Praises to the Twenty-One Tārās

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Homage

ཨོཾ་རྗེ་བཙུན་མ་འཕགས་མ་སྒྲལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །

OM Homage to the Venerable Arya Tara. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to the noble lady Tārā! (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

OṂ I prostrate to the noble lady, Arya Tara. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 1

ཕྱག་འཚལ་སྒྲལ་མ་མྱུར་མ་དཔའ་མོ། །
སྤྱན་ནི་སྐད་ཅིག་གློག་དང་འདྲ་མ། །
འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་མགོན་ཆུ་སྐྱས་ཞལ་གྱི། །
གེ་སར་བྱེ་བ་ལས་ནི་བྱུང་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, the swift heroine,
Whose eyes are like an instant flash of lightning,
Whose water-born face arises from the blooming lotus
Of Avalokiteshvara, protector of the three worlds. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to Tārā, swift and gallant,
Whose glance flashes like flares of lightning;
Born on the heart of a blossoming lotus
That rose from the tears of the Triple-World’s Lord. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to Tara, the quick and heroic,
Whose eyes flash instantly, like lightning,
Who arose from the open heart on the lotus face
Of the three worlds’ protector. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 2

ཕྱག་འཚལ་སྟོན་ཀའི་ཟླ་བ་ཀུན་ཏུ། །
གང་བ་བརྒྱ་ནི་བརྩེགས་པའི་ཞལ་མ། །
སྐར་མ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་ཚོགས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི། །
རབ་ཏུ་ཕྱེ་བའི་འོད་རབ་འབར་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, whose face is like
One hundred full autumn moons gathered together,
Blazing with the expanding light
Of a thousand stars assembled. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you whose countenance is
A hundred full moons gathered in autumn,
Smiling and glowing with brilliant radiance,
Like a thousand stars clustered, ablaze. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you whose face
Is like a hundred full autumn moons,
Who blazes with the light
Of thousands of stars. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 3

ཕྱག་འཚལ་སེར་སྔོ་ཆུ་ནས་སྐྱས་ཀྱི། །
པདྨས་ཕྱག་ནི་རྣམ་པར་བརྒྱན་མ། །
སྦྱན་པ་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་དཀའ་ཐུབ་ཞི་བ། །
བཟོད་པ་བསམ་གཏན་སྤྱད་ཡུལ་ཉིད་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, born from a golden-blue lotus,
Whose hands are beautifully adorned with lotus flowers,
You who are the embodiment of giving, joyous effort, asceticism,
Pacification, patience, concentration, and all objects of practice. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, golden lady, your lotus-hand
Graced with a blue water-born flower.
You embody generosity, diligence, ascetic strength,
Patience, serenity, and meditation. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you whose hands are adorned
By lotuses born from water blue and gold,
Whose conduct is generosity, diligence,
Discipline, peace, patience, and meditation. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 4

ཕྱག་འཚལ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་གཙུག་ཏོར། །
མཐའ་ཡས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བ་སྤྱད་མ། །
མ་ལུས་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་པ་ཐོབ་པའི། །
རྒྱལ་བའི་སྲས་ཀྱིས་ཤིན་ཏུ་བསྟེན་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, the crown pinnacle of those thus gone,
Whose deeds overcome infinite evils,
Who have attained transcendent perfections without exception,
And upon whom the sons of the Victorious Ones rely. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, whose victories are endless,
Jewel on the great Tathāgata’s crown.
You are well served by the heirs of the Victors,
Those who’ve accomplished all the perfections. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you, the ushnisha of the tathagatas,
Whose deeds are boundless, utter victory,
Who have achieved all transcendences,
On whom the bodhisattvas fully rely. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 5

ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཏུཏྟཱ་ར་ཧཱུ་ཡི་གེ །
འདོད་དང་ཕྱོགས་དང་ནམ་མཁའ་གང་མ། །
འཇིག་རྟེན་བདུན་པོ་ཞབས་ཀྱིས་མནན་ཏེ། །
ལུས་པ་མེད་པར་འགུགས་པར་ནུས་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, who with the letters TUTTARA and HUM
Fill the (realms of) desire, direction, and space,
Whose feet trample on the seven worlds,
And who are able to draw all beings to you. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, who with tuttāra and hūṃ
Fill the desire realms unto the ends of space.
You trample underfoot the seven worlds,
And have the strength to summon all. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you who fill the desire realm, all directions,
And all space with the syllables TUTTĀRA HŪṂ,
Who trample on the seven worlds,
And are able to summon all without exception. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 6

ཕྱག་འཚལ་བརྒྱ་བྱིན་མེ་ལྷ་ཚངས་པ། །
རླུང་ལྷ་སྣ་ཚོགས་དབང་ཕྱུག་མཆོད་མ། །
འབྱུང་པོ་རོ་ལངས་དྲི་ཟ་རྣམས་དང་། །
གནོད་སྦྱན་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་མདུན་ནས་བསྟོད་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, venerated by Indra,
Agni, Brahma, Vayu, and Ishvara,
And praised by the assembly of spirits, raised corpses,
Gandharvas, and all yakshas. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, praised by Indra,
Agni, Brahmā, Maruts,2 and Śiva.
All the hosts of bhūtas, vetālas,
Gandharvas and yakṣas pay tribute to you. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you whom Indra, Agni, Brahma,
Vayudeva, Ishvara, and other gods worship,
Who are praised in your presence by bhutas,
Vetalas, gandharvas, and hosts of yakshas. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 7

ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཏྲཊ་ཅེས་བྱ་དང་ཕཊ་ཀྱིས། །
ཕ་རོལ་འཕྲུལ་འཁོར་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་མ། །
གཡས་བསྐུམ་གཡོན་བརྐྱང་ཞབས་ཀྱིས་མནན་ཏེ། །
མེ་འབར་འཁྲུག་པ་ཤིན་ཏུ་འབར་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, whose TRAT and PHAT
Destroy entirely the magical wheels of others.
With your right leg bent and left outstretched and pressing,
You burn intensely within a whirl of fire. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, who with traṭ and phaṭ
Crush the enemies’ yantras3 to dust.
With right leg bent in and left leg extended,
Shining you tread amidst flames wildly blazing. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you who totally conquer, with TRAṬ and PHAṬ,
All the devices of adversaries,
Who trample with right leg contracted and left extended,
Who blaze amid wild, burning flames. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 8

ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཏུ་རེ་འཇིགས་པ་ཆེན་པོས། །
བདུད་ཀྱི་དཔའ་བོ་རྣམ་པར་འཇོམས་མ། །
ཆུ་སྐྱས་ཞལ་ནི་ཁྲོ་གཉེར་ལྡན་མཛད། །
དགྲ་བོ་ཐམས་ཅད་མ་ལུས་གསོད་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, the great fearful one,
Whose letter TURE destroys the mighty demons completely,
Who with a wrathful expression on your water-born face
Slay all enemies without an exception. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, Ture, most terrible lady,
Destroyer of even the most powerful demons.
With a lotus-face and a deep-furrowed brow,
You are the slayer of each and every foe! (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you who totally conquer, with terrifying TURE,
The warriors of Mara,
Whose lotus face frowns,
Who kill all enemies without exception. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 9

ཕྱག་འཚལ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་མཚོན་ཕྱག་རྒྱའི། །
སོར་མོས་ཐུགས་ཀར་རྣམ་པར་བརྒྱན་མ། །
མ་ལུས་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོས་བརྒྱན་པའི། །
རང་གི་འོད་ཀྱི་ཚོགས་རྣམས་འཁྲུག་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, whose fingers adorn your heart
With the gesture of the sublime precious three;
Adorned with a wheel striking all directions without exception
With the totality of your own rays of light. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, whose fingers grace the heart,
And display the mudrā of the Three Jewels.
You’re graced by wheels adorning every direction,
With dazzling radiance that overwhelms all. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you whose fingers adorn your heart
With the mudra of the Three Jewels,
Who is adorned by a turbulent wheel of light,
Blazing in all directions. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 10

ཕྱག་འཚལ་རབ་ཏུ་དགའ་བ་བརྗིད་པའི། །
དབུ་རྒྱན་འོད་ཀྱི་ཕྲེང་བ་སྤེལ་མ། །
བཞད་པ་རབ་བཞད་ཏུཏྟཱ་ར་ཡིས། །
བདུད་དང་འཇིག་རྟེན་དབང་དུ་མཛད་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, whose radiant crown ornament,
Joyful and magnificent, extends a garland of light,
And who, by your laughter of TUTTARA,
Conquer the demons and all of the worlds. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, supremely joyous,
Your splendorous crown spreading garlands of light.
Smiling and laughing, with tuttāre
You bring the world and demons under control. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you whose crown, heavy with great joy,
Radiates garlands of light,
Whose fierce laugh of TUTTĀRA
Enthralls maras and all the world. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 11

ཕྱག་འཚལ་ས་གཞི་སྐྱང་བའི་ཚོགས་རྣམས། །
ཐམས་ཅད་འགུགས་པར་ནུས་པ་ཉིད་མ། །
ཁྲོ་གཉེར་གཡོ་བའི་ཡི་གེ་ཧཱུ་གིས། །
ཕོངས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་རྣམ་པར་སྒྲལ་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, who are able to invoke
The entire assembly of local protectors,
Whose wrathful expression fiercely shakes,
Rescuing the impoverished through the letter HUM. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, who can summon
All the legions of earthly guardians.
Your frown it quivers, and the syllable hūṃ
Delivers us all from every misfortune. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you who are able to summon
All the guardians of the ground,
Who, with a frown and the syllable HŪṂ,
Liberate from all deprivation. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 12

ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཟླ་བའི་དུམ་བུའི་དབུ་རྒྱན། །
བརྒྱན་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཤིན་ཏུ་འབར་མ། །
རལ་པའི་ཁྲོད་ན་འོད་དཔག་མེད་ལས། །
རྟག་པར་ཤིན་ཏུ་འོད་རབ་མཛད་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, whose crown is adorned
With the crescent moon, wearing ornaments exceedingly bright;
From your hair knot the buddha Amitabha
Radiates eternally with great beams of light. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, so brightly adorned,
With a sliver of moon as your crown,
Your locks always graced by Amitābha,
Whose gleaming rays stream forever forth. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you whose head is adorned by a sliver of the moon,
Who blaze brilliantly with all adornment,
Whose hair is always beautiful
With Amitabha’s brilliant light. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 13

ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྐལ་པ་ཐ་མའི་མེ་ལྟར། །
འབར་བའི་ཕྲེང་བའི་དབུས་ན་གནས་མ། །
གཡས་བརྐྱང་གཡོན་བསྐུམ་ཀུན་ནས་བསྐོར་དགའི། །
དགྲ་ཡི་དཔུང་ནི་རྣམ་པར་འཇོམས་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, who dwell within a blazing garland
That resembles the fire at the end of this world age;
Surrounded by joy, you sit with your right leg extended
And left withdrawn, completely destroying all the masses of enemies. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, seated in a blazing halo
Of all-consuming apocalyptic flames.
Your right leg stretched out and left bent inward,
Immersed in joy, you crush legions of foes. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you who dwell amid garlands of flame
Like the fire at a kalpa’s end,
Who are delighted, with right leg extended and left bent,
Who totally conquer enemies’ forces. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 14

ཕྱག་འཚལ་ས་གཞིའི་ངོས་ལ་ཕྱག་གི །
མཐིལ་གྱིས་བསྣུན་ཅིང་ཞབས་ཀྱིས་བརྡུང་མ། །
ཁྲོ་གཉེར་ཅན་མཛད་ཡི་གེ་ཧཱུ་གིས། །
རིམ་པ་བདུན་པོ་རྣམས་ནི་འགེམས་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, with hand on the ground by your side,
Pressing your heel and stamping your foot on the earth;
With a wrathful glance from your eyes you subdue
All seven levels through the syllable HUM. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, who on the earth’s surface
Strike your palms and stamp your feet;
Your brow deeply furrowed, with hūṃ you smash
The seven netherworlds to nothing but dust. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you who pierce the ground with the palm of your hand
And trample it with your feet,
Who, frowning, with the syllable HŪṂ
Conquer the seven levels. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 15

ཕྱག་འཚལ་བདེ་མ་དགེ་མ་ཞི་མ། །
མྱ་ངན་འདས་ཞི་སྤྱད་ཡུལ་ཉིད་མ། །
སྭཱ་ཧཱ་ཨོཾ་དང་ཡང་དག་ལྡན་པས། །
སྡིག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་འཇོམས་པ་ཉིད་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, O happy, virtuous, and peaceful one,
The very object of practice, passed beyond sorrow.
You are perfectly endowed with SOHA and OM,
Overcoming completely all the great evils. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, blissful, gracious and tranquil,
Whose domain is the peace of nirvāṇa.
With oṃ and svāhā in perfect union,
You lay to waste every terrible evil. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you whose conduct is blissful,
Virtuous, tranquil, the peace of nirvana,
Whose SVĀHĀ and OṂ
Conquer great wrongdoing. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 16

ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཀུན་ནས་བསྐོར་རབ་དགའ་བའི། །
དགྲ་ཡི་ལུས་ནི་རབ་ཏུ་འགེམས་མ། །
ཡི་གེ་བཅུ་པའི་ངག་ནི་བཀོད་པའི། །
རིག་པ་ཧཱུ་ལས་སྒྲལ་མ་ཉིད་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, surrounded by the joyous ones,
You completely subdue the bodies of all enemies;
Your speech is adorned with the ten syllables,
And you rescue all through the knowledge-letter HUM. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, who, immersed in rapture,
Shatters the bodies of all your foes.
You manifest from the wisdom-syllable hūṃ.
And set forth each of your mantra’s ten syllables. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you who amid utter joy
Totally defeat enemies,
Tara who arises from the awareness HŪṂ
Surrounded by the ten syllables. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 17

ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཏུ་རེའི་ཞབས་ནི་བརྡབས་པས། །
ཧཱུ་གི་རྣམ་པའི་ས་བོན་ཉིད་མ། །
རི་རབ་མནྡ་ར་དང་འབིགས་བྱེད། །
འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་རྣམས་གཡོ་བ་ཉིད་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, stamping your feet and proclaiming TURE.
Your seed-syllable itself in the aspect of HUM
Causes Meru, Mandhara, and the Vindhya mountains
And all the three worlds to tremble and shake. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to Ture, your feet stomping boldly,
Formed from the seed of the syllable hūṃ.
You cause Meru, Mandara and Vindhya,
And all the three worlds to tremble. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to TURE who stamps her feet,
Whose seed has the form of HŪṂ,
Who shakes Mount Meru, Mandara,
Vindhya, and the three worlds. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 18

ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལྷ་ཡི་མཚོ་ཡི་རྣམ་པའི། །
རི་དྭགས་རྟགས་ཅན་ཕྱག་ན་བསྣམས་མ། །
ཏཱ་ར་གཉིས་བརྗོད་ཕཊ་ཀྱི་ཡི་གེས། །
དུག་རྣམས་མ་ལུས་པར་ནི་སེལ་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, who hold in your hand
The hare-marked moon like the celestial ocean.
By uttering TARA twice and the letter PHAT
You dispel all poisons without an exception. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, who hold in your hand
A deer-marked moon like a divine lake.
With tāra twice and then with phaṭ,
You totally cleanse all of the poisons. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you whose hand holds
The gods’ lake marked by a rabbit,
Who dispel all poisons when two TĀRA
And the syllable PHAṬ are said. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 19

ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལྷ་ཡི་ཚོགས་རྣམས་རྒྱལ་པོ། །
ལྷ་དང་མིའམ་ཅི་ཡིས་བསྟེན་མ། །
ཀུན་ནས་གོ་ཆ་དགའ་བ་བརྗིད་ཀྱིས། །
རྩོད་དང་རྨི་ལམ་ངན་པ་སེལ་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, upon whom the kings of the assembled gods,
The gods themselves, and all kinnaras rely;
Whose magnificent armor gives joy to all,
You who dispel all disputes and bad dreams. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, who is served by kings
Of hosts divine, and of gods and kinnaras.
Suited in armour of joy and splendour,
You clear away nightmares, soothe away strife. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you on whom the king of gods
And all gods and kinnaras rely,
Who dispel dispute and bad dreams
With complete armor and joyous splendor. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 20

ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཉི་མ་ཟླ་བ་རྒྱས་པའི། །
སྤྱན་གཉིས་པོ་ལ་འོད་རབ་གསལ་མ། །
ཧ་ར་གཉིས་བརྗོད་ཏུཏྟཱ་ར་ཡིས། །
ཤིན་ཏུ་དྲག་པོའི་རིམས་ནད་སེལ་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, whose two eyes – the sun and the moon –
Radiate an excellent, illuminating light;
By uttering HARA twice and TUTTARA,
You dispel all violent epidemic disease. (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, whose eyes shine with lustre,
Bright with the fullness of sun and moon.
With twice-uttered hara and tuttāre
You pacify most intractable diseases. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you whose two eyes are as bright
As the sun and full moon,
Who dispel the fiercest contagion
By reciting hara twice and TUTTĀRA. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 21

ཕྱག་འཚལ་དེ་ཉིད་གསུམ་རྣམས་བཀོད་པས། །
ཞི་བའི་མཐུ་དང་ཡང་དག་ལྡན་མ། །
གདོན་དང་རོ་ལངས་གནོད་སྦྱན་ཚོགས་རྣམས། །
འཇོམས་པ་ཏུ་རེ་རབ་མཆོག་ཉིད་མ། །

Homage to you, Tara, adorned by the three suchnesses,
Perfectly endowed with the power of serenity,
You who destroy the host of evil spirits, raised corpses, and yakshas,
O TURE, most excellent and sublime! (Lama Yeshe)

Homage to you, who have the power to free,
You put forth the realities as a set of three.
Supreme Ture, you completely destroy
The hordes of grahas, vetālas, and yakṣas. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

I prostrate to you who pacify
Through the placement of threefold suchness,
Supreme TURE who conquers the hosts
Of spirits, vetalas, and yakshas. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Verse 22

རྩ་བའི་སྔགས་ཀྱི་བསྟོད་པ་འདི་དང་། །
ཕྱག་འཚལ་བ་ནི་ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་གཅིག །

Thus concludes this praise of the root mantra
and the offering of the twenty-one homages. (Lama Yeshe)

This Praise with the twenty-one verses of homage
Is itself the root mantra. (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)

This is the praise of the root mantra
And the twenty-one prostrations. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Remarks

Translation by Lama Thubten Yeshe and originally edited by Sylvia Wetzel, January 1979. (Lama Yeshe)

Translated by Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon, 2019, (Stefan Mang, Peter Woods and Ryan Conlon)