Pravira Tara, the Heroine [1/21]

༄༅། །རབ་ཏུ་དཔའ་བའི་སྒྲོལ་མ་།།
ཕྱག་འཚལ་སྒྲོལ་མ་མྱུར་མ་དཔའ་མོ
།སྤྱན་ནི་སྐད་ཅིག་གློག་དང་འདྲ་མ། །
འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་མགོན་ཆུ་སྐྱེས་ཞལ་གྱི།
།གེ་སར་བྱེ་བ་ལས་ནི་བྱུང་མ། །

Homage to Tara, the swift one, the heroine,
whose eyes are like a flash of lightning,
who arose from the opening of a lotus,
born from the tears
of the protector
of the three worlds.

Nghi quỹ tu trì Lục Độ Phật Mẫu, Drukpa lineage

Tara “the valiant” is described as emanating like a blazing mass of fire, seated upon her lotus within a triangular, fire-wreathed dharmodaya. She is also portrayed as “seated in the expanse of space”, upon a white moon disc and a yellow lotus.

She appears peaceful, her body wholly red, with one face, two eyes and eight arms. She is seated in the vajrasana posture, a full moon serving as her backrest. In her first pair of hands she holds a vajra and a bell (ghanta), raised above the crown of her head in the gesture of great bliss (mahasukha mudra) to proclaim the true dharma. With her second pair she draws a bow before her breast, the arrow aimed at the heart of an adversary. Her third right hand raises a golden dharma wheel, and her third left hand holds a white conch. Her fourth right hand wields the blazing sword of wisdom, and her fourth left hand grips a noose. She is adorned with divine silk garments and jewel ornaments, and crowned by the white buddha Vairochana. She has the power swiftly to overcome every obstructing force and to bring every enlightened deed to fulfilment.

Curated and synthesised by
Jigme

References

1. Beer, Robert. “Twenty-One Taras (Suryagupta Tradition)”. Tibetan Buddhist and Newar Tantric Art. Accessed September 15, 2024. https://www.tibetanart.com/Product.asp?PID=10

2. The Gyalwang Drukpa. Nghi quỹ tu trì Lục Độ Phật Mẫu, Ý Nghĩa và Hướng Dẫn Thực Hành. Hà Nội: NXB Tôn Giáo, 2021.

3. Tsem Rinpoche. “Suryagupta’s 21 Taras”. Accessed September 15, 2024. https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/suryaguptas-21-taras.html