The Story of Sukhadeva’s Attainment of Siddhi

✦ ─── ⟐ ─── ✦

Anonymous


This brief narrative tells how Sukhadeva, a merchant’s son who had
squandered his wealth, ground down a gośīrṣa-sandalwood image of the Buddha
to cure a woman. Fearing the karmic result, he took up the Six-Syllable
practice; after long practice, the Blessed One led him, the woman, and his
teacher to Potala.

The work is D4344 / Toh 4344 in the Degé Tengyur, volume 203, folios
156a.2–156a.7. It is cataloged as “The Story of the Attainment of the Siddhi
[of Mahākaruṇika] By Sukhadeva.” This independent translation was made from
the pinned Esukhia Degé etext. The work is anonymous.


Homage to Lokeśvara.

Long ago, when the Buddhist Teaching flourished in southern India, a
merchant’s son named Sukhadeva lived in a great city. He had squandered all
his wealth and was suffering greatly.

In that country, a young woman fell ill with a fever. Nothing but gośīrṣa
sandalwood could cure her, yet none could be found, and all the physicians
gave her up.

Sukhadeva inquired about her and was told, “If that sandalwood is found and
she recovers, we will give you the young woman.”

His ancestors possessed an image of the Sage—their tutelary deity—made from
gośīrṣa sandalwood. Sukhadeva filed some material from it, gave it to her as
medicine, and applied some externally. She recovered.

When the two were living together, the woman rebuked him: “For doing such a
thing, we will both be reborn in hell.”

Sukhadeva therefore went to a nearby monastery and requested instruction in
the Six-Syllable mantra from a paṇḍita. The woman served as his attendant,
and he practiced for twelve years for the sake of them both.

In a dream, he beheld the Blessed One, who told him, “Go to Potala.”

Sukhadeva replied, “I will go, but I must ask my master.”

On waking, he consulted his master and his attendant. They replied that,
since his attainment was due to their kindness, it would do no good to leave
them behind.1

He resumed the practice and continued for a long time. Then the Blessed One
appeared and led all three of them to Potala.

Sukhadeva declared:

Behold the powers of mantra!
Even a minor deity attains siddhi.
Abandon every other activity completely
And devote yourself to the practice of mantra.2

Having spoken these words, he is said to have departed for Potala.


Colophon

Sukhadeva’s Attainment of Siddhi. Translated by Paṇḍita Vinayaśrī.

Good Works Translation from Tibetan (Degé Tengyur D4344 / Toh 4344, volume
203, folios 156a.2–156a.7). Independently translated from the Tibetan source
for the Good Works Library, July 2026. The work is anonymous. Its closing
names Paṇḍita Vinayaśrī as the Tibetan translator; the catalog metadata gives
the expanded name Vinayaśrīmitra.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Works Library, 2026.

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Source Text: སུ་ཁ་དེ་བས་གྲུབ་པ་ཐོབ་པའི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད།

Tibetan source text from the Esukhia digital edition of the Degé Tengyur,
D4344, folios 156a.2–156a.7. Presented complete for reference and
verification; the D-number, folio markers, spelling, inline variant, and line
divisions are retained.

{D4344}༄༅༅། །ན་མོ་ལོ་ཀེ་ཤྭ་རཱ་ཡ། སྔོན་རྒྱ་གར་ལྷོ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་བསྟན་པ་དར་པའི་ཚེ། གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ཆེན་པོ་ཅིག་ན་ཚོང་དཔོན་གྱི་བུ་སུ་ཁ་དེ་བཞེས་བས་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་ཐམས་ཅད་རང་གིས་ཆུད་གསན་ནས་ཤིན་ཏུ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཞིང་ཡོད་པ་ན། ཡུལ་
[156a.3]དེར་བུད་མེད་ཅིག་ཚད་བས་ཐེབས་ཏེ་ཙནྡན་གོ་ཤིརྵ་མིན་པས་གསོ་མི་ནུས་ལ་དེ་ཡང་མ་རྙེད་དེ་སྨན་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་བོར་རོ། །དེར་ཚོང་དཔོན་གྱི་བུ་དེས་དྲིས་བས་ཙནྡན་དེ་རྙེད་ནས་སོས་ན་བུ་མོ་སྟེར་ཞེས་ཟེར་རོ། །དེར་ཕ་མེས་ཀྱི་ཡི་དམ་གོ་ཤིརྵ་ལས་བྱས་པའི་ཐུབ་པའི་སྐུ་ཅིག་ཡོད་པ་བདར་ཏེ་
[156a.4]ནང་དུ་བཏང་ཞིང་ཕྱིར་བྱུགས་པས་སོས་སོ། །དེ་གཉིས་ལྷན་ཅིག་གནས་པ་ན་བུད་མེད་དེས་དེ་ལ་འདི་ལྟ་བུའི་ལས་བྱེད་པ་གཉིས་ཀ་དམྱལ་བར་སྐྱེའོ་ཞེས་སྦྱོས། དེར་ཚོང་དཔོན་གྱི་བུ་དེ་དེ་དང་ཉེ་བའི་གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་ཅིག་ཏུ་པཎྜི་ཏ་ཅིག་ལ་ཡི་གེ་དྲུག་བཞུས་ནས་བུད་མེད་ཀྱིས་གཡོག་
[156a.5]བྱས་ནས་གཉིས་ཀའི་དོན་དུ་ལ་བཅུ་གཉིས་བསྒྲུབས་པས་རྨི་ལམ་དུ་ཞལ་གཟིགས་ཏེ་བོ་ཊ་ལར་འདེངས་ཞེས་གསུང་ངོ་། །ཁོས་བདག་འགྲོ་སྟ་སློབ་དཔོན་ལ་འདྲི་དགོས་ཞེས་བྱས་སོ། །སད་པ་དང་སློབ་དཔོན་དང་གཡོག་ལ་དྲིས་བས་དེ་དེང་(ཀྱི་,གི་)དྲིན་ཡིན་པས་མི་འཁྲིད་ན་མི་ཕན་ཞེས་
[156a.6]བྱས་པས། ཡང་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཡུན་རིང་དུ་བྱས་ཏེ་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་བྱོན་ནས་གསུམ་ཆར་པོ་ཊ་ལར་ཁྲིད་དོ། །སུ་ཁ་དེ་བས་སྨྲས་པ། ལྟོས་ཤིག་སྔགས་ཀྱི་ནུས་པ་དག །ཕྲ་བའི་ལྷ་ཡང་གྲུབ་པ་ཐོབ། །བྱ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་སྤོངས་ལ། །སྔགས་ཀྱི་
[156a.7]བྱ་བ་སྒྲུབ་བར་གྱིས། །ཞེས་གསུངས་ནས་པོ་ཊ་ལར་གཤེགས་སྐད། སུ་ཁ་དེ་བས་གྲུབ་པ་ཐོབ་པ། པཎྜི་ཏ་བི་ན་ཡ་ཤྲཱིས་བསྒྱུར་བའོ།། །།
[156b]
[156b.1]

Source Colophon

The controlling source is the Esukhia digital edition of the Degé Tengyur,
pinned at commit 174653137d62af481f53c6ae3dc842bf8629323e. The exact D4344
extraction is 3,688 bytes with SHA-256
ff9c4f976f554d4e546e99a15453eda526455d0039ac1f2d4c8a89cc47e7782a.
It ends after the Vinayaśrī statement on folio 156a.7, immediately before
D4345 begins on folio 156b.1. The Esukhia source is recorded as a mechanical
reproduction of a public-domain work.

The same-work ACIP transcription confirms “Sukhadeva,” “rebuked,” and
“twelve years,” repairing obvious character errors in the controlling
transcription without replacing or republishing it.

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Footnotes

  1. The transmitted phrase behind “their kindness” and “leave them behind” is damaged. The later statement that the Blessed One led all three to Potala strongly supports this sense, but the exact wording cannot be recovered securely.

  2. The Tibetan expression rendered “minor deity” is literally something like “subtle” or “minute deity.” Its precise doctrinal sense is unclear.