[24] The four, or five, bhâvanâs or 'meditative rites' are meant.
[25] This best of vehicles (yânavara) is the Buddhayâna, the vehicle by which Buddhahood may be reached, or mahâyâna, for both appellations cover nearly the same ground. The other two are the Srâvakayâna and the Pratyekabuddhayâna. See Dharmasamgraha II, with the annotation of Kenjiu Kasawara.
[26] Parârthasiddhi here and in st. 33 is a rather ambiguous term, as it may also convey this meaning: 'the attainment of the highest object.' Apparently this ambiguity is intentional. Cp. Story XXX, verse 17.
[27] The text has sobheta, not asobhata, as might have been expected.
[28] Manmatha, Kâma, Kandarpa and the other names of the god of sensual love and pleasure are common equivalents of Mâra. Cp. Buddhakarita XIII, 2.
[29] Dushkarasatasamudânîtatvât, cp. Divyâvadâna, ed. Cowell, p. 490.
[30] Viz. as far as gathering merit, the consequence of good actions, improves our nature.
[31] In the original this simile is expressed by the rhetorical figure, called slesha.
[32] Not only the houses, therefore, are meant, but also the (female) attendance; in other words, the epithet is indicative of the richness and magnificence of the habitations.
[33] This way is the Act of Truth, as Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, 197, calls it. In the Pâli Gâtaka, Sakka invites the king to it in plain terms. Other instances of the sakkakiriyâ, as it is styled in Pâli, will occur in Stories XIV, XV, XVI.