The Gaá¹Âá¸Âavyà «ha Sutra (Tib. sdong po bkod pa'i mdo) is a Buddhist Mahayana Sutra of Indian origin dating roughly c. 200 to 300 CE. The term Gaá¹Âá¸Âavyà «ha is obscure and has been translated variously as Stem Array, Supreme Array, Excellent Manifestation.' The Sanskrit gaá¹Âá¸Âi can mean âÂÂstemâ or âÂÂstalkâ and âÂÂpiecesâ or âÂÂpartsâ or âÂÂsections,â as well as "the trunk of a tree from the root to the beginning of the branches"). Peter Alan Roberts notes that "as the sà «tra is composed of a series of episodes in which Sudhana meets a succession of teachers, the intended meaning could well have been 'an array of parts' or, more freely, 'a series of episodes." He also notes that the term gaá¹Âá¸Âa can also mean "great" or "supreme" in some circumstances and thus some translators have rendered this compound as Supreme Array.' The Chinese translations indicate that the sutra also went by another title in the 7th century (Chinese: å ¥æ³ÂçÂÂÃ¥ÂÂ) which can be reconstructed into Sanskrit as DharmadhÃÂtu-praveà Âana (Entry into the Dharmadhatu).
The sutra depicts one of the world's most celebrated spiritual pilgrimages, and comprises the 39th chapter of the BuddhÃÂvataá¹Âsaka sutra. The Sutra is described as the "Sudhana's quest for the ultimate truth", as the sutra chronicles the journey of a disciple, Sudhana ("Excellent Riches"), as he encounters various teachings and Bodhisattvas until his journey reaches full circle and he awakens to teachings of the Buddha.
In his quest for enlightenment, recounted in the last chapter of the Flower Ornament Scripture, Sudhana would converse with a diverse array of 53 kalyÃÂá¹Âa-mitra (wise advisors), 20 of whom are female, including an enlightened prostitute named VasumitrÃÂ, Gautama Buddha's wife and his mother, a queen, a princess and several goddesses. Male sages include a slave, a child, a physician, and a ship's captain. The antepenultimate master of Sudhana's pilgrimage is Maitreya. It is here that Sudhana encounters the Tower of Maitreya, which â along with Indra's net â is a most startling metaphor for the infinite:
The penultimate master that Sudhana visits is the Mañjuà Ârë Bodhisattva, the bodhisattva of great wisdom. Thus, one of the grandest of pilgrimages approaches its conclusion by revisiting where it began. The Gaá¹Âá¸Âavyà «ha suggests that with a subtle shift of perspective we may come to see that the enlightenment that the pilgrim so fervently sought was not only with him at every stage of his journey, but before it began as wellâÂÂthat enlightenment is not something to be gained, but "something" the pilgrim never departed from.
The final master that Sudhana visits is the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, who teaches him that wisdom only exists for the sake of putting it into practice; that it is only good insofar as it benefits all living beings. Samantabhadra concludes with a prayer of aspiration to buddhahood, which is recited by those who practice according to Atià Âa's Bodhipathapradëpa, the foundation of the lamrim textual traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.
In a November 1, 2016 article in the Bhutanese newspaper Kuensel mention was made of the annual Moenlam (or Monlam in Tibetan language) as performed by the Drukpa Kagyu denomination of Buddhism.
During this Moenlam a prayer is said that stems from the Gaá¹Âá¸Âavyà «ha. The Himalayan traditions use the translation made by Shiksananda, not the earlier version of Buddhabhadra. The last four lines of the Gaá¹Âá¸Âavyà «ha, as translated by Th. Cleary the text reads: "By the endless surpassing blessing realized from dedication / To the practice of good, / May worldlings submerged in the torrent of passion / Go to the higher realm of Infinite Light."
The Bhutanese, i.e. Drukpa version runs as follows: âÂÂThrough the true and boundless merit, attained by dedicating this âÂÂaspiration to good actionsâ may all those now drowning in the ocean of suffering, reach the supreme realms of Amitabha.âÂÂ