The third Tara is
called Tara Sonam Tobched. Sonam means, “merit”. It is also often translated as
“good fortune, prosperity” or even “luck”. Tob means “power, ability”, and Ched
means “increasing”. Roughly translated, “liberator, increasing the power of
prosperity and ability of merit” is the word meaning of this Tara’s name. Other very popular names for her are
Vasudhari in Sanskrit and Norjunma in Tibetan.
The effect of practicing on this
Tara of prosperity is not just that we will acquire external or material
wealth, but also that we will develop inner or spiritual wealth.
By practicing on
Tara Sonam Tobche, we can develop both forms of wealth.
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་སེར་སྔོ་ཆུ་ནས་སྐྱེས་ཀྱི། །
chaktsal ser ngo chu né
kyé kyi
Homage to
you, graced with lotus-like hands,
པདྨས་ཕྱག་ནི་རྣམ་པར་བརྒྱན་མ། །
pemé chak ni nampar gyenma
སྦྱིན་པ་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་དཀའ་ཐུབ་ཞི་བ། །
jinpa tsöndrü katub shyiwa
You who show
generosity, diligence, strength,7
བཟོད་པ་བསམ་གཏན་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་ཉིད་མ། །
zöpa samten chöyul nyima
Patience,
serenity and meditation.
She is beautiful;
her skin is the color of pure gold glittering in the early morning sun. Her
left hand is adorned with a blue lotus, upon which sits a gem that bestows all
wishes.
She is the lord of
the Bodhisattvas’ sphere of activity, which encompasses the transcendent
perfections of generosity, patience, diligence, ethics, tranquility, wisdom,
and meditation. Austerity, (in this context) is ethics, and tranquility is
wisdom and meditation.
We pay homage to
the unchallengeable lady who has the ten powers: the power over life, the power
over mind, the power over wealth, the power over action, the power over birth,
the power over inclination, the power over aspiration, the power over miracles,
the power over primordial wisdom, and the power over dharma.
The outer meaning
is that she has attained the completion of the six perfections, in just one
meditation. The inner meaning is that her singular meditation is like a lotus,
free from the flaw of adherence to subject and object, and is endowed with the
completion of the six perfections.
She is yellow, with
one face and two arms. She sits in the dis- mounting posture. Her right hand is
in the mudra of supreme charity. Her left hand, in the Three Jewels mudra,
holds an utpala flower.
On top of the
flower is a wish-fulfilling jewel showering down whatever one desires. Light,
the color of a rising sun, radiates from the body of Noble Lady and empowers
you to perform the ocean of bodhisattva activities.
Meditate that you
obtain all the qualities of the ten powers and recite the mantra.
Continue: The 4th Tara
Continue: The 4th Tara
