In Praise of Tāranātha

Flower of Faith

In Praise of Tāranātha, Lord of Secrets

by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

Homage to the guru!

Glorious one, pervading all the world and its inhabitants,
Vajrasattva, who binds the whole of reality in great bliss,
Omnipresent guru, in your illusory wisdom form—
Great Jetsün Kunga Nyingpo, to you I offer praise.

A pure and magical manifestation beyond imagining,
A protector who guides the oceanic multitudes of beings,
A great bodhisattva heir of the victorious, Lord of Secrets,
Appearing as this great Jetsün guru—to you I bow down.

With your vast intellect, the result of prior training,
You studied the outer and inner fields of knowledge
And comprehended them all perfectly right away,
With your fully developed strength of wisdom—to you I bow.

Above all, for the profound and vast meaning of sūtra and tantra,
You did not rely on others but used your own discernment,
To perceive clearly and unerringly the ultimate intent
Of the genuinely learned and accomplished of India and Tibet—to you I bow.

The Lord of Sages, the Close Sons, Tārā, Padmākara,
Ḍombīheruka and the noble Candragomin,
The goddess Sarasvatī, a hundred adepts, Abhaya,
And the Kulika kings all cared for you—to you I bow.

Dark red Mañjuśrī Vajrabhairava,
Kālacakra, Guhyasamāja, Vārāhī, and others
Appeared to you in visions, empowered you and issued prophecies.
To you, the infinite and inconceivable light of wisdom, I bow.

As the glorious heruka Vajrasattva
And Vajrayoginī, mother of the victorious ones,
Granted your the secret treasury of ocean-like tantras,
You are inseparable from Vajradharma—to you I bow.

During this final age of fivefold degeneration,
You stand tall, as prominent as Mount Sumeru
Amidst hundreds of learned and accomplished ones—
Glorious and mighty Vajradhara, to you I bow.

When those with honest, impartial minds investigate,
No one can compare to you throughout the three worlds
At revealing definitive secrets in this turbulent age—
Guru Kṛṣṇācārya, to you I respectfully bow down.

Abhayākara in the land of the Āryas,
And Tāranātha in the land of snows—
In the act of compiling the oceanic tantra teachings,
There is no difference between you—to you I bow.

Through applying the supreme vajra path to the vajra body,
You traversed the vajra stages according to the vajra vehicle,
And gained the four vajra kāyas of vajra sovereignty—
Vajra guru, Vajrasattva, to you I bow.

To you, who in future, in the common perception of this world,
Will appear as the sugata named Luminous,[1]
Become fully awakened in the sphere of space,
And be surrounded by a vast Mahāyāna assembly, I bow.

Through the power of praising and praying to you in this way,
May the noble guru Cakrasaṃvara
Bless my being as the four maṇḍalas,
And then may I become your equal, glorious heruka!

In this and all my lives to come,
May the nectar of your teaching seep into my heart,
And may the guru increase my physical strength,
So that I may serve the teachings of the Jetsün.

When encountering the noble guru’s teachings in the Water Bird year, Lodrö Gyatso made this prayer spontaneously.

| Translated by Adam Pearcey with the generous support of the Khyentse Foundation and Tertön Sogyal Trust, 2021.

Source: 'Jam dbyangs chos kyi blo gros. "gsang ba'i bdag po ta ra nA tha la bstod pa dad pa'i me tog" in ’Jam dbyangs chos kyi blo gros kyi gsung ’bum. 12 vols. Bir: Khyentse Labrang, 2012. W1KG12986 Vol. 2: 751–753