Sadhguru narrates the unique story of Milarepa, a highly accomplished Tibetan Yogi who started his path for the most unusual reason – to atone for killing more than eighty people!
Milarepa lost his father when he was young. His uncle took over his father’s lands and property and kept him, his mother, and his younger sister like slaves in the house, abusing and torturing them in many ways. Milarepa grew up with a great sense of resentment and anger within himself. When he became an adolescent, he left the family and went away to learn occult practices to take revenge on his uncle and aunt who had showered an unspeakable amount of humiliation and torture upon them.
Milarepa mastered certain occult processes. When he came back after many years, his mother and his sister were dead. He became even angrier, and waited for an opportune moment. Soon, the uncle’s son’s wedding came up, and his uncle invited all his friends. On that day, Milarepa used his occult power to summon heavy hail on the house. They say that more than 80 people were killed because of this hail, including his uncle and aunt. Initially, Milarepa felt very happy and justified in doing so; but after some time, it started bothering him.
The moment any sensitive human being misuses something, it will bother him or her from within. Unless you are insensitive, you cannot continue doing such things because of the very nature of how life is made. This is not social conscience or morality. If there is misuse on a very fundamental level, something much deeper will get disturbed.
Milarepa felt the need to absolve himself from all this and walk the spiritual path. Someone told him that the only person who could help him was Marpa; so he went in search of him. Marpa was known as “the translator” because he translated all the great tantric Indian texts into Tibetan. He had traveled to India three times, met certain masters, and translated their methods and texts into local languages.
Milarepa found Marpa plowing the field. Marpa looked at him, left the plow, gave him a cup of locally brewed beer, and said, “Drink this and plow the land.” Milarepa drank and began plowing. Like this, Marpa put him through all kinds of physical activity. Milarepa bowed down to him and asked him, “I want dhamma[1] from you that will liberate me in this life. Also, please be kind enough to give me food and shelter.” Marpa said, “If you want, I will give you food and shelter – look for dhamma elsewhere. Or, I will give you dhamma, and you get your food and shelter somewhere else. This is the choice.” Milarepa said, “Okay, I want your dhamma. I will get my own food and shelter,” and went out begging.
He traveled far and gathered sacks of wheat and a copper pot to cook his own food. He carried this heavy load and walked back a long distance. When he came to Marpa’s house, he dropped it with a big bang. Marpa, who was halfway through lunch, got up, came out, and said, “It looks like you are very angry. With your wheat and vessel, you shook the whole house. Enough! Just leave.” Milarepa begged, “It was too heavy, so I dropped it.” Marpa said, “Nothing doing. You threw it down; you are not fit to be inside. You stay out, plow my field, clean my house, and do chores.”
[1] “That which is imbibed” – a teaching, method, or process
Milarepa did all that for years on end. Other students came and were initiated into many processes, but he did not get anything. For more than eight years, he worked without receiving a single teaching or initiation.
Then one day, as a satsang was going on, he sneaked in and sat with the other students, hoping to be initiated. Marpa, who was sitting with eyes closed, picked up his staff, walked over with his eyes still closed, thrashed Milarepa, and physically threw him out. This happened again and again. More than 13 years passed, and he did not get any initiation or teaching.
Milarepa pleaded with Marpa’s wife, who was like a mother to him, “Please tell him to give me something; just one teaching or one little meditation. I have been sitting here for so many years, but I know nothing.” She used her good offices with her husband, and Marpa said, “First let him build a three-cornered house for my son, which he must build by himself.”
Milarepa built a three-cornered house; it took him two years. Then Marpa said, “A three-cornered house is not suitable for my son. Build a four-cornered house!” Milarepa built a four-cornered house. Then Marpa said, “That is not good. Build a five-cornered house.” Like this, many years passed. Milarepa worked by himself, building these houses all over the place. Then Marpa said, “That is okay, but I need a 60-foot tower for my son’s house.” Milarepa built four 60-foot towers at four corners of the house.
By then, he was ageing. One day, Milarepa crawled at Marpa’s wife’s feet and asked, “Please do something! My life is passing by, and I have not even been given a single teaching.” In misplaced compassion, she took Marpa’s letterhead and wrote a letter to another monk who was also empowered to initiate. It looked exactly like a letter from Marpa, with the necessary seal and everything.
She gave it to Milarepa, and he went to that monk and got initiated – but nothing happened. The monk was shocked. “When I initiate, something should happen. But nothing is happening to you – what to do?” Marpa came to know about it, called the monk, and got him decertified.
Finally, in utmost remorse, Milarepa was about to commit suicide. Then Marpa called him and said, “Okay, sit down.” He said, “I gave you methods to work out what you had committed in the past. If you had gone by my word, this would have been over long ago. You did everything I told you, but then you took a sneaky way out, postponing everything for many years.
“Now your remorse is truly touching the very core of your being – you are willing to die for it. You are ready.” Marpa initiated him, and on the third day, Milarepa had a vision of a dakini. In the tantric tradition, they created a goddess for each chakra – a female form that has been consecrated and made alive – which can be called forth to do things. No one does anything significant in tantra without the help of these forces.
The dakini came in Milarepa’s vision and said, “Marpa’s teaching is missing a fundamental aspect which he himself does not know.” When Milarepa told Marpa this, Marpa bowed down to Milarepa and said, “Even I do not have the teaching; so let’s go back to India.” Both of them walked to Marpa’s Guru, who was somewhere along the border of Nepal and Bihar.
When Marpa told the Guru what had happened, the Guru looked at him and said, “This could not have happened to you.” Then Marpa said, “It was not me – it was one of my disciples.” Then the Guru turned towards Tibet and bowed down. He said, “At last, a light has happened in the north.”
The Guru gave Milarepa and Marpa the whole teaching as to how to attain to full enlightenment in this life. Then they went back to Tibet, and Marpa, who started as a Guru, became like a disciple to Milarepa. Milarepa became a shining light in Tibetan culture.
