Unsurpassed Praise — Nagarjuna · Tianmu Anglican Church

by Nāgārjuna

The Niruttarastava ("Unsurpassed Praise") is a short hymn of eight verses attributed to Nāgārjuna (c. 150–250 CE), preserved in the Tibetan Degé Tengyur (Tohoku 1130) within the bsTod tshogs (Collected Praises). Each verse ends with the refrain "I bow to the Unsurpassed" — a litany of negation and wonder. The Buddha is praised not for what he possesses but for what he transcends: knowing and not-knowing, meditation and non-meditation, coarse and subtle, existence and non-existence. Verse IV contains the striking image of particles being "like legs on a snake" — as real as legs on a creature that has none. The atoms of the material world, the very building blocks of experience, have the nature of an impossibility.

This is the first English translation. No prior English rendering from any source language is known to exist. The Sanskrit original (Niruttarastavaṃ) is lost; only the Tibetan survives.

Homage to Mañjuśrī, the Youthful One.

I

Who abandoned this shore and the far shore,
Who by the power of miraculous wisdom
Cleared away the supreme intrinsic nature of the knowable —
I praise and bow to the Unsurpassed.

II

In whom there is neither knowing nor not-knowing,
Neither yogin nor ordinary person —
In whom there is neither meditation nor non-meditation —
I bow to the Unsurpassed.

III

Whose wisdom alone illuminates,
Who cuts through all that is knowable without remainder,
Who is thus equal and immeasurable —
I bow to the Unsurpassed.

IV

Whose nature is without the coarse and subtle,
The heavy and the light particles —
Like legs upon a snake —
I bow to the Unsurpassed.

V

Who, as if by the power of a firefly
Crossing a dark plain,
Dispels the darkness by his light —
I bow to the Unsurpassed.

VI

Who, through miraculous emanation,
Sees the path of even a dancer's moving feet —
Who sees and knows the way —
I bow to the Unsurpassed.

VII

Who has abandoned both
Having parts and being devoid of meaning —
The omniscient, sovereign lord —
I bow to the Unsurpassed.

VIII

Who has utterly abandoned all faults,
Who is far from the nature of defilement,
Who has abandoned both existence and non-existence —
I bow to the Unsurpassed.

The Unsurpassed Praise, composed by the great master Ārya Nāgārjuna, is complete.

Colophon

Nāgārjuna (Tib. ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ, Klu sgrub) is the founder of the Madhyamaka school and among the most important figures in Mahāyāna Buddhism. The Niruttarastava belongs to the same collection of short praise hymns in the bsTod tshogs as the Stutyatītastava (D1129), the Acintyastava (D1128), and the four hymns of the Catuḥstava. Where the Stutyatītastava offers a compressed tour of Mādhyamika philosophy, the Niruttarastava is more purely devotional — each verse a single act of bowing, each bow grounded in a negation. Verse IV's image of particles as "legs on a snake" (སྦྲུལ་གྱི་རྐང་པ, sbrul gyi rkang pa) is a classic Madhyamaka analogy for the non-existence of what appears self-evident: the snake has no legs, yet we speak of "snake's legs" as if the absence were remarkable.

Originally composed in Sanskrit (Niruttarastavaṃ), the Sanskrit original is lost. The Tibetan translation survives in the Degé Tengyur, Volume 1 (bsTod tshogs, ka), Tohoku 1130, folios 79b.7–80a.4. No translator colophon is preserved in the Degé edition.

Good Works Translation from Tibetan. Translated by Drakpa (Tibetan Translator tulku), New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur, CC0).

Nāgārjuna's other stotras in this archive include the Catuḥstava — Praise of the Incomparable One (D1119), Praise of the World-Transcendent (D1120), Praise of Ultimate Reality (D1122), and Praise of the Inconceivable (D1128) — as well as Praise of the Vajra of Mind (D1121), Praise of the Three Bodies (D1123), Praise for Pleasing Sentient Beings (D1125), Praise Transcending Praise (D1129), Praise of the Compassion of Mañjuśrī (D1132), Praise of the Twelve Deeds (D1135), Praise in Adoration (D1136), and Deliverance from Hell (D1137) — thirteen Nāgārjuna stotras in all. Where the Stutyatītastava offers philosophical argument, the Niruttarastava is purely devotional — each verse a single act of bowing, each bow grounded in negation.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་བསྟོད་པ

Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition (Esukhia/derge-tengyur, GitHub, CC0). Volume 001 (བསྟོད་ཚོགས ཀ), folios 79b.7–80a.4. Editorial markers removed; folio markers removed; variant readings normalized to the first reading.

༄༅༅། །རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ནི་རུཏྟ་སྟ་བཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་བསྟོད་པ།

འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

གང་གིས་ཚུ་རོལ་ཕ་རོལ་སྤངས། །ཤེས་བྱའི་རང་གི་ངོ་བོ་མཆོག །ཡེ་ཤེས་རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་སྟོབས་ཀྱིས་བསལ། །བླ་མེད་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད།

གང་ལ་མཁྱེན་དང་མི་མཁྱེན་མེད། །རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་དང་ཐ་མལ་དང་། །གང་ལ་བསྒོམ་དང་མི་བསྒོམ་མེད། །བླ་མེད་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

གང་ཞིག་གཅིག་པུ་ཡེ་ཤེས་གསལ། །མ་ལུས་ཤེས་བྱ་ཡོངས་སུ་གཅོད། །དེ་ལྟར་མཉམ་ཞིང་གཞལ་མེད་པ། །བླ་མེད་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

གང་ཞིག་རགས་དང་ཕྲ་བ་དང་། །ལྕི་བ་དང་ནི་ཡང་བའི་རྡུལ། །སྦྲུལ་གྱི་རྐང་པའི་རང་བཞིན་མེད། །བླ་མེད་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

གང་གིས་སྲིན་བུའི་སྟོབས་ཀྱིས་ནི། །གང་ཞིག་ཐང་ལ་མཆི་བ་ལྟར། །གང་གིས་སྣང་བས་མུན་བསལ་བ། །བླ་མེད་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

གང་ཞིག་སྤྲུལ་ལྡན་རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱིས། །གར་མཁན་རྐང་པ་བསྐྱོད་པ་ལ། །གང་གིས་ལམ་གཟིགས་ལམ་མཁྱེན་པ། །བླ་མེད་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

གང་ཞིག་གིས་ནི་ཆ་ཤས་དང་། །དོན་སྟོང་མིན་ཏེ་གཉིས་ཀ་སྤངས། །ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་དབང་ཕྱུག་གཙོ། །བླ་མེད་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

ཤིན་ཏུ་ཉེས་པ་རྣམ་སྤངས་ཤིང་། །དྲི་མའི་བདག་ཉིད་ལས་རིང་བ། །དངོས་དང་དངོས་པོ་མེད་སྤངས་པ། །བླ་མེད་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་བསྟོད་པ་སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་འཕགས་པ་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་ཞལ་སྔ་ནས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།།

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.

No translator colophon survives for this text in the Degé edition.

This is believed to be the first English translation of this text.

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