Praise of Glorious Vajrakumāra

The Roaring Laughter of Vajra Wrath

In Praise of Glorious Vajrakumāra

by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

Namaḥ śrī vajra-kumārāya!
Single embodiment of the power, strength and activity
Of all the victorious ones, the sugatas of the three times,
Glorious guru, the one known as Vajrakumāra,
Whom the teachers of the three-kāya realms have praised.

Subjugator of all the great demons among demons,
Commander of wrathful emanations like a mass of mustard seeds,
Magnificent and glorious Vajrakumāra,
Deity relied upon by millions upon millions of vidyādharas.

Unbearably terrifying, possessing the nine moods of dance,
Adorned with the splendid charnel ground accoutrements,
You stand majestically upon seats of mahādeva and mahādevī,
And are poised amidst a blazing mass of apocalyptic flame.

With your kīla you pierce through appearance and existence,
Through the ferocious activity of your wisdom mudrā,
You transform animate and inanimate into vajra wrath,
Ultimate deity, primordially pure and self-arisen.

The natural sounds of the elements—earth, water, fire and wind,
And the processes of speech, the functioning of wind-energy,
All arise as the spontaneous sounds of Kīlaya mantra—
Deity and mantra indivisible, the Awesome One’s great heart and vital force.

Ordinary consciousness and thinking are really awakening mind,
In which a nature that arises or that ceases cannot be observed,
Uncompounded vajra luminosity, free from conceptualization,
Naturally arisen pure awareness, the ultimate genuine deity.

Since the great and glorious Heruka is not generated by a mind of imputation,
By uniting with the ultimate Vajrakumāra
Conceptual constructs are entirely pacified and the absolute form
Manifests clearly, like the bow of mighty Indra in the sky.

You who are without equal in strength and capacity
To liberate the hosts of Rudras possessed by the great demon
Of delusion throughout the three worlds,
Mighty lord Kīlaya, as I recall the qualities of your three secrets, I offer praise.

For the time being too, as you maintain your commitment
To liberate through compassion the hosts of malevolent spirits,
Who are hostile to the attainment of awakening,
Transform my aggregates into adamantine form.

Through this, may I perfectly gather the infinitely vast accumulations,
Purify all my own and others threefold obscurations,
And become inseparable from the supreme deity,
The great and glorious Heruka Vajrakumāra!

Thus, Pema Yeshe Dorje made this prayer on the third 'victory' of the waning phase of the Bhādra [i.e., eighth] month, while engaged in the vidyā-mantra of this deity. Bless it, I pray, so that it may be fulfilled just so. May it prove entirely virtuous and auspicious!

| Translated by Adam Pearcey 2022, with the generous support of the Khyentse Foundation and Terton Sogyal Trust.

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

'Jam dbyangs chos kyi blo gros. "dpal chen rdo rje gzhon nu la bstod pa rdo rje khros pa'i gad rgyangs/" in 'Jam dbyangs chos kyi blo gros kyi gsung 'bum. 12 vols. Bir, H.P.: Khyentse Labrang, 2012. (BDRC W1KG12986). Vol. 2: 481–482

Version: 1.1-20230130