Sahashrabhuja Lokeswora
antiques prices February 26th, 2008
The body of the main deity is white with 1000 arms and one thousand eyes. Out of 1000 arms Avalokiteshvara, 38 arms of this lokeshwara are depicted with various symbols or emblems given below.
Right arms Left arms
Jewel svetamegha
Noose Kamandalu
Alms bow/Pindapatra Padma
Sword Sword
Vajra Conch
Suryakantamani skull cup
Candrakantmani rosary
Bow Bell
A root shoots of willow vajra
Camera goad
Shield staff
Vase Nimitta Buddha
Axe devalaya
Rosary scripture
Blue lotus disc
Kamandalu/waterpot image of Buddha
Sun fruit
Lotus pistil of lotus
Rice stalks jewel
He wears antelope skin on his shoulders symbolizing compassionate nature. He wears all the ornaments: earrings, bracelets and so forth. He has eleven heads, with the eleventh one being his spiritual sire Buddha Amitabh. In the bottom panel of the painting a six armed red Mahakala and Palder Lhamo are depicted. In the top panel two Gurus of the Nyung nas Lineage are seen on the clouds. Surrounding the main deity are vaious figures such as a snow lion, seal, a monk and dragon, all arranged symmetrically, Just beneath the lotus seat of the Avalokiteshwara in a semicircular pattern are depictions of the seven precious jewels, the limes jewel of elephant, and so forth. The story of the origin of this form of Avalokiteshvara is as follows;It is said that Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara made strong vows in front of Buddha Amitabha to intentionally manifest into the three realms of samsara in order to liberate all sentient beings from samsara and to be their supreme guide. He also vowed that if by chance his compassion and courageous mind of mercy for all sentient beings were to decrease then let his head and body just completely crack and fall into thousand pieces. Receiving blessings from Buddha Amitabha, Avalokiteshvara went through universal manifestations into the three realms of existence. Thereafter he went to Hell and emancipated them from both the hot and cold hells by teaching the mantra of great compassion. He in turn went to ghost realm, human, asura and deva realms to free sentient beings from their respective types of suffering. Through these actions, he thoroughly emptied the ocean of suffering. Following this he went back to Buddha Amitabha and declared that the liberation had been affected. Buddha Amitabha said to him, “you should look again, look back again and again into the world?And as he did , there he saw once again that sentient beings were in samsara and in sorrow and then his enlightened thought, his bodhicitta decreased at that moment as he lost heart. He became disappointed in the very presence of Buddha Amitabha. He thought, “how could the time come to liberate all sentient beings for ever from this type of condition??And instantly when his mind despa his body and head just cracked and fell apart into one thousand pieces, and henceforth he fainted. Avalokiteshvara having thus fainted, Buddha Amitabha said to him, ?My son where has your courage, your mental strength gone??He picked up all the pieces of his body and the head. At the same time he said, “This happened because of your prayer, You deserve the praise of all Buddhas since your prayer was efficacious. However, Noble Son, don’t worry. He then blessed his broken heads into eleven faces and he sat upon those heads , and his broken body emanated one thousand hands like one thousand petals of a lotus. Thereafter he said , “I bow to you because your thousand thousand hands are the hands of the thusand universal emperors and those eyes in each of the palsm of the hands are eyes of one thousand Buddhas who will appear inthis fortunate aeon. After that, Avalokiteshwara appeared in many different formsin order to make tranquil suffering sentient beings andhe successfully accomplished innumberable altruistic actions.
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