by Ācārya Nāgārjuna
The Ārya-bhaṭṭāraka-mañjuśrī-paramārtha-stuti — "Praise of the Ultimate Nature of Noble Lord Mañjuśrī" — is a compact Madhyamaka hymn by Nāgārjuna, the founder of the Middle Way school. In eleven verses, it praises Mañjuśrī not through his qualities or deeds but through systematic negation: he has not come, has not gone, has not arisen, does not remain. He is neither existent nor non-existent, neither permanent nor impermanent, neither coloured nor colourless, neither large nor small. Each verse strips away another category of conceptual imputation until the poem arrives at its own impossibility: when all dharmas are empty, who is praised, and who is the one who praises?
Mañjuśrī — "Gentle Glory" — is the bodhisattva of wisdom in Mahāyāna Buddhism, traditionally depicted wielding the flaming sword of prajñā that cuts through delusion. To praise his ultimate nature (paramārtha) is therefore to praise wisdom itself — the very faculty that reveals the emptiness which makes the praise impossible. The hymn's structure is its theology: devotion and emptiness are not opposed but identical.
Preserved in Tibetan as Tohoku 1131 in the Degē Tengyur, Volume 1 (bsTod tshogs, ka), folios 80a.5–80b.5. The Tibetan colophon attributes the work to the great master Nāgārjuna (Tib. སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ). No previous English translation is known to exist. This is the first.
Homage to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta.
I
He has not come, he does not go.
He has not arisen, he does not remain.
He utterly transcends the worldly —
His domain is beyond all words.
II
Protector, how can one praise you?
Yet through the conventions of the world,
However you truly are, just so
Do I with devotion praise the supreme.
III
Unborn by your very nature,
In you no birth exists at all.
Protector, you neither depart nor come —
I prostrate and praise you who are without substance.
IV
In you there is neither being nor non-being.
You are neither nihilism nor eternalism.
You are neither permanent nor impermanent —
I prostrate and praise you who are non-dual.
V
Neither red, nor green, nor tawny,
Neither yellow, nor white, nor black —
No colour at all exists in you.
I prostrate and praise you who are free from colour.
VI
You are neither great nor small,
Neither coarse nor subtle.
The realm of long and short does not apply to you —
I prostrate and praise you who are beyond measure.
VII
Through wisdom you do not abide in existence.
Through compassion you do not abide in peace.
You abide neither in nirvāṇa nor in saṃsāra —
I prostrate and praise you who abide nowhere.
VIII
Abiding in no dharma whatsoever,
You have realized all dharmas in your mind.
Relying on the supremely profound itself —
I prostrate and praise you who are profound.
IX
To praise thus may count as praise —
Otherwise, how could one praise you?
When all dharmas are empty,
Who is praised, and who is the one who praises?
X
Without limit and without centre,
Having completely abandoned subject and object —
I prostrate and praise you who are free from all thought.
XI
By the merit of this recitation
Of the true ultimate names
Of the supreme protector Mañjughoṣa,
May this world become like the Sugata.
Colophon
Ācārya Nāgārjuna (Tib. སློབ་དཔོན་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ, Slob-dpon Klu-sgrub), c. 2nd–3rd century CE, is the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhism and among the most influential philosophers in any tradition. This hymn is one of his stotras preserved in the Tibetan Tengyur, a collection of praise-poems (bstod pa) that complement his rigorous philosophical treatises with devotional verse.
The poem’s subject is Mañjuśrī — the bodhisattva of wisdom — but its true subject is the nature of ultimate reality (paramārtha) as understood by the Madhyamaka. Each verse performs a systematic negation: coming and going (I, III), existence and non-existence (IV), permanence and impermanence (IV), colour (V), size (VI), and abiding (VII–VIII). This apophatic method — stripping away every possible predicate — echoes the eight negations of the dedication verse of Nāgārjuna’s own Mūlamadhyamakakārikā: "without cessation, without arising, without annihilation, without permanence, without coming, without going, neither one meaning nor different meanings."
The climactic ninth verse dissolves the act of praise itself: when all dharmas are empty, there is no object of praise and no subject who praises. Yet the poem continues — the tenth verse offers prostration to the one "free from all thought," and the dedication aspires to the merit of having spoken these names. This is the crosstruth at the poem’s heart: devotion and emptiness are not opposed. The praise of what cannot be praised is itself the highest praise.
Verse VII articulates the doctrine of non-abiding nirvāṇa (apratiṣṭhita-nirvāṇa): through wisdom the bodhisattva does not remain in cyclic existence; through compassion the bodhisattva does not withdraw into the peace of nirvāṇa. Abiding nowhere, Mañjuśrī is available everywhere — the sword of wisdom that does not rest.
Verse X is a three-line half-verse, unusual in a poem of regular four-line stanzas. The truncation may be intentional: as the categories of predication are exhausted, even the form of the verse dissolves.
Originally composed in Sanskrit (Ārya-bhaṭṭāraka-mañjuśrī-paramārtha-stuti-nāma). The Sanskrit original is lost. The Tibetan colophon states: "The Ultimate Praise of Noble Lord Mañjuśrī, composed from the mouth of the great master Nāgārjuna. Complete." The Tibetan translator is not named in the Degē edition.
Good Works Translation from Tibetan. Translated by Zangpo (Tibetan Translator tulku, Life 223), New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. No existing English translation was consulted. Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degē Tengyur digital edition (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur, CC0).
Companion text: Praise of the Compassion of Mañjuśrī (Āryamañjuśrīkāruṇāstuti, D1132) — Nāgārjuna's devotional counterpart to this apophatic hymn, praising Mañjuśrī's compassion where this hymn negates every predicate until devotion and emptiness become one.
This archive also holds thirteen other Nāgārjuna stotras from the Tengyur, including the complete Catuḥstava (Four Hymns): Nirupamastava (D1119), Lokātītastava (D1120), Paramārthastava (D1122), and Acintyastava (D1128).
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Source Text: འཕགས་པ་རྗེ་བཙུན་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱི་དོན་དམ་པའི་བསྟོད་པ
Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degē Tengyur digital edition (Esukhia/derge-tengyur, GitHub, CC0). Volume 001 (bsTod tshogs, ka), folios 80a.5–80b.5. Tohoku catalogue number D1131.
༄༅༅། །རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཨཱརྱ་བྷནྚཱ་ར་ཀ་མཉྫུ་ཤྲཱི་པ་ར་མ་ཨརྠ་སྟུ་ཏི་ནཱ་མ།
བོད་སྐད་དུ།། འཕགས་པ་རྗེ་བཙུན་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱི་དོན་དམ་པའི་བསྟོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ།
འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
བྱོན་པ་མ་ལགས་བཞུད་མི་མངའ། །བཞེངས་པ་མ་ལགས་བཞུགས་མི་མངའ། །འཇིག་རྟེན་པ་ལས་ཤིན་ཏུ་འདས། །ཚིག་ལས་འདས་པའི་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་ལགས།
།མགོན་པོ་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཇི་ལྟར་བསྟོད། །འོན་ཀྱང་འཇིག་རྟེན་བཏགས་རྟེན་གྱིས། །ཁྱོད་ནི་ཅི་འདྲ་དེ་བཞིན་དུ། །བདག་གིས་གུས་པས་བླ་མ་བསྟོད།
།ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་མ་སྐྱེས་ཏེ། །ཁྱོད་ལ་སྐྱེ་བ་ཡོང་མི་མངའ། །མགོན་པོ་གཤེགས་དང་བྱོན་མི་མངའ། །དངོས་མེད་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད།
།ཁྱོད་ལ་དངོས་དང་དངོས་མེད་མིན། །ཆད་པ་མ་ལགས་ཐེར་ཟུག་མིན། །ཁྱོད་རྟག་མ་ལགས་མི་རྟག་མིན། །གཉིས་མེད་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད།
།དམར་དང་ལྗང་དང་ལེ་བརྒན་དང་། །སེར་དང་དཀར་དང་གནག་མ་ལགས། །ཁྱོད་ལ་ཁ་དོག་ཡོང་མི་མངའ། །མདོག་བྲལ་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད།
།ཁྱོད་ནི་ཆེ་དང་ཆུང་བ་དང་། །སྦོམ་དང་ཕྲ་བ་ཁྱོད་མིན་ཏེ། །རིང་དང་ཐུང་བའི་ཁམས་མ་ལགས། །ཚད་མེད་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད།
།ཤེས་པས་སྲིད་ལ་མི་གནས་ཤིང་། །སྙིང་རྗེས་ཞི་ལ་མི་གནས་ཏེ། །མྱ་ངན་འདས་དང་འཁོར་མི་གནས། །མི་གནས་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད།
།ཆོས་རྣམས་ཀུན་ལ་མི་གནས་ཤིང་། །ཆོས་ཀུན་རྟོགས་པར་ཐུགས་སུ་ཆུད། །མཆོག་ཏུ་ཟབ་པ་ཉིད་བརྟེན་པ། །ཟབ་པ་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད།
།དེ་ལྟར་བསྟོད་ན་བསྟོད་བགྲང་གི། །གཞན་དུ་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཇི་ལྟར་བསྟོད། །ཆོས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྟོང་པ་ལ། །སུ་ལ་བསྟོད་ཅིང་སུ་ཡིས་བསྟོད།
།མཐའ་མ་མཆིས་ཤིང་དབུས་མ་མཆིས། །གཟུང་དང་འཛིན་པ་རྣམ་སྤངས་པའི། །རྟོག་བྲལ་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད།
།བླ་མ་མགོན་པོ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་ཀྱི། །དོན་དམ་ཡང་དག་མཚན་བརྗོད་པའི། །བསོད་ནམས་འདི་ཡིས་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདི། །བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ་འདྲ་བར་ཤོག
འཕགས་པ་རྗེ་བཙུན་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱི་དོན་དམ་པའི་བསྟོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་ཞལ་སྔ་ནས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།།
Source Colophon
Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degē Tengyur digital edition, file 001 (བསྟོད་ཚོགས, Eulogy section), folios 80a.5–80b.5. Tohoku catalogue number D1131.
The Esukhia digital Tengyur (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur) is released under CC0 (public domain dedication). Input by the Esukhia team from the Degē Parphud (Toh. 3835–4568) xylographic prints.
Folio markers removed for readability. Variant markers ({word1,word2}) resolved to the first reading. The octothorpe (#) corrections in the Esukhia edition have been silently incorporated.
Other works by Nāgārjuna in the Good Work Library: A Drop of Nourishment for the People · Awakening the Unawakened · Commentary on the Essence of the Dharma-Realm · Commentary on the One Hundred Letters · Commentary on the Refutation of Objections · Commentary on the Seventy Verses on Emptiness · Deliverance from Hell · Discourse on Giving · Discourse on Transcending Existence · Exposition of the Heart of Dependent Origination · One Hundred Letters · Praise for Pleasing Sentient Beings · Praise in Adoration · Praise of the Compassion of Mañjuśrī · Praise of the Dharmadhātu · Praise of the Incomparable One · Praise of the Inconceivable · Praise of the Perfection of Wisdom · Praise of the Stūpas of the Eight Great Holy Sites · Praise of the Three Bodies · Praise of the Twelve Deeds · Praise of Ultimate Reality · Praise of the Vajra of Mind · Praise of the World-Transcendent · Praise Transcending Praise · Refutation of Objections · Seventy Verses on Emptiness · Sixty Verses on Reasoning · The Akutobhayā · The Door for Entering into the Three Bodies · The Dream Wish-Fulfilling Jewel · The Hundred Wisdoms · The Rite of Generating the Awakening Mind · The Staff of Wisdom · The Vaidaḷyasūtra · Transference of Existence · Twenty Verses on the Great Vehicle · Unsurpassed Praise · Verses on the Heart of Dependent Origination · Verses on the Rice Seedling
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