Text 20.14 (Commentary)

[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 20.14]

One should make offerings to the retainers,
The hosts of their concubines, and female servants,
Who desire to be given the residual offering.
One should proclaim well their commitments,
And then command them to perform
The rites which they desire: [14]

[Tibetan]

slas-dang byi-mo bran-mo'i tshogs /
lhag-ma'i mchod-sbyin 'dod-pa sbyin /
rang-gi dam-tshig rab-bsgrags-nas /
gang-'dod las-de byed-par bsgo / [14]

Commentary:

[The Injunctions which Follow these Rites and the Benefits of the Dance-steps and Gesticulations (602.4-606.1):]

The second subdivision (see p. 1257) is an explanation of the injunctions which follow those rites and the benefits of the dance-steps and gesticulations. This has two sections, namely, the injunctions given to those who are under oath, and a teaching on the benefits of dance-steps and gesticulations.

[The former has two aspects, of which the first describes how Injunctions are given concerning the rites. (It comments on Ch. 20.14):]

Immediately after any of these four rites of enlightened activity has been performed, one should partake of the communal feastofferings. The residue (lhag-ma) of food and drink is then gathered and consecrated by the exhaled breath (kha-phru) of the master of indestructible reality.^[1] One should make offerings (sbyin) (of this residue) to the retainers (slas) who gather in the maṇḍala of the Great Glorious One, and (dang) to the wives of the Mahādeva class and to the hosts of their (-'i tshogs) girlfriends or concubines (byi-mo) and female servants (bran-mo), because they are guests who desire to be given the residual offering (lhag-ma'i mchod-sbyin 'dod-ca). Carrying it to an eating-place at a distance of seventy paces,^[2] one should proclaim well (rab-bsgrags) their (rang-gi) respective commitments (dam-tshig), i.e. those which they previously took in the presence of the Great Glorious One (Śrīheruka), and then (nas) command them to perform the rites (las-de bye-par bsgo) such as pacification, which they desire (gang-'dod).

[The second aspect concerns the actual Injunctions which are given. (It comments on Ch. 20.15):]

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Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The "residual offering" (lhag-ma) is gathered during the feast-offering ceremony from each participant and, once consecrated, is offered to those leaser deities of ritual activity, who abide outside the locus of the gaṇacakra, either because are are immobile or because their arrival there would cause obstacles.

[2]:

Tibetan za-lam bdun-cu'i sar bskyal.