Then Sakra, the king of deities, who was among the assembly spoke to Buddha and said: “Though I have heard several hundred thousands of scriptures while I was waiting on Buddha and Manjusri, yet have I never heard such a scripture as this— the Sutra of ultimate reality ascertained by the supernatural faculty of Inconceivable Self-Existence. If I understand the meaning proclaimed by Buddha rightly, he who hears, comprehends, holds, and recites this scripture will obtain the law without fail; how much more would it be to practise according to the doctrine! He can close [the gate of] the unhappy existences; he is protected by all the Buddhas; he can repress all the heresies, conquer the enmity of evil, realise the Bodhi, abide in the Bodhi-mandala, and walk in the path along which Tathagata has walked.

O Blessed One, if there be one who holds, recites, and practises this Sutra, according to the doctrine, I will honour and serve him together with my kinsfolk; whenever this scripture may be found, either in the village, town, forest, or wilderness, I will go thither in order to hear the law together with my kinsfolk and will cause him to believe who has not believed before, and will protect him who already believes. ’ ’

Buddha spoke to him and said: "Rightly said! Rightly said! O king of deities, I share thy joy; here in this scripture the inconceivable and supreme enlightenment of all the Buddhas of the past, the present, and the future is fully set forth.

Therefore, O king of deities, he who holds, recites, and reveres the scripture is said to honour all the Buddhas of the past, the present, and the future. "O king of deities, if there be many Tathagatas so many in number even as the bushes, whether of sugar-cane, bamboo, reed, paddy, or hemp, and the three great Chiliocosms may be full of them, and a son or daughter of a noble family will honour, revere, praise, and pay homage to them and dedicate their dwellings to them for the space of one kalpa or thereabout, and after the passing of those Buddhas, he or she will elect a Stupa of seven jewels containing the perfect body of each of the Tathagatas as wide as the four worlds and as high as the heaven of Brahman, erecting a pole adorned with all magnificence and do homage to them with all the rarest flowers, all kinds of incense, garlands, banners and music, for the space of one kalpa or thereabout; what dost thou think, O king of deities, is the merit planted by this man much or little?”

Sakra, the king of deities, said: "Much indeed, O Blessed One, it is impossible to enumerate his merits even in one hundred thousand millions of kalpas.”

Buddha spoke to the king of deities: "It should be known that the merits of a son or daughter of a noble family who hearing this scripture of Inconceivable Emancipation comprehends, holds, recites and practises it would obtain greater merits than those. And why? The Bodhi of all the Buddhas springs forth from it; and the essence of the Bodhi is infinite. For this reason the merits are immeasurable.”

Buddha again spoke to the king of deities: “Once in the past immeasurable Asamkhyeya kalpas ago, there was a Buddha called Bhaishajyaraja, a Tathagata, an arhat, one who is perfect in knowledge, and a Sugata, knower of the world, an incomparable one, the tamer of men, teacher of gods and men, Buddha and Bhagavat. The world was called Mahavyuha. The length of life of that Buddha was twenty shorter kalpas. There were thirty-six million nayutas of disciples and twelve millions of Bodhisattvas. O Indra, king of deities, at that time there was a Cakravartin king named Ratnacchatra endowed with the seven treasures, who was the lord of four worlds. There were born of him a thousand princes who were all comely, courageous, and able to repress their enemies.

Then Ratnacchatra [the king] with his kinsfolk, honoured the Tathagata Bhaishajyaraja dedicating a dwelling to him during five kalpas; when those five kalpas had elapsed, he spoke to his thousand princes and said: ‘Ye should also honour the Buddha with profound mind even as I do.”

Then those thousand princes according to their father’s command honoured the Tathagata Bhaishajyaraja during five kalpas dedicating a dwelling to him and other things. There was one among those princes named Candracchatra who [one day] sat alone and thought to himself: ‘ Can any homage be superior to this [homage] ?’ Then through the supernatural power of that Buddha there appeared in the sky a deity who declared: ‘No homage is superior to homage to the law.’

He asked: ‘What is the homage of the law?’ The deity replied: ‘Thou hadst better go to the Tathagata Baishajyaraja to inquire concerning this matter; he would fully tell thee what is meant by the homage to the law.’

Then Candracchatra the prince having gone to the Tathagata Bhaishajyaraja, greeted him touching his feet with bowed head, seated on one side and asked the Buddha: ‘O Blessed One, of all homages homage to the law is most excellent; what is meant by the homage to the law?’ ‘‘

Buddha replied: ‘O noble youth, homage of the law is this: the profound scriptures preached by Buddha are so subtle and so difficult to understand that all the world is unwilling to accept and believe them; so they are pure without blemish; they are unobtainable by mere discrimination or thought; they are enclosed in the treasury of virtues of a Bodhisattva; they are sealed with the seal of Dharani; they lead to the state from which one never retreats; they perfect the six Paramitas; they rightly discriminate the meaning [of all things] ; they are in accordance with the law of Bodhi; they are superior to all other scriptures; they lead to great mercy and compassion; they are far above all the temptation of evils and heresies; they are in harmony with the law of causation; they transcend self, individuality, personality and durability; they are empty, formless, aimless and causeless; they are capable of elevating beings to a seat in the Bodhimandala and roll the wheel of the law; praised by all deities, serpent gods, and Gandharvas; they are capable of leading beings to the mine of virtues of Buddha ; they comprehend all wisdom of the wise and the holy; they preach the paths walked by Bodhisattvas; they are based on the doctrine that all things are real; they unmistakably proclaim the doctrine of transiency, sorrow, emptiness, selflessness, and annihilation; they are capable of saving all who are guilty of trespassing the precepts ; they are capable of causing fear to evil ones; heretics and those who are greedy; they are praised by all the Buddhas and saints; they turn against the sorrows of birth and death, and show the happiness of Nirvana; they are preached by all the Buddhas of the three worlds in the ten quarters —

if a man hear such scriptures as these, comprehend, hold, recite, and through the power of the necessary means, discriminate, explain, and make them manifest clearly to all beings, and thereby preserve the law, he for these reasons is said to pay homage to the law. “ ‘

Again, to practise according to the teaching of all the law, to be in accordance with the twelve chains of causation, to be far above all heresies, to attain to the acquiescence in the eternal law, to be absolutely selfless, to be without personality, yet to be free from dissension, free from discord concerning the law of cause and effect, to be free from ideas of possession, not to depend on words but to depend on meaning, not to depend on knowledge but to depend on wisdom, not to depend on incomplete scriptures but to depend on complete scripture, not to depend on man but to depend on the law, to be in accordance with the nature of things, not to cherish any heretical views, to have no abode, and no refuge, to regard the twelve chains of causation as working in an endless circle thus as follows:—as ignorance is completely annihilated, all component things are completely annihilated, until we come to, as birth is completely annihilated, old age and death are also completely annihilated. This is paying homage to the law, which is superior to all other homages.’ ”

Buddha again spoke to Indra, the king of deities, and said: “ Candracchatra the prince, having heard such doctrines as these from the Buddha Bhaishajyaraja, attained to acquiescence in meekness; then he having removed the jewelled raiment and ornaments from his body, offered them to Buddha and spoke to him saying: ‘ O Blessed One, after the complete passing of Tathagata I will pay homage to the law and protect the true law; I pray that thou through thy power, wouldst show me thy compassion and raise me that I may be able to repress the enmity of evil and realise the life of a Bodhisattva.’

Knowing his profound thought Buddha prophesied for him and said: ‘ Thou wilt guard the fortress of the law in the latter days.

O Indra, king of deities, then Candracchatra the prince, seeing the purity of the law and hearing the prophecy from Buddha, became a mendicant because of his faith; diligently practised the true law, and in due course obtained the five supernatural powers, and walking in the path of Bodhisattva, attained the unimpeded eloquence of Dharani, after the passing of the Buddha, through his supernatural power and the power of eloquence of Dharani, during ten shorter kalpas, propagated the wheel of the law which the Tathagata Bhaishajyaraja caused to roll.

“Having protected the law and having been diligent in practice, Candracchatra the Bhikshus taught millions of millions of men enabling them to raise their minds which never retreat from supreme enlightenment, and enabled fourteen nayutas of men to cherish deeply the thought of Sravaka and Pratyeka-Buddha, and caused countless beings to be born in the heavens.

“O Indra king of deities, thou shouldst not think that Ratnacchatra the [Cakravartin] king, is the other than the Tathagata Ratnatejas who has attained to the Buddhahood; the thousand princes are but the thousand Buddhas in the Bhadra-kalpa, beginning with Krakucchanda down to the last Tathagata Ruci. The Bhikshus Candracchatra is no other than myself. “Thus, O Indra king of deities, thou shouldst know the essence of this [doctrine] that paying homage to the law is superior to all other homages, and unique and incomparable. Therefore, O Indra king of deities, by paying homage to the law thou shouldst honour the Buddha.”