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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3226, Sunday, July 13, 2008, Editor: Mark
Ghantapa was the son of the king of Nalanda, the city which
housed the famous ancient monastic university. He renounced the
throne however, and became a learned, celibate monk, taking up
residence near Pataliputra, where ruled the king Devapala (r.ca.
809-849).
King Devapala was himself a pious and devout person. On hearing
of the noted sage's arrival at the edges of his city, he asked
the holy man to take up residence in his own royal palace,
Ghantapa refused the king's request, proclaiming the latter to be
a sinner. The king's repeated requests were of no avail, and this
greatly incensed his royal highness. Feeling slighted, Devapala
took upon himself to avenge his humiliation.
Accordingly, the king offered to give half his kingdom to anyone
who could violate the sage's celibate status. A voluptuous
courtesan named Darima took upon herself to accomplish this task.
For this purpose, she enlisted the support of her twelve-year old
virgin daughter, whose charming face, seductive gait,
wel-developed hips and nubile breasts caused even the sun to halt
in its tracks whenever it lay its eyes upon her. Darima felt that
her daughter's pronounced sensuality combined with her pristine
purity would definitely help her achieve her goal.
The young girl, playing upon the monk's compassion, managed to
snuggle inside his diminutive hut on the pretext of taking
shelter in a stormy night. Inevitably, during the course of the
night, their bodies touched and one thing led to another and they
ultimately became lovers. The next morning Ghantapa asked her to
remain with him as his consort. The girl agreed. As time
progressed, the venerable one's own inherent purity cured the
young lady's mind too of its defilements. And an year later a
child was born to them.
King Devapala, meanwhile, had come to know of what had transpired
between the two. With a large retinue, he confronted the sage,
accusing him of a gross loss of conduct. The huge crowd supported
the king with loud abuses hurled against Ghantpa. Finally,
Ghantapa hurled both his son and the gourd of wine he was
carrying on the ground. The earth trembled and split wide open,
and a flood of water gushed forth.
Ghantapa's child was transformed into a thunderbolt and the jug
of wine into a bell. Taking hold of one in each hand, Ghantapa
along with his consort, rose into the air and there they were
transformed into the deities Samvara and Vajravarahi, conjoined
in the father-mother union. They hovered over the heads of the
king and his supporters.
The waters rose higher and higher, threatening to consume both
the king and his followers. As death seemed imminent, and all
were on the point of drowning, the people prayed to Ghantapa for
forgiveness. Their cries however were to no avail. Suddenly there
appeared Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. He
placed his sacred foot over the crevice from where the flood was
issuing and the waters immediately entered back into the earth.
Everyone was relieved. Prostrating themselveson the ground, they
all asked for Ghantapa's forgiveness. In his message of
forgiveness, Ghantapa gave the following profound message:
"Do not cultivate virtue and renounce vice. Rather, learn to
accept all things as they arise. Penetrate the essence of each
experience until you have achieved the one taste."
Then he recited the following verse:
While medicine heals and poison kills,
Their ultimate essence is the same.
Both positive and negative qualities
Are aids on the path.
The sage rejects nothing.
Yet the unrealised fool
Five times poisoned
Is forever lost in sansara.
- posted to DailyDharma