The Lord Buddha addressed Subhuti, saying: “If there were rivers Ganges as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, would the aggregate grains of sand[1] be of considerable number?” Subhuti replied, saying: “Of very considerable number, Honoured of the Worlds! The rivers Ganges alone would be innumerable, and much more innumerable would be the grains of sand.”
The Lord Buddha thereupon addressed Subhuti, saying: “I have a truth to declare unto you! If a good disciple, whether man or woman, were to bestow in the exercise of charity, an abundance of the seven treasures,[2] sufficient to fill as many boundless universes as there would be grains of sand in these innumerable rivers, would the cumulative merit of such a disciple be considerable?” Subhuti replied, saying: “Very considerable, Honoured of the Worlds!”
The Lord Buddha then declared unto Subhuti, “If a good disciple, whether man or woman, were with implicit faith to adhere to a stanza of this Scripture, and diligently explain it to others, the consequent merit would be relatively greater than the other.”
“Sarvanikchepa, by which you deal
With all the sands of Gunga, till we come
To Antah-Kalpas, where the unit is
The sands of ten crore Gungas.”
—The Light of Asia. Sir Edwin Arnold.
[2] Gold, silver, pearls, coral, cornelian, glass, and crystal.