Vajraghaṇṭapāda

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वज्रघण्टपाद

Vajraghaṇṭapāda

རྡོ་རྗེ་དྲིལ་བུ་པ་

Buddhist Digital Resource Center

Ghanḍḥapa was a monk of Nālandā. When the king invited him to his palace, he refused. The king schemed to disgrace Ghanḍḥapa by sending a beautiful girl to seduce him. Instead, she asked to become his patron. One day, she convinced Ghanḍḥapa to allow her to spend the night because she was afraid to travel home alone. While sleeping, their bodies joined. Rather than reporting her success to the king, the girl lived with Ghanḍḥapa, bearing a son. One day, the king encountered them,

Ghanḍḥapa carrying the child and a bottle of wine. When the king mocked him, Ghanḍḥapa threw down the child and the bottle. Water gushed from the earth, causing a flood, the child turning into a vajra and the bottle turning into a bell. Ghanḍḥapa turned into Cakrasaṃvara and the girl turned into Vajravārāhī, rising into the sky. The king and his courtiers were drowning when Avalokiteśvara appeared, stopping the flood with his foot. Ghanḍḥapa made the waters recede, declaring that a single substance can be both medicine and poison. The king became Ghanḍḥapa's disciple. (Source: Lopez Jr., Donald S. Seeing the Sacred in Samsara: An Illustrated Guide to the Eighty-Four Mahāsiddhas. Boulder: Shambhala Publications, 2019: p. 147.)