Maudgalyayana (6th century BCE) - मौद्गल्यायन - Maudgalyāyana - Moggallāna - མོའུ་འགལ་གྱི་བུ། mo'u 'gal gyi bu mongal gyi bu - 目犍連 目犍连, Mùjiānlián - 목건련 Mokgeonryeon - 目連 Mokuren - Maudgalyāyana
Maudgalyayana (मौद्गल्यायन - Maudgalyāyana; མོའུ་འགལ་གྱི་བུ། mo'u 'gal gyi bu Mogalgyi Bu) was one of the two foremost disciples of Shakyamuni Buddha, renowned throughout the Buddhist tradition as the disciple foremost in supernormal powers. Born into a Brahmin family in ancient India during the 6th century BCE, his exact year of birth and year of death are not definitively fixed in historical records, though he passed away in the 5th century BCE, shortly after his lifelong companion Shariputra and just prior to the parinirvana of the Buddha. Together with Shariputra, he renounced his worldly life as a wandering ascetic, took refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, and swiftly realized the Four Noble Truths and dependent origination. Through deep concentration, meditation, and mindfulness, he eradicated the three poisons and achieved full awakening and liberation from samsara, mastering extraordinary psychic abilities that he utilized as skillful means to guide beings toward nirvana.
Within the monastic Sangha, Maudgalyayana frequently used his visionary powers to observe the workings of karma and rebirth across the six realms, often rescuing beings from suffering and inspiring them to practice ethical conduct, generosity, and non-attachment. He is famously celebrated in the Ullambana Sutra, cataloged in the Chinese Tripitaka as Taisho Number 685 and in the Tibetan Tripitaka as Toh Number 352, where he used his wisdom and compassion to rescue his deceased mother from the hungry ghost realm by making offerings to the monastic community to generate immense merit. Despite his unmatched spiritual attainments and mastery over the five aggregates, he remained subject to the residual consequences of past karma and was fatally attacked by rival ascetics, peacefully accepting his physical demise with complete equanimity and entering parinirvana.