Sthavara
The earth Goddess, Sthavara, assures Sudhana of his progress and showers him with countless jewels: “These billions of treasuries of jewels accompany you and are at your service, to be used as you wish; they have been produced as a result of your good works and are preserved by the power of your good works. Take of them and do whatever should be done.” These are no ordinary jewels. They radiate with Buddha-gnosis and are symbolic of the great treasure that awaits those who honor this unassailable Wisdom. Sthavara herself is representative of this treasure, having had received a liberation known as the ‘unassailable asylum of knowledge.‘ What is amazing in these revealing passages is that she has served as an asylum for Vairocana himself, protecting him with a Mantle of Gnosis:
Having attained this liberation, I have constantly stayed by and protected the enlightening being Vairocana since the time of Dipankara Buddha. Since then I have observed the enlightening being’s mental activity, entered his sphere of knowledge and all his vows, followed his purification of enlightening practice, gone along into all concentrations, pervaded the vastness of the mind of the mystic knowledges of all enlightening beings, and have comprehended, remembered, and taken in his mastery of the powers of all enlightening beings, his insuperability like that of all enlightening beings, his pervasion of the network of all lands, his reception of the prediction of enlightenment from all buddhas, his manifestation of attainment of enlightenment in all times, his way of activating all the cycles of the Teaching, the doctrines expounded in all the scriptures, his way of revealing the vista of the great Teaching, his way of knowing how to lead all sentient beings to perfection, and his way of manifesting all the miracles that buddhas perform.
Sthavara has served Vairocana well and in turn has become radiated with his own incomparable sphere of influence. Gautama Buddha himself called upon this Earth Goddess to bear witness to his own Enlightenment—this is fully represented through the Bhumisparsha mudra, yea as if touching and finding support from Sthavara herself.
Vasanti
The Night-Goddess, Vasanti, is closely aligned with Sthavara the Earth Goddess and could be considered as her sister. She holds “in her pores” all the sentient beings whom she has perfected with her “mystic transformations.” She has obtained the Liberation of the Light of Truth and guides sentient beings through their own trials of darkness:
“Any people who travel on a dark night, where ghosts, thieves, and thugs
lurk, when the sky is covered with black clouds, when it is misty, windy, and
raining, when there is no moonlight or starlight, when there is no visibility,
if they go on the sea, or on land, or in the mountains, or over deserts, or
through forests, or through provinces or villages, or on the roads, if they are
shipwrecked at sea or held up on land, or fall in the mountains or run out of
provisions in the desert, or if they get stuck in the underbrush in the forest or
run into trouble, or if they get scattered in the darkness, or if they get
mugged in a town, or if they get lost or confused and cannot tell which
direction they are going in, or if they run into disaster on the road, I rescue
them by various means. For those traveling on the sea I quell hurricanes, get
them past bad waters, stop unfavorable winds, quiet the raging billows, free
them from the perils of whirlpools, clarify the directions, lead them on the
right sea lanes, show them the channels, guide them to the isles of treasure,
show them the way in the form of a navigator. Through various forms of
being I act as a support and reliance. This root of goodness, furthermore, I
dedicate in this way: ‘May I be a refuge for all sentient beings, to put an end
to all suffering.’
“For those on land on a dark night, where there are thickets and brambles,
gravel and grit, on uneven terrain, battered by vicious wind and rain, painfully cold or hot, where savage beasts lurk, where killers and bandits roam, I save those who have lost their way on the earth, by means of the forms of the sun, the risen moon, meteoric showers, planets, the light of the stars, celestial beings, and enlightening beings. And I think: By this root of goodness may I become a savior of all sentient beings…”
Vasanti is a savior of sentient beings in that she “lights the way forward” with her own Blessed Torch of Buddha-gnosis. This is accomplished through the Light of Truth Itself, thus serving as a beacon for all who traverse their own ‘dark night of the soul’. This is so symbolized in the verse making reference to that inner-desert through which all must endure before the Eternal-Light purifies all: “And as for those in the desert, in the darkness, by various means I comfort them, show them the way, and lead them to safety, resolving that by this root of goodness I shall liberate those who are in the desert of the mundane whirl, who have fallen into evil ways, freeing them from all suffering and setting them on the road of omniscience, where there is eternal safety.”
The forthcoming ten Spiritual Benefactors beginning with this Night Goddess are all female, indicating that Divine-Gnosis—yea, the Beacon of Holy Wisdom Itself, is of a feminine, receptive quality. This form of protection occurs under the Dark Mantle of Gnosis, which the Greeks refer to as Divine Sophia (σοφία )—an emanation of the Divine Principle Itself.