Homage to the all-encompassing Vajra! O violent one of great wrath, destroy all obstacles, negativities, and evil! – the mantra of compassionate help for Achala.
The Various names of Achala and the meaning behind those names
Acala or Achala (Sanskrit: अचल, “The Immovable”, also known as Acalanātha (अचलनाथ, “Immovable Lord”) or Āryācalanātha (आर्याचलनाथ, “Noble Immovable Lord”), Chandamaharoshana, and Krodaraja is a wrathful deity and dharamapala (protector of the Dharma) prominent in Vajrayana Buddhism. He governs the North-East corner. He is one of the five Wisdom King of the Womb Realm – the other ones are TrilokaVijaya, Kundali, Yamantaka, and Vajrayaksa.
Four-armed Achala at Mangyu Gompa, Leh
Achala (अचल) means the immovable. In the beginning, He was a minor deity with a mention as a messenger or follower of the Buddha Vairochana. He rose to prominence as the the destroyer of delusion and the remover of all obstacles (and thus got another of His name Shankata). His immovability refers to His ability to remain unmoved by carnal desires. Though He looks fearsome, but His role is to help living beings by showing them the teachings of Buddha and by helping them to gain self-control.
Achala is also the name of the eighth of the ten stages of the path to Buddhahood.
Achala in literature
The first mention of Achala is in Amoghapasakalparaja Sutra circa 707-709 (CE). In this Sutra His mention is like the messenger or the follower of the Buddha Vairocana.
Achala rose to prominence in India during the 8th-9th centuries. The esoteric master Amoghavajra translated Sanskrit texts into Chinese; six of these texts are about Him. Achala’s rise to prominence is a result of the writings of Amoghavajra and his teacher Vajrabodhi. From a humble acolyte, Achala evolved into a powerful demon-subduing deity.
Four-armed three-head Achala at Thiksey Gompa, Leh
In the later texts such as the Candamaharosana Tantra, He appears as as Candarosana (“Violent Wrathful One”) or Candamaharosana (“Violent One of Great Wrath”) – the Frightener of the Gods, the destroyer of the strength of the demons and the one who slays ghosts and evil spirits with His fierce anger. He is the enlightened exponent of truth.
Below is a passage from Aryachala Sutra that mentions Achala and his symbolism
“At that time, there was a great wisdom king in the vast assembly of Vairocana. This great wisdom king possesses unlimited majestic power, Having the virtue of great compassion, he appears in a blue-black form. Having the virtue of great stillness, he sits on an adamantine rock. Having great wisdom, he manifests great flames. He wields the great sword of wisdom to destroy greed, ignorance, and hatred. He holds the snare of samādhi to bind those hard to tame. Because he is the formless Dharmakaya identical with space, he has no fixed abode; his only dwelling is within the hearts of sentient beings. Although the minds and inclinations of sentient beings differ, by each one’s desires, he bestows blessings and provides whatever is being sought. At that time, the great assembly, having heard this sūtra, rejoiced greatly, faithfully accepted it, and put it into practice.”
The famous Lama Tsongkhapa also praised the Extraordinary Deity Achala in the following verse:
“In all my lives I place my trust in you, extraordinary deity, protector Achala, hear this pure prayer.
Greatest of deities, whatever I am reborn, may I never stray from a practice sincere in word, deed, and thought, of your mantra and meditation.
Extraordinary deity, by the power of meditation upon you, I pray to be fostered with minds of love by unerring spiritual masters, and be taught the profound paths.
When I practice in sincerity the deep and swift path, I pray, Lord of the Wrathful, that you subdue all opposing circumstance.”
Iconography of Achala
Achala at Mangyu Gompa, Leh
How I recognize Achala?
He typically carries a sword for subduing demons in His right hand and a lasso for catching and binding them in His left hand.
The other points in His iconography are that He wears a jeweled-tantric crown and a garland of severed heads. A loosely draped scarf around his shoulder flay sideways. His sacred thread is of white snake. Achala is clad in tiger skin and bears an effigy of Akshobhya on his crown. He has a fearsome blue face expressive of extreme wrath and there are flames around Him that represents the purification of the mind.
Achala is always wrathful, fanged, and usually blue-black but has red and yellow aspects as well. He often sits or stands firmly on a rock showing His immovability.
He has the physique of a corpulent child and two protruding fangs. One tooth pointing down – representing His compassion for the world, and the other tooth pointing up – representing His passion for truth. His one eye is wide open and looks up towards heaven, and the other one squints down towards earth, an iconographic trait known as the “heaven-and-earth eyes”.
Achala’s eyes and fangs signifies the duality and the non-duality of the nature and reality. The upward fang or upward looking eye symbolizes the process of elevation towards enlightenment and the downward fang and the down looking eye symbolizes the descent of enlightened beings into the world to teach and protect the sentient beings.
Achala contains the essence of all of these. He is wrathful and active in his compassionate help but called the Immovable one because of his implacable power over all realms. He has one eye on heaven and one on earth. His wrathful compassion, symbolized by the two fangs, embraces both the Buddha Realms and the Samsaric Realms.
He has a consort Viśvavajrī with whom he appears in yab-yum union.
Achala with Visvavajri in Yab-Yum pose at Mangyu Gompa, Leh
Sometimes He is also shown with three faces – blue, white and red.
The below excerpt taken from Wiki well defines his Iconography.
“His right hand is terrifying with a sword in it, His left is holding a noose; He is making a threatening gesture with his index finger, And bites his lower lip with his fangs. “Kicking with his right foot, He is smashing the four Maras. His left knee is on the ground. Squint eyed, he inspires fear. “He points a threatening gesture at Vasudha [i.e. the earth], Kneeling on the cap of his left knee. He has Aksobhya for his crest jewel; He is of blue color and wears a jewel diadem. “A princely youth, Wearing Five Braids of Hair, Adorned with all the ornaments, He appears to be sixteen years old, And his eyes are red—he, the powerful one.”[18]
Doctrine of Achala
In the Nepalese Vajrayana Buddhist tradition an initiation of Achala alias Chandamaharosana is essential for becoming a Buddhist priest.
Achala on top in Lamayuru Gompa, Leh
A special Tantra dedicated to Achala can be found in original Sanskrit text. His sadhana is to be performed always in secret and is to be practiced only by those who are initiated.
It is said that through his sadhana and worship, Achala will help the practitioner to eliminate disaster of drought, flood and to subdue thieves and enemies.
Achala and Women devotees
Well, I don’t know the reason but I heard many a times that highest stage of realization is closed to the women. This despite the fact that there are many enlightened women in Hinduism, Devis are worshipped, one of the Tirthankara – Bhagwan Mallinatha was a female. I fail to understand why such false narration is spread and believed.
Lord Achala has a special role with regard to the women and the path to their enlightenment. His special task is to dispel the doubts, internal or external, coming to a female devotee that she can’t attain enlightenment as the highest stages of realization are closed to women. He act against the individuals who denigrate the capacity of women to become Buddha. In-fact some of the Buddhist texts mentions that this induced attitude or belief, is the “root cause of spiritual downfall of a woman”. Achala protects women devotees from falling for this wrong belief and keeps them focused on their meditation and thus helps them in achieving enlightenment.
References
Buddhist Deities and Masters – An introduction by Chandra B Sakya
The iconography of Nepalese Buddhism by Min Bahadur Shakya
