have had the effect, in Buddhist cultural perceptions, of endowing textual
accounts of the incident with a lasting power to heal. The works detailed above in which the incident is invoked,
the Mahāsāhasrapramardanī, the Mahāmantrānusāriṇī, Ujjvālikādānakathā, and Ratana-sutta, as well as this mahāsūtra itself, are all used ritually to confer
protection. The Sanskrit Pañcarakṣa texts are still popular in Nepal and are often recited. However, of all the
Vaiśālī-related texts, it is certainly the Pali Ratana-sutta that is the best known
and most widely used. The fifth-century Sri Lankan commentary, the Mahāvaṃsa,
relates how the late fourth-century King Upatissa I had it recited on the saṅgha’s advice to end a famine and
epidemic (with success). It is
unlikely that this was the earliest such incident, and today, too, it is still much used in both temples and
households to ward off evil and bring well-being.

While the mahāsūtras as a group, at least in recent times, do not appear to have been especially well known
or much used in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, On Entering the City of Vaiśālī is
probably the best known and most used among them. Recited on its own, or as part of
several widely used collections of dhāraṇī, it is still seen as a powerful protection against epidemics and sickness
in general.

The publication of this translation during the difficult months of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic in
2020 will, we hope—in commemorating the healing of Vaiśālī more than two millennia ago—bring comfort, hope, and
inspiration.

The Translation

The Noble Mahāsūtra

Entering the City of Vaiśālī

Homage to all the buddhas and
bodhisattvas!

Thus did I hear at one time: The Blessed One was residing in Nāḍikā, at the Impenetrable Dwelling
Place. The Blessed One said to the venerable Ānanda, “Ānanda, let us proceed to the city of Vaiśālī.”

“Let us do so, O Honored One,” replied the venerable Ānanda, assenting to what the Blessed One had said.

Thereupon the Blessed One, traveling through the country of Vṛji, arrived in Vaiśālī. In Vaiśālī, he stayed
in Āmrapālī’s grove.

At that time the Blessed One said to the venerable Ānanda, “Ānanda, go to the city of Vaiśālī, place your
foot on the threshold of the city gate, and utter these mantras and these verses:

“ ‘Visarata visarata visarata visarata

“ ‘The Buddha, who has compassion for the world, has spoken. This is the wish of all buddhas. It is the wish of all pratyekabuddhas. It is the wish of
all arhats. It is the wish of all those undergoing training. It is the wish of all śrāvakas. It is the wish of all
who speak words of truth. It is the wish of the Dharma. It is the wish of Kāmeśvara. It is the wish of Brahmā. It is the
wish of Pratyekabrahman. It is the wish of Indra. It is the wish of the gods. It is the wish of the lord of the
demigods. It is the wish of all demigods. It is the wish of the servants of the demigods. It is the wish of all
bhūtas:

“ ‘Visarata visarata visarata visarata

“ ‘The Buddha, who has compassion for the world, has spoken.

“ ‘Muñcata muñcata

“ ‘Do not stay. The epidemic should cease.

“ ‘Nirgacchata nirgacchata nirgacchata nirgacchata

“ ‘The Buddha, the Great God, the God of Gods, the Supreme God, has arrived. The gods including Indra, the
gods including Brahmā, the gods including Īśāna, the gods including Prajāpati, and the Four Protectors of the World
have come. Hundreds of thousands of gods, lords of the demigods, and hundreds of thousands of demigods have also
come. Hundreds of thousands of bhūtas who have faith in the Blessed One have also come for the sake of all living beings, and they have come to bring
great harm to you; so:

“ ‘Nirgacchata nirgacchata nirgacchata nirgacchata

“ ‘Disperse quickly. Those of you who have hateful thoughts, may you be destroyed. Those who have loving
thoughts, who do not wish to sin but wish to protect beings, stay and take on physical form. The Buddha, who has compassion for
the world, has spoken.

“ ‘Sumu sumu | sumu sumu sumu | sumuru sumuru | sumuru sumuru |
sumuru sumuru | sumuru sumuru | muru muru | muru muru | muru muru | muru muru | miri miri | miri miri | miri
miri miri | murumiri murumiri | murumiri murumiri | murumiri murumiri | murumiri murumiri | murumiri murumiri |
murumiri murumiri | murumiri murūrīti | riri riri riri | rīrī rīrī rīrīti | miri miri miriti | hisi miri
miriti | mirisi sīsīmī | kaṅkarā karakata | kaṅkarā karakacā | kaṅkarā kaṅkarā | kaṅkarā kaṅkarā | kaṅkarā
kaṅkarā | kaṅkarā kaṅkarā |
kaṅkarā kaṅkarā | kaṅkarā kaṅkarā | kaṅkarā kaṅkarā | kaṅkaro titi kuriśo | kaṅkara kaṅkariśi | ririri ririri |
hiritaphu svā | ripu ripu | ripu ripu | ripu ripu | ripu ripu | nāthā nānā | thā thā | ripu ripu | nāthātha |
nirgacchata nirgacchata | ripu ripu | nirgacchata palāyāta | ripū ripū pālāyata |

“ ‘The Buddha, who has compassion for the world, whose wish is to benefit all living beings, who abides in
love, who is compassionate, who abides in joy, and who abides in equanimity, has arrived.

“ ‘Kṣipraṃ nirgacchata svāhā

“These mantras, which were proclaimed to all the gods and all the bhūtas through the Buddha’s supreme wisdom
and truth, will accomplish their purpose. The following verses will accomplish their
purpose:

“ ‘He in whom all attachment and greed

Are conquered, all defilement gone,

His mind at peace without harmful intent—

He will bring you well-being.

“ ‘He who leads all worldly beings

To tread the path of liberation,

The teacher of all dharmas—

He will bring you well-being.

“ ‘The teacher, support of wandering beings,

Who, for the sake of every living creature,

Brings them all to master happiness—

He will bring you well-being.

“ ‘The protector who, with thoughts of love

For all these beings, sustains them always

Just as he would his only child—

He will bring you well-being.

“ ‘He who in saṃsāra has been

For all saṃsāric beings a support,

An island, and a friend—

He will bring you well-being.

“ ‘He who has laid bare all phenomena,

Who is pure and free from deception,

Whose words are pure, whose very acts are purity—

He will bring you well-being.

“ ‘This great hero who, by taking birth,

With perfection attained his purpose

And accomplished all his goals —

He will bring you well-being.

“ ‘He whose birth, when this whole earth

With all its forests shook and trembled,

Brought joy for every living creature—

He will bring you well-being.

“ ‘He who caused, on the seat of awakening,

The earth to quake in all six ways

And Māra to feel despair—

He will bring you well-being.

“ ‘He who, turning the wheel of the Dharma,

Pronounced the Truths of the Noble Ones

And was extolled as a sage, the Muni—

He will bring you well-being.

“ ‘The alluring one who defeated

All the extremists with the Dharma

And brought all assemblies under his influence—

He will bring you well-being.

“ ‘May the Buddha bring you well-being;

May Śakra and the gods bestow well-being;

And may well-being from the bhūtas, too,

Be provided to you always.

“ ‘By the Buddha’s merit and power

And the wishes of the gods,

May whatever goal you seek

This very day be accomplished.

“ ‘Two-legged beings, be well.

Four-legged beings, be well.

When you set out, be well;

And when you return, be well.

“ ‘Be well in the daytime; be well in the night;

Be well at midday, too.

May all of you be always well;

May all of you know no evil.

“ ‘Surrounded by a thousand gods,

The Buddha has arrived—

So, you with hateful thoughts, disperse!

And you whose nature is compassion, stay.

“ ‘By the power of the true words of the buddhas,

Pratyekabuddhas, arhats, and those being trained,

Those who do harm to the world

Should be gone from this city.

“ ‘All sentient beings, all living creatures,

All bhūtas, and every one of you—

May you have nothing but happiness.

May you all be free from illness.

May you all see what is good.

May all of you know no evil.

“ ‘May whatever bhūtas are assembled here,

All those who live upon the earth or in the sky,

Act always lovingly for human beings

And practice Dharma day and night.’ ”

To these instructions, the venerable Ānanda replied, “I will do so, O Honored One.”

He went to Vaiśālī as the Blessed One had instructed and, placing his foot on the threshold of the city
gate, uttered these mantras and these verses:

“Visarata visarata visarata visarata

“The Buddha, who has compassion for the world, has spoken. This is the wish of all buddhas. It is the wish of all
pratyekabuddhas. It is the wish of all arhats. It is the wish of all those undergoing training. It is the wish of
all śrāvakas. It is the wish of all who speak words of truth. It is the wish of all the Dharmas. It is the wish of
Kāmeśvara. It is the wish of Brahmā. It is the wish of Pratyekabrahman. It is the wish of Indra. It is the wish of
the gods. It is the wish of the lord of the demigods. It is the wish of all demigods. It is the wish of the servants of the demigods. It is
the wish of all bhūtas.

“Visarata visarata visarata visarata

“The Buddha, who has compassion for the world, has spoken.

“Muñcata muñcata

“Do not stay. The epidemic should cease.

“Nirgacchata nirgacchata nirgacchata nirgacchata

“The Buddha, the Great God, the God of Gods, the Supreme God, has arrived. The gods including Indra, the
gods including Brahmā, the gods including Īśāna, the gods including Prajāpati, and the Four Protectors of the World have come.
Hundreds of thousands of gods, lords of the demigods, and hundreds of thousands of demigods have also come. Hundreds
of thousands of bhūtas who have faith in the Blessed One have also come for the sake of all living beings, and they
have come to bring great harm to you; so:

“Nirgacchata nirgacchata nirgacchata nirgacchata

“Disperse quickly. Those of you who have hateful thoughts, may you be destroyed. Those who have loving
thoughts, who do not wish to sin but wish to protect beings, stay and take on physical form. The Buddha, who has compassion for the world, has
spoken.

“Sumu sumu | sumu sumu sumu | sumuru sumuru | sumuru sumuru | sumuru
sumuru | sumuru sumuru | muru muru | muru muru | muru muru | muru muru | miri miri | miri miri | miri miri
miri | murumiri murumiri | murumiri murumiri | murumiri murumiri | murumiri murumiri | murumiri murumiri |
murumiri murumiri | murumiri murūrīti | riri riri riri | rīrī rīrī rīrīti | miri miri mirīti | hisi miri
miriti | mirisi sīsīmī | kaṅkarā karakata | kaṅrakara karakaca | kaṅkara kaṅkarā | kaṅkarā kaṅkarā | kaṅkarā
kaṅkarā | kaṅkarā kaṅkarā |
kaṅkarā kaṅkarā | kaṅkarā kaṅkarā |
kaṅkarā kaṅkarā | kaṅkaro tīti kuriśo | kaṅkara kaṅkariśi | ririri ririri | tiritaphu svā | riphu riphu | riphu
riphu | riphu riphu | riphu riphu | nāthā nānā | thā thā | ripū ripū | nāthāthā | nirgacchata nirgacchata | ripu
ripu | nirgacchata palāyāta | ripū ripū palayātā |

“The Buddha, who has compassion for the world, whose wish is to benefit all living beings, who abides in love, who is
compassionate, who abides in joy, and who abides in equanimity, has arrived.

“Kṣipraṃ nirgacchata svāhā

“These mantras, which were proclaimed to all the gods and all the bhūtas through the Buddha’s supreme wisdom
and truth, will accomplish their purpose. The following verses will accomplish their purpose:

“He in whom all attachment and greed

Are conquered, all defilement gone,

His mind at peace without harmful intent—

He will bring you well-being.

“He who leads all worldly beings

To tread the path of liberation,

The teacher of all dharmas—

He will bring you well-being.

“The teacher, support of wandering beings,

Who, for the sake of every living creature,

Brings them all to master happiness—

He will bring you well-being.

“The protector who, with thoughts of love

For all these beings, sustains them always

Just as he would his only child—

He will bring you well-being.

“He who in saṃsāra has been

For all saṃsāric beings a support,

An island, and a friend—

He will bring you well-being.

“He who has laid bare all phenomena,

Who is pure and free from deception,

Whose words are pure, whose very acts are purity—

He will bring you well-being.

“This great hero who, by taking birth,

With perfection attained his purpose

And accomplished all his goals —

He will bring you well-being.

“He whose birth, when this whole earth

With all its forests shook and trembled,

Brought joy for every living creature—

He will bring you well-being.

“He who caused, on the seat of awakening,

The earth to quake in all six ways

And Māra to feel despair—

He will bring you well-being.

“He who, turning the wheel of the Dharma,

Pronounced the Truths of the Noble Ones

And was extolled as a sage, the Muni—

He will bring you well-being.

“The alluring one who defeated

All the extremists with the Dharma

And brought all assemblies under his influence—

He will bring you well-being.

“May the Buddha bring you well-being;

May Śakra and the gods bestow well-being;

And may well-being from the bhūtas, too,

Be provided to you always.

“By the Buddha’s merit and power

And the wishes of the gods,

May whatever goal you seek

This very day be accomplished.

“Two-legged beings, be well.

Four-legged beings, be well.

When you set out, be well;

And when you return, be well.

“Be well in the daytime; be well in the night;

Be well at midday, too.

May all of you be always well;

May all of you know no evil.

“Surrounded by a thousand gods,

The Buddha has arrived—

So, you with hateful thoughts, disperse!

And you whose nature is compassion, stay.

“By the power of the true words of the buddhas,

Pratyekabuddhas, arhats, and those being trained,

Those who do harm to the world

Should be gone from this city.

“All sentient beings, all living creatures,

All bhūtas, and every one of you—

May you have nothing but happiness.

May you all be free from illness.

May you all see what is good.

May all of you know no evil.

“May whatever bhūtas are assembled here,

All those who live upon the earth or in the sky,

Act always lovingly for human beings

And practice Dharma day and night.”

This completes the Noble Mahāsūtra “On Entering the City of Vaiśālī.”

Colophon

Translated, edited, and established by the Indian paṇḍita Surendrabodhi and the principal editor-translator
Bandé Yeshé Dé.

Notes

Bibliography

Source Texts

Other Canonical Texts

Secondary References

Bandé Yeshé Dé

ban de ye shes sde
བན་དེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ།

Impenetrable Dwelling Place

gzings pa’i ’dug gnas
གཟིངས་པའི་འདུག་གནས།