Chapter 17 - Revelation of the Maṇḍala of Wrathful Deities

Then the Transcendent Lord, the Great Joyous One, uttered this following meaningful expression in order to reveal the maṇḍala of these (wrathful deities). [1]

The blazing maṇḍala with its four spokes
Is adorned with four corners,
Endowed with quadrangular shape and four embrasured gates.
It is beautified by two blazing courtyards, [2]
Resplendent with skulls, snakes,
Diverse things, and sunlight,
And shimmering with many flaming bursts. [3]

(Supported) by the talons of bull,
Buffalo, leopard, tiger, and fierce bear,
The mighty lords beginning with Mahādeva are in union. [4]

The terrifying Buddha-bodies are dark-brown.
Dark-blue, dark-yellow, dark-red, and dark-green,
With three heads, six arms, and four legs wide apart. [5]

They wear various raw hides—
Snakes, skull-garlands, and garb of sun and moon.
They roar in a great voice, awesome and terrifying. [6]

To represent the chillocosm and its horizon
They wield diverse hand-implements,
Including vajra, human skull-cup filled (with blood),
Sword, axe, and ploughshare.
And they are embraced by the terrifying host of their queens. [7]

These (deities) are well beautified
By the mudrās of the sensory locations,
By the mudrās of the sense-objects
And by the mudrās of the four (sensory) gates. [8]

They are beautified by their retainers,
And a host of concubines and maid-servants,
Twenty-eight in number.
These maintain their own seats,
Hand-implements, and servile guises. [9]

With these words, throughout the ten directions of the six world-systems the entire blazing maṇḍala became radiant. [10]

This completes the seventeenth chapter from the Secret Nucleus Definitive with respect to the Real, entitled Revelation of the Maṇḍala of Wrathful Deities. [11]