Akashyogini (Bijaswori)

An old and learned Vajracharya of the Panchal land, unable to make a living because of poverty, built a hermitage on the bank of Nirmalatirtha in Kathmandu (near Bhachakhusi/Shobhabhagawati) and began to live there. Every day he would bathe in the tirtha, build a chaitya of sand, and chant his prayers.

At that very time, the beautiful sixteen-year-old daughter of a Brahmin of Kathmandu used to slip quietly out of her house at midnight and come wandering along the bank of the Bhachakhusi river. Seeing that beauty in the early morning, some lustful youths teased her and surrounded her in a ring.

Sensing the intentions of the youths, the maiden left the ground and suddenly began to fly along the path of the sky.

The old Vajracharya, who was bathing in the tirtha, recognized the divine maiden flying in the sky as a yogini in bodily form, and by the power of his mantra stopped her dead in the sky.

When Vajracharya praised her with folded hands, the goddess granted him a vision of her true four-armed form as Akashyogini. By the goddess's grace, all of Vajracharya's poverty and suffering were removed.

Because she appeared, halted while flying in the sky, that goddess came to be called 'Akashyogini', or in Newari 'Bijaswori' (Bijeshwari).