Gods and Goddesses of Buddhism
and Hinduism
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MAHAKALA
Several series of Hindu deities are found in the Buddhist Pantheon.
Mahakala is one of the Hindu deities of Brahma group. He is one of
the eight terrible deities of the Buddhist pantheon with ornaments
of snakes, canine teeth, protuding belly and dressed with tiger skin.
He is dark blue in colour. He carries trisula and kapala in his two
hands. He may have one face with two, four or six arms or eight faces
with sixteen arms. As he is the defender of law, he is given a good
position at the entrance doors of Buddhist Shrines.
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MAHAPARATISARA
Mahapratisara is one of the principal deities of Pancha Raksha.
She occupies the center of the Mandala. She protects from all sorts
of specific evils and physical dangers. She is to be conceived as
having the image of Ratna Sambhava in her crown.
She has four faces. The front face is yellow, the right is white,
the rear is blue and the left is red in colour. The deity has twelve
arms. In her six right arms she holds the jewel, the discus, the
vajra, the arrow, the noose, the trident, the bow, the axe and the
conch.
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NAGARJUN
Nagarjun is usually called the 'Founder' of the Mahayan system. Some
claimed that he was only its principal expounder. Some look upon Asvaghosha,
the probable master of Nagarjuna as the founder of Mahayan doctrine.
Others still believe that Nagarjun founded the Madhyamika School and
was the first to teach the Amitabha doctrine.
Nagarjun was born in Southern India around the end of the second century
A.D. His parents were of the Brahman caste. At his birth, it was predicated
that he would only live seven days. Considering the acts of merit
performed by his parents, the God delayed his death until seven weeks
and then seven months and finally to seven years. Before the seven
years were up, he was sent to Nalanda where he learnt to adore Amitayus,
God of long life, and succeeded to propitiate the God and lived three
hundred years one earth.
Nagarjuna was the greatest Buddhist philosopher and mastered all the
sciences, and especially magic Art. He is said to have acquired Siddhi
by which magic power he obtained the Rainbow body' and was thus able
to become invisible at will and transport himself from one place to
another by supernatural power. Different Buddhists claim Nagarjuna
about his rank as the disciple of the Buddha.
According to Buddhist texts, Sakyamuni predicated the rebirth of his
disciple Ananda under the name of Nagarjuna founder of the Mahayana
System.
Some believed that Nagarjuna received the doctrine directly from Vajrasatwa.
Some believed that he received the treatise from the serpent Gods,
the Nagas to whom Gautam Buddha had given the treatise until such
time as the world should become sufficiently enlightened to understand
its transcendent wisdom.
Nagarjun was deified and enrolled among the Northern Buddhist divinities.
He has a halo on which are seven snakes. If painted, the middle one
is yellow and the Others grey. He is represented like a Buddha. He
wears the monastic garments. He has no symbols. His hands are in dharmachakra
mudra. If painted, he is white. |
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