Religions of India in Practice

Buddhist monastic institutions in India were complex entities. They interacted with other Indian social structures—the kings and aristocracy, the guilds and castes—in a variety of ways. Certain sections of the monasteries, and frequently entire monasteries, became focused on education, a development from the Buddhist definition of the existential problem as ignorance. Other sections of the monasteries became focused on the commercial or artistic requirements for maintaining their institutions in a changing cultural environment. Yet another facet of the monastic institution was a meditative function, which would be formed around exemplary contemplative monks in most monasteries and would sometimes become the dominant orientation of entire institutions known as “forest monasteries.”

Loosely associated with or wholely outside of the formal institutional structure, however, were monks on the margins of the high Buddhist culture. Some would be contemplatives who had proceeded on their own, eschewing the formal, institutional life. Others would be monks forced out of the monastery due to transgressions, sexual and otherwise. Another group would be the wandering “teachers of the dharma [the Buddha’s teaching],” clerics who traveled from town to monastic center preaching to a wide variety of audiences, cleric and lay, Buddhist and non-Buddhist. Still others would prefer the old wandering existence without the intrigue of monastic life or the strict regimen associated with famous institutions. All of these diverse characters would find themselves passing from village to village, discussing the word of the Buddha or enlarging on their own accomplishments in the forum of the Indian village temple grounds or marketplace.

These marginal clerics, if institutionally disempowered, had the ability to live by their wits, and the stories they told would often be influential in ways unforseen by the tellers of tales. Their audiences frequently had little regard for dialectical subtlety or elegance of syllogism. Indeed, the forces known to their audiences were those of the countryside—dominion, power, gangs—and the primal desire to have a leader bring these lawless elements under control. Concomitant with the desire for security was the need to feel significant, frequently comingled with the suspicion that their lives had either been forgotten by the gods or, worse, cursed by them.

In this environment, a wandering Buddhist preacher could bolster spirits, teach dispassion, and proclaim the course of liberation from the wheel of existence. With the increased ritualization of the countryside, however, Buddhist monks from the seventh century on felt the need to use the efficacy of myth and ritual for their own benefit and the benefit of the Buddhist dharma. Thus they adopted many of the same themes of power and dominion, of subjugation and renewal, that they encountered in both rural and urban sectors of India. To appear viable, to seem current, to communicate efficacy, Buddhist clerics wove webs of story, in which the Buddhist exemplars were the heroes and in which they demonstrated their transcendent compassion for the benefit of the world.

Vajrapāṇi’s subjugation of Maheśvara is just such a tale. Destined to become the most influential myth of the Vehicle of Secret Spells (Mantrayāna), the story indicates the superiority of the Buddhist comprehension of reality and the Buddhist skill in the manipulation of that reality by the use of the classic Indian medium of potency: the voice. With his secret spells, Vajrapāṇi surpasses Maheśvara’s ability in the drama of competition. Impelled by his compassion for the world and commanded by the cosmic buddha Vairocana, Vajrapāṇi suppresses all of the worldly deities and brings them into the compass of his mystic circle. Only Maheśvara—the god Śiva—is incapable of comprehending the necessity for submission to the teaching of the Buddha. For this inability, Maheśvara looses his life, only to be reincarnated in another world system and eventually to obtain the final awakening of the Buddha.

Such a dramatic tale eventually was taken into the high monastic culture and elaborated in a wide variety of combinations and permutations in the scriptures of the Mantrayāna. In this scriptural milieu, it was slowly transformed into a shadow of its source; the form found in the Sarvatathāgata-tattvasarṃgraha (“Summary of All Tathāgatas’ Reality”) is one of the few to retain the vital dialogical format of the Indian storyteller. This same redaction of the tale set the parameters for the myth’s manifold levels of significance, a requirement for it to be acceptable to the intelligensia of the Mantrayāna. Simple domination of a competing religious system might interest the general audience, but the monastic clergy would need to unfold a variety of readings indicating the integration of enemies into the sacred circle of reality.

First and foremost, the story recreates for the Mantrayāna the myth of Māra’s subjugation by the historical buddha, Śākyamuni. Maheśvara is depicted as the obstacle for the unfolding of Vajrapāṇi’s family in the sacred circle, and thus constitutes the primary impediment against teaching the world the path of liberation, which occurs at the end of the scripture. In order for the teaching to be effected and beings awakened, Maheśvara must be conquered. Within the myth of Śākyamuni’s awakening, Māra—the figure of death by sensory enslavement—required subjugation before the young prince could awaken to absolute reality and pronounce the lion’s roar of the true dharma as the perfect Buddha. Thus both tales erect classic dramatic conflicts, in which the movement toward freedom for all beings cannot be thwarted despite the best efforts of those representing empowered oppressors.

The story also invokes the compassion of the Buddha—all beings will be included in the sacred reality, whether they want to or not. In contrast to a model of a last judgment and eternal damnation, Mahāyānists maintained that all beings will finally obtain awakening. For the Path of Secret Spells, this is effected by the efficient action of bodhisattvas like Vajrapāṇi, who convert the intractable for their own good, thereby saving them from the unlimited suffering their deeds would otherwise bring them in the future. In the same way that all forms, beautiful and ugly, are reflected in a mirror, all beings, good and bad, are included in the fields of awakening of the buddhas. Their compassion brings liberation to all as the sun warms all places on earth.

Finally, the myth was interpreted as a model of internal realities, in line with the movement toward increasing inwardness during the period of Mantrayāna development. In the way that Māra was interpreted as an extension of the Buddha’s own death and suppressed psycho-physical tendencies, Maheśvara illustrates for the meditator that defilements, no matter how corrupt, are themselves the stuff of awakening. Liberation is impossible without prior bondage, purification inconceivable without defilement. For the those following the Path of Secret Spells, then, Maheśvara represents the reality of intractable mental events turning into the gnosis of awakening following their consecration, in this case by Vajrapāṇi’s foot. Without such determined resistance to the teaching, Maheśvara never would have achieved his mythic goal of final emancipation as the buddha Bhasmeśvara-nirghosa. Without intractable defilements, the meditator will never experience the supernormal cognition of the highest goal. Thus the circle of emancipation is closed: mind, meditator, and Maheśvara all come to rest in the universal diagram.

The text translated here comes from Isshai Yamada, Sarvatathāgata-Tattva-Saṅgraha, Śatapitaka Series 262 (New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1980), pp. 56–59. The Tibetan is found in Daisetz T. Suzuki, ed., Tibetan Tripitaka, Peking Edition (Tokyo: Tibetan Tripitaka Research Institute, 1956), Peking 112, vol. 4, pp. 239.4.6-242. The Chinese is in Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō 882.18.370a-372c.

See Ronald M. Davidson, “Reflections on the Maheśvara Subjugation Myth: Indic Materials, Sa-skya-pa Apologetics, and the Birth of Heruka,” in the Journal for the International Association of Buddhist Studies 14:2 (1991), 197-235; and David Snell-grove, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism (Boston and London: Shambhala, 1987), vol. 1, pp. 134-41.

Then, all the tathāgatas again came together and exhorted the Blessed One, the Universal Ruler [Vajrapāṇi] . . . “We exort you, O Lord, to do your duty for the welfare of all beings: bring forth your family of divinities, those who exert control for all buddhas.”

Now Vajrapāṇi, the supreme lord of all the tathāgatas, having heard the entreaty of all the tathāgatas, placed his vajra on his heart. Then he addressed all the tathāgatas, saying, “Lords, all tathāgatas! I do not agree to produce my divine clan.”

Vajradhara replied, “O Lords, there are beings—criminals, like Maheśvara and his ilk—who remain unsubdued, even by all of you tathāgatas. How could I accomplish anything with them?”

At that point, Vairocana, the Tathāgata, went deep into the concentration known as the “vajra of the knowledge of all tathāgatas’ exhalted procedure” which is sustained by all tathāgatas. As soon as he was so concentrated, all the tathāgatas—as numerous as the particles of dust in all the realms of space—burst forth and assembled in the adamantine jeweled palace on the peak of Mt. Sumeru. Visualizing their essential identity, they all entered into the heart of the Śrīvatsa mark on the chest of Lord Vairocana.

So the Lord Vairocana, Tathāgata, empowered himself with all the tathāgatas residing in his heart. Since he had the highest accomplishment—bringing all benefit and happiness for the protection of every being by means of the identity of all aspects of adamant—he plunged deep into the concentration known as the “vajra of the wrathful pledge to perform all tathāgatas’ exhalted procedure” in order to discipline all the criminal elements. At the very moment he entered concentration, the essential phrase of all tathāgatas—known as the “pledge of all tathāgatas”—the syllable HUM issued forth from the heart of all the tathāgatas.

Immediately, the Lord Vajradhara issued forth from the vajra at his heart multiple forms of Vajrapāṇi, each a universally flaming embryo, knit eyebrows, wrinkled foreheads, crooked brows, terrible bent fangs. Hands twitching with flailing flaming vajras, elephant goads, swords, and nooses, all afire, and clothing variegated in color and ornament, they subdued every criminal in all the world systems. Returning from everywhere to form the great circle of the Vajradhātu, they became seated on a white lunar disk and pronounced this verse:

We are the means of discipline for those of great means.

While we conduct ourselves angrily as a means of

disciplining beings, we are ourselves stainless.

Then the Blessed One, the Tathāgata Vairocana, visualizing the [conceptionless] nondiffuse reality of all the tathāgatas, entered the concentration known as the “empowerment of the adamantine vow and the great adamantine anger of all the tathāgatas.” He then intoned the excellent essential phrase of all tathāgatas, the adamantine HŪṂ of all tathāgatas:

OṂ SUMBHA NISUMBHA HŪṂ GṚHṆA GṚHṆA HŪṂ

GṚHṆĀPAYA HŪṂ ĀNAYA HO BHAGAVAN VAJRA HŪṂ PHAṬ

Well, when this essential phrase went forth from the heart of all the tathāgatas, Vajrapāṇi came forth and, blessed by all the tathāgatas from every world system, which are like oceans of clouds trailing in all directions, along with their encircling assemblies of bodhisattvas, they invited Vajrapāṇi. They entered him into the great circle of the pledge and, becoming bound with their vows, he formed one great mass—the great adamantine wrathful corpus. Taking residence in the heart of the Blessed One, Vairocana, he uttered this verse:

Hah! We are entirely the goodness and sinlessness

Of the thought of awakening. Even though angry,

We move toward beauty, since we discipline beings.

Then the great adamantine wrathful corpus descended from the heart of the Blessed One, and became seated on a white lunar disk before all the tathāgatas, again requesting their orders.

So the Blessed One entered into the concentration known as the “adamantine call to the pledge of all the tathāgatas” and sent forth from his own heart the essential phrase of all tathāgatas, elephant goad of the pledge of all tathāgatas: HŪṂ TAKKI JAḤ.

At this moment, all of the overlords of the triple worlds—Maheśvara and the rest, surrounded by all their worldly gangs without—were summoned by the adamantine elephant goad of the pledge of all tathāgatas. All passed into the adamantine jeweled palace at the summit of Mt. Sumeru and there they stood, surrounding the jeweled palace of the Blessed One on all sides.

Then Vajrapāṇi, taking his vajra from his heart, waved it around and looked out at the whole wheel of the triple worlds constituting the three realms of existence. “Friends!” he said, “accomplish the dispensation of all tathāgatas and uphold my command!”

The Blessed One, Vajrapāṇi, answered, “By completion of going to the Buddha, the dharma, and the saṅgha for refuge. Friends, do it for the sake of attaining the omniscience of the Omniscient!”

But Mahādeva, the overlord of all the triple worlds in this world system and swollen with the pride of his position, responded by displaying great anger, “Hey, sprite! I am the lord, the overlord of the triple worlds, the creator, the arranger, the lord of all spirits, the supreme God of gods, Mahādeva! How should I take orders from you, a local tree spirit?”

So Vajrapāṇi again waved his vajra and ordered him, “Hey, criminal! Quickly enter the mystic circle and take your position in my pledge!”

But the great God of gods turned to the Blessed One, Vairocana, “Just who is he, Blessed One, and what kind of person is he who would give orders to the Lord?”

The Blessed One merely replied to Maheśvara and his entire horde in the triple worlds, “Friends, I would really do what he says and assent to the vow and discipline of going for the refuges! Do not let Vajrapāṇi, this cruel, angry, mean spirit, this great bodhisattva, lay to waste the entire triple worlds with his flaming vajra!”

But Maheśvara, impelled by his own brand of knowledge and swollen with his overlordship of the triple worlds, decided to show the Blessed One, Vajrapāṇi, just exactly what fear was all about. So he displayed great wrathful anger in a ferocious form, bursting with flames, laughing a horrible laugh with his horde, “Well I am the overlord of the triple world—now you do what I command!”

Now Vajrapāṇi chuckled at him and waved his own proud vajra, saying, “Hey! You eat human flesh like a ghoul and make your clothing, seat, bed, food, and snacks from the ashes of the funeral pyre—accept these refuges and observe my command!”

Yet Maheśvara, the great God, infused the entire triple world with great anger and said, “You observe my command and accept my vow!”

So Vajrapāṇi, the great wrathful king, addressed the Blessed One, Vairocana, “He, Blessed One, is God, the great God, and is not submitting to the dispensation of all tathāgatas, being swollen with pride at the power of his own brand of knowledge and his great overlordship. So what should I do with him?”

Then, the Blessed One, Vairocana, recollected the great adamantine vow born from the heart of all the tathāgatas, “OṂ NISUMBHA VAJRA HŪṂ PHAṬ.”

At that moment Vajrapāṇi, the great bodhisattva, intoned his own adamantine essential phrase, “HŪṂ.” AS soon as these were spoken, Mahādeva and all his assembled henchmen of the triple world, all the overlords of the triple world, fell face down and let out a cry of pain, finally going to Vajrapāṇi for refuge. Moreover, the god Mahādeva fell to the earth unconscious, and died.

Then the Blessed One, knowing what had occurred, said to Vajrapāṇi, “Vajrapāṇi, so that the triple worlds might be released from fear, do not let them dissolve into their constituent elements and perish!”

The great wrathful king Vajrapāṇi, having heard the Blessed One’s words, said to all the gods, “If you value your life, execute my command and accept the rite of going to the Buddha, the dharma, and the saṅgha for refuge!”

Having no choice, they all replied, “We go to whole oceans of buddhas, dharmas, and saṅghas for refuge, but we do not know what the laws of your doctrine command!”

So the Blessed One, Vairocana, the Tathāgata, addressed them saying, “O gods, he is the overlord of us, all the tathāgatas. He is the father, the servant, the eldest son of all the tathāgatas, the Blessed One, the bodhisattva, mahāsattva, Samantabhadra [“All-Goodness”]. He has been consecrated in the kingship of great wrath to do what is necessary in the training of all beings. Why? There are in your midst hordes of criminals, such as Mahādeva and his ilk, who are not capable of being turned from their evil ways by peaceful means, even by all the tathāgatas. He has therefore been empowered to take care of those evil ones. So all of you, I command to be established in the circle of his pledge!”

They replied, “Blessed One! Protect us from the dissolution of our lives! What ever command you give us, we will perform!”

The Blessed One responded, “Listen, friends, anyone going to him for refuge will be protected. You have no other option!”

Then all the lords of the triple worlds, assembled from all the threefold world systems, turned to face the Blessed One, Vajradhara, and with one voice released a great lamentation, saying, “O Blessed One, protect us from the suffering of death!”

To their plea, Vajrapāṇi, the great bodhisattva, replied, “Hey, criminals, accept this my dispensation! Don’t make me turn you into a single flame with my burning vajra and reduce all of you to ashes!”

They asked, “Samantabhadra, you, O Lord, are all tathāgatas’ development of the thought of awakening for the sake of all beings; you are well-disciplined in peacefulness; you desire the welfare of all beings and bestow fearlessness on all creatures! Why, O Lord, would you want to burn us alive?”

Vajrapāṇi, the great king of all wrath, responded to them, “O friends! I am Samantabhadra since I carry out all tathāgatas’ commands, and I consume for the sake of purification all those like you in the clan of criminals whose minds are evil, if they do not take their stand in the circle of my pledge!” To which, they all responded, “So be it!”

So Vajrapāṇi, the great king of wrath, revived all of the gods, with the exception of Maheśvara. In order to bring them upright, he intoned this essential phrase of all the tathāgatas known as “stand up vajra: VAJROTTIṢṬHA!” AS soon as this was said, all of the lords of the triple worlds, assembled from the threefold world system, with all their retinues—again with the exception of Maheśvara—regained consciousness, and every one became full of confidence in their hearts. They experienced divine happiness and horripilation at the disappearance of their fear and dread. Looking at the Blessed One, Vajrapāṇi, they stood up.

Then the Blessed One, Vairocana, addressed the bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi, “Great being, this Mahādeva, the overlord of gods, has not stood up. What is the purpose of taking his life? Revive him, and he will become a real person.”

To this Vajrapāṇi gave his assent, and intoned the essential phrase to revive the dead, “VAJRĀYUḤ.”

As soon as he said this, the dead god Mahādeva revived and wanted to stand up but could not. So he addressed the Blessed One, Vairocana, “Is the Blessed One going to dominate me in this way?”

Vairocana replied, “You have not agreed to accept the commands of this great true person. Only he is responsible for chastising you, not I.”

Maheśvara was puzzled. “Lord, I don’t understand the meaning of what the Blessed One has said. Since the tathāgatas are the overlords of all the triple worlds, who a superior overlord might be and where he might be found is beyond me.”

With this, the Blessed One, Vajrapāṇi, the great bodhisattva, again addressed Mahādeva, “Criminal! Will you agree to accept my commands?”

Mahādeva heard the words of that adamantine being and again became angry and enraged. Displaying his great ferocious form he said, “Death I can endure, but I will not submit to your orders!”

So Vajrapāṇi, the great bodhisattva, displayed his own great rage and emanated a servant from his feet with the mantra, “OṂ PĀDĀKARSAṆA VAJRA HŪṂ!”

So then, from the foot of the Blessed One, Vajrapāṇi, came a completely blazing embryo with knitted brows, bared fangs, and an enormous face. Thus the servant of the Blessed One, Vajrapāṇi, stood before him, awaiting his orders.

Vajrapāṇi, in order to pacify Maheśvara, intoned the mantra, “OṂ PĀDĀKARṢĀKARṢAYA SARVAVAJRADHARĀNUCARA KAṆḌA KAṆḌA VAJRA HŪṂ JAḤ!”

The moment this was spoken, both Mahādeva and his consort Umādevī were suddenly turned naked and inverted, and were dragged before the feet of the Blessed One, Vajrapāṇi, by this servant Padākarṣaṇavajrānucāra while all the world laughed at them. Then the bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi asked the Blessed One, Vairocana, “Here, Lord, is the criminal and his wife. What should I do with them?”

Then the Blessed One intoned “OṂ VAJRĀKRAMA HOḤ!” AS soon as this was spoken, the great bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi, treading on Mahādeva with his left foot and the breasts of Umādevī with his right, intoned his own essential phrase, “OṂ VAJRĀVIŚA HANAYĀ TRAṂ TRAṬ!”

The instant these were spoken, Mahādeva became possessed and beat his own thousand heads with his own thousand hands. All those lords of the triple world who were assembled outside of the adamantine jeweled peak palace let out a great roar, “Our overlord is being instructed by this great being!”

With that, the Blessed One felt compassion toward Mahādeva, and intoned the essential phrase of loving kindness of all the buddhas, “OṂ BUDDHA MAITRĪ VAJRA RAKṢA HAṂ!” The moment this was said, the suffering of Mahādeva’s possession ceased and the touch of Vajrapāṇi’s sole conducted him to the obtainment of the consecration, concentration, liberation, code, gnosis, and higher knowledge of the supreme accomplishment, even bringing him up to the reality of the Tathāgata. So, from the touch of the Blessed One’s sole, he experienced the bliss of all tathāgatas’ concentration, code, and liberation. Having abandoned his form as Mahādeva at the feet of Vajrapāṇi, he passed down beyond as many world systems as there are motes of dust in the world systems, equal to the grains of sand in thirty-two Gaṅgās. There, he was born as the Tathāgata Bhasmeśvara-nirghosa in the world system called Bhasmacchatrā. Then the following verse slipped out of the prostrate form of Mahādeva, left behind:

Aho! Having released the highest buddha gnosis of all the buddhas

in the form of phrases and letters, the [buddhas] establish them in nirvāna.

Thereupon, the great bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi addressed the other overlords of all the triple worlds, Nārāyaṇa and so forth, “Friends, enter the great mystic circle of the adamantine pledge of all tathāgatas! Once you enter, nurture the pledge of all tathāgatas!”