Padmasambhava

Padmasambhava ( in sanskrit means "Lotus born") was a renowned as well as highly skilled tantric saint of Northern India. Padmasambhava is also known by the names like Padmakara, Padma Raja, Saroruha Vajra or simply Saroruha. Legend has it, Padmasambhava was incarnated as an eight-year-old child appearing in a lotus blossom floating in Lake Dhanakosha, in the kingdom of Uddiyana which now lies in Pakistan. The local king was highly impressed with his supernatural power and married him to one of his daughters named Mandarava. In the middle of the eighth century, the first emperor of Tibet Thi-Sron Detsan(742-797) of the Yarlung dynasty invited Padmasambhava to come to Tibet as his kingdom was troubled a lot by the malignant deities. With the help of his tantric powers all the malignant deities got demolished. He remained 50 years in Tibet founding monasteries and teaching the Tantra doctrine. He founded the first monastery in Tibet, Samye Gompa and initiated the first monks and introduced the people to the practice of Tantric Buddhism. At the end of fifty years Padmasambhava disappeared miraculously.

Padmasambhava's Mantra: "OM AH HUM VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HUM". Tibetans say "Om Ah Hung Benza Guru Pema Sidhi Hung" is the mantra for healing, for transformation and for protection in this violent, chaotic age. Last but not the least, in Tibet and Bhutan he is widely known as Guru Rinpoche (The Precious Master) and the followers of the Nyingma school signify him as the second Buddha.