Ritod Loma Jonma, Noble Lady
Tara of Mountain Retreat, Clothed in Leaves, who Removes Contagious Disease.
Tara Rito Loma
jonma is known for giving protection against contagious diseases, plagues, and
fevers. Roughly translated, Rito means “mountain hermitage”, Loma means “leaves
of a tree”, and Jonma means “wearing”. So this is the Tara wearing the leaves
of a tree in her mountain retreat. In many of the traditional stories about
Tara, she appears as a lady dressed in leaves to
save a devotee from a fearful situation.
ཨོཾ་རྗེ་བཙུན་མ་འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
om jetsünma pakma drolma la chaktsal lo
Homage to the
noble lady Tārā!
ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཉི་མ་ཟླ་བ་རྒྱས་པའི། །
chaktsal nyima dawa gyepé
Homage to you,
whose eyes shine with lustre,
སྤྱན་གཉིས་པོ་ལ་འོད་རབ་གསལ་མ། །
chen nyipo la ö rabsal ma
Bright with the
fullness of sun and moon.
ཧ་ར་གཉིས་བརྗོད་ཏུཏྟཱ་ར་ཡིས། །
hara nyi jö tuttara yi
With
twice-uttered hara and tuttāre
ཤིན་ཏུ་དྲག་པོའི་རིམས་ནད་སེལ་མ། །
shintu drakpö rimné selma
You pacify most
intractable diseases.
The twentieth
homage is to Lhamo Rithrodma, the “Mendicant Tara”, who averts all diseases.
She is orange and her hand holds a vase of nectar on a blue lotus. Her left eye
is like the full moon and her right eye is like the sun. Her right eye emits
blazing rays that burn all the lords of diseases, (those who command the evil
spirits that bring disease) like haystacks.
Clear nectar flows
from the moon, (her left eye) curing the causes and effects of diseases and
epidemics. Her mantra, OM TARE TUTTARE TURE NAMA TARE NAMO HARA HUNG HARA SVA
HA has two HARA sounds and a TUTTARA. The mantra can cure even the most
dangerous incurable epidemics. The ultimate meaning is that if the
mother-sphere of transcendent wisdom is realized, the most dangerous epidemics
of afflictions, their causes and fruitions, can be cured.
On the throne of
lotus and moon appears Noble Lady Tara Ritod Loma Jonma, yellow-red like
saffron, with one face and two arms. She sits in the dismounting posture. Her
right hand is in the mudra of supreme charity. Her left hand, in the mudra of
the Three Jewels, holds the stem of an utpala flower blooming at her ear.
On its pistil is a
zamatog filled with nectar. Light blazes from the sun and full moon of her
eyes, burning contagious disease and those who cause it, and healing sickness.
Meditate on this and recite this mantra with TUTTARA and twice-spoken HARA:
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE NAMA TARE MANO HARA HUM HARA SVAHA.
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE NAMA TARE MANO HARA HUM HARA SVAHA.
