Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This sādhana provides a ritual manual for the practice of the Sixteen-Armed Hevajra, a deity within the Anuttarayoga Tantra class. The text guides the practitioner through a sequence of meditative and ritual actions designed to transform ordinary perception into a purified state of awakening. It begins with devotional homages and the recitation of seed syllables and mantras to make offerings to the deity's specific physical attributes. The procedure then moves into complex visualizations, including the invitation of Buddhas for empowerment, the manifestation of the deity Nairātmyā, and the construction of a maṇḍala featuring the Blessed One and various directional deities. The ritual concludes with the integration of the wisdom-being (jñānasattva) and the performance of a fire offering (homa) to purify offerings. By committing to these precise visualizations and mantra recitations, the practitioner seeks to dissolve grasping and achieve the state of a perfectly complete awakening, mirroring the qualities of the deity.
Provenance
About this text
A ritual manual for the practice of the Sixteen-Armed Hevajra, the Hevajraṣoḍaśabhujasādhana is attributed to the Indian author Kṛṣṇa Paṇḍita. Preserved in the classical Tibetan tradition, the work is found in the Non-dual Tantra collection of the Tengyur, specifically within volume ཏ, where it extends over five pages. Under the Tibetan title kye'i rdo rje phyag bcu drug pa'i sgrub pa'i thabs/, the work enacts a precise sequence of meditative and ritual actions. It begins with homages to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta and Vajraḍākinī, followed by the visualization of a sun maṇḍala and the recitation of mantras and seed syllables to make offerings to the deity. The practitioner is guided to meditate upon the Blessed One as a figure with sixteen arms, eight faces, and four legs treading in a half-lotus dance, utilizing these visualizations to cast away the grasping at things as real and establish sentient beings in a state of complete awakening. Scholars and serious readers consult this text today to examine the specific ritual procedures and mantra configurations used to evoke the deity's physical attributes and to facilitate the transformation of ordinary perception into a purified state.
The work is significant as a representative example of the highly structured visualization and empowerment rituals central to the Hevajra tradition. For the modern reader, it illustrates the intersection of somatic discipline, linguistic formula, and cosmological mapping used in Indo-Tibetan tantric practice to achieve rapid spiritual transformation.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1-2
Preliminary Offerings
Homages to Mañjuśrī and Vajraḍākinī, followed by mantra-based offerings to the deity's specific attributes.
3-4
Visualization and Empowerment
Meditations on the awakening of sentient beings and the invitation of Buddhas to confer empowerment.
5
Maṇḍala Construction
Visualization of the maṇḍala circle and the directional deities with their consorts.
6
Integration and Fire Offering
The gathering of Tathāgatas at the heart and the performance of the homa (fire offering) using the wisdom-being.
Themes
Deity Yoga and Visualization (3-6)
Ritual Offerings and Mantras (2, 6)
Empowerment (Abhiṣeka) (4)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Hevajra-ṣoḍaśabhuja-sādhani. In the language of Tibet: The Sādhana of the Sixteen-Armed Hevajra. Homage to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta! Homage to Vajraḍākinī!
I bow to that Heruka, the light of all qualities, who, by the mere taste of familiarization, casts far away this grasping at things as real.
At dawn, having risen from bed, one should visualize a sun maṇḍala arising from the syllable RAṂ at the heart. Having purified oneself with its light, one should recite three times: OṂ RAKṢA RAKṢA HŪṂ HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ. Thus, having performed the protection of the place, oneself, and the yoga, one enters the meditation cell and sits on a comfortable seat. Having prepared a maṇḍala with the mantra OṂ VAJRA REKHE HRĪḤ, one should place a flower in the center of the consecrated maṇḍala while reciting: OṂ VAJRA MEDITINĪ VAJRĪBHAVA VAJRA BANDHA HŪṂ. Then, reciting OṂ ĀḤ HŪṂ, one should place the flower.
In the east, with GAṂ GAURĪ NAMAḤ. In the south, with CAṂ CAURĪ NAMAḤ. In the west, with VAṂ VETĀLĪ NAMAḤ. In the north, with GHAṂ GHASMARĪ NAMAḤ. In the northeast, with PAṂ PUKKASĪ NAMAḤ. In the southeast, with ŚAṂ ŚAVARĪ NAMAḤ. In the southwest, with CAṂ CAṆḌĀLĪ NAMAḤ. In the northwest, with ḌAṂ ḌOMBINĪ NAMAḤ.
Then, having perfectly worshipped the Blessed One with OṂ DEVA PICU VAJRA HŪṂ HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ, one should also worship Nairātmyā.
One should make offerings with the mantra: Oṃ a ā, i ī, u ū, ṛ ṝ, ḷ ḹ, e ai, o au, aṃ svāhā. Furthermore, one should make offerings to the Bhagavān with the eight lines: Oṃ aṣṭānanāya namaḥ, Oṃ piṅgordhvakeśavartasane namaḥ, Oṃ caturviṃśatinetrāya namaḥ, Oṃ ṣoḍaśabhujāya namaḥ, Oṃ kṛṣṇajīmūtavapuṣe namaḥ, Oṃ kapālamālānekadhāriṇe namaḥ, Oṃ ādhmātakrūracittāya namaḥ, Oṃ ardhendu-daṃṣṭriṇe namaḥ.
Having offered flowers and so forth, consecrated with Oṃ vajrapuṣpe āḥ hūṃ, Oṃ vajradhūpe āḥ hūṃ, Oṃ vajragandhe āḥ hūṃ, and Oṃ vajranairvedye āḥ hūṃ, one should recite the verses for the three refuges three times. Then, having made further offerings and prostrated, one should offer the torma and request the deity to depart with vajra muḥ.
Following that, one should meditate on loving-kindness (maitrī), the desire to establish all sentient beings in divine bliss; compassion (karuṇā), the desire to eliminate all suffering; joy (muditā), the desire for divine bliss to be uninterrupted; and equanimity (upekṣā), the desire to establish them on the unsurpassed path.
Furthermore, by mentally focusing on and analyzing all phenomena, one should view them as being empty in essence, the nature of clear light (prabhāsvara). One should then consecrate with: Oṃ śūnyatājñānavajrasvabhāvātmako ’haṃ. Immediately thereafter, one should visualize the syllables aṃ and hūṃ upon a sun disk arising from raṃ.
By the light of that, one should imagine that the sentient beings dwelling in immeasurable and infinite world-systems are established in perfectly complete awakening, and then those two syllables are perfectly gathered back and absorbed. In an instant, one should meditate on the Blessed One with sixteen arms, eight faces, and five mudrās, with four legs treading in a half-lotus dance upon the hearts of the four Māras. He is adorned with a garland of heads, his body is the color of a dark blue cloud at the time of destruction, and he is wrathful. His orange-red hair blazes upward, and he possesses twenty-four eyes. In his sixteen hands, he holds skull-cups; in the right hands are an elephant, a horse, a donkey, an ox, a camel, a human, a śarabha, and a cat. In the eight left hands, he holds earth, water, wind, fire, the moon, the sun, Yama, and Vaiśravaṇa. At his crown, he holds a crossed vajra. He is the one who robs the suffering of saṃsāra, and his nature is embraced by Nairātmyā, who holds a curved knife and a skull-cup. Following that, one should visualize a HŪṂ on a sun disk at one's heart, and at the heart of Nairātmyā, an AṂ on a moon disk; at one's crown is the syllable OṂ; at the throat is ĀḤ; and at the heart, the syllable HŪṂ is arranged. In the eyes is Mohavajrā, in the ears Dveṣavajrā, in the nose Mātsaryavajrā, in the mouth Rāgavajrā, and in the body Īrṣyāvajrā.
Visualize Nairātmyā in your mind. With light from your heart, invite the Buddhas and make this request for empowerment: "Oṃ abhiṣiñcatu māṃ sarvatathāgata." Then, imagine that the Buddhas confer the empowerment, and a rain of flowers and saffron falls. One should also meditate on the goddesses praising oneself. If one becomes weary from meditating, one should recite the mantra: "Oṃ devapicu vajra hūṃ hūṃ hūṃ phaṭ svāhā." When rising, visualize the goddess within the seed-syllable at your own heart and remain in the form of the deity. At the beginning of the meditation, one should also offer a torma. The sequence for this is as follows: visualize a wind maṇḍala from Yaṃ, and upon it, a fire maṇḍala from Raṃ. Upon that, a skull-cup from A. Upon that, visualize the substances—go, ku, da, ha, na, ma, ra, mu, su, and bi—blessed by Oṃ. Above that, from the complete transformation of the syllable Hūṃ, there is a white vajra. Through the union of the vajra and lotus, fire blazes, cooking the substances into a liquid. By the light of that, the forms of all the Tathāgatas are seen; their heart-essence nectar is gathered and absorbed into it, and it is blessed with the mantra "Oṃ āḥ hūṃ." This is the ritual for purifying the substances for the torma and so forth. In the sky, within the source of phenomena (dharmodaya), at the center of an eight-petaled lotus,
One should visualize the maṇḍala circle of the Blessed One, or the solitary hero, on the petals of the directions, with Indra and the others each embraced around the neck by their respective consorts. They stand with the left leg extended, are black in color, and wear the crown of Akṣobhya. They hold a vajra and a bell. Above them, one should likewise visualize Brahmā, white in color, wearing the crown of Vairocana. Below, for the nāgas and others dwelling in the subterranean realm, one should visualize them red in color, wearing the crown of Amitābha. On the tongues of them all, one should meditate on a white vajra arising from the syllable HŪṂ. Then, the goddesses such as Gaurī, who have emerged from the seed-syllable at the heart, should fill [the mouths] with completely pure nectar.
The mantra for this is as follows:
INDA JAMA JALA JAKKA BHŪTA VAHNI VAYU RAKKA CANDASŪJJU MĀDA PAPPATĀLE | AṬṬHASAPPA SVĀHĀ | AṂ DAṂ BALIṂ BHŪJA JIGHA PHULLA DHŪPA MĀṂSA PIṂGA AMBHA SAPPA KĀJJA SĀDHA KHĀNTI KHUṆE PHEḌA GĀDA | OṂ AKĀRO MUKHAṂ SARVA DHARMĀṆĀṂ ĀDYA NUTPANNA TĀT OṂ ĀḤ HŪṂ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ.
Having recited this three times, one should offer the sprinkling of water using this mantra: OṂ HRĪḤ VIŚUDDHA DHARMĀḤ SARVA PĀPAṂ VIŚODHAYA SARVA VIKALPANA YA HŪṂ. Having made mental offerings, one should request them to depart with "OṂ VAJRA MUḤ." At the time of eating, one should likewise prepare the food substances and transform one's own tongue into a white vajra from the syllable HŪṂ.
Visualize the Blessed One at the heart, and within that very place, gather all the Tathāgatas. With the fire arising from the seed syllable at the heart of the wisdom-being (jñānasattva), purify the substances of the food and perform the fire offering (homa). At the time of passion, likewise visualize the consort as the form of Nairātmyā. Having visualized OṂ at her head, HŪṂ at her heart, and ĀḤ at the center of her lotus, consecrate the lotus with the mantra: OṂ PADMA SUKHADHARA MAHĀRĀGA SUKHAṂ DATTĀ CATURĀNANDA BHAGA VIŚVA HŪṂ HŪṂ HŪṂ KARYAṂ KURUṢVA ME. Then, having placed the three syllables upon oneself and meditated on a vajra arising from HŪṂ, visualize its jewel arising from OṂ. Consecrate the vajra with the mantra: OṂ VAJRA MAHĀDVEṢA CATURĀNANDADĀYAKA KHAGAMUKHE EKARĀSONĀTHA HŪṂ HŪṂ HŪṂ KARYAṂ KURUṢVA ME. Then, with the sounds SIṂ SIṂ SIṂ and HA HA HA, one should engage in passion. Having indicated the moment through the guru’s oral instructions, at the conclusion, take the nectar and satisfy oneself. At the time of sleep, visualize all these as the nature of the coemergent (sahaja) and fall asleep.
For the sake of the understanding of the immature, I have composed this sādhana of the eight-faced Protector Teacher. By this, may all beings become Vajradharas. The Sādhana of the Glorious Sixteen-Armed Hevajra, composed in the presence of the Paṇḍita Ācārya Kṛṣṇa, is complete.