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The Story of the Attainment of the Siddhi of Mahākaruṇika By Vīkhyātadeva

✦ ─── ⟐ ─── ✦

Anonymous

This brief narrative tells how Vīkhyātadeva was warned in a dream of his
death and future birth in hell, practiced the meditation and recitation of
the six syllables, and returned alive from his funeral pyre. He then
described how four deities had rescued him from the men of Yama.

The work is D4341 / Toh 4341 in the Degé Tengyur, volume 203, folios
155a.1–155b.1. This independent translation was made from the pinned
Esukhia Degé etext and checked against Narthang, Golden, and ACIP Tibetan
transcriptions and the closely related D4342 narrative. The source names
Vinayaśrīmitra as the Tibetan translator but names no author;
Vīkhyātadeva is the story's subject, not its author.

Homage to Lokeśvara.

This is the story of Vīkhyātadeva's attainment of siddhi through
Mahākaruṇika, the Great Compassionate One.1

He was born in eastern India, entered monastic life at Vikrama, and became
learned in the fields of knowledge. However, the fault of intense craving
kept him from remaining there. Instead, he stayed at Vajrāsana with a lady
and taught the Dharma to a group of followers.2

One night, in a dream, the Great Sage said to him:

“Three years from now, you will die after a grave and lingering illness.
Because of your bad karma, you will then be born in hell. My telling you now
will do no good. Practice the meditation and recitation of the six
syllables.”3

He awoke terrified and told his followers. The lady attended him, his
followers supplied his necessities, and he undertook the practice.

When the appointed year came, he died of just such an illness. His followers
took him to the charnel ground, laid him in the middle of a funeral pyre, and
lit it around the edges. He then emerged on top of the wood.

Thinking that a revenant had risen, they fled. He signaled to them not to run
away. One courageous elderly follower stayed for a long while and realized
that he was not dead. Then everyone asked him what had happened.4

“I cannot tell you yet,” he said. “Bring me yogurt and cooked rice.”

After eating, he told them:

“Four terrifying men of Yama carried me a great distance. When we reached
the summit of a mountain, a white light far brighter than moonlight appeared
in the sky. Following it, I saw four figures arrive in the sky: Mahākaruṇika
Donzhag, Hayagrīva, Tārā, and Norzang. The sight left Yama's men terrified and
trembling.5

“Then those men were beaten with Hayagrīva's club. The Blessed One said,
‘Show no compassion.’ Hayagrīva said, ‘It is not right to create obstacles
here for one of our people.’6

“The Blessed One said, ‘Enough now. Take him at once to that unburned place
over there.’

“The four brought me here. I saw them while they were bringing me, but after
that I saw them no more. Now I have managed to recover from my illness.”7

Thereafter he became renowned as both a paṇḍita and a siddha. Many people,
including Lama Śākyaśrī and Buddhaśrī, gathered around him, and it is said
that his fame became exceedingly great.8

Colophon

The story of the paṇḍita Vikhyātadeva's attainment of siddhi through the
Great Compassionate One was translated by the paṇḍita Vinayaśrīmitra.

Good Works Translation from Tibetan (Degé Tengyur, D4341 / Toh 4341, volume
203, folios 155a.1–155b.1). Independently translated from the Tibetan source
for the Good Works Library, July 2026. The work is anonymous;
Vīkhyātadeva is its subject, and Vinayaśrīmitra is the Tibetan translator
named in its colophon.

The English was checked against local Tibetan comparison witnesses only. No
existing English translation was consulted or copied, and no claim of
firstness or English nonexistence is made. The catalog-facing title is
adopted with attribution from 84000's CC BY 4.0 metadata. As checked on July
18, 2026, 84000 marked Toh 4341 “Not Begun.” No 84000 English translation
body was available, opened, consulted, or copied.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Works Library, 2026.

🌲

Source Text: བི་ཁྱཱ་ཏ་དེ་བས་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོའི་གྲུབ་པ་ཐོབ་པའི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་

Tibetan source text from the Esukhia digital edition of the Degé Tengyur.
Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English
translation above. The source's D-number, folio markers, spelling, inline
variant, line divisions, and final space are retained.

{D4341}༄༅༅། །ན་མོ་ལོ་ཀི་ཤྭ་རཱ་ཡ། བི་ཁྱཱ་ཏ་དེ་བས་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོའི་གྲུབ་པ་ཐོབ་པའི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་ནི། དེ་རྒྱ་གར་ཤར་ཕྱོགས་སུ་འཁྲུངས་
[155a.2]ཏེ་བི་ཀྲ་མར་རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་རིག་པའི་གནས་ལ་མཁས་པར་གྱུར་ཏོ། །འོད་ཀྱང་སྲེད་པ་ཆེ་བའི་སྐྱོན་གྱིས་དེར་མ་བཞུགས་པར་རྡོ་རྗེ་གདན་དུ་ཇོ་མོ་གཅིག་དང་ལྷན་ཅིག་འཁོར་ཁ་ཅིག་ལ་ཆོས་སྟོན་གྱིན་བཞུགས་སོ། །ནུབ་ཅིག་གི་རྨི་ལམ་ན་ཐུབ་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཞལ་ནས་ཁྱོད་ད་ལོ་གསུམ་ན་ནད་དྲག་ལ་ཡུན་རིང་བས་ཤི་
[155a.3]ནས་ལས་ངན་པས་དམྱལ་བར་སྐྱེ་བས། ད་བཤད་བས་མི་ཕན་གྱི། ཡི་གེ་དྲུག་པའི་སྒོམ་བཟླས་གྱིས་ཤིག་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ། །སད་པ་དང་ཤིན་ཏུ་སྐྲག་སྟེ་འཁོར་རྣམས་ལ་སྨྲས་ནས་ཇོ་མོས་གཡོག་བྱས་འཁོར་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་འཚོ་བ་སྦྱར་ནས་སྒྲུབ་པ་མཛད། དེ་ནས་ལོ་དུས་སུ་ནད་དེ་འདྲ་བས་གྲོངས་ཏེ། འཁོར་རྣམས་
[155a.4]ཀྱིས་དུར་ཁྲོད་དུ་མེའི་གསེབ་ཏུ་གཞུག་སྟེ་མེ་མཐའ་ནས་སྦར་བ་དང་། ཤིང་གི་སྟེང་དུ་འཐོན་བྱུང་ངོ་། །རོ་ལངས་བྱུང་སྙམ་སྟེ་བྲོས་པ་དང་། མ་འབྲོས་པའི་བརྡ་བྱས་བས་འཁོར་རྒན་པོ་ཕོ་ཚོད་ཅན་ཅིག་གིས་ཉི་མ་རིང་བསྡད་པས་མ་གྲོངས་པར་ཤེས་ནས། དེར་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་ཅི་ལགས་ཞུས་པས། ངས་བཤད་
[155a.5]མི་ནུས་ཞོད་ང་འབྲས་ཟན་ཁྱེར་ཤོག་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ། །དེར་གསོལ་ནས་གསུངས་པ། གཤིན་རྗེའི་མི་ཤིན་ཏུ་འཇིགས་པ་བཞིས་ང་ཐག་རིང་པོར་ཁྱེར་ཏེ་རི་ཅིག་རྩེ་ལ་སླེབ་པ་དང་། །འོད་དཀར་པོ་ཟླ་བའི་འོད་པས་ཆེས་ལྷག་པ་ནམ་མཁའ་ལ་བྱུང་བའི་རྗེས་ལ་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་དོན་ཞགས། རྟ་མགྲིན། སྒྲོལ་
[155a.6]མ། ནོར་{བཟངས་,བཟང་}དང་བཞི་ནམ་མཁའ་ལ་བྱོན་པ་མཐོང་སྟེ། དེས་གཤིན་རྗེ་དག་ཤིན་ཏུ་བྲད་ནས་འདར་རོ། །དེར་མི་དག་རྟ་མགྲིན་གྱི་དབྱུག་ཏོས་བརྡུངས་བས་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱི་ཞལ་ནས་སྙིང་རྗེ་མ་བྱེད་གསུངས་བས་རྟ་མགྲིན་བྱི་ཞལ་ནས་འོ་སྐོལ་གྱི་མི་ལ་འདིར་བར་ཆད་བྱེད་པ་མི་རིགས་གསུང་ངོ་། །དེར་བཅོམ་
[155a.7]ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱི་ཞལ་ནས་ད་ཆོག་གིས་འདི་ཕ་གི་མ་ཚིག་པ་ལ་ཅིག་ཅར་སྐྱོལ་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ། །དེར་བཞི་བོས་འདིར་བསྐྱལ། སྐྱེལ་གྱི་བར་དུ་མཐོང་། ད་ནས་མ་མཐོང་སྟེ་ད་ངའི་ནད་དྲག་བར་ཐེག་ཅེས་གསུང་ངོ་། །དེ་ནས་པཎྜི་ཏ་གྲུབ་ཐོབ་ཏུ་གགས་ཏེ་བླ་མ་ཤཱཀྱ་ཤྲཱི་དང་བུངྔྷཤྲཱི་ལ་སོགས་པ་མང་པོ་
[155b]
[155b.1]འདུས་ཤིང་གྲགས་པ་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཆེ་སྐད་དོ། །པཎྜིཏ་རྣམ་པར་གྲགས་པའི་ལྷས་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་གྲུབ་པ་ཐོབ་པའི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་པཎྜིཏ་བི་ན་ཡཤྲཱི་མིཏྲས་བསྒྱུར་རོ།།

Source Colophon

The controlling source is the Esukhia digital edition of the Degé Tengyur,
pinned at commit 174653137d62af481f53c6ae3dc842bf8629323e.
The exact D4341 extraction is 5,330 bytes with SHA-256
77251c33ed6f37d18edf2c9faba80e409dadc9f6847c0df65222f996cc1c5892.
It begins at byte 1,480,867 in volume 203, on folio 155a.1, and ends at byte
1,486,197 after the Vinayaśrīmitra statement on folio 155b.1, immediately
before D4342. The exact transmitted Degé witness is reproduced above without
emendation.

The English reading was checked against the local Narthang and Golden
recension transcriptions, the ACIP transcription of the same Degé work, and
the related D4342 story. Those comparison files were used privately for
bounded phrase-level evidence; none of their full payloads is reproduced.
Narthang and Golden support reading Degé འོད་ཀྱང་ as the connective
འོན་ཀྱང་, “however.” All three comparisons support ཞོ་དང་,
“yogurt and,” and repair བྲད་, བྱི་ཞལ་, གགས་, and
བུངྔྷཤྲཱི་ as “terrified,” “Hayagrīva said,” “renowned,” and
“Buddhaśrī.” These decisions change only the English reading; the Degé source
block remains diplomatic.

Degé and ACIP count four rescuing figures, while Narthang and Golden count
five. The reading text follows the coherent controlling witness: Mahākaruṇika
Donzhag is one figure, followed by Hayagrīva, Tārā, and Norzang, and those same
four later bring Vīkhyātadeva back. The five-figure recension variant is
recorded rather than silently harmonized.

The adjacent D4342 story has the same funeral-pyre, Yama, return, and recovery
sequence. It supports “pyre,” the temporal force “at once” for
ཅིག་ཅར་, and recovery from illness in the final difficult clause. Its
body is not reproduced here and it is not treated as the same work. The
current official placeholder notes that Toh 4341–4344 appear to be related;
their identities remain separate.

The Esukhia source is recorded as a mechanical reproduction of a
public-domain work. The reuse terms of the private ACIP and rKTs comparison
files were not relied upon for republication; only individual readings are
cited. The catalog-facing title and status are attributed to 84000 under CC
BY 4.0.

🌲

Footnotes

  1. The current 84000 catalog spells the subject Vīkhyātadeva. The Tibetan opening transliterates Vikhyātadeva, while the source colophon renders the name semantically as “the god whose fame is distinguished.” The official title's “By Vīkhyātadeva” describes his attainment; the source names no author. ↩

  2. The controlling Degé and ACIP transcriptions read འོད་ཀྱང་, literally “light also,” which is anomalous here. Narthang and Golden read འོན་ཀྱང་, “however,” fitting the syntax. The lady's relationship to Vīkhyātadeva is not stated, and “Vikrama” is not expanded to Vikramaśīla. ↩

  3. ACIP reads “my telling,” while Degé, Narthang, and Golden read “telling now”; the English preserves both without adding an object beyond the warning. The source mentions the six syllables but does not write out the formula. ↩

  4. རོ་ལངས་ is a risen or reanimated corpse, here rendered “revenant.” The transmitted ཉི་མ་རིང་བསྡད་ contains “day” and may mean that the elderly follower stayed through a long part of the day; “for a long while” retains its temporal force without fixing a duration. The “yogurt and” reading is supported by all three comparison transcriptions. ↩

  5. Degé and ACIP explicitly count four, making Mahākaruṇika Donzhag one figure followed by Hayagrīva, Tārā, and Norzang; the same four later carry Vīkhyātadeva back. Narthang and Golden instead count five, an attractive main-deity-plus-four reading that is recorded here but does not override the internally coherent controlling witness. Donzhag is associated with Amoghapāśa, and Norzang may represent Sudhana, but the reading text retains the transmitted names. Degé itself records Norzang with the inline variants བཟངས་ and བཟང་. ↩

  6. ACIP, Narthang, and Golden read རྟ་མགྲིན་གྱི་ཞལ་ནས་, “Hayagrīva said,” correcting Degé བྱི་ཞལ་. The preceding sentence is passive and does not name the wielder of Hayagrīva's club. The unexpected command སྙིང་རྗེ་མ་བྱེད་, “Show no compassion,” is explicit and is not softened or reversed. ↩

  7. ཅིག་ཅར་ can mean “together” or “all at once”; the closely related D4342 uses the same return command and supports the temporal reading “at once” here. “That unburned place” probably means the unburned center of the pyre or the still-unburned body, but the noun is not stated. The final Degé phrase ནད་དྲག་བར་ཐེག་ is difficult; D4342 confirms recovery from illness, while “managed to” preserves the force of ཐེག་ rather than presenting the repair as certain. ↩

  8. ACIP, Narthang, and Golden support གྲགས་, “became renowned,” and Buddhaśrī against the corrupt Degé forms. The source gives only Śākyaśrī, not the expanded historical identification Śākyaśrībhadra. ↩