Chapter 3 - Ṣaḍakṣarī-mahāvidyā-māhātmya-varṇana

Ṣaḍakṣarīmahāvidyāmāhātmyavarṇanaṃ Tṛtiyam Prakaraṇam
(Chapter Three named Ṣaḍakṣarīmahāvidyāmāhātmyavarṇanam)

Then Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhī asked the Bhagavat, ‘Bhagavat, where can the six-syllable mahāvidyā be obtained?’ The Bhagavat said, ‘There is no one who can know it. Noble son, even the Tathāgatas do not know the six-syllable mahāvidyā, let alone the Bodhisattvas.’ Then Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhī asked the Bhagavat, ‘Bhagavat, do the Tathāgatas, arhats, and samyaksaṃbuddhas not know it?’ The Bhagavat said, ‘Noble son, the six-syllable mahāvidyā is the supreme essence of Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Avalokiteśvara. Those who know that supreme essence know liberation.’ Then Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhī asked the Bhagavat, ‘Bhagavat, are there any beings who know the six-syllable vidyāmantra?’ The Bhagavat said, ‘Noble son, no one knows the six-syllable mahāvidyā. It is an inconceivable yoga and therefore difficult to obtain. Even the Tathāgatas do not know it, let alone the Bodhisattvas. ‘Noble son, all the Tathāgatas have spent sixteen eons wandering in search of this six-syllable mahāvidyā, so therefore how could Bodhisattvas know it? It is the supreme essence of Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Avalokiteśvara. If someone travelled throughout this realm of beings, there would be found a few who know the six-syllable Mahāvidyā. Those beings that continually possess the six-syllable mahāvidyā and are dedicated to repeating it are meritorious. When they repeat it, Bhagavats and Buddhas to the number of sand grains in ninety-nine Ganges Rivers gather around them, Bodhisattvas to the number of atoms gather around them, and they reach the entranceway to the six perfections. The Devas of the Dvāyastriṃśa paradise also gather there. The four mahārājas guard the four directions. Many millions of trillions of Nāgas such as Nāga king Sāgara, Nāga king Anavatapta, Nāga king Takṣaka, and Nāga king Vāsuki guard the ground. Also, the Yakṣas from above the earth guard the open space above them. Ten million Tathāgatas reside in each pore of that noble son. Residing there they give their approval, saying ‘Excellent, excellent, noble son! You have acquired such a wishfulfilling jewel as this. Seven generations of your descendants will attain liberation. Noble son, even all the beings who live in your stomach will become irreversible Bodhisattvas. ‘Noble son, those who wear this sixsyllable mahāvidyā on their body or on their throat will be known to have a body that is a vajra body, will be known to be a stūpa containing relics, and will be known to be the wisdom of ten million Tathāgatas. A noble son or noble daughter who repeats the six-syllable mahāvidyā will have indestructible mental brilliance. He or she will become a pure mass of wisdom. That person will have great love and great compassion. That person will complete the six perfections each day. That person will receive the consecration of a vidyādhara cakravartin. Those who inhale that person’s breathe, whether in love or in anger, will become irreversible Bodhisattvas. They will quickly attain the highest complete enlightenment and be samyaksaṃbuddhas. All those who just touch that person with their clothing will become Bodhisattvas in their last existence. Women, men, boys, and girls who just see that person, and even the deer, birds, oxen, donkeys, and so on, who see that person, will all become Bodhisattvas in their last existence. They will not experience the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, death, and separation from the beloved. They will become inconceivable yogins. In that way the Bhagavat encouraged the repetition of the six-syllable Mahāvidyā.

Then Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhvaraṇaviṣkambhī said to the Bhagavat, ‘Bhagavat, I wish to hear the six-syllable mahāvidyā, which is the inconceivable yoga and the immeasurable and highest dhyāna;which shows the way to the nirvāṇa of supreme enlightenment;which is the entranceway into liberation; which pacifies desire and hatred;which fills the treasury of the Dharma; which uproots saṃsāra and the five existences; which brings the hells and afflictions to an end; which takes those who have become animals to a higher existence; which completes the taste of the Dharma; and which is the imperishable teaching of omniscience. ‘Bhagavat, how can I obtain it? I would offer the four continents filled with the seven precious materials to anyone who bestows upon me the six-syllable mahāvidyā. ‘Bhagavat, if I can’t find a birch bark page to write it on, nor ink, nor a reed pen, I will make ink from my blood, I will slice off my skin to make a page, and I will break one of my bones to make a pen. Bhagavat, I have no concern for my body. The one who bestows it upon me will be my parents, my guru of gurus.’

Then the Bhagavat said to Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin, ‘Noble son, I remember going to as many worlds as there are atoms in the world for the sake of obtaining this six-syllable mahāvidyā. I honoured many millions of trillions of Tathāgatas, but I did not obtain it, and I did not hear it from those Tathāgatas. At that time I went, weeping, to the Tathāgata, the arhat, the samyaksaṃbuddha, the one with wisdom and conduct, the Sugata, the knower of the world, the unsurpassable guide who tames beings, the teacher of gods and humans, the Buddha, the Bhagavat Ratnottama. The Tathāgata, the arhat, the samyaksaṃbuddha Ratnottama said, ‘Noble son, don’t weep so pitifully. Noble son, go to the Tathāgata, the arhat, the samyaksaṃbuddha Padmottama. He knows this six-syllable mahāvidyā.’ ‘Noble son, I went to Tathāgata Padmottama. I approached the realm of Tathāgata Padmottama, arrived there, and bowed my head to the feet of Tathāgata Padmottama. I placed my palms together before him and said, ‘Bhagavat Padmottama, I must obtain this six-syllable mahāvidyā, which purifies all bad karma merely by the remembrance of its name. I seek to obtain that which is difficult for a Bodhisattva to obtain. For that purpose I have been to many worlds, in distress. I have arrived here, exhausted and without any result.’

Then Tathāgata Padmottama praised the qualities of this six-syllable mahāvidyā: ‘Noble son, it is like this: For example, I can know the number of atoms, but, noble son, I cannot calculate the accumulation of merit from repeating the six-syllable mahāvidyā once. ‘Noble son, it is like this: For example, I can count the grains of sand in the ocean, but, noble son, I cannot calculate the accumulation of merit from repeating the six-syllable mahāvidyā once. ‘Noble son, it is like this: For example, a person builds a building that is a hundred yojanas high and five hundred yojanas wide, and completely fills it with sesame seeds. There isn’t even a needle-sized hole in this building. At its door there is an immortal man who never ages. If every hundred eons that man takes out one sesame seed, I can calculate the time when such a building would be emptied down to the floor, but, noble son, I cannot calculate the accumulation of merit that comes from repeating the six-syllable mahāvidyā once. ‘Noble son, it is like this: For example, if the people in the four continents were all to work at various kinds of agriculture, such as barley, wheat, rice, green or black mung beans, and so on; and jujubes, horse gram, and so on; and the Nāga kings sent rain at the appropriate times; and those grains grew, ripened, and were harvested; if Jambudvīpa were made into one threshing floor, and the grain was brought in carts, in animal loads, in bundles and baskets, and put on that threshing floor, trodden by oxen and donkeys, and made into one big heap; then, noble son, I could count every single grain, but, noble son, I cannot calculate the accumulation of merit that comes from repeating the six-syllable mahāvidyā once. ‘Noble son, it is like this: For example, in Jambudvīpa there are great rivers that flow day and night. They are the Ganges, the Sītā, the Yamuna, the Sindhu, the Śatadru, the Candrabhaga, the Erāvatī, the Sumāgandha, the Himaratī, and the Kalaśodari. Each of these rivers has five hundred tributaries. Day and night they flow into the ocean. Noble son, this is how the accumulation of merit in-creases as the result of a single repetition of the six-syllable mahāvidyā: I can count each drop in those great rivers, but, noble son, I cannot calculate the accumulation of merit that comes from repeating the six-syllable mahāvidyā once. ‘Noble son, it is like this: For example, I can count each hair on all four-legged beings such as herds of oxen, donkeys, buffaloes, horses, and elephants; dogs, jackals, goats, and similarly lions, tigers, wolves, deer, monkeys, hares, pigs, and so on; and rats and cats, and so on; but, noble son, I cannot calculate the accumulation of merit from repeating the six-syllable mahāvidyā once. ‘Noble son, it is like this: For example, the king of mountains, named Vajrāṅkuśa, is 99,000 yojanas high and extends downward into the sea for 84,000 yojanas. Vajrāṅkuśa, the king of mountains, is 84,000 yojanas wide on each side. On the side of that king of mountains there is an ageless, immortal man, who once every eon wipes the mountain one time with a Kaśika cloth. Even this alone will eventually cause the mountain to be worn down and vanish. I can count the number of years, months, days, hours, and minutes of time that would take, but, noble son, I cannot calculate the accumulation of merit that comes from repeating the six-syllable mahāvidyā once. ‘Noble son, it is like this: For example, the ocean is 84,000 yojanas deep, and it has an immeasurable expanse, extending as far as Vaḍavāmukha. I can count all its drops of water, which are the size of the tip of a hair, but, noble son, I cannot calculate the accumulation of merit that comes from repeating the six-syllable mahāvidyā once. ‘Noble son, it is like this: For example, I can count the number of leaves in a forest of agar wood trees, but, noble son, I cannot calculate the accumulation of merit that comes from repeating the six-syllable mahāvidyā once. ‘Noble son, it is like this: For example, even if all the men, women, boys, and girls who live in the four continents were to be on the seventh Bodhisattva bhūmi, the accumulation of merit that comes from repeating the six-syllable mahāvidyā once would be far greater than the accumulation of merit of those Bodhisattvas. ‘Noble son, it is like this: For example, if for a year of twelve months, or with a leap-month to make a year of thirteen months, it were to rain day and night, noble son, I could count each drop of rain, but, noble son, I cannot calculate the accumulation of merit that comes from repeating the six-syllable mahāvidyā once. ‘Noble son, it is like this: There is no need to say much, but if, for example, a million Tathāgatas like me were to be in one place for an eon, provided with all requirements, with robes, food, bowls, bedding, seats, necessary medicine, and utensils, still those Tathāgatas would not be able to calculate the accumulation of merit from the six-syllable mahāvidyā, so it is needless to say that I cannot do so all by myself in this world. ‘Noble son, I have entered the yoga of meditation through an inconceivable dhyāna. This is a subtle dharma, an imperceptible dharma, an unknown dharma;it is the attainment of the ultimate essence. It has been established through the qualities of Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Avalokiteśvara’s skilfulness in methods. In that way, noble son, I too obtained skilfulness in methods through the six-syllable mahāvidyā. ‘Noble son, I also wandered through many hundreds of thousands of millions of tens of millions of worlds, and then in front of Tathāgata Amitābha, with palms placed together, I wept because of my emotion for the Dharma.

At that time, Tathāgata Amitābha, who knew the present and the future, said, ‘Noble son who is united with the yoga of meditation, do you desire the six-syllable queen of mahāvidyās?’ I replied, ‘I do desire it, Bhagavat; I do desire it, Sugata. I have gone to many worlds in search of the six-syllable mahāvidyā, Bhagavat, just like a thirsty person seeks water. I have attended to many millions of trillions of Tathāgatas, but I have not obtained the sixsyllable queen of mahāvidyās. Bhagavat, be my protector, refuge, and support. Be the eyes for those whose faculties are poor. Be the path for those who have lost the path. Be a parasol for those burned by the sun. Be like a great sal tree for a great crossroad. Be infinite teachings for those thirsty for the Dharma. Be armour for the complete stability of the mind.’

Then the Tathāgata, the arhat, the samyaksaṃbuddha Amitābha said to Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Avalokiteśvara with a voice as beautiful as a cuckoo’s song, ‘Noble son, look! The Tathāgata, the arhat, the samyaksaṃbuddha Padmottama has been to many millions of trillions of worlds for the six-syllable mahāvidyā. The Tathāgata has travelled like this, noble son, so therefore give him the six-syllable queen of mahāvidyās.’

End of the Chapter Three named Ṣaḍakṣarīmahāvidyāmāhātmyavarṇanam.