The Elephant King Airāvaṇa

Sons of the Buddha! It is like Airāvaṇa, king of elephants, who dwells in a cave of the seven jewels within the Golden-Flank Mountain; the cave's surroundings are entirely made of railings of the seven jewels, jeweled tāla-palm trees stand arrayed in ordered rows, and a net of true gold spreads over and covers it all. The elephant's body is pure white, like conch-shell or snow; a golden banner stands upon it, golden jeweled necklaces adorn it, a jeweled net covers its trunk, and jeweled bells hang down; its seven limbs are complete and its six tusks fully formed, upright and full in every proportion, so that all who see it rejoice; it is gentle, well-trained, and compliant, its mind never resisting.

Whenever Śakra, lord of the gods, wishes to go on an outing, the elephant king immediately knows his intention and at once conceals its form within the jeweled cave, appearing before Śakra, ruler of Trāyastriṃśa, and through spiritual power manifesting transformations of every kind — giving its body thirty-three heads, on each and every head transforming forth seven tusks, on each and every tusk transforming forth seven pools, in each and every pool seven lotus flowers, and in each and every flower seven celestial maidens, all at once playing a hundred thousand heavenly musics together. At that time Śakra mounts this jeweled elephant and travels from the Hall Hard to Conquer to the Flower Garden, where puṇḍarīka lotuses fill the whole place; and having arrived at the Flower Garden, he dismounts from the elephant and enters the Hall Adorned with Every Jewel, where measureless celestial maidens attend him, and, amid singing and music, he enjoys every delight.

At that time, the elephant king further hides its elephant form through spiritual power and manifests a divine body, and together with the gods of the Thirty-Three and the celestial maidens delights and plays within the Puṇḍarīka Flower Garden — the bodily marks it manifests, its light and garments, its comings and goings, its speech and laughter and glances, all exactly like those of the gods, equal without difference, so that no one can tell them apart; this elephant and that god, elephant and god, resemble one another completely. Sons of the Buddha! That elephant king Airāvaṇa, within the jeweled cave of the Golden-Flank Mountain, undergoes no transformation at all — and yet up in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, wishing to attend upon Śakra, it transforms itself into every kind of delightful thing, receiving heavenly pleasures no different from the gods'.

Sons of the Buddha! The bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: cultivating Samantabhadra Bodhisattva's practices and vows and every samādhi as his manifold jeweled ornaments, the seven factors of awakening form his own body, the light he emits becomes his net, he raises the great banner of dharma and rings the great bell of dharma; great compassion is his cave, firm great vows are his tusks, wisdom and fearlessness are like the lion, a silken cloth of dharma binds his crown; he reveals what is secret, reaching the far shore of every bodhisattva practice and vow. Wishing to sit securely upon the seat of awakening, to accomplish all-knowing wisdom and attain unsurpassed perfect awakening, he increases Samantabhadra's vast practices and vows, never regressing and never resting, never interrupting and never abandoning them, and with great compassion and diligence, to the very end of the future, delivers every suffering being.