The Story of the First Masters: Garab Dorje

Series: The Lineage

Garab Dorje

Garab Dorje (Tib. Dga’ rab rdo rje), Prahevajra in Sanskrit (also known as Pramodavajra or Surativajra), “Diamond of Joy” in English, is the first human master in the Dzogchen Nyingma tradition.

Determining the date of his birth is difficult because there are few historical sources and several oral traditions. Let’s say that, give or take 600 years, Diamond of Joy was born in the 1st century CE, in the country of Oḍḍiyāna, in the northwest of present-day Pakistan.

His birth is shrouded in legend. One story says that that less than a year earlier, one of the king’s daughters, then a nun, had an auspicious dream: a white man placed a crystal vase adorned with the symbols of the five primordial Buddhas on her head three times. After which she had a vision of the three spheres of existence [1].

Nine months later, the young girl gave birth to an extraordinarily beautiful boy. Frightened and ashamed—was this a demon born without a father?—she threw the child into a ditch full of ashes and went back to her daily routine.

Three days passed. Tormented by her actions, she returned to where she had left the child. She found the newborn in perfect health, cooing as if nothing had happened. Now convinced that he is an enlightened manifestation, the young woman bathes him, wraps him in a large silk scarf, and takes care of him.

As a child, Garab Dorje had a vision of his own primordial nature in the form of Vajrasattva. Vajrasattva directly imparted the six million four hundred thousand verses of Dzogchen to him, mind to mind. The young boy then realized the state of the Great Perfection.

At the age of seven, the boy, who was always cheerful, showed great maturity of mind. Driven by his desire to share his realization, he insisted that his grandfather (the king) allow him to debate the nature of reality with scholars.

Word spread. Seven prominent Buddhist philosophers made the journey from Bodhgaya, led by Manjushrimitra. The latter was ready for battle because he had heard that a child from Oḍḍiyāna was teaching ideas that went beyond karma, the law of cause and effect that governs life and thought in the Vedic and Buddhist traditions.

The debate took place and Manjushrimitra was defeated. As tradition dictates, he became Prahevajra’s disciple. The scholar remained with Prahevajra and received all of his Dzogchen teachings through symbols over the years – the transmission of the Lords of Primordial Evidence.

After spending his entire life teaching humans and dakinis [2] in the charnel grounds, the time has come for Diamond of Joy to depart. At the end of a teaching, his body rises into the sky and gradually disappears into a mass of light.

Manjushrimitra is heartbroken and begs his master not to abandon him and all beings.

Then, from the mass of light, a hand emerges and places a small golden box in the disciple’s palms. When he opens it, he finds Garab Dorje’s testament, the three aphorisms that focus on the crucial points [3]:

Meet your essential nature in the moment.

Be definitively certain of this single point.

Be directly assured of liberation.

At that very moment, Manjushrimitra reached the same realization as his master.

According to tradition, Prahevajra realized the body of light, which manifests itself to all beings according to their needs. Even today, we can meet him in person if we are fortunate enough and have a deep, unwavering aspiration!

[1] The three spheres of existence are the three possible “places” of rebirth for sentient beings: the sphere of desire, the sphere of form, and the sphere of formlessness.     BACK

[2] In Tibetan: Khandro, literally: those who fly in the sky. Here, a class of female beings who have access to both the human and divine worlds.   BACK

[3] Translation by the Dzogchen Today! translation committee. BACK

Sources :

• Master of meditation and miracles, Tulku Thondup, Shambahala, 1999
• A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems: Biographies of Masters of Awareness in the Dzogchen Lineage, Nyoshul Khenpo Jamyang Dorjé, Padma Publishing, 2005
• Supreme Source, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu & Adriano Clemente, Snow Lion, 1999