How to Speak of the Buddha’s Inexpressible Mind: Examples from the Late Indian Commentators on the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti

Among some twenty-six known Indian commentaries on the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti composed on the diverse topics and expressing different, individual perspectives on the text, Raviśrījñāna’s Amṛtakaṇikākhyāṭippaṇī and Vibhūticandra’s sub-commentary Amṛtkaṇikodyotanibandha demonstrate these two authors’ preference for interpreting the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti in terms of the Kālacakratantra’s view and practice of the six-phased yoga (ṣaḍaṅgayoga) and the tantra’s interpretations of ultimate reality.  Following the line of thought presented in the Vimalaprabhā commentary on the first chapter of the Kālacakratantra, which sees the speaker of the tantra and the subject of a tantric discourse as indivisible, Raviśrījñāna looks upon the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti as identical with the mind of Vajrasattva. He characterizes it as the substratum and extract of ultimate reality, as Bhagavān Vajradhara’s gnosis of the supreme, imperishable bliss (paramākṣarasukhaǰñāna), which dwells in the hearts of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. It is the complete knowledge (samyakjñāna) by the name of the bliss of innate joy (sahajānandasukha), which has the appearance of the gnosis of sublime bliss (mahāsukhajñānākāra), implicit in many different tantras. It is the indivisible gnosis (abhedyajñāna), which does not dwell on unreal imaginations (asatsaṃkalpa), and which cannot be destroyed by the four māras. 

The Nāmasaṃgīti is lauded as the awakened wisdom of all tathāgatas, a realization of the completed and perfect awakening, the omniscience of the omniscient ones, and so on. Raviśrījñāna’s tells us that the Nāmasaṃgīti has the vast meaning because it is present in all phenomena with nature of connate bliss; and it is free from all changes due to being same throughout the three times.  According to Vibhūticandra, we should think of the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti as being of the nature of connate bliss (sahajasukha) because in reality it is non-originated, like an echo, the echo of the gnosis of sublime bliss. Hence, the Nāmasaṃgīti and the gnosis vajra of the supreme, imperishable bliss, which is indivisible from compassion and emptiness, and referred to as the Vajradhara, who is illuminated (prakāśita) by the Nāmasaṃgīti, are ultimately the same reality having two aspects expressive of each other. 

The nondual gnosis of sublime bliss expresses its own nature with every word of the text, beginning with the first word of verse 1, the word atha (“then”). Raviśrījñāna tells us that with the syllable a in the word atha, Vajradhara proclaimed emptiness endowed with the best of all aspects aspects (sarvākāropeta) in accordance with teaching on identitylessness (nairātmya); and with the syllable tha, he expressed compassion without subjective support (nirālambaṇa-karuṇā). Hence, the sublime Vajradhara is the one who has a vajra of the gnosis of sublime bliss indivisible from emptiness and compassion due to the identity with that vajra, the indivisible gnosis. The song of praise that solicits instruction in the Nāmasaṃgīti is nothing more than the Buddha’s stage play (nāṭaka), whose purpose is to convert sentient beings. 

These two aspects of enlightened awareness, emptiness and compassion, are also interpreted as the path (mārga) characterized by the six-phased yoga (ṣaḍagayoga) and as the goal (artha). Commenting on the meaning of the word glorious one (śrīmān) in verse 1 of the Nāmasaṃgīti, Raviśrījñāna takes the word śrī to mean a nondual gnosis, or Vajradhara, who is glorious (śrīmān) due to being the nature of the experience of that nondual gnosis because of his constant union with it. As support, Raviśrījñāna reminds us of the statement in the Kālacakratantra (Ch. 5, v. 95), where it is said: “Whatever tantras I have heard, I also have known them” to mean “I myself am known by me.” He also brings our attention to a statement from the Hevajratantra, (Part II.2. vs 39), where the Buddha proclaims: “I am the expounder; I am the Dharma, and I am a disciple accompanied by my good qualities. I am the goal and the teacher of the world. I am the world, and I am also mundane.”  Likewise, in Raviśrījñāna’s view, the Nāmasaṃgīti, which is known by sublime Vajradharas, who are of the nature of the Gnosis-body and holders of bliss consisting of the five types of gnosis, is not the domain of conceptualizations (vikalpāgocara). For the non-conceptual, self-aware gnosis, which is nondual from emptiness and compassion, the arising of a false conception is impossible even for a moment. The removal of all conceptualizations (vikalpa) by means of the sublime bliss generated through the practice of the six-phased yoga is possible because that sublime bliss is the nature of dharmadhātu, the nature of tathatā and tattva, or as Vibhūticandra says it, it is the mind of clear light (prabhāsvaracitta), which is luminous by nature. Moreover, the sublime Vajradhara is not only the goal and the unexcelled result (anuttaraphala), the inexpressible sublime bliss luminous by nature; but he is also the cause of that goal due to pervading the triple world with his nature of sublime bliss owing to the absence of the localized psychophysical aggregates, sense-bases, and elements, the material nature of which was eliminated by the fire of the gnosis bliss. Because he dwells in the hearts of all sentient beings; and yet he transcends the world by knowing the sense faculties and their dispositions acquired through the aspects of the subject and object of apprehension as being blissful by nature because he does not differentiate them.  That awareness is self-arisen, independent of causes; it is not created by anyone nor it is given by anyone, and is self-aware. It is present in all appearances because of the omnipresence of emptiness, and it is primordially abiding. The integration of the omnipresent gnosis of the buddhas with each of the five types of the Buddha’s gnosis takes place in the course of the six phases of yoga due to the efficacy of sublime bliss.  Hence, in brief, the all pervasiveness of the gnosis of sublime bliss and its emptiness allows for it to be the cause, means, path, and the result of the actualization of Buddhahood expressing itself to the world with omnipresent sound of anāhata similar to an echo in the form of the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti.