Toh 2039 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

The Blessings of the Goddess Prabhādharā

Translated from the Tibetan by buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate · machine-assisted

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 2039
Genre: Treatise
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 048_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཙི.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,887 Tibetan characters · 500 English words
Translation: buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate (English, machine-assisted)
Status: Edition 1.0 · 2026 · machine draft
Rights: Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)

The Blessings of the Goddess Prabhādharā is a ritual manual focused on the invocation and empowerment of a specific deity. The text begins with a formal homage to the goddess, identifying her as the force capable of eliminating all delusions of existence. It then transitions into a practical instructional phase, directing the practitioner to contemplate the essence of the deity as a condensed quintessence and to manifest this power through the samādhi of the guru. The work commits the reader to a specific ritual praxis involving the recitation of a complex mantra and the vocalization of the Sanskrit alphabet. The inclusion of these phonetic elements suggests a focus on the sonic and vibrational aspects of empowerment, aiming to produce specific psychological or spiritual effects, as indicated by the mention of trembling, shivering, and laughter.

Provenance

About this text

A treatise concerning the blessing of the goddess Prabhādharā, the Devīprabhādharādhiṣṭhāna is a work of classical Tibetan Buddhism. Attributed to the Indian author Śrīdhara, the text was translated into Tibetan by Devākara and lo tsa ba rin chen bzang po. It is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཙི, where it is situated within the Other Skillful Means Tantras collection and spans two pages. The work enacts a ritual process centered on the elimination of all delusions of existence. It directs the practitioner to contemplate the essence as a condensed quintessence and to bring it down through the power of the guru’s samādhi. This praxis involves the recitation of a mantra and the vocalization of the Sanskrit alphabet to induce specific states, including trembling, shivering, laughter, and the experience of bliss and emptiness. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the sonic and vibrational aspects of empowerment and the specific ritual instructions used to manifest the deity's blessing through the samādhi of consuming nectar free from conceptual elaboration.

Sanskrit title: Devīprabhādharādhiṣṭhāna
Indian author: Śrīdhara
Tibetan translators: Devākara, lo tsa ba rin chen bzang po
Canonical collection: Other Skillful Means Tantras
Genre: Treatise
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཙི
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “The Blessings of the Goddess Prabhādharā” (Toh 2039), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2039

Summary & commentary

Significance

This text is significant as an example of the intersection between deity yoga and mantra praxis in the Indo-Tibetan tradition. It illustrates the reliance on the guru's meditative state to facilitate the transmission of spiritual power. For the modern reader, it provides insight into the use of seed syllables and alphabetic recitation as tools for ritual transformation.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Invocation and Homage	Establishment of the text's titles in Sanskrit and Tibetan and a devotional opening to the goddess.
2	Ritual Instruction and Mantra	Instructions on contemplation and the recitation of a mantra and the Sanskrit alphabet.

Themes

Elimination of Delusion (1)
Guru's Samādhi (2)
Mantra and Phonetic Ritual (2)

Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.

AnuvādaThe Blessings of the Goddess Prabhādharā·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། དེ་ཝི་དྷ་ར་པྲ་བྷཱ་ཨ་དྷིཥྛཱ་ན། བོད་སྐད་དུ། ལྷ་མོ་འོད་འཛིན་མའི་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབ་པ་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་གཏི་མུག་དགའ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། མ་ལུས་སྲིད་པའི་གཏི་མུག་རྣམས། ། མཐར་བྱེད་མ་ལ་རབ་བཏུད་ནས། ། སྤྲོས་མེད་བདུད་རྩི་ཟ་བ་ཡི། ། ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱིས་བྱིན་བརླབ་བཤད། ། མཎྜལ་ལ་སོགས་སྟ་གོན་ཏེ། ། བདག་བསྐྱེད་བཟླས་པ་མཆོད་གཏོར་དང་། ། འཁོར་ལོ་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་མཉེས་བྱས་ལ། ། ཡོན་བཅས་དད་པའི་སློབ་མ་ལ། ། སྡོམ་པ་བྱིན་ལ་དམ་ལ་གཞག། དེ་ནས་འདུན་པ་དྲག་པོ་ཡིས། ། བླ་མ་ལ་ནི་གསོལ་བ་གདབ། ། པདྨའི་དབུས་གནས་ཟླ་བ་ལ། ། ཨོཾ་སྐྱེས་ལྷ་མོ་མཉམ་བཞེངས་དཀར། ། ཆུ་ཤེལ་གྲི་གུག་པདྨའི་སྣོད། ། ཐུགས་ཀར་འཛིན་པ་རྒྱན་གྱིས་བརྒྱན། ། འོད་དཀར་འཕྲོ་འདུ་ཤེལ་ལྟ་བུ། ། དེ་ལྟའི་གཉིས་ཀ་གསལ་བྱས་ནས། ། བླ་མའི་སྙིང་གར་ཇི་བཞིན་གྱི། ། ལྷ་མོ་འཐོན་ཏེ་སྙིང་གར་གཞུག། དེ་ཡི་བྲང་དཀྱིལ་ཨོཾ་སྐྱེས་པ། ། གྲི་གུག་ཨས་མཚན་ཐོད་ནང་དུ། ། ཕྱེད་ནུབ་ཙམ་དུ་བསམ་པར་བྱ། ། དེ་ཡི་འོད་ཀྱིས་ཁམས་གསུམ་གྱི། ། གཉིས་འཛིན་འཁྲི་བ་ཀུན་བཅད་དོ། ། བདག་མེད་ཤེས་རབ་དམ་པ་ཡིས། ། སངས་རྒྱས་མཆོད་དེ་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས། ། སྟོང་ཉིད་ཡེ་ཤེས་བཀུག་ལ་བསྟིམ། ། ཐོད་པའི་འོད་ཀྱིས་སྲིད་གསུམ་གྱི། ། འཛིན་པའི་དུཿཁ་ཀུན་བསལ་ཏེ། ། ཟག་མེད་བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ་མཆོད། ། མི་རྟོག་བདེ་ཆེན་ཡེ་ཤེས་མཆོག། བཀུག་ལ་གཉིས་སུ་མེད་པར་བྱ། ། སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་བདེ་སྟོང་གི། ཡེ་ཤེས་ཟུང་འཇུག་རྨད་བྱུང་གིས། ། བདུད་རྩིས་ལུས་གང་བརྟན་གཡོ་ཡི། །

In the language of India: Devīdhāraprabhādhiṣṭhāna. In the language of Tibet: Lha mo 'od 'dzin ma'i byin gyis brlabs pa. Homage to the Blessed One, the Delight of Delusion. Having bowed down to the Mother who brings an end to all delusions of existence without exception, I shall explain the blessing through the samādhi of consuming the nectar free from conceptual elaboration. Having prepared the maṇḍala and so forth, and having pleased the self-generation through recitation, offerings, and torma, and having satisfied the maṇḍala circle with the feast gathering, one should bestow the vows and bind the faithful disciple to the commitments. Then, with intense aspiration, the disciple should make a supplication to the guru. Upon a moon in the center of a lotus, the white goddess born from OṂ stands in equipoise. She holds a crystal curved knife and a lotus vessel at her heart, adorned with ornaments. Like crystal, she radiates and reabsorbs white light. Having clearly visualized both in that way, the goddess emerges from the guru’s heart exactly as described and enters the disciple’s heart. In the center of the disciple’s chest, one should visualize the OṂ-born goddess holding a curved knife marked with the syllable A inside a skull cup, submerged about halfway. By its light, all attachments to dualistic grasping within the three realms are severed. Through the sublime insight of selflessness, she makes offerings to the Buddhas, who then summon and dissolve the wisdom of emptiness. The light from the skull cup clears away all the suffering of grasping in the three worlds of existence. She makes offerings to the Sugatas with uncontaminated bliss and summons the supreme non-conceptual wisdom of great bliss, making it non-dual. Through the wondrous union of the wisdom of bliss and emptiness of the Buddhas, the body is filled with nectar, and the stable and the moving— (continues in next passage)

structureTitle block: the Sanskrit title is given as it is transmitted in Tibetan transliteration, not reconstructed from Sanskrit sources; the Tibetan title is translated after it.

homonymལྷ་མོ is rendered “goddess” here; the glossary also records devī, Devī for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལྷ་མོ “goddess” — The “ apsarases ” are popular figures in Indian culture, they are said to be goddesses of the clouds and water and to be wives of the gandharvas . However, in the Kāraṇḍavyūha , they are presented as the female equivalen

terminologyབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས → “the Blessed One”. 84000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.

homonymབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས is rendered “the Blessed One” here; the glossary also records blessed, Blessed One, bhagavān for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས “the Blessed One” — In Buddhist literature, this is an epithet applied to buddhas, most often to Śākyamuni. The Sanskrit term generally means “possessing fortune,” but in specifically Buddhist contexts it implies that a buddha is in possess

definitionབླ་མ “guru” — One of the fourteen rākṣasīs .

periodཟླ་བ → “moon; month”. In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra is the rendering only where the text addresses or names the deity — a sūtra listing the moon as a time unit is not naming a god.

homonymཟླ་བ is rendered “moon; month” here; the glossary also records Candrā, Candramas, Moon for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཟླ་བ “moon; month” — The deity of the moon, as well as the moon itself. In the Kāraṇḍavyūha , when Avalokiteśvara emanates Candra , it is the deity that is meant.

homonymཤེས་རབ is rendered “insight” here; the glossary also records discernment, wisdom, knowledge for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཤེས་རབ “insight” — In this text shes rab seems to mean primarily knowledge (defined as insight and understanding one has gained through studying and experience), specifically knowledge of the teachings of the Buddha in general, and of karm

terminologyསངས་རྒྱས → “buddha”. The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carried by context, not by a suffix.

homonymསངས་རྒྱས is rendered “buddha” here; the glossary also records Awakened, awakened, Buddha for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

termལྷ་མོ → goddess

termབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས → the Blessed One

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termབླ་མ → guru

termཟླ་བ → moon; month

termཤེས་རབ → insight

བཅུད་བསྡུས་ངོ་བོར་བསམ་བྱས་ལ། ། བླ་མའི་ཏིང་འཛིན་ནུས་པས་དབབ། ། ཨོཾ་ཧྲཱིཿཥྚྲྀཿཝི་ཀྲྀ་ཏཱ་ན་ན་ཧཱུཾ་ཧཱུཾ་ཕཊ་ཕཊ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། ཨ་མོ་ཧ་ར་ཏི་ཨཱ་གཙྪ་ཡ་ཨཱ་གཙྪ་ཡ་ཧཱུཾ་ཧཱུཾ་ཛ་ཛ་ཛ་ཡ། ཨ་ཨཱ། ཨི་ཨཱི། ཨུ་ཨཱུ། རྀ་རཱྀ། ལྀ་ལཱྀ། ཨེ་ཨཻ། ཨོ་ཨཽ། ཨཾ་ཨཿ། འཕར་དང་གཡའ་དང་དགོད་པ་དང་། ། བདེ་སྟོང་ཉམས་ནི་སྐྱེ་བར་འགྱུར། ། ཇི་སྲིད་བྲན་དུ་ཁས་བླངས་ནས། ། ཡོན་ཕུལ་མཉེས་པས་དམ་ཚིག་བཞིན། ། བླ་མ་བསྟེན་ལ་བརྩོན་པར་བྱ། ། བླ་མ་བློ་མི་བདེ་བ་ཡི། ། སློབ་མའི་དངོས་གྲུབ་འདོད་པ་ནི། ། ཆུར་ཤེས་སྨིག་རྒྱུ་ཇི་བཞིན་ནོ། ། ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་བཅུད་ལེན་གྱི་བྱིན་རླབས་གྲུབ་ཐོབ་ཀྱི་བདག་པོ་མཁས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་དཔལ་འཛིན་གྱིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་མཁན་པོ་དེ་བ་ཨཱ་ཀ་ར་དང་། ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོས་བསྒྱུར་བ་ལས། དུས་ཕྱིས་རྒྱ་གར་ཤར་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་པཎྜི་ཏ་དརྤཎ་ཨཱ་ཙཱརྱ་དང་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་དགེ་སློང་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཛིན་པ་ཞེ་སྡང་རྡོ་རྗེས་བསྒྱུར་ཅིང་ཞུས་ཏེ་སླར་དག་པར་བྱས་སོ། ། སྔ་འགྱུར་ལ་འདི་བས་ཚན་ཆེ་ཙམ་གདའོ་གསུང་ངོ་། །

Contemplate the essence as the condensed quintessence, and bring it down through the power of the guru’s samādhi. OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ. AMOHA RATI ĀGACCHAYA ĀGACCHAYA HŪṂ HŪṂ JA JA JAYA. A Ā, I Ī, U Ū, Ṛ Ṝ, Ḷ Ḹ, E AI, O AU, AṂ AḤ. Trembling, shivering, and laughter will arise, and the experience of bliss and emptiness will be born. Having pledged to serve as a servant, offer the fee and, through pleasing the guru, act according to the samaya. One should strive to rely upon the guru. A disciple who desires accomplishments while the guru’s mind is unhappy is like mistaking a mirage for water. This concludes the blessing of the alchemy of samādhi, composed by the great learned master Śrīdhara, the lord of siddhas. It was translated by the Indian abbot Devākara and the translator Rinchen Zangpo. Later, it was translated, edited, and corrected by the Paṇḍita Darpaṇācārya from Eastern India and the translator-monk Vajradhara, Zhe-dang Dorje. It is said that in the Early Translation school, there is a version of this that is somewhat more extensive.

structureColophon: closes the text and names the translators or author.

homonymདམ་ཚིག is rendered “samaya” here; the glossary also records sacred vow, commitment, samaya vows for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionདམ་ཚིག “samaya” — Literally, in Sanskrit, “coming together.” Samaya refers to precepts given by the teacher, the corresponding commitment by the pupil, and the bond that results, which can also be the bond between the practitioner and the

terminologyམཁན་པོ → “abbot”. In colophons it is the Indian preceptor who authorised the translation; 'abbot' is wrong there. Use 'preceptor' in colophons.

homonymམཁན་པོ is rendered “abbot” here; the glossary also records upādhyāya, Preceptor for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionམཁན་པོ “abbot” — A person’s particular preceptor within the monastic tradition. They must have at least ten years of standing in the saṅgha, and their role is to confer ordination, to tend to the student, and to provide all the necessary

termབླ་མ → guru

termདམ་ཚིག → samaya

termམཁན་པོ → abbot

termདགེ་སློང → monk

Terminology used in this text (11)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
བླ་མ	guru	2
ལྷ་མོ	goddess	1
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས	the Blessed One	1	84000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
ཟླ་བ	moon; month	1	In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra
ཤེས་རབ	insight	1
སངས་རྒྱས	buddha	1	The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carr
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	1	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
དམ་ཚིག	samaya	1
མཁན་པོ	abbot	1	In colophons it is the Indian preceptor who authorised the translation; 'abbot' is wrong there. Use 'preceptor' in colop
དགེ་སློང	monk	1

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 048_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཙི.txt. Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction).

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.

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