At
the age of Buddha Dipankara he was reborn as a hideous
monster with 3 heads, 6 arms, 4 legs and 2 wings. At his birth,
malignant epidemics, famine, bloodshed and other calamities
struck he world. When his mother died nine days after his
birth, he was deserted in a cemetery with his mother's corpse
to die. By suckling on his dead mother's milk and eating the
remains of the body, he survived and through scavenging in
the cemetery, he grew into a terrible monster bearing fangs,
wearing human skin, tiger skirt, elephant blouse and snakes
belts, holding blood filled skull cup and waving a trident
hunting human for food and terrorising everything in every
destructive ways possible. As time went by he became very
powerful, breathing poisonous air which caused epidemics to
occur, and his ears, nose and body oozed out the 404 kinds
of diseased. Thus he was called Matram Rudra, the incarnation
of greatest evil, pride of egoism in its most terrible form.
He then proceeded to conquer all the realms of Rakshasas,
Nagas, Yakshas, Asuras, Ghandharvas and Devas, who make him
their king, and they revelled in obscene orgies, killing,
hunting and eating human beings.
At that time, out of great compassion Vajrasattva
and Vajrapani manifested themselves into Hayagriva
and Vajravarahi, the wrathful forms of Avalokiteshvara
and Green Tara. Together they confronted the monstrous
Matram Rudra. After some fierce battles which shook
the whole universe, both Matram Rudra and his consort
Krodeshvari were subdued. Having conquered Rudra,
henceforth all the wrathful deities of Vajrayana assumed the
eight accessories of Matram Rudra including the ferocious
looks, sepulchral ornaments, and the glorious costumes.
After suffering terrible pain in defeat, Matram Rudra
repented greatly and promised to protect all Dharma practitioners.
Thus Hayagriva and Vajrapani pierced his heart
with the kilaya, absolving him of all this karmic debts
and flaws. They further gave him empowerments and transformed
him into the great dharma protector, conferring him the secret
name of Mahakala
Matram Rudra's transformation from greatest of all
evil into the Dharma Protector Mahakala through the
subjugation by Hayagriwa and Vajravarahi is
none other than the triumph of compassion and skillful means
over extreme evil, egoism and its transformation into wisdom.
In the ultimate view, there is no separation between the AwakenedMind
of Buddha and that of Mahakala.
Mahakala retains the wrathful forms and all the physical
attributes of Matram Rudra. However, each attribute
manifested is a skillful method to transform one's defilement
into wisdom. Thus, Mahakala is in fact a wrathful embodiment
of compassion.
As explained by Ven. Khenph Karthar Rinpoch in his article
"Relating to the Mahakala Practice: "Appearing in very
majestic form, splendid yet frightening, Mahakala stands in
the midst of a mountain of flames to symbolize that no enemy
can stand this appearance aspect; the sharp chopper, which
he holds aloft in one hand, symbolizes the cutting through
of negative patterns, aggression, hatred, ignorance - any
of the five poisons. No neurosis or negativity can tolerate
this very majestic form, the frightening form symbolizes Mahakala
as totally devoid of feat or hesitation in his spontaneous
yet consistent work toward the benefit and liberation of all
beings.
Mahakala
is seen standing on the corpse of two human bodies, thus symbolizing
the death of negativities and the complete uprooting of negative
patterns to such a point that, like a dead body they will
not come to life. It is very important that we know these
symbols of Mahakala because many times we have mistaken notions
that he may be a clinging spirit of harmful, evil being, perhaps
even the Lord of Death ready to devour and attack. One would
find great difficulty in relating to the various symbols without
understanding that our awakened compassion is the essential
quality of the being of Mahakala. Mahakala has never been
known to harm on being, even in the slightest manner, because
he is constantly benefiting beings through the continuous
play of the enlightened mind."