གསང་སྔགས་ཆན་པ་རྗས་ས་འཛན་པའ་མད intro.7

intro.7

The narrative of the sūtra begins with an interchange between the Buddha and the god Brahmā. Brahmā, along with his divine retinue, visits the Blessed One at the Jetavana hermitage and requests that he “guard, protect, look after, and bring peace and well-being” to the entire trichiliocosm of a thousand million worlds, just as the god himself does for the chiliocosm of a thousand worlds under his care. The Buddha acquiesces to his request by remaining silent. He subsequently proceeds to teach the scripture’s dhāraṇī formulas and to extol its many benefits. Much as in the Mahā­māyūrī­vidyā­rājñī, but with less elaboration, the Buddha prescribes the invocation by name of the spirits responsible for personal and communal misfortunes. These litanies, which the Buddha separates into groups based on the locations and activities of these beings, hierarchically arrange the spirits so that they are all subordinate to the Buddha’s command and to the command of his saṅgha. The Buddha states that just “upholding” or intoning these names along with the mantra formula that accompanies each group will urge them to obey members of the saṅgha so that they desist from causing harm and instead serve the pragmatic needs of the saṅgha and surrounding lay communities.