Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This ritual text provides instructions for the preparation and offering of a torma cake to accumulate merit. The work is structured as a prescriptive guide, beginning with a traditional homage to the guru and an assertion that the instructions follow a specific pith lineage. The ritual process involves complex visualization and the use of seed syllables—specifically HŪṂ and OṂ—to generate symbolic objects such as a vajra and a jewel. These visualizations are paired with a Sanskrit mantra to facilitate the movement of nectar. The text commits the practitioner to a disciplined mental and verbal performance, concluding with a series of dedications and prayers. These prayers shift the focus from the individual's accumulation of merit to the broader goal of increasing resources, ensuring auspiciousness, and wishing for the happiness and purification of all sentient beings.
Provenance
About this text
A ritual guide for the offering of torma, the gtor ma'i cho ga belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. The work is attributed to the Indian author Kṛṣṇa Paṇḍita. It was translated into Tibetan by Kṛṣṇa Paṇḍita and ’gos lhas btsas, and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ངི, where it comprises three pages within the collection of the Guhyasamāja and Related Tantras. The ritual enacts a process for the accumulation of merit, the accomplishment of activities, and the pacification of obstacles. It prescribes the preparation of a torma vessel at dusk and the employment of complex visualizations involving the seed syllables HŪṂ and OṂ to generate a vajra and a jewel. These mental constructions are paired with a Sanskrit mantra to facilitate the movement of nectar, ensuring that deities are saturated with non-dual wisdom. The practitioner concludes the rite with prayers for auspiciousness, increased resources, and the purification and happiness of all sentient beings. A scholar or serious reader consults this text to examine the precise intersection of visualization, mantra, and material offering used to transition from individual merit to the universal goal of buddhahood.
The text illustrates the intersection of material offering and mental visualization characteristic of Vajrayana practice. It demonstrates how ritualized actions are intended to transform physical substances into spiritual catalysts for merit and universal benefit.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction and Intent
Homage to the guru and the stated purpose of the ritual for merit accumulation.
2
Visualization and Mantra
Instructions for generating symbolic forms from seed syllables and the recitation of a mantra to manipulate nectar.
3
Dedication and Prayers
Prayers for auspiciousness, resources, and the general well-being of all sentient beings.
Themes
Merit Accumulation (1)
Vajrayana Visualization (2)
Universal Compassion (3)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
The Ritual of the Torma Offering
Bowing to the sublime guru, the embodiment of all buddhas, I shall write this ritual of the torma offering exactly according to his pith instructions.
In this regard, for one who wishes to perform the torma offering continuously in order to accumulate merit, accomplish activities, and pacify obstacles: at dusk, fill a beautiful vessel with a torma containing pills made of the five meats and five nectars. Generate great compassion for all sentient beings. Then, resolve upon emptiness. Following that, by uttering "HŪṂ," visualize a vajra ground, a fence, and a lattice, with blazing tongues of fire and swirling flames on the outside, and within, a delightful palace of jewels.
There, in an instant, meditate on yourself as the meditational deity. Protect yourself by recollecting the three vajras, the wisdom being, and the deity of the crown. Then, opening the vajra palms at the heart, visualize HŪṂ, ĀḤ, and OṂ within the torma. Imagine that HŪṂ melts into water, perfecting the color; ĀḤ melts, perfecting the fragrance; and OṂ melts, perfecting the taste. Then, light rays from the OṂ summon the wisdom nectar, which is made non-dual with the torma; stabilize it by reciting the three syllables.
Then, with light rays from your heart, summon all sentient beings or the hosts of hungry ghosts. Meditate on the deities and gurus, the lords of the families, at their hearts and crowns.
Then, drawing them inward, generate a vajra from the syllable HŪṂ upon the tongues of all. Generate a jewel from OṂ, and recite: OṂ AKĀRO MUKHAṂ SARVA DHARMĀṆĀṂ ĀDYANUTPANNATVĀT OṂ ĀḤ HŪṂ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ. By saying this, imagine that the jewel, like a small tongue of light, draws [the nectar] and each [deity] is individually saturated, so that all are endowed with non-dual wisdom. One should also make offerings with the assembly of mentally arisen offerings. Then, with the mudrā of giving, the Dharma should be explained with: "All phenomena are like reflections; clear, pure, and untroubled. Ungraspable and inexpressible, they arise entirely from causes and karma. Being non-dual in essence and without abode—having thus understood phenomena, act for the incomparable benefit of sentient beings. Nevertheless, you are born into the Buddha family." Then recite: OṂ ĀḤ HŪṂ. To this region and so forth: SARVA KṢETRAPĀLA, SARVA RĀKṢASA, YAKṢA, UNMĀDA, APASMĀRA, SARVA DEVA, SARVA NĀGA, SARVA YAMA, SARVA ḌĀKINYA, SARVA SATVA, SARVA BHŪTA, ATAYA, IDAṂ BALIṂ, GṚHṆA GṚHṆA, MAMA SARVA SAPARIVĀRĀṆĀṂ SARVA SATVĀNĀṂ CA, SARVA PĀPAṂ BHYATI, VIGHNĀṂ, ŚĀNTIṂ KURU, DHANA DHANA, ĀYUR AROGYA, ATIPUṢṬIṂ KURU, SARVA PRAYARAKṢA KURU SVĀHĀ, SARVA SIDDHIKARI, ŚUBHA CITTA KARA. Furthermore: "I pray to you all: for us and our retinues, and for the lords of the place and their subjects, may illnesses, demons, and so forth be pacified."
May life and resources increase, may auspiciousness be perfect, and may whatever else is desired be spontaneously accomplished. Thus, one should offer prayers for the desired aims.
May all sentient beings be free from sin, and may all sentient beings be happy. Having entered the very path that brings about the state of buddhahood, may they abide right now in the yogic discipline.
Thus, having fully dedicated the virtue, one should request the deities to depart with "Oṃ Āḥ Hūṃ Muḥ."
For the sake of benefiting those of inferior intellect, I have written this torma ritual according to the pith instructions of the sublime guru, following the lineage of my kind guru. This torma ritual of the glorious Guhyasamāja was composed by the master Kṛṣṇācārya so that those abiding on the path and those experiencing the result may complete the accumulations and eliminate suffering. It is complete.
Translation status: Not among 84000's published translations, and not in progress there. Translations published elsewhere have not been searched for, so one may exist. (source: 84000 catalogue + registry; checked 2026-11-10).
Set in Newsreader and EB Garamond; Tibetan in Noto Serif Tibetan; Chinese in Noto Serif SC.