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Chakrasamvara is another of these weird-looking deities revered in tantric Buddhism. With their fierce look, multiple arms and legs, skull decorations and other odd accessories these deities usually have a bewildering impact on Westerners.
But frankly, from an artistic view, images of deities like Chakrasamvara have always exerted a great fascination on me.
Blue-colored Chakrasamvara
Chakrasamvara is always shown in standing position. His color is blue. And he is always shown having sex with his female partner Vajravahari in yab-yum position.
Chakrasamvara is a kind of a close relative ("a manifestation") of Heruka, another of these odd monster-like beings with the multitude of arms and heads and terrifying looks. Other than that I could find out that Chakrasamvara means "Supreme Bliss of the Wheel" (presumably meant is the Wheel of Existence).
Of course, in books and on some internet pages you can find pages and pages of scholar-like text referring to Chakrasamvara. I have personally remained immune towards these high-hog Buddhism writings.
I have always regarded it as useless and a waste of my time to read such stuff that was not written to explain something to me, but obviously to show me how ignorant I am and, in contrast, how knowledgeable the writer is. For me such writings are completely meaningless unless you want to become a scholar for Buddhism (which is not my intention). You can test that pretty easy for yourself. Read such stuff for 10 minutes, then try to recap what you read. If it is zero then spare reading it! (my humble opinion)
Four Heads and 12 Arms
Chakrasamvara usually comes with four heads and twelve arms. In his arms he is holding the 'vajra' (this thunderbolt thing) and a bell plus a large variety of these typical accessories in Tibetan arts (cups, skull, dagger and so on). Now you know why he needs twelve arms!
Dieter Wanczura, August 2010.
