Hindustan Times
The Kalachakra way to nirvana
It was a sight to be seen to be believed. Over five lakh people thronged the Mecca of the Buddhists, Bodh Gaya, in Bihar last week to attend the Dalai Lama’s Kalachakra. And they were from China, Nepal, Bhutan, the US and several other countries.
Of course, the major chunk of the devotees was from various parts of India, mainly from Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh.
One of these devotees was American actor Richard Gere who once called himself the Amitabh Bachchan of the US. Always there whenever and wherever the Dalai Lama has a function, Gere calls the Buddhist spiritual leader a great “wish fulfiller” because he fills you with satisfaction, contentment and happiness. Gere’s first tryst with Buddhism happened in 1978 in Nepal and since then he has been a practising Buddhist and an active devotee and supporter of the Dalai Lama. In his words, “the Dalai Lama is a Guru who understands and has internalised the words of the Buddha.”
Gere says he is drawn to the Dalai Lama because of his simplicity, sincerity and the way he can pass on the message of the Buddha. His “motivation is impeccable and everything that he does is motivated for the goodness of others.”
But what is Kalachakra and its significance? It is the way to the cycles of our breath and the practice of controlling the most subtle energies within one’s body, thus paving the way for the path to enlightenment. What actually happens is that the Guru trains his disciples’ psycho-physical continuum with his initiation, and the disciples have to meditate on the path that consists of the generation and completion process. The result is that the disciple/yogi actualises his ultimate aim – having the Buddha body—that is the divine image of emptiness.
Kala in Sanskrit means time and chakra is wheel. Simply put, its means time-cycle. That shows the concept is based on the importance of time and the cycle of life. Time is everything in one’s life and cycle or wheel represents beginningless and endless life.
If one goes deeper, there are three types of Kalachakra: External Kalachakra, internal Kalachakra and alternative Kalachakra. The first one deals with the external world and its systems like the movement of the sun, moon and other heavenly bodies. The second one deals with the internal structure of a human being. And the third one has to do with the generation and completion stages of the spiritual path of Kalachakra and it helps purify the objects that need to be purified.
The sixth Panchen Lama, in the ‘Prayer of the Kalachakra Path’, had composed a prayer: “May I be inspired to accomplish the meditations of the supreme Yoga of the profound tantric path of Kalachakra/ the king of tantric traditions/ and thus purify and dissolve all the physical materiality/ giving rise to the dance of the empty body/ in union with the great unchanging bliss/ that in turn induces the highest enlightenment/ the state of the primordial Buddha Kalachakra.”
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