Then the great general of the yakshas called Samjnaya, along with the twenty-eight great generals of the yakshas, rose from his seat, put his upper robe over one shoulder and knelt on his right knee. Bowing in reverence in the direction of the Tathagata, he addressed the Tathagata in this way: “O Venerable Lord, now or in a future time, in villages, cities, towns, valleys, forest retreats, hilly medicinal valleys, or palaces, wherever the King of Glorious Sutras, the Sublime Golden Light exists, O Venerable Lord, I, Samjnaya, the great general of the yakshas, along with the twenty-eight great generals of the yakshas, will go to those villages, cities, towns, valleys, forest retreats, hilly medicinal valleys, or palaces. Making our bodies invisible, we will protect the bhikshu who expounds the Dharma. We will give him protection, hold and nurture him, avert his retribution and make him peaceful and well. We will completely protect men, women, boys or girls who listen to this Dharma. We will completely protect those who listen to and remember a stanza of four lines or even a single word from the King of Glorious Sutras, the Sublime Golden Light. We will completely protect those who hear and remember the name of a single bodhisattva from the King of Glorious Sutras, the Sublime Golden Light, the name of a single tathagata, or the name of this King of Glorious Sutras, the Sublime Golden Light. We will give them protection, hold and nurture them, avert their retribution and make them peaceful and well. We will also completely protect those classes of people, households, villages, cities, towns, forest retreats and palaces. We will give them protection, hold and nurture them, avert their retribution and make them peaceful and well.
“O Venerable Lord, for what reason has my name become Samjnaya, the Great General of the Yakshas? The Transcendent Victor has direct knowledge of the reason. O Venerable Lord, I seek all Dharma, thoroughly seek all Dharma and understand all Dharma. O Venerable Lord, whatever dharmas there are, whatever is the suchness of all dharmas and however they exist, whatever the myriad categories of all dharmas, O Venerable Lord, all dharmas are thus known to me. O Venerable Lord, inconceivable is the illumination of my knowledge with regard to all Dharma; inconceivable is the clarity of my knowledge, inconceivable is the extent of my knowledge, inconceivable is the body of my knowledge. O Venerable Lord, inconceivable is the extent of all Dharma as the object of my knowledge. O Venerable Lord, because I fully seek, fully examine, fully and perfectly comprehend, fully investigate and fully internalize all Dharma, for that reason O Venerable Lord, I the great general of the yakshas have become Samjnaya by name.
“O Venerable Lord, I will give eloquence to the expounding bhikshu in order to adorn his words. In order that the expounding bhikshu is not physically fatigued, that the senses of his body are healthy and that he may have immense delight, I will inject radiance into his hair pores. In him I shall generate energy, prowess and perseverance. I shall render the illumination of his knowledge inconceivable, cause him to perceive his mindfulness and grant him great zeal so that the King of Glorious Sutras, the Sublime Golden Light may endure long in this Jambu-dvipa and may not quickly disappear, that beings who have planted roots of virtue under hundreds of thousands of buddhas may in turn come to listen to the King of Glorious Sutras, the Sublime Golden Light, may achieve inconceivable bodies of knowledge, be endowed with wisdom, hold inconceivable masses of merit, experience the inconceivable well-being of humans and gods for hundreds of thousands of millions of eons, keep the company of tathagatas, and in future times be awakened to supreme and perfect enlightenment, and that all suffering in the world of Yama, hell beings and animals may utterly cease to exist.”
This ends the eleventh chapter, the Chapter on Samjnaya, from the King of Glorious Sutras, the Sublime Golden Light.