A Sweet and Pleasing Melody for Pelden Lhamo

Praises addressed to the glorious goddess Kali

by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

Namo shrī Mahākālī devīye

Goddess emanated from the mind of the Great Glorious One,

No-self, emptiness, the ultimate dharmadhātu,
With the highest of all qualities perfectly endowed,
I praise you, O Samantabhadri, pervader of samsara and nirvana.

The space of suchness is devoid of all conceptual attributes

And yet within this state of birthlessness you appear to be born.
Goddess of all changing aspects—peaceful, wrathful, passionate—
You of a thousand aspects and a hundred names I praise.

As the leaf-clad goddess Parṇaśavarī,

As the eight Gaurī goddesses—you manifest in every kind of form.
Vajra seductress enthralling the three worlds,
I bow to you with praise O Glorious Queen of Space.

Of phenomenal existence you are the five elements;

The solidity, fluidity, warmth, agility,
The perfect harmony of the four seasons, Queen whose vesture is the sky,
Praise to you, Great Mother, who bring forth both samsara and nirvana!

Vajra Queen, within the centre of your spreading lotus

Endless mandalas are ever found like seeds within a pod of sesame.
In the great and secret Akanishtha
You are the Queen of secrets, glorious yogini, to you I sing my praise.

The absence of intrinsic being is your nature; all thought of self is gone.
Laid to rest are all the fictions of the mind.
Luminosity endowed with the highest of all qualities,
Nature of Transcendent Wisdom, to you I sing my praise.

You arise in bodies of form within the space of emptiness

As the five sambhogakaya female buddhas.
You have attained the summit of the ten grounds and the ten perfections.
O glorious self-arisen queen, to you I bow in praise.

With many consorts, skilful means,

Heruka and haughty Mahadeva—
You display the fourfold union.
Great goddess of illusory display, to you I bow in praise.

I praise you who are constantly aglow in the enjoyment

Of supreme and unstained pleasure,

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Free of the defilement of emission,
And replete with lunar nectar from the syllable Haṃ!

With compassion free of reference, you love all living beings.

With constant deep emotion like a mother with her only child,
You look down on them with eyes of intense love.
Great bodhisattvī, one and only mother, to you I sing my praise.

In the three times you are present, beforehand, now, and in the future.
Perfectly pervading the fourth time. Great good fortune
For the world and beings, you manifest in many emanated forms.
I praise you, you who without interruption are the guide of beings.

Although abiding in the ultimate expanse, you do not fall

In the extreme of peace, but with a passionate attachment to existence,
And through methods of illusion, for as long as this samsara lasts,
You never cease from your activities. I bow to you.

Goddess Raivati, the gods are in your power.

Protectress of the nagini, Lady of the Conch, you reign over the nagas.
Great queen of rakshasas, and wife of Rāvaṇa,
Queen of dakinis, to you I bow in praise.

Guardian of all the classes of the tantras of the Secret Mantra,

Upon the blazing mountain charnel ground of Akanishtha,
Brazen Faced, you are the wrathful guardian of the Buddha’s word.
You vanquish every enemy in both samsara and nirvana, I praise you.

Remaja, Remaji, Remaju, Airavata,

Shri Devi, wrathful queen of wars and sorcery,
Dorje Shogöma, Sokdrupma and all the other guardians of the teachings—
All these are your emanations and to you I bow in praise.

Your followers are the ox-faced rakshasis who dwell down in the valleys
And the rakshasis of the highland wildernesses who have heads
Of crocodiles and bears, together with a myriad million black Kali goddesses
Swirling like black tempests—I offer perfect praises to them all!

Mighty goddess of ferocious strength within a thousand worlds,

Your force and power rage like apocalyptic fires.
Great one, all the dharmapalas are beneath your sway;
Glorious goddess of the desire realm, to you I sing my praise.

Loving like a mother and kindly like a sister,

You are a great friend to all who practice.
You will be my lady till enlightenment is gained.
Constantly, with a devoted mind, I sing my praise to you.

With the music of these tuneful praises

May my sacred bond with Remati be fulfilled.

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Forgive my errors and transgressions, my breaches and violations of samaya.
Bestow on me the supreme siddhi of enlightenment, I pray.

All worldly and transworldly riches I take in my thought

And offer them to you O mistress of this realm of desire.
With great delight thus generated in your mind,
Carry out without exception the four enlightened actions.

Prosper the Doctrine of the omniscient Buddha, Kinsman of the Sun,

And all those who uphold it. Increase the explanation and practice of the Dharma of
transmission and realization.
Exalt all rulers who protect the Dharma and all patrons.
Cast down and crush all dark forces and their minions.

With enlightened deeds of pacifying, increase, enthrallment,

All those forces, both invisible and visible, who do harm
To us practitioners, to our teachers, sponsors, and associates—
Cause them to have loving hearts.

Like casting a dry log into the fire,

Bring down to dust the names, the clans, and lineages of those
Whose hostile minds cannot be changed by peaceful means.
Bring utterly to naught their very names.

Briefly, let every thought and everything that may appear

Arise as the display of my own mind.
I recognize with certainty that you are Ekajati,
Lady of the ultimate expanse, the space of the one sole dharmakaya sphere.
Spontaneously perform, I pray, your effortless enlightened deeds.

This was spontaneously composed as it came to mind by the wrathful hero Pema Yeshe
Dorje in the Indian city of Kolkata, beloved of the Glorious Goddess Pelden Lhamo.

Translated by Padmakara.