Dohas of Saraha
84 Mahāsiddhas — songs of realization.
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Dohas of Saraha: Songs of Realization of Mahamudra
Background
The Dohas of Saraha are a collection of essential verses composed by Saraha, one of the greatest Mahasiddhas (great accomplished adepts) of Indian Buddhism, who lived around the eighth to ninth centuries. Saraha was originally a master craftsman—a maker of arrows—then received tantric instruction from the Great Master Nagarjuna and finally attained Great Realization (mahāmudrā-siddhi), becoming a symbol of the path of practice that unites secret cultivation with worldly life.
These songs are not scriptures in the traditional Mahayana sense, but selected ancient dohas containing the essence of Mahamudra—the core essential Dharma of Vajrayana. Through the form of popular poetry, Saraha conveys profound secrets concerning the originally empty nature of mind (śūnyatā) and awakened mind (bodhi-citta) to practitioners.
Main Content
The nature of the Dohas of Saraha is instruction in Mahamudra practice through direct language, independent of philosophical argumentation. These verses point out that the essential mind (cittamātra) is not an object to be sought outside, but exists within the very natural activity of consciousness in each moment.
Saraha teaches that practice does not lie in abandoning the world or purifying oneself through external actions, but in recognizing the truth: all phenomena (dharmā) are originally without self-nature (anatta), and there is no separation between mind and the external world. The songs emphasize that Buddha-nature is never obscured; it is only that the mind continues to stray within the cycle of samsara because of ignorance (avidyā) regarding the nature of mind.
These songs are also distinct in that they do not emphasize complex doctrine, but direct pointing to the mind (cittaprakāśa) through powerful metaphors from everyday life: plants, water, fire, wind—essential elements used to describe the stages of inner practice.
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