from the Mahākāśatantra
The Mahāvajradharastotra is an eight-verse liturgical hymn extracted from the Mahākāśatantra — the Tantra of Great Space — and attributed to the bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi, who speaks it in praise of Vajradhara, the primordial Buddha of the Vajrayāna tradition. Each four-line stanza ends with homage and an epithet: the vajra body, the one without inherent nature, Vajrasattva, the one who abides in space, the captain, the vajra master, the king of physicians, the great lotus. Together the eight verses map the entire architecture of tantric theology in thirty-two lines — from the metaphysical union of the two truths, through the purity of the five aggregates as the five Buddhas, to the compassionate physician who heals all schools of their affliction by wrong views.
The text survives in the Tibetan Buddhist canon as Tohoku 1126 in the Degé Tengyur, Volume 1 (Collected Praises), folios 75b.2–76a.1. Translated into Tibetan by the Zhalu Lotsāwa Dharma-pāla at the hermitage of Densatil. No previous English translation is known to exist. This is the first.
Homage to all the perfect Buddhas who abide beyond the limits of space in the ten directions, and to the vajra goddesses, the bodhisattvas, the wrathful kings, and all the rest.
Then the great bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi praised the Blessed One, the Great Vajradhara, with this king of praises:
I
Homage to you as conventional truth.
Homage to you as the ultimate.
Homage to the inseparability of the two truths.
Homage to you, the vajra body.
II
Your body, speech, and mind are pure.
Your body is primordially the body of space.
Beyond conceptual thought, without reference —
Homage to you, who are without inherent nature.
III
Without conceptual thoughts of virtue or non-virtue,
Without mental engagement or deliberation —
By nature, you are like space.
Homage to you, Vajrasattva.
IV
The five aggregates that cycle through saṃsāra
Are completely pure —
The very essence of the five Buddhas.
Homage to you, who abide in space.
V
For the sake of embodied beings
Adrift in the ocean of unknowing saṃsāra,
You who take birth through complete knowing —
Homage to you, the captain.
VI
To those caught in permanence, impermanence, and the rest,
Through permanence, impermanence, and the rest,
You skillfully show the path of purity —
Homage to you, the vajra master.
VII
Those of your own school and other schools,
Stricken by the plague of views —
You heal these ailing ones.
Homage to you, king of physicians.
VIII
Unstained by the mire of manifold conceptual thoughts,
Your form is pure.
You abide naturally in luminous clarity —
Homage to you, the great lotus.
The Praise of the Great Vajra-Holder, which arises from the Mahākāśatantra, composed by Vajrapāṇi, is complete.
Colophon
Vajradhara (Tib. རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང, rDo rje 'chang; Skt. Vajradhara) is the primordial Buddha (ādibuddha) of the Vajrayāna tradition — the ultimate nature of all Buddhas, the dharmakāya in its most exalted form. In tantric cosmology, Vajradhara is not a historical figure but the source from which all tantric teachings flow. His name means "Vajra-Holder" — the one who wields the indestructible diamond-thunderbolt of awakened reality. This hymn, placed in the mouth of Vajrapāṇi (the bodhisattva who protects the vajra teachings), presents Vajradhara through eight aspects: the union of the two truths (conventional and ultimate), the body of space beyond conceptual reference, Vajrasattva as the space-like nature, the five aggregates purified as the five Buddha families, the captain who navigates the ocean of saṃsāra through omniscience, the vajra master who teaches the path of purity, the physician who heals all beings — Buddhist and non-Buddhist — of the disease of wrong views, and the lotus that abides in luminous clarity unstained by conceptual elaboration. The closing lotus image echoes the foundational Mahāyāna metaphor: as the lotus grows from mud but is not stained by it, so awakened nature abides amidst the defilements without being touched.
Originally composed in Sanskrit (Mahāvajradharastotra), the Sanskrit original is lost. The text is extracted from the Mahākāśatantra (Tantra of Great Space, Tib. ནམ་མཁའ་ཆེན་པོའི་རྒྱུད). The Tibetan translation survives in the Degé Tengyur, Volume 1 (bsTod tshogs, ka), Tohoku 1126, folios 75b.2–76a.1. The translator colophon identifies the Zhalu Lotsāwa Dharma-pāla (ཞ་ལུ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་དྷརྨ་པཱ་ལ), who translated the text at the hermitage of the glorious seat of Densatil (དཔལ་གདན་ས་ཐེལ་གྱི་ཡང་དགོན), at the command of a great teacher described as "the precious one who holds the form of glorious Vajradhara."
Good Works Translation from Tibetan. Translated by Zangpo (Tibetan Translator tulku), New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur, CC0).
Other Tengyur stotras in this archive include Nāgārjuna's Catuḥstava — Praise of the Incomparable One (D1119), Praise of the World-Transcendent (D1120), Praise of the Vajra of Mind (D1121), and Praise of Ultimate Reality (D1122) — as well as Praise of the Inconceivable (D1128), Praise of the Three Bodies (D1123), Praise Transcending Praise (D1129), Unsurpassed Praise (D1130), Praise of the Compassion of Mañjuśrī (D1132), Praise of the Twelve Deeds (D1135), Praise in Adoration (D1136), Deliverance from Hell (D1137), and works by Mātṛceṭa, Asaṅga, Vasudhara, and others. Where the Madhyamaka stotras analyze emptiness through philosophical dialectic, this Vajrayāna hymn takes the tantric turn — praising the primordial Buddha who embodies all truths simultaneously, whose body IS space, whose five aggregates ARE the five Buddhas.
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Source Text: རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་ཆེན་པོའི་བསྟོད་པ
Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition (Esukhia/derge-tengyur, GitHub, CC0). Volume 001 (བསྟོད་ཚོགས ཀ), folios 75b.2–76a.1. Editorial markers and folio numbers removed; text presented as continuous.
༄༅༅། །རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། མ་ཧཱ་བཛྲ་དྷ་ར་སྟོ་ཏྲ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་ཆེན་པོའི་བསྟོད་པ།
ཕྱོགས་བཅུ་ནམ་མཁའི་མཐས་ཀླས་པ་ན་བཞུགས་པའི་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་དང་། རྡོ་རྗེ་ལྷ་མོ་དང་། བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་དང་། ཁྲོ་བོའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ལ་སོགས་པ་རྣམས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
དེ་ནས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ་ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེས་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་བསྟོད་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་འདིས་བསྟོད་པར་གྱུར་ཏོ།
ཀུན་རྫོབ་བདེན་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ། །དོན་དམ་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །བདེན་གཉིས་དབྱེར་མེད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ། །རྡོ་རྗེའི་སྐུ་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ།
སྐུ་དང་གསུང་དང་ཐུགས་ནི་དག །སྐུ་ནི་གདོད་ནས་ནམ་མཁའི་སྐུ། །རྣམ་པར་མི་རྟོག་དམིགས་པ་མེད། །རང་བཞིན་མེད་པ་ཁྱོད་ཕྱག་འཚལ།
དགེ་དང་མི་དགེའི་རྣམ་རྟོག་དང་། །ཡིད་ལ་བྱེད་དང་སེམས་པ་མེད། །རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་ནི་ནམ་མཁའི་ཚུལ། །རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཁྱོད་ཕྱག་འཚལ།
འཁོར་བའི་སྒྲུབ་པས་འཁོར་གྱུར་པའི། །ཕུང་པོ་ལྔ་ནི་རྣམ་པར་དག །སངས་རྒྱས་ལྔ་ཡི་ངོ་བོ་ཉིད། །ནམ་མཁར་གནས་པ་ཁྱོད་ཕྱག་འཚལ།
ཡོངས་སུ་མི་ཤེས་འཁོར་བ་ཡི། །རྒྱ་མཚོར་འཁྱམས་པའི་ལུས་ཅན་ཕྱིར། །ཡོངས་ཤེས་སྐྱེ་བ་འཛིན་པ་ཡི། །དེད་དཔོན་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
རྟག་དང་མི་རྟག་སོགས་རྣམས་ལ། །རྟག་དང་མི་རྟག་སོགས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས། །རྣམ་དག་ལམ་སྟོན་ལ་མཁས་པ། །རྡོ་རྗེ་སློབ་དཔོན་ཁྱོད་ཕྱག་འཚལ།
རང་གི་སྡེ་དང་གཞན་གྱི་སྡེ། །ལྟ་བའི་རིམས་ཀྱིས་བཏབ་པ་ཡི། །ནད་པ་རྣམས་ནི་གསོ་མཛད་པ། །སྨན་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཁྱོད་ཕྱག་འཚལ།
སྣ་ཚོགས་རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པ་ཡི། །འདམ་གྱིས་མ་གོས་གཙང་བའི་སྐུ། །འོད་གསལ་བར་ནི་ངང་གིས་གནས། །པདྨ་ཆེན་པོ་ཁྱོད་ཕྱག་འཚལ།
ཞེས་པ་ནམ་མཁའ་ཆེན་པོའི་རྒྱུད་ལས་འབྱུང་བ། རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་ཆེན་པོའི་བསྟོད་པ། ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།
རྗེ་བཙུན་གནས་བརྟན་ཆེན་པོ་དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་གི་སྐུ་ཅན་སྤྱན་སྔ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཞལ་སྔ་ནས་ཀྱི་བཀའ་བཞིན་ཞ་ལུ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་དྷརྨ་པཱ་ལས་དཔལ་གདན་ས་ཐེལ་གྱི་ཡང་དགོན་དུ་བསྒྱུར་བའོ།
Source Colophon
Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition, maintained by Esukhia (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur). Licensed CC0 (public domain). The Degé Tengyur is the standard critical edition of the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur, originally printed from woodblocks at Degé Parkhang, Kham, Tibet. The digital text was transcribed and proofread by Esukhia under the direction of Émilie Arrago-Boruah.
The translator colophon states: translated by the Zhalu Lotsāwa Dharma-pāla (ཞ་ལུ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་དྷརྨ་པཱ་ལ) at the hermitage of the glorious seat of Densatil (དཔལ་གདན་ས་ཐེལ་གྱི་ཡང་དགོན), at the command of the revered great elder who holds the form of glorious Vajradhara. The Zhalu monastery (ཞ་ལུ) in Tsang, Tibet, was a major center of translation activity, particularly under Butön Rinchen Drup (1290–1364), who compiled the Tengyur catalog. Densatil (གདན་ས་ཐེལ) was the principal seat of the Phagmodrupa Kagyü lineage.
This is believed to be the first English translation of this text.
See also in the Good Work Library: Praise of the Incomparable One — Nagarjuna — first hymn of the Catuḥstava cycle. · Praise of the World-Transcendent — Nagarjuna — second hymn of the Catuḥstava. · Praise of the Inconceivable — Nagarjuna — third hymn of the Catuḥstava. · Praise of Ultimate Reality — Nagarjuna — fourth hymn of the Catuḥstava.
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