Virupaksha – The Heavenly King of the West Direction

Virupaksha is one of the four heavenly Guardian Kings in Buddhism along with Dhritarashtra, Virudhaka and Vaiśravaṇa. He is the guardian of the West direction. He is the lord of Nagas.

Virupaksha word is a combination of of two words – Virupa and Aksha. Virupa means deformed or various and Aksha means eyes. So his names signifies one with deformed eyes or the one who is vigilant and sees everything that happens in Dharma world.

He is the one whose eyes are in the sky and who can discern evil. He accurately perceives the nature of society and fairly judges good and evil, and identifies those who do not believe in Buddhism and help converting them.

Iconography of Virupaksha

Virupaksha carries a wrathful appearance. He is heavily armored and reflects warrior like attributes. He is dark red in color with moustache and a goatee and holds a white Stupa in one of his hand and a writhing snake in his other hand. His glance is for the evil beings and is harmful. So he avoids looking at the normal beings by gazing at the stupas he carries.

He adorns a crown of gold studded with jewels, and also earrings and ribbons. He wears rich brocade vest and colorful garments, trousers and boots all emblazoned with various designs.

A dark billow of blue and pink forms the background and a halo of orange flame surrounds his head.

Mantras of Virupaksha

Devotees worship and recite the mantra of Virupaksha for good health and his protection.

OM VIRUPAKSA NAGA DHIPATA YE SOHA

People receive the protection in direct proportion to their faith and practice.

The four kings in their previous birth

I wrote a story in the article on Dhritarashtra about his previous birth – In his previous birth he and Virudhaka were Nagas namely Prana and Mahaprana, while Virupaksha and Vaiśravaṇa were the Garuda namely Sughosa and Alpaghos. The nagas were very much afraid of the Garudas and never dared to dwell on mount Meru.

So they came down on the earth and took refuse in the bottom of the ocean. They never dare to come to the surface of water. One day Buddha Kashyap arrived and gave a sermon near their place of residence. After listening to His sermon they took refuge in Dharma. These virtues protected them from any harm and they lived without any fear on the surface of the ocean.

Now the Garudas mentioned in this story were Virupaksha and Vaiśravaṇa. As they failed to harm the Nagas, they asked them about the reason. The two Nagas, Dhritarashtra and Virudhaka , explained that Garudas failed to harm them as they have taken refuge in Buddha and his virtues protect them. Hearing this the two Garudas also took refuge in Buddhism. With the blessings of Lord Buddha they became good friends. At the time of their death they prayed for a meaningful rebirth for the welfare of dharma.

On account of the power of their virtues the four of them were reborn at the time of Shakyamuni Buddha as four Heavenly kings and protected Shakyamuni Buddha.

References

Buddhist Deities and Masters – An introduction by Chandra B Sakya

The iconography of Nepalese Buddhism by Min Bahadur Shakya

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