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Bathing with concentrated soul in the tirtha that is called after the name of Urvasi and that is situate in the river Lohitya, on the day of full moon of the month of Kartika, one attains to the merits that attach to the sacrifice called Pundarika.
He who fasts on the twelfth day of the moon in the month of Chaitra and worships Krishna as Vishnu, for the whole day and night, attains to the merit of the Pundarika sacrifice and proceeds to the region of the deities.
But Pundarika Nag, being a serpent by nature, could not divest himself, even in human shape, of his forked tongue and venomed breath. And, just as Urvasi could not abide with her mortal lover, after he transgressed the prohibition to appear before her naked, so Pundarika Nag was compelled by fate to leave his bride, if she asked him any questions about his disagreeable peculiarities.
In the Japanese tongue, Ho-ke-kyo; in Sanscrit, Saddharma Pundarika: 'The Sutra of the Lotus of the Good Law, the divine book of the Nichiren sect. Very brief, indeed, is my little feathered Buddhist's confession of faith only the sacred name reiterated over and over again like a litany, with liquid bursts of twittering between. 'Ho ke-kyo!
All this multiplication of beings is unknown to Southern Buddhism, unknown to the Saddharma Pundarika, and very probably unknown also to the Chinese pilgrims who visited India in the fifth and seventh centuries. Professor Rhys Davids, in his compact little manual of Buddhism, says:
The Aswamedha, the Rajasuya, the Pundarika, and Gosava, these grand sacrifices requiring large gifts have all been performed by thee! O monarch, impelled by a perverse sense during that dire hour of a losing match at dice, thou didst yet stake and loss thy kingdom, thy wealth, thy weapons, thy brothers, and myself!
Art thou the daughter of a celestial, or art thou a female Naga? Art thou the guardian goddess of some city, a Vidyadhari, or a Kinnari, or art thou Rohini herself? Or art thou Alamvusha, or Misrakesi, Pundarika, or Malini, or the queen of Indra, or of Varuna? Or, art thou the spouse of Viswakarma, or of the creative Lord himself?
Dost thou, with passions under complete control and with singleness of mind, strive to perform the sacrifices called Vajapeya and Pundarika with their full complement of rites? O sinless one, causest thou ever grief or anger in any one? Do priests capable of granting thee auspicious fruits ever stand by thy side?
After walking round the place, one should, O bull of the Bharata race, proceed to the tirtha named Dhara, which, O thou of great wisdom, washeth off all sins. Bathing there, O tiger among men, a man is freed from every sorrow. There should one, with concentrated soul, bathe in the tirtha called Koti. By this, one obtaineth the merit of the Pundarika sacrifice, and delivereth his race.
Proceeding next to the river Kampana, visited by the Siddhas, one obtaineth the merit of the Pundarika sacrifice, and ascendeth also to heaven. Arriving then, O lord of earth, at the stream called Maheswari, one obtaineth the merit of the horse-sacrifice and also rescueth his own race.
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