Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
The text, titled Five Verses (Pañcagāthā-nāma), begins with a devotional invocation to Heruka and employs a series of naturalistic metaphors to describe processes of depletion and disappearance. By utilizing imagery such as the withering of a lotus when water is exhausted and the vanishing of honey, the work establishes a thematic focus on impermanence and the cessation of sustaining forces. Although the provided fragment is incomplete, the text appears to be structured as a concise poetic meditation designed to lead the reader toward an understanding of the transient nature of phenomena. It commits the reader to a contemplative observation of how the loss of a vital essence leads to the inevitable collapse of the dependent form, mirroring the Buddhist conceptualization of dependent origination and its subsequent cessation.
Provenance
About this text
A treatise employing naturalistic metaphors to describe processes of depletion and disappearance, the Pañcasarga (Tibetan: tshigs su bcad pa lnga pa) originates from the Indian tradition. The work is attributed to the author Kṛṣṇa Paṇḍita. It entered the Tibetan corpus through the translation of Vairocanavajra and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཞི, where it occupies two pages. Within the Tibetan canon, it is categorized among the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works. The text opens with a devotional invocation to Heruka and utilizes imagery—such as the withering of a lotus when water is exhausted and the vanishing of honey—to establish a thematic focus on impermanence and the cessation of sustaining forces. By observing how the loss of a vital essence leads to the collapse of dependent form, the work enacts a poetic meditation on the transient nature of phenomena. A scholar or serious reader consults this classical Tibetan work today to examine these concise meditations on the Buddhist conceptualization of dependent origination and its subsequent cessation.
The work is significant as a representative of the concise, metaphorical style used in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist pedagogy to convey complex ontological truths. Its focus on the fragility of existence provides a direct entry point for readers to engage with the concept of emptiness through observable natural decay.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction and Initial Verses
Contains the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, an invocation to Heruka, and the start of a series of metaphors regarding the exhaustion of resources.
Themes
Impermanence (1)
Dependent Origination (1)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Pañcagāthā-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Tshigs-su bcad-pa lnga-pa zhes-bya-ba (The Five Verses). Homage to the glorious Heruka!
When the water is exhausted, the lotus in the mud withers.
When the honey has fled, there is no trace of where it went.
The roots, leaves, and trunk are consumed by the application of fire.
Kṛṣṇa says: "Look at the laughter of the Lord of the Senses!"
Eating and drinking, he has gone away, breaking the branches from their place.
Kye ho! This activity of mine is like the fierce goddess Caṇḍālī.
Like a continuous stream of water, she has scorched the lotus.
A hundred virtues have been exhausted by a single fault.
When the ocean is exhausted, the lotuses also wither.
At that time, smoke emerges from the ten gates.
The worldly say, "Kṛṣṇa does not exist."
Kṛṣṇa dwells in the forest of the profound Mahāyāna.
The mind is empty and perfected in its innate state.
Though the aggregates have become a laughingstock, there is no regret.
Just as one does not see the butter within the milk,
Desire exists, yet the worldly do not see it.
There is neither life nor death for the worldly.
For the yogi Kṛṣṇa, who enjoys such things,
Though the parts of his body have withered like a lotus,
Why is Kṛṣṇa said to be dead?
The Five Verses composed by the great master Kṛṣṇācārya, who practiced the ascetic conduct, is complete. Translated by the lord of yogis, Śrī Vairocanavajra.
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.