Buddhaguptanatha

Connection with the Nath tradition

For the first thirty years of his life, Guptanatha belonged to the Nathheswari line of the Shaivist tradition of the Naths . According to the biography written by his disciple Taranatha from his words, during one of his many pilgrimages in Rajasthan , Guptanatha had a vision of a dakini Vajrayogini , and this was a turning point in his conversion to Vajrayana Buddhism ^[1] . However, he did not completely break with the Nath tradition and, along with pilgrimages to shrines such as Bodhgaya or Sarnath , were appropriate for a Buddhist, he also visited specific Nath sites.

Pilgrimages and travels

In addition to the many pilgrimages in the Indian part of the Mughal Empire , the Buddha walked to Iran , to Balkh in northern Afghanistan , Kashgar , Multan , Kabul , Khorasan , Badakhshan and Mogulistan . By sea, he reached southeast Asia, in particular Java , some parts of Burma , and probably also Thailand . According to the biography of Taranatha, he even reached Madagascar . In Indochina and Java, Buddhagupthanath became closely acquainted with the customs of Theravadin Buddhists, and in Madagascar with Portuguese Catholic missionaries. He was in the legendary country of Uddiyana , which was located not in the Swat Valley, but in the Afghan city of Ghazni ^[1] . Thus, the Buddhaguptanatha intensively communicated with adherents of other religions, in particular Islam :

When visiting countries such as Multan, Machkhela, Khorasan, Bazasan, Kush, lying in the north of India, it turned out that basically all of them were inhabited by the Mongols. The Upper Mongols, since they were people of Tajik origin and believed in Mohammedanism, initially treated me arrogantly. But I showed them witchcraft actions, which quickly attracted their attention.

- from the autobiography of the Buddhaguptanatha recorded by Taranatha ^[2]

Relationship with Taranatha

In 1590 , during the Buddha’s trip to Tibet , near the Nartang Monastery, he met the seventeen-year-old monk Kyung Nyingpo and taught him tantrism for several months, as well as dictated an autobiography accompanied by traveling geographic and ethnographic notes. However, without completing the training of his disciple, the Buddhaguptanatha returned to India. In the autobiography, Taranatha explains this by his excessive addiction to dualistic thinking. Subsequently, when two other disciples of the Buddha-naganatha, Nirvanasripada and Purnavajrapada, appeared in Tibet a few years after his departure, and Taranatha asked them to supplement the teacher’s instructions, they hurriedly left the place ^[1] .

After the name Taranatha under the title Jebdzun-Damba-Hutuhta was fixed within the Gelug school as an extremely authoritative line of tulku , his teacher, that is, Buddhaguptanatha, became revered. It is known that the teacher of Bogdo-gegan VIII , who was considered the embodiment of Guptanatha, acted as a mediator between the Mongol First Hierarch and Baron Ungern during the preparation of the assault on Urga in 1921 ^[3] .