The Jewel of Abundance

There are seventy-five forms of Mahakala, a wrathful deity who guards the Buddhist path of wisdom and compassion. His emanations have various forms, some have appear with the heads of yaks or ravens; some ride on the back of tigers or black horses. Here, Mahakala is manifested as the guardian of wealth and prosperity wearing a ferocious smile. Underneath his feet are the icons of worldly wealth in the form of elephant-headed Ganapatti and his attendant rat. Whenever the rats are squeezed in, they release jewels. Buddhist believes that if we worship and pray to him, we will be blessed with wealth and prosperity. Chintamani is a symbol of self-existing abundance and reveals the secrets of Buddhist alchemy: that genuine wealth is achieved through generosity and that compassionate vision frees us from impoverishing attachments. It also interprets that materialistic wealth that we accumulate is transient and soon it will fade after death. It is the mental and spiritual wealth that is born with us in the Buddha field of vast abundance, free of avarice and fear. He is donned in flowing silken garments and wrapped in his tiger-skin. He holds a skull bowl bearing Kubera in his lower left hand, another symbol of wealth. In his upper right hand he holds a curved Kartika, which severs the root of attachment. In his upper right hand he holds a ritual trident in place of his ichnographically prescribed noose, a further symbol of entrapment.