Princess Mandarava
A STORY OF DEVOTION TO THE DHARMA
"Then the king of Zahor, Arsadhara, his heart care-laden, arose from sleep and mused, 'This daughter of mine is bringing me many enemies. If I give her to one king, the others will be enraged. If I had ten daughters like her, and gave one to each, they would be satisfied. Or if she did not exist, that would also do.
So, looking for a solution, he held lengthy counsel with ten ministers of the interior, and the unanimous decision was to consult the princess and to send her wherever she wished to go. This decision having been reached, he sent for the princess:
'You, yourself, choose where you wish to go -- you will be bestowed upon whomsoever you like.'
Immediately she was choked with weeping, and said, amid her tears, 'I will not go to anyone.'
The father replied, 'What is the use of refusing? The suitors are watching all the doors. Think it over for three days and then tell me your choice!'
The princess went up to the solitary spire of the castle, sat down with three of her handmaidens, and reflected day and night:
... 'Now, with my person inhabiting a woman's body, of high lineage, good karma, and very wealthy, kings are quarreling over me.
When in the preceding life one has followed the Holy Dharma, one's karma is strengthened.
If during this life I do not follow the Dharma, I do not know what body will next be mine, and to come upon the Dharma again is difficult.
To put an end to karma, I have abandoned spurious undertakings; to put an end to karma, I must be a practitioner of the true Dharma; I think it would be wrong of me not to do so.'
...And the princess stood before her father saying, 'Any other dwelling would grieve me just as this one does; I will not tread the paths of the world.
If I am free to do so, I will follow the Holy Dharma. Otherwise, I will cast off this body, and express the wish that I may receive another better fitted for following the Dharma.' "
~ The Life & Liberation of Padmasambhava
(Artwork by Tatiana Krijanovskaya)
