The name of
the first Tara is Jetsun Drolma Nyurma Pamo. Nyurma means that Tara’s activity
is very quick and swift, without delay. Pamo is the feminine form of the term
for a hero, which can be translated as “heroine”.
ཨོཾ་རྗེ་བཙུན་མ་འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
om jetsünma pakma drolma
la chaktsal lo
Oṃ, Homage to the noble lady Tārā!
ཕྱག་འཚལ་སྒྲོལ་མ་མྱུར་མ་དཔའ་མོ། །
chaktsal
drolma nyurma pamo
Homage to Tārā, swift and gallant,
སྤྱན་ནི་སྐད་ཅིག་གློག་དང་འདྲ་མ། །
chen ni kechik lok dang drama
Whose glance flashes like lightning;
འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་མགོན་ཆུ་སྐྱེས་ཞལ་གྱི། །
jikten sum gön chukyé shyal gyi
གེ་སར་བྱེ་བ་ལས་ནི་བྱུང་མ། །
gesar jewa lé ni jungma
From the face of the triple-world’s lord.
It describes
Tara’s heroic courage and commitment to the liberation of all beings.
The first
praise is to Nyurma Palmo, “Fearless Swift Lady”. Here we pay homage to the
lady of activity who liberates beings from the temporal and perennial
sufferings of samsara. She is called “Swift Lady” because her impartial
compassion benefits beings without even an instant’s delay.
She is the
“Fearless Lady”, because she has the unhindered power to subdue demons, as well
as the afflictions of beings. She protects beings from all fears.
Her wisdom eyes move like the flash of lightning as she fully cognizes all phenomena.
The lady
endowed with omniscience, compassion, power, and activity was born from “the
teardrops of the stamen-like eyes of the fully blossomed lotus-like face of
Avalokiteshvara, the Savior of Three Worlds”. The three worlds are the
sub-terrestrial, terrestrial and celestial realms, (the worlds of nagas,
humans, and gods, respectively).
Tara is
seductive, and has the youthfulness of the rising sun, and a semi-wrathful
smile. Her right hand is in the boon-giving mudra, and her left hand holds a
blue lotus upon which is a right-turning conch. This symbolizes her mastery of
the two truths and bodhicitta: in this world, and in the god realm.
The outer
meaning of the praise literally praises the nirmanakaya aspect of the Noble
Lady. In the inner aspect of the praise, if not taken literally, her
sambhogakaya and dharmakaya aspects are praised.
The “Savior
of the Three Worlds” is the dharmakaya, and its manifestation is the rupakaya,
or “form body,” (which is composed of the sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya).
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