Mandalava- disciple and consort of Padmasambhava, who achieved immortality

Mandalava was, together with Yeshe Tsogyel, one of the main spiritual consorts of Padmasambhava, also known as Guru Rimpoche (“The Unspeakably Precious Mouth”) or Padmakara (“The One Born of Lotus”).

He was considered the “Second Buddha”, being a representative figure of Tibetan spirituality, the founder of the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet, the Sameye temple, and the founder of Tibetan tantric Buddhis, Vajrayana or the diamond path, a very fast, lightning path of evolution.

Padmasambhava’s five mystical consorts

Padmasambhava had five very close mystical consorts, disciples with a very high spiritual achievement, from which he did not part all his life. These were: Mandalava, the emanation of Varahi’s body, Yeshe Tsogyel, the emanation of his Speech, Shakya Devi, the emanation of his Mind, Kalasiddhi, the emanation of his Quality, Tashi Kyidren, the emanation of his Activity.

They have helped spread tantric uptake and practices around the world.

Life of Princess Mandalava

His divine consort Mandalava, also known as Pandaravasi or Machik Drubpai Gyalmo, manifested exceptional qualities in order to illuminate beings throughout the manifestation.

She was the daughter of Arsadhara, the king of Zohar, and showed all signs of being a true dakini.

She was particularly beautiful and virtuous, a true role model for those around her.

As the daughter of the royal couple Zohar, NE India, she received a very good education, becoming the best scientist in the country. He studied literature, composition, all languages and dialects of E and v India, poetry, logic, grammar, medicine and astrology. Due to the special attention he enjoyed and his exceptional qualities, he had reached the age of 13 to master all the sciences.

Mandalava was the daughter of King Zohar, born into the royal family of a small but strategic Himalayan kingdom in the middle of the 5th century.

She was born dakini Conscious (ye-shes mkha’-‘gro) and miraculous being. At the age of marriage, like Tsogyel. She refused all attempts by her parents to marry her, but failed to convince her father that she was destined to be sworn in as a Buddhist nun.

She then served the flesh of a Brahman’s dead body to her father as food – an atrocious offense – and then snuck out of the palace, adopting the beggar’s robe. After being a nun (invested) by the Abbot Santaraksita (also born in Zohar), her father came to reconcile with her, accepting her daughter’s predilection for religious life and giving her a palace for her meditations.

When Padma Sambvava, the young prince turned into a yogi, appeared in Mandi of Orgyen, Mandalava was immediately charmed by him, slipping out of joy as he floated (levitating) in the sky. As predestined, she became his disciple.

But the malicious gossipers immediately reported to the King that his daughter, the nun, was infuriating to a unprincipled tantrika, and the angry king was encouraged to catch Guru Pema and burn him at the stake. The action failed completely, however, for Guru through his miraculous powers and supported by the Dakiniremained unharmed and the fire turned into a lake that smoked for seven days. On the eighth day King 1 found Guru Pema turned into an eight-year-old boy sitting on a lotus flower in the middle of the lake.

Mandalava had since been thrown into a pit (symbol of yoni) covered with moors. Happy to find his daughter still alive. The King reunited her with Guru Pema and adored them both. Until his departure to Tibet it is said that Guru Pema and Mandalava were inseparable.

Gururemained for some time in Zohar and, after converting the population, he and his consort went to the Cave of Martatika at Heileshe, in Nepal, where they practiced yoga immortality in the mandala of Amityus, Guru Pema reaching the level of Holder of the Knowledge of Immortality (tshe’i dbang-la rig-‘dzin). From Nepal they traveled to Bangala where Mandalava was transformed into dakini (the one) with a cat face, helping to transform and convert the entire country.

Returning to his native country, because no prophet is recognized in his country. Guru Pema was burned again at the stake, this time with Mandalava, and again they remained unharmed. After this Mandalava became the Queen of dakini of Orgyen (Orgyen is the pure drag of the Dakini – a Buddhist land nirmanakaya).

Princess Mandalava’s meeting with grand master Padmasambhava

The moment Mandalava meets Guru Rimpoche is described in “Crazy Wisdom”, included in Mogyam Trumgpa’s collected works.

“One day he visited a monastery. At this special monastery lived a princess named Mandalava, who had just recently become a nun and completely deviated from the worldly pleasure. He lived in isolation, guarded by five hundred women, whose job it was to ensure that he maintained his monastic discipline. When Padmasambhava arrived at the monastery, everyone was quite impressed with it – naturally. He had the innocence of one born of a lotus and a pure and ideal physique. It was very beautiful. He converted all the women in the monastery: they all became his students. “

She followed the master’s directions with precision and devotion and came to be like him.

Jamgon Kongtre presents Mandalava in Guru Rinpoche’s biography as follows:

“Mandalava, daughter of Arsadhara, king of Zahor, was a woman who showed all the signs of being a dakini. The Master seduced her and accepted her as her consort and companion in spiritual practice. After three months of life meditation in the Monastery Cave, the protective Lord Buddha Infinite Life (Amityus) appeared in person, granted him power of attorney, and blessed them as inseparable from him. It became adamantin, beyond birth and death. “

He had a special relationship with Yeshe Tsogyal, the other lover of the great master

In “Lady of the Lotus-Born”, there is a wonderful scene in which Mandalava and Yeshe Tsogyal, Guru Rinpoche’s two consorts, teach each other:

“Mandalava asked for the instructions of twenty-seven pith, a special teaching of the Guru, unknown in India. And Tsogyal offered it to them. Now Mandarava was a dakini of longevity, a Lady of immortal life, and so Tsogyal asked for the seven long-life pith instructions, as well as the thirteen pith instructions about Hayagriva and other deities, all the teachings he hid as “Treasures”.

There follows an exchange of verses that offer between the two of them. First, from Yeshe Tsogyal:

“Om Ah Hung!

Dakini who won the state of the deadly diamond,

Whose body, like a rainbow, travels in the sky,

You masterfully go through the unhindered things,

And crush the Demon Lord of Death,

And it overturns the Demon of aggregates.

Freed from the handcuffs of the Demon of Sin Emotion

You humbled yourself and lowered the Son of God’s Demons:

Dakini and the mistress of longevity,

Isn’t that yourself?

From the highest Akanitta down,

Throughout the three dimensions of existence,

Of every tall and noble man you’re the mistress.

The body of the Great Happiness is yours,

Mandalava, the sublime modeling of the vacuum,

Mother of wanderers, I worship you!

For beings in the endless karmic flow of birth and death,

Caught on the mill wheel

Through the torrent of impure illusion,

Close the door towards their descent and fall.

My prayer be as you are fulfilled.

When karma is exhausted and the thought of pleasure is gone,

When the delire mill dried up,

When the three worlds, all samsara, are exhausted

And every thought has faded–

In the sphere of the Great Happiness happily closed,

Never be separated from Samantbhadri from the Great Happiness.”

Thus, she prayed and asked for many wonderful instructions that were never heard of in Tibet. Then the Siddhas Queen, Princess Mandalava, replied:

“Kyeho!

Fulfilled in the Secret Mantra,

Dancer in the sky,

A wonderful worker who dissolved her impure form

In the sphere of purity,

You drank the nectar of teachings

From Lotus-Born

They’ve gathered all the essence–

The Great Mother, the Wisdom that has crossed over,

Isn’t that yourself?

Entering the path where the truth

Of all the phenomena you can see,

You’ve really left the eight pursuits of this life

And, practicing the austerity, lived on an essential substance,

Overcoming all phenomenal existence.

Tsogyal, always young, immaculate, I worship you!

Sinful beings in the endless cycle of samsara,

Hit by hurricane karma-

They tame and guide them most skillfully.

By sining Dharma, you have opened

Bon’s devilish perversity.

Mistress, sovereign power, I can be one with you!

Next, in the purity of pure infinite space,

What is the pure expanse of the Lotus Light,

Bathed in the beams of Pema Tho©dreng’s love,

May we and together send forms

To work on enlightened actions,

Thus stirring the three worlds of samsara!

And with this prayer, she disappeared into space. “