Original Tibetan text by Geshe Ngagi Wangchuk:
English translation:
Ornament for Bringing Joy to the Faithful:
A Syllable-by-Syllable Commentary for Dispelling Doubts Regarding the Name Mantra of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
Tibetan title: gong sa rgyal ba’i dbang po bcu bzhi pa mchog gi mtshan sngags ‘bru ‘grel dogs sel dad ldan dga’ ba’i rgyan zhes bya ba bzhugs so
by Géshe Ngagi Wangchuk (dge bshes ngag gi dbang phyug)
Translated from the Tibetan by E.R.R. Neiss
The Name Mantra of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is as follows:
ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿ གུ་རུ་བཛྲ་དྷ་ར་བྷཊྚཱ་ར་ཀ་མཉྫུ་ཤྲཱི་ཝཱགིནྡྲ་སུ་མ་ཏི་ཛྙཱ་ན་ཤཱ་ས་ན་དྷ་ར་ས་མུ་དྲ་ཤྲཱི་བྷ་དྲ་སརྦ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུཾ་ཧཱུཾ།
OṂ ĀḤ GURU VAJRADHARA BHAṬṬĀRAKA MAÑJUŚRĪ VĀGINDRA SUMATI JÑĀNA ŚĀSANADHARA SAMUDRA ŚRĪBHADRA SARVA SIDDHI HŪṂ HŪṂ
Tibetan pronunciation:
OM ĀḤ GURU BADZRADHARA BHAṬṬĀRAKA MAÑDZUSHRĪ WĀGINDRA SUMATI DZÑĀNA SHĀSANADHARA SAMUDRA SHRĪBHADRA SARBA SIDDHI HŪNG HŪNG
Tibetan correspondence to the Sanskrit Mantra:
༄ སྐུ་གསུང་བླ་མ་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་རྗེ་བཙུན་འཇམ་དཔལ་ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་ཡེ་ཤེས་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་དངོས་གྲུབ་སྩོལ་ཐུགས།།
sku gsung bla ma rdo rje ‘chang rje btsun ‘jam dpal ngag dbang blo bzang ye shes bstan ‘dzin rgya mtsho dpal bzang po thams cad dngos grub stsol thugs
OṂ: Awakened or Enlightened Body (sku).
ĀḤ: Awakened or Enlightened Speech (gsung).
GURU: Master, Mentor or Teacher (bla ma).
VAJRA: Diamond or thunderbolt (rdo rje).
DHARA: Holder, bearer or upholder (‘chang).
BHAṬṬĀ: Lord or king (rje)
RAKA: Reverend or venerable (btsun).
MAÑJU: Gentle or tender (‘jam).
ŚRĪ: Glory or splendor (dpal).
VĀGINDRA: Master of Speech (ngag dbang).
SUMATI: Noble-minded or good-hearted (blo bzang). SU is ‘good’ or ‘noble’ (bzang) and MATI is ‘mind’, ‘heart’ or ‘intellect’ (blo).
JÑĀNA: Deep Wisdom (ye shes). JÑĀ is ‘deep’ or ‘primordial’ (ye) and NA is ‘wisdom’ or ‘knowledge’ (shes).
ŚĀSANA: Teachings or Doctrine (bstan).
DHARA: Holder, bearer or upholder (‘dzin).
SAMUDRA: Ocean (rgya mtsho). SA is ‘lake’ or ‘sea’ (mtsho) and MUDRA is ‘vast’ or ‘extensive’ (rgya).
ŚRĪ: Glory or splendor (dpal).
BHADRA: Good, excellent or noble (bzang po).
SARVA: All (thams cad).
SIDDHI: Spiritual attainments or spiritual accomplishments (dngos grub).
HŪṂ: Please grant! Please bestow! (stsol).
HŪṂ: Awakened or Enlightened Mind (thugs).
If one were to recite this [Name Mantra of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama] according to the order in Tibetan language [and grammar], it is as follows:
བླ་མ་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་རྗེ་བཙུན་འཇམ་དཔལ་ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་ཡེ་ཤེས་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོའི་སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་དངོས་གྲུབ་མ་ལུས་པ་སྩོལ།
bla ma rdo rje ‘chang rje btsun ‘jam dpal ngag dbang blo bzang ye shes bstan ‘dzin rgya mtso dpal bzang po’i sku gsung thugs kyi dngos grub ma lus pa stsol
LA-MA DOR-JÉ-CH’ANG JÉ-TSÜN JAM-PEL NGAK-WANG LO-ZANG YÉ-SHEY TEN-DZIN GYA-TS’O PEL-ZANG-PO’I KU SUNG T’UK KYI NGÖ-DRUP MA-LÜ-PA TSÖL
Please bestow the spiritual attainments (siddhi) of the Awakened Body, Speech and Mind of the Guru, the Vajradhara, the Reverend Lord, Jampel Ngakwang Lozang Yéshey Tendzin Gyatso Pelzangpo, all without exception.
ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿ གུ་རུ་བཛྲ་དྷ་ར་བྷཊྚཱ་ར་ཀ་མཉྫུ་ཤྲཱི་ཝཱགིནྡྲ་སུ་མ་ཏི་ཛྙཱ་ན་ཤཱ་ས་ན་དྷ་ར་ས་མུ་དྲ་ཤྲཱི་བྷ་དྲ་སརྦ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུཾ་ཧཱུཾ།
OṂ ĀḤ GURU VAJRADHARA BHAṬṬĀRAKA MAÑJUŚRĪ VĀGINDRA SUMATI JÑĀNA ŚĀSANADHARA SAMUDRA ŚRĪBHADRA SARVA SIDDHI HŪṂ HŪṂ
Tibetan pronunciation:
OM ĀḤ GURU BADZRADHARA BHAṬṬĀRAKA MAÑDZUSHRĪ WĀGINDRA SUMATI DZÑĀNA SHĀSANADHARA SAMUDRA SHRĪBHADRA SARBA SIDDHI HŪNG HŪNG
If you wonder what the reason is for writing and giving commentary in this way, it is as follows. These days we encounter about five (5) differing versions of the Name Mantra for His Holiness the 14th Dalai1. However, some of them write dots between syllables (tsheg) in places where writing as such is inappropriate, thereby inserting below what ought to be inserted above; while some do not write dots between syllables in places where writing as such is necessary, thereby inserting above what ought to be inserted below. Moreover, some of them are incomplete; while some are mixed up, due to not explaining the words and their respective meanings as they should be. This being the case, I have revised and corrected it accordingly.
For example, the first ṬA (ཊ, in བྷཊྚཱ) must be inserted together with BHA (བྷ, in the same ‘syllable’ between the two dots) and placed above (in the letter stack), but if a dot (tsheg) is written there, then it (ṬA) will have to be placed below. It must be written like this:
བྷཊྚཱ་ར་ཀ་
BHAṬṬĀRAKA
The two ṬA-s stacked on top of one another to form ṬṬĀ (ཊྚཱ) are not two ḌA-s (ཌྜ).
Furthermore, VĀKA (in VĀGINDRA) means ‘speech’, and INDRA (in VĀGINDRA) means ‘master’. Consequently, here (in VĀGINDRA), for the KA (the second syllable in VĀKA), the (final) –A is either omitted or disappears (when VĀKA and INDRA are joined together); and thereby it (KA) transforms into a –G. Thus it is written simply as GI (གི); and hence it is a mistake if a dot (tsheg) is written between VĀ and G.
ཝཱགིནྡྲ་
VĀGINDRA
Here, because the writing of dots between syllables (tsheg) in Tibetan for Sanskrit (words) is like a raw and fresh pith instruction2 of the great translators (Lotsāwa-s) of the past, if this (the writing of dots or tsheg) is not corrupted, then even if there were (otherwise) no complications in producing the various sounds (of the Name Mantra)3, it is certainly a pivotal point for not causing disorder; and hence caution is required. This being so, I have arranged the pronunciation according to the inmost intent of that has been laid out in the qualified translations of the scriptural teachings by the Three Great Translators: The Sun, the Moon and the Star.4
With respect to the subject at hand, due to the infallible truth of the Sublime Dharma and Dependent Arising, if disciples these days recite this [Name Mantra of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama] from within the state of an unwavering mind of faith, then, because it is clear that the heartfelt aspiration of this Guru (His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama) is solely that of the great benefit of His disciples, the stability of this Guru’s longevity is hence also a great spiritual attainment (siddhi) of the present time for His disciples. And moreover, this too (the stability of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama’s longevity) depends upon the accumulation of good karmic potential (or merit) by His disciples.
In particular, the fact that this Precious Guru of us children Himself (His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama), like one who has never before arisen here on this round world, still dwells each year, and moreover that He substantially contributes, in a practical way, to the spread of peace and the Mind of Enlightenment (bodhicitta) here on this great Earth is, indeed, a true wonder. And it is manifestly apparent that He has been in the process of promulgating spiritual faith, in accordance with one’s personal inclination, among the emissaries of the Divine (or ultimate source of truth5) in every tradition; including those of advanced scientists, Christians, Muslims and Hindus. Furthermore, He is an invaluable great mass of precious gems who has acted as a trailblazer, by establishing a tradition of benefiting both self and others through the mind of loving-kindness and compassion; even among those who do not adhere to any religion.
In brief, it is certain that a Guru such as this (His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama) is a wish-fulfilling gem, one which is greater than the great, for all the living beings in the world collectively; and therefore, those who recognize this gem herein have effectively utilized the significance of taking a human body.
Thus, having entered under the protection of this Sublime Great Being (His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama), and thinking about what good fortune that is; with a prayer of aspiration that His lotus feet may forever remain firm, and for the accomplishment of His desired aims without hindrance, Ngagi Wangchuk, on April 11th, 2019 CE, which in his own country, the Snowy Land (of Tibet), is the 6th day of the waxing moon in the middle of April’s Spring in the Earth Pig Year of the Sixty-Year Tibetan Astrological Cycle, by the reckoning of the P’uk system6, at the break of dawn on that (astrologically) positive day, one on which two Wind elements converge and when wishes can be swiftly fulfilled, taking the stable longevity of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama as the particular focus of intent, wrote this down; as faith increased.
Translated from the Tibetan by E.R.R. Neiss. This text was translated in mid-April 2019, and completed on April 20th, 2019.
1 rgyal ba’i mtshan sngags
2 man ngag dmar rjen ma
3 sgra sgrub sna tshogs kyi rnyog zing med kyang
4 lo chen nyi zla skar gsum, ‘The Three Great Translators: The Sun, the Moon and the Star’. Namely, the Sun is Lotsāwa Kawa Peltsek (lo tshaa ba ka ba dpal brtsegs), the Moon is Chokro Lotsāwa, Lui Gyeltsen (lcog ro lo tshaa ba klu’i rgyal mtshan), and the Star is Lotsāwa Rinchen Zangpo (lo tshaa ba rin chen bzang po). Meanwhile, Lotsāwa Bérotsana (lo tshaa ba bai ro tsa na) is considered to be the ‘Sky’, probably signaling his primary importance in the earlier Sanskrit-Tibetan translations. Kawa Pelstek and Chokro Lotsāwas were, like Bérotsana, disciples of Padmasambhava, and hence contemporaneous with them both from roughly the mid-700s to early 800s; while Rinchen Zangpo was later and lived from 958 to 1055. The astronomical simile expressing their collective preeminence is recounted in the famous quotation by Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sheyrab (rngogs lo tshaa ba blo ldan shes rab, 1059-1109) as follows:
Bérotsana, equal to the limits of the sky,
The duo of Kawa and Chok, the pair of sun and moon,
And Rinchen Zangpo, like unto the great star of dawn;
Compared to them, we are mere fireflies.
bai ro tsa na gnam mkha’i mtha’ dang mnyam/
ka lcog gnyis ni nyi zla zung gcig ste/
rin chen bzang po tho rangs skar chen ‘dra/
kho ba yang ni srin ‘bus me khyer bzhin/
5 dkon chog, here in the sense of ‘supreme or ultimate refuge’, with respect to the views of all religious and non-religious systems.
6 bod rab gnas sa phag phug lugs dpyid ‘bring yar tshes drug
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