Text 17.3 (Commentary)

[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 17.3]

Resplendent with skulls, snakes,
Diverse things, and sunlight,
And shimmering with many flaming bursts. [3]

[Tibetan]

thod-sbrul sna-tshogs nyi-mas brjid /
'bar-ba'i 'phro-ba mang-po 'khrug / [3]

Commentary:

[ii. As for the ornaments with which it is adorned (commenting on Ch. 17.3):]

For the most part this description resembles that of the afore-mentioned (palace of the peaceful deities).^[1] in particular however, it has walls of dry and moist skulls (thod), girded by wreaths of black snakes (sbrul); it is adorned with diverse things (sna-tshogs) including tassles of skulls and snakes, window appertures of sun and moon, beams of Brahmā gods, pillars of supreme human corpses (mchog-chen), pillar-bases of tortoise, laths of human corpses, planks of supreme animal corpses (mchog-phran), roof slates of human skins, necklaces of intestine, halfnecklaces of hearts, and the four gates have thresholds of tortoise, lintels of crocodile, steps (skyes-bu) of black snakes, and door-panels of charnel ground cadavers. It is resplendent with (brjid) roof-parapets and ornaments of sunlight (nyi-mas), moonlight, and planets and stars, and it is beautified by shimmering ('khrug) light-rays and with many (mang-po) rings of fiery sparks which burst ('phro-ba) forth into the ten directions from the tips of their flaming ('bar-ba'i) blaze.

[The third concerns the distinctive features of their seats (It comments on Ch. 17.4):]

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Footnotes and references:

[1]:

See above. Ch. 6, sections 2-5.