The Great Dhāraṇī

The Great Dhāraṇī is a short but seemingly important and popular text. It was revealed to Ānanda, who visited the Buddha after having finished his rainy season retreat in the city of Sāketaka, even without his asking for a teaching. The Blessed One narrates that he himself had heard the dhāraṇī he will now teach from former buddhas and praises its rarity and magnificent powers. The dhāraṇī proclaimed is in fact a series of dhāraṇīs, three or four depending on which version of the text we look at. The first three are incrementally more powerful, as their effects are to unveil more and more former births. Otherwise, their general role is to protect from untimely death, illness, inimical sorcery, and harm from supernatural beings. A sorry fate is predicted for those beings who might wish to resist their power.