Chapter Outline
3.3.4. The meaning of the conclusion
3.3.4. 1. How the text concluded
3.3.4. 2. How [the text] was translated in Tibet
3.3.4. The meaning of the conclusion
The fourth part, the meaning of the conclusion, has two sections: (1) how the text concluded, and (2) how [the text] was translated in Tibet.
3.3.4. 1. How the text concluded
This completes the fifty-first chapter of the highest and primordially established root tantra that is abbreviated, that is unsurpassed and is achieved by reciting the great hero Shrī Heruka, which is the king or principal of all treatises, that astounds the minds of all scholars, and is marvelous for the achievement of power in this very life. It is the ritual text (rtog pa, kalpa) for achieving the supreme great seal included within the one hundred thousand Shrī Heruka.786
3.3.4. 2. How [the text] was translated in Tibet
[The text] was translated,787 i.e., originally translated, from Sanskrit to Tibetan by the Indian scholar Padmākaravarma, i.e., he whose armor produces lotuses,788 and the monk Rinchen Zangpo, the chief editor and translator (lo tsā ba), the verbal meaning of which is loka, “world” and chandoha, “zest,” hence “zest for the world” (’jig rten ’dun pa). Literally speaking, they proofread it and finalized it through explanation and listening.
Later, the Indian scholar Sūryagupta789 and the Tibetan translator Gö Lotsawa Shönu Pal (’gos lo tswa ba gzhon nu dpal) revised Lochen’s translation according to Kambala’s commentary. Subsequently the Indian scholar Sumatikīrti and the Tibetan translator and great scholar Marpa Chökyi Wangchuk (mar pa chos kyi dbang phyug), famed as Marpa Dopa, proofread Gö’s translation, and finalized it through explanation and listening.
The king of tantras, the Chakrasaṁvara, this harbor for millions of lords of yoga,
Blazing brightly with the glory of millions of virtues in the glorious tantric canon,
Producing joy and wonder with its vast display of the two powers’ joy,
Transforming the world with the two stages, at the peak of pure empowerment and the commitments.
The subtle and difficult points in this
Are bound by the code of the yoginīs,
But are clear with the hero’s own comments,
And many explanatory tantras.
They’re then revealed in the saints’ instructions
By the saints who have reached the highest state,
And the many Indian scholars too
Realized according to this method.
The fulfiller known as Nārotapā,
Famed as the constellations’ master light,
Before whom are scholars strewn like jasmine blooms,
Whose stainless system derives from the best,
Is the eye of Snowy Land’s disciples.
In the lineage of the omniscient ones
In this era of conflict and of strife,
This commentary brings together all
Indian and Tibetan good teachings,
Relying on his way of explaining
With dual aptitude in both languages.
May it be a treasure of the two feats,
The wondrous storehouse of the serpent kings.
Relying upon the oral instructions
Of Lūipa, Ghaṇṭapā, and Kāṇha,
When one elucidates the root tantra
Via the explanatory tantras,
Abiding in stainless empowerment
And in the commitments, the root tantra
Manifests as the foremost instruction.
Knowing how to reveal in the tantra
The ways to reach the vajradhara stage
By progressing well with the two stages
And the achievement of infinite feats,
May scholars who see the mantric method
Know what a “tantric practitioner” is.
Long familiar with Saṁvara literature,
And with scriptural commentaries in general,
Even if they’re well applied, I confess
Earnestly that it is replete with faults
Due to my ordinary intellect.
May myself and all others, through wholesome
Virtues attained with tremendous effort,
Enter this fine Chakrasaṁvara path
And quickly attain Heruka’s station.
The glory that is the learned monk Tsong Khapa Lozang Drak-ba, once he was well familiar with the Shrī Saṁvara Root Tantra, all of the explanatory and corresponding portion tantras, and the Saṁvara literature in general, the texts of Lūipa, Ghaṇṭapā, and Kāṇha in particular, and the many Saṁvara commentaries, conceived this Illumination of the Hidden Meaning, A Detailed Exegesis of the Concise Saṁvara Tantra Called “The Chakrasaṁvara” as a mnemonic note in order to heal the deterioration of the theory and practice of the Saṁvara tradition. Rinchen Pal, an adept in the four teachings,790 was the copyist at work in Ganden Namgyal-ling at the highland mountain.
Oṁ svasti (Om, may it be good!)
Augment this slowly moving stream
That endlessly bestows Dharma,
The grove that gathers the Victor’s
Teachings, these being welfare’s source,
In the great school of the Dharma
That’s naturally blessed for practice,
For the good end of liberation
Of the vast array of all beings.
Sarvamaṅgalaṁ (Blessings for all)
_______________
786. Tsong Khapa here summarizes the text’s colophon which he analyzed in more detail in section 3.3.3. 2.3.3 above.
787. Tsong Khapa in this section comments upon the colophon to the SM translation, which occurs at 567 in my 2012 edition. The words in bold are words actually found in this colophon.
788. Tsong Khapa transliterates Padmākaravarma’s name, as padma ka ra war ma, following the SM edition, and he translates it accordingly (and accurately) as padma byed pa’i go cha. However, the SM edition omits the long a vowel; a better translation of padmākaravarma would be “he whose armor is a multitude of lotuses.”
789. Tsong Khapa corrects the translation of his name in the SM edition, sbas pa’i nyi ma, to nyi ma sbas pa.
790. That is, bka’ bzhi pa, one who has mastered Madhyamaka, Prajñāpāramitī, Vinaya, and Abhidharma.