(Kārikās 27-57) Like the Buddha in an ugly lotus flower, Like honey surrounded by bees, Like kernels of grains covered by the husk, Like gold fallen into impurities, Like a treasure under the ground, Like a sprout, etc. grown from a small fruit, Like an image of the Buddha wrapped in a tattered garment. || 96 ||
Like the kinghood in the womb of a poor woman, And like a precious statue in the earthen mould; In such away, there abides this Essence In the living beings obscured by occasional stains of defilements. || 97 ||
[In these illustrations], pollutions are like A lotus flower, bees, husk, impurities and the ground, Like the bark of a fruit, like a tattered garment, Like a woman of misery, and like earth tormented by the fire of pains; And the Buddha, honey, cleaned kernels 16), gold, treasure, A Nyagrodha tree, a precious image, the Highest Lord of the world, And a purified precious statue, The excellent Essence has a resemblance to them. || 98 ||
(I) The Defilements are like the ugly sheath of lotus flowers, and the Essence of the Tathāgata is akin to the Buddha. Suppose the Buddha, shining with a thousand marks [of virtue], Were abiding in the inside a faded lotus flower, And a man of immaculate divine sight would perceive him And release him from the sheath of petals of lotus; || 99 ||
Similarly, the Lord, with his Buddha’s eyes, Perceives his own nature even in those who are in the lowest world, And, being immaculate, standing at the utmost limit and being full of Compassion, He releases them from the obscurations. || 100 ||
Just as a person of divine sight perceives A faded and ugly lotus flower and the Buddha within it, And rends asunder the petals [in order to draw him out]; In the same way, the Lord perceives the world, The Matrix of the Buddha, covered with the sheath of stains, Desire, Hatred, etc., And kills its Obscurations because of Compassion. || 101 ||
(II) The Defilements are like honey-bees, and the Essence of the Tathāgata is akin to thc honey. Suppose a clever person, having seen Honey surrounded by cloudy bees, And wishing to get it, with skillful means, Would deprive the bees completely of it; || 102 ||
Similarly, the Great Sage, possessed of thc eyes of the Omniscience, Perceiving this Essence known as akin to honey, Accomplishes the non-connection of the Essence With the bees-like obscurations, completely. || 103 ||
Just as a man who is desirous of getting honey Hidden by thousands, millions of bees, Drives the bees away and makes use of the honey as he wishes; In the same way, the immaculate Wisdom in the living beings Is like honey, and the Defilements are like bees; The Buddha, like that man, knows how to remove the stains. || 104 ||
(III) The Defilements are like the outer husk, and the Essence of the Tathāgata is akin to the inner kernel. The kernel of grains covered with the husk Cannot be eaten by any person; Those who wish to utilize it as food and the like Take it out from the husk; || 105 ||
Similarly, the Buddhahood in the living beings Is polluted with the stains of Defilements, And unless it is freed from the aśociation of stains of Defilements, It cannot perform thc Acts of Buddha in the Spheres. || 106 ||
Just as the kernel of grains like rice, wheat, barley, etc., As long as it is unreleased from the husk and not cleaned well, Cannot be the sweet edible for the people; Similarly, the religious king residing in the living beings, Having his feature unreleased from the husk of Defilemcnts, Does not become one who can grant the pleasurable taste of the Doctrine, To the people who are affected by the hunger of Defilcments. || 107 ||
(IV) The Defilements are like a dirty place filled with impurities, and the Essence of the Tathāgata is akin to gold. Suppose a traveller would happen to drop A piece of gold in a place filled with impurities, And the gold would stay there for many hundreds of years As it were, without changing its quality; || 108 ||
Then a god possessed of immaculate divine eyes Would see it there and tell a man: Here is a piece of gold, fresh and the highest of precious things. You should purify it and make use of it as a treasure; || 109 ||
Similarly, the Buddha perceives the quality of living beings Drowned in the Defilements which are like impurities, And pours the rain of the Doctrine over the living beings In order to wash off that dirt of defilements. || 110 ||
Just as a god, perceiving a piece of gold, the most beautiful one, Fallen into a dirty place filled with impurities, Would show it to the people in order to purify it from dirt; In the same way, the Buddha, perceiving the treasure of the Buddha in the living beings Which is fallen into a big pit of impurities of defilements, Teaches the Doctrine to the living beings in order to purify the treasure. || 111 ||
(V) The Defilements are like the underground, and the Essence of the Tathāgata is akin to a treasure of jewels. Suppose there were an inexhaustible treasure Under the ground within the house of a poor man; However this man might not know about that treasure, And the latter could not say to him ‘I am here’; || 112 ||
Similarly, though there is a treasure of immaculate jewel, The inconceivable, inexhaustible properties in the mind, The living beings of the world, without knowing it, Constantly experience the suffering of poverty in various ways. || 113 ||
Just as a treasure of jewels in the house of a poor man Would not say to him ‘I am here’ Nor the man could know ‘here is a treasure of jewels’; Likewise is the treasure of properties dwelling in the house of the mind, And the living beings are like a poor man; To enable those people to obtain this treasure, The Sage makes his appearance in the world. || 114 ||
(VI) The Defilements are like the bark-covering [of a seed], and the Essence of the Tathāgata is akin to the germ within a seed. Just as the germ of a seed inside the fruit of trees Of Mango, Tāla, etc. is of an imperishable nature, And, being sowed in the ground, by contact with water, etc., Gradually attains the nature of the king of trees; || 115 ||
In the same way, the pure Absolute Essence, abiding in the living beings, Covered by the sheath within the bark of the fruit of ignorance and the like, [Grows] gradually by the help of this and that virtue And obtains [finally] the state of the king of Sages. || 116 ||
Conditioned by water, by the light of the sun, By air, soil, time and space, From within the husk of the fruit of the Tāla or mango There comes out a tree; Similarly, the germ of the seed of the Buddha, Residing within the bark of the fruit, the defilements of living beings, Thrives by the help of this and that virtue, Resulting in the tree of the Highest Truth. || 117 ||
The Defilements are like a tattered garment, and the Essence of the Tathāgata is akin to a precious image. Suppose an image of the Buddha made of precious jewels Wrapped in the tattered garment of bad smell Were cast off on the road, and A god, perceiving it, would speak to travellers About this matter, in order to retrieve it; || 118 ||
Similarly, the One who has eyes of no obstacle Perceives, even among those in the world of animals, The nature of the Buddha concealed by the stains of various kinds of Defilements, And, for the sake of its liberation [from Defilements], Provides the means [of deliverance]. || 119 ||
Just as a god with divine eyes, seeing the Buddha’s image Wrapped in a bad-smelling garment, and rejected on the road, Would show it to the people in order to retrieve it; In the same way the Lord, perceiving even among animals, The Essence [of the Buddha] thrown on the road of transmigration, With the covering of the tattered garment of Defilements, Taught the Doctrine for the sake of its deliverance. || 120 ||
The Defilements are like a pregnant woman and the Essence of the Tathāgata is akin to an Emperor contained in the Embryonal elements. Suppose an ugly woman without a protector Were abiding in an orphanage, And, bearing the glory of royalty as an embryo, Might not know the king in her own womb. || 121 ||
The generation of worldly existence is like an orphanage, Like a pregnant woman are the impure living beings, And the immaculate Essence in them is like that embryo, Owing to the existence of which, they become possessed of protection. || 122 ||
Just as a woman, whose body is covered with a dirty garment And having ugly features, experiences in an orphanage, The greatest pain when the king is in her womb; Similarly the living beings abiding in the house of misery, And whose mind is not quiet by the power of Defilements, Imagine themselves without a protector Though the good protectors are residing in their own bodies. || 123 ||
(IX) The Defilements are like an earthen mould and the Essence of the Tathāgata is akin to a golden statue. Suppose a man who knows [how to make a statue], Seeing that the statue, filled with melted gold inside And covered with clay outside, had become cool, Would, for purifying the inner gold, remove the outer covering; || 124 ||
Similarly, the One who has got the highest Enlightenment, Perceiving always the radiance of the Innate Mind And the occasionality of the stains, Purifies the world, which is like amine of jewels, from obstructions. || 125 ||
Just as a statue made of pure, shining gold Would become cool within the earthen covering, And, knowing this, a skillful jewel-maker would remove the clay; In the same way the Omniscient perceives that The Mind, which is like pure gold, is quiescent, And, by means of a stroke [called] the method of teaching the Doctrine, He removes the obscurations. || 126 ||
The summarized meaning of the illustrations is as follows: Inside a lotus flower, amidst bees, Inside the husk, impurities, and the ground, Within the bark of a fruit, within a tattered garment, In the womb of a woman, and inside clay, respectively, || 127 ||
Like the Buddha, like honey, like the kernel of grains, Like gold, like a treasure, and like a tree, Like a precious image, like the Emperor, And like a golden statue, || 128 ||
The Innate Mind of the living beings Which is pure from beginningless time, And is not bound by the covering of Defilements, Though being within them from the outset is thus illustrated. || 129 ||