Goddess Of The Week : Tara

[Guest guest]

The Goddess Who Guides Through Troubles

 

I bow to you Mother Nilasarasvati. You give well-being and

auspiciousness. You are situated on the heart of a corpse and are

advancing aggressively. You have three fearful ,bright eyes. You

carry a skull bowl, scissors, and a sword. Your form shines like a

blazing fire. Give me refuge. Give me golden speech. Please let your

gracious nectar drench my heart, remover of pride. You are decorated

with snakes as ornaments, you wear a tiger skin as a skirt, you ring

a bell loudly, and wear a garland of chopped off heads. You are

frightening and remove fear.

 

 

Tantrasara

[Guest guest]

Wow! fantastic! marvellous! fanbuous! magnificent! marvellous!!!

 

words cannot describe my feelings as i view the group page today! the

art work is beautiful! the colors are simply breath-taking- lavender,

purple blue all in perfect harmony with each other!! very pleasing

and soothing to the eyes!

 

 

welcome back, nora!

 

now, Tara ranks second in the ten mahavidyas. there are lot of

similarities between tara and kali - so much so that the post

ramprasad sen uses them interchangebly... but as nora has pointed out

there are apparent differences ae well.

 

Tara holds in her hand scissors as opposed to kali's sword...

 

In tara's yantra the apex points upwards sufgeestive of her nature

of 'dissolution'

 

both kali and tara are shiown as being seated on a supine shiva !

 

She is Blue like 'kali' that is why she is called nilasaraswati! she

is also goddess of sppech - and is shown as being seated on a white

lotus and is called 'vak devi' ! in buddhism there are 23 forms of

tara and the 'green' version is popular.

 

Tara means 'star' - it also means one who is a a 'saviour' - also one

who helps you cross the ocean of samsara...

 

here is a poem to celebrate Tara's role as a 'saviour'

 

tata!, tara! ferry me across!

 

 

Ferry Of The Soul Kalidas Bhattacharya

 

at the end of the following poem, the poet shortens his

name to "Kali" as well, to pun with the name of his

goddess.

 

Oh Tara, ferry of the soul,

help me get across!

I've fallen into the waves

and don't know how to swim.

My body is a worn-out boat

laden heavily with sin.

What can I grasp, what can I do?

I can't cross this ocean of existence on my own.

I thought I'd go to Banaras,

and live the holy life while waiting to die.

But I fell into the waters <br>of the ocean of desire;

now I'm drowning again.

I can't reach either shore,

they're both so far away.

You're the ferryman in the middle-

the poet Kali's only hope is Kali at the helm.

 

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THERE ARE MANY BUDDHISTS IN THIS FORUM AND I INVITE THEM TO WRITE

ON 'TARA' IN BUDDHISM.

 

love