Shantideva was born in Saurastra (present day Gujarat State, India) as a son of King Kalyanavarman in the early eighth century, CE. Due to the merit of his previous karma, he had visions of Manjushri in dreams from an early age. While growing up, the ministers planned to enthrone him as a king. Meanwhile, he had a dream of Manjushri sitting on the throne he was to be seated on. Manjushri said:
O my son! This throne is mine
And I am your teacher.
It is not possible for you
And me to share the same throne.
After this, Arya Tara appeared in the form of his mother and poured hot water on his crown. Shantideva asked, “What is this?” She replied, “The kingship is like the unbearable boiling water of hell. Therefore, I’m bestowing an empowerment upon you.” As he realized that he was not the right one to be the king, he ran away the same night, before the coronation the next day.
Twenty-one days after he had run away, as Shantideva was about to drink water from a spring in a nearby jungle, a lady stopped him and gave him delicious water instead. She led him to a yogi who lived in a cave in the jungle. He received proper spiritual instruction and by meditating upon it, he attained samadhi and unimaginable wisdom. The yogi was none other than Manjushri and the lady was Arya Tara. After that, he always had visions of Manjushri in his dreams.
Then Shantideva went to the east and lived among the retinue of King Panchamasimha. He mastered all the arts and became the most learned of all. When this became known, he was requested to become the minister of that place, a position he accepted for the time being. Holding a sword in his hand as a symbol of his tutelary deity, he established an unprecedented level of all arts and crafts and made the king rule his kingdom in accordance with the Dharma. Seeing this, the other ministers became jealous and told the king that Shantideva was deceitful, with just a wooden sword. All the ministers told the king that everyone should show their swords. When Shantideva’s turn came, he worried that the sword might harm the king. The king said, “Even if it is harmful, you must show it.” Shantideva then told the king to cover his right eye and look with the other one. When he unsheathed the sword, the king’s left eye burst out due to the lustre of the sword. Then everyone came to know that how accomplished Shantideva was. After that, they made a lot of offerings and requested him to stay there. Agreeing to this, he commanded that the kingdom be governed in accordance with the Dharma and that Buddhist institutes be established.
Then he headed towards the central region of Magadha and received ordination from Acharya Jayadeva. He gave him the name Shantideva at that time. There he stayed with the scholars. As food, he used to eat five of the biggest sheng (a wooden vessel used as a weight measure in ancient India) of rice for each meal. Internally he was meditating and receiving teachings from Manjushri. During that time, he composed the Shiksha-samuchaya (Compendium of the Training) and the Sutra-samuchaya (Compendium of the Sutras).
Though he knew the nature of all phenomena in its entirety, in the eyes of the others he acted as if he didn’t study, contemplate or meditate, but instead only slept all day and night. The sangha wanted to throw him out of the monastery because they thought that it was just a waste of the offerings faithfully given to the sangha.
They decided to each publicly recite a sutra in turn, which would surely make him run away on his own. Finally, when Shantideva’s turn came he didn’t agree at first. Later, he accepted the order, but in return, he demanded that they prepare a throne for him. This made some of the sangha doubtful but most of them gathered there solely to humiliate him. There, Shantideva actually levitated onto the throne and asked, “Should I recite an existing teaching or something new?” To examine him, they requested the latter. Shantideva then recited what would become known as the Bodhicharyavatara (The Way of the Bodhisattva). Eventually he came to the point in the ninth chapter on wisdom where the verse begins,
“When existent and non-existent
Both are absent from before the mind….”
After reciting those lines, his body started ascending into the sky until it disappeared completely. However, the whole assembly could still hear his voice, and his recitation of the Bodhicharyavatara, until its completion. The sutridhara panditas (those who had attained perfect recall) memorized all the verses. Some Kashmiri panditas memorized more than one thousand stanzas and added the benedictory eulogy by themselves. The panditas from the east could retain only around seven hundred verses and added the benedictory verses from Mula-madhyamaka (Fundamental Treatise on the Middle Way). They missed the “Confession” and the “Wisdom” chapters. The panditas from the central part of India didn’t have the benedictory eulogy or the verse stating the resolution; it happened to be one thousand verses when counted.
This created confusion. Tibetan historians say that though he stayed in Sri Dakshina, he went to Kalinga—a place of Trilinga. When people heard about this, three panditas approached him and invited him to Nalanda, but he didn’t accept. Then they asked what the Shiksha-samuchaya and Sutra-samuchaya were and what were the three words? Shantideva replied, “The Shiksha and Sutra written in fine pandita script on birch bark can be found on my windowsill and the Bodhicharyavatara is the same as what the central panditas have memorised.”
Shantideva then lived in a forest monastery with five hundred fully ordained monks. In that forest, there were many animals, such as deer. By his miraculous magical emanation, he displayed acts of devouring the flesh of the animals that came to his room. The other monks saw the animals entering his room but not coming out. They also noticed that the number of animals was decreasing and some of the monks saw Shantideva eating the flesh of the animals. When the sangha community began questioning him about this, he brought the animals back to life once again with more strength than they had before. Then, he left that place though they requested him to stay.
He discarded his monk’s robes and started following the Uchhusma Charya—an ascetic yogic activity. In the region of south India at that time, a debate was going on between Buddhists and tirthikas (followers of non-Buddhist spiritual traditions). When they competed to prove their ability, the Buddhists failed. When Acharya Shantideva went there, someone threw slop on his body and it started boiling. From this, people came to know that he had miraculous powers. At their request, he agreed to compete with the tirthikas. There, the tirthikas drew a big mandala out of colourful sand in the sky. Shantideva immediately diverted a strong blast of wind which blew the mandala away, and threw all the tirthikas across a big river. All the supporters of the tirthikas were also nearly blown away. The king and the others who had devotion to Buddhism were not at all harmed. He annihilated the tirthikas and spread the Buddhadharma. This place was thus called ‘Victory over the Tirthikas’.1 According to the Tibetan accounts, when the five hundred paasandikas ran out of livelihood, he miraculously provided them food and drink and made them follow the doctrine of the Buddha. He even did the same for one thousand beggars. He also entered a battlefield and stopped a war by his miraculous power.
After benefitting and rendering service to the Buddhadharma for many years, he finally entered mahaparinirvana.
By Loponma Samten Zangmo
Padma Mani Translation Committee, NNNI
