Today, let's talk about the immortals in the twenty heavens, the one we want to talk about today is called "Devil Mother and Son".
To be honest, when I see the name Devil Mother and Son, I always feel eerie. No matter how many or few ghosts there are, if you can be the mother of devils, it must be an evil existence, right? But it was this devil and mother who later became the "guardian saint" of women and children, and it was really a reversal that you can't do, only you can't think of it.
Moreover, as one of the twenty heavens that are not ranked very highly, this ghost mother also showed her face when she subdued the red child in "Journey to the West", which can also reflect that this god still has a certain popularity. Then let's take a look at the appearance of the devil in Journey to the West:
Sun Wukong "pressed the head of the cloud for a while, until he reached the Luojia cliff, and walked solemnly, only to see the twenty-four heavens facing him: "Great Sage, where to go?" After the practitioner finished the salute, he said, "I want to see the Bodhisattva." The heavens said: "Stop, let me report." From time to time, there are ghosts and mothers who come to Chaoyin Cave to report: "The Bodhisattva learned that Sun Wukong came to see." "When the Bodhisattva heard the news, he ordered him to go in."
As the protector of Buddhism, it is normal for the ghost mother to appear in Luojia Mountain of Guanyin Bodhisattva, and it is estimated that her appearance at this time is also because of the character of the child Red Boy. In fact, it can also be seen from here that the connection between the ghost mother and the child is also obvious.
The name of the Sanskrit transliteration is Keli Emperor's Mother, and the translated name according to the meaning is "Happy Mother". In earlier ancient Indian mythology, the Devil Mother was a Rakshasa woman and the wife of a Rakshasa king. She has three heads and six arms, a pair of horns on her head, and is tall and hideous. Because she gave birth to 500 devils, she was called "Devil Mother". But it was this mother of 500 children who often haunted the night and caught the children of the world to eat.
Later, the Buddhist family flourished, and the ghost son and mother were also absorbed into the protector god of the Buddhist family. According to the Buddhist scriptures, the devil has become a member of the Yaksha again. It is said that when she was born, she was "dignified and loved by those who saw her", and she was a beautiful woman among the Yakshas, and the Yakshasas liked her, so they named her "Joy".
Later, Huanxi's mother gave birth to five hundred devils, and the eldest of her five hundred devils was called Concubine Jialuo, who was her favorite child. From this point of view, whether it is a human or a god, it seems that they love the old and the young the most. In the same way, the devil and the mother feed on the children of the world, and the common people are fed up with the harm of the devil and the mother, and they are all miserable.
Later, someone told the Buddha about the devil's mother and the devil's mother. The Buddha decided to eliminate this calamity for the people, and he used his magic power to take the youngest son of the devil's mother, Concubine Jialuo, and detained him under his bowl.
Soon, the devil's mother found that her little son was missing. She searched all over the world, and almost put small advertisements on telephone poles, but she could never find her children. She was so anxious that she didn't know what to do. At this time, the devil and the mother remembered the Buddha, and people said that he was powerful and omniscient, so she came to the Buddha to ask about the whereabouts of the child.
"Unveiling the Bowl"
The Buddha replied, "You have 500 children yourself, and you have only lost one, why are you so sad and looking for them everywhere?" Ordinary people in the world, some have only one child, some have three or four children, but you brutally kill them all, what is their state of mind? When the devil heard this, she regretted it very much, and said to the Buddha, "If I can find my youngest son, Concubine, I will never kill the children of the world again." ”
When the Buddha heard her say this, he let the devil see his little son who was detained under the bowl. The devil's mother hurriedly used all her strength to open the bowl and rescue her son, but even if she tried her best, she couldn't save the concubine, so she could only pray for the Buddha's forgiveness again.
Seeing the anxious appearance of the devil's mother, the Buddha said to her, "If you can make the heart to take the three refuges and five precepts in the future and stop killing, then I will return the child to you." "The devil mother listened to the Buddha's teachings, and from then on took the precepts, took refuge in the Three Jewels, and no longer harmed the world, and the Buddha returned the child as promised. It is also under the teachings of the Buddha that the devil and the mother incarnate as the goddess who guards the children in the world.
And the reason why the devil mother became a demon who feeds on children is because of the origin of the previous life. Legend has it that a Buddha was born in the earlier Wangsha Castle, and a grand celebration was held throughout the city. There was a pregnant woman outside the city, and she was also preparing to go to the royal house. However, the pregnant woman suddenly felt a stomachache on the way, so she asked passers-by for help.
There happened to be 500 people on the side of the road who were going to the royal palace to worship the Buddha, and they were all in a hurry to attend the grand event, and none of them went to help the pregnant woman. As a result, the pregnant woman unfortunately miscarried and did not save the baby in her womb. So, the woman swore a poisonous oath that in the next life, she would be reborn in the city of Wangshe and eat all the children in the city. Sure enough, in the next life, she became a ghost mother and almost captured all the children in the city.
In ancient times on the mainland, the name and image of the devil began to appear in the Chinese translation of Buddhist scriptures during the two Jin Dynasty. In these translations, the Khali Emperor, who was once an evil ghost, was translated as "the mother of the devil" because he gave birth to 500 devils. In the Tang Dynasty Fallin's "Dialectical Theory", because of the emergence of the story of "Zhang Ying gave up the evil and his wife was damaged", the influence of the devil's mother gradually increased.
This story is about Zhang Ying, a native of the Jin Dynasty, who was sick because of his beloved wife, and repeated treatments had no effect. Later, he received a revelation to set up a "devil's mother seat" at home, that is, a shrine where the goddess of the devil's mother was placed, and worshiped day and night, and finally let his wife's body heal. At that time, the devil was worshipped among the people as the role of the patron saint of women in Buddhism.
In the Northern Wei Dynasty, the translation of the scripture "Miscellaneous Treasure Sutra" recorded the above "ghost son and mother lost their child", telling the story of how the ghost son and mother were transformed into Buddha as a foreign ghost girl, and thus converted, and also made the image of the devil son and mother gradually accepted by the people of the mainland. At the same time, with the localization of the ghost mother and the integration with other immortals, she has gradually become a "child-giving mother"-like existence.
The early statues of the devil and the mother, similar to the legendary image, are all evil ghosts with a hideous face. In the archaeological discoveries of the 2nd century BC, a statue of the devil was unearthed, which was about 20 centimeters high and carved from stone. The devil has a pair of horns on her head, her face is hideous, and her hands are spread out, as if she is grasping something.
By the 1st century B.C., the image of the devil began to become kind. She no longer had horns, but wore a crown on her head and a gentle countenance. In the mainland, the image of the devil is generally the image of the noble lady or the graceful goddess, the famous Dazu stone carving in the mainland Beishan No. 122 Cave, that is, the Keli Emperor's Mother Cave, the ghost child and mother carved in the cave is the image of an ancient Han noblewoman.
Note: The pictures in the article are from the Internet, the copyright belongs to the original author, if there is any infringement, please contact to delete.