Hymns to DEVI : Tara Devi ( Tarastakam)

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O Mother, Devi Nilasaraswati Tara

Refuge with Thee I crave.

Giver of prosperity and wealth art Thou

To those who worship Thee.

Standing on Siva,

Thy right foot upon His breast and left upon His thigh

Ever art Thou, with smiling lotus-like face.

Thy three eyes are, as it were, full-blown lotuses.

In Thy hands, Thou holdest a knife, a skull, a lotus, and a sword.

 

Thou art the presiding Devi of speech.

Thou art the creeper which grants all desires.

Thou art the giver of all siddi,

And the power to write both verse and prose.

Three are Thine eyes, as it were blue lotuses.

Ocean of Kindness and compassion art Thou.

I pray to Thee of Thy mercy shower upon me the nectar of prosperity.

 

O Sharbha, I pray Thee remove my fears,

Proud Lady, brilliant are Thy garments,

Bright with coiling serpents,

Thou are clad in tiger skin,

Thy waist is adorned with tiny tinkling bells.

Thou holdest the heads of two demons

Drippling with blood, just severed by the sword.

Thy waist is girdles with heads of demons,

As it were with a garland.

Thus art Thou beautiful,

O formidable One.

 

O Devi Tara, attained with difficulty,

I take refuge with Thee.

Thou art beautiful with form both amorous and charmful.

Thou art Bindu and the half-moon.

Whose substance is Hrim and Phat

Thou art mantra and the shelter of all.

Thy forms are threefold –

Gross, Subtle, and Supreme.

Thou art beyond the reach of Veda.

 

By the service of Thy lotus feet,

Men of good deed attain sayujya liberation.

O Paramesvari Thou art the Spouse of Him

Who is Brahman, Visn and the three-eyed One.

O Mother! He who neglects to serve Thy lotus feet,

But serves instead the Devas, Indra and others,

Who are themselves pluged in the ocean of samsara.

Is indeed and most truly ignorant.

 

O Mother! Those Devas who receive on their crowns

The polent which comes from Thy lotus-like feet.

Are able to keep their promise of conquest,

And to gain victory over their enemies in battle –

Such, without a doubt, are sheltered in Thy lap.

But their enemies who send forth the defiant challenge.

"I am a Deva, and none is equal to me in the whole world"

Perish and meet such death as befits them.

 

Bhuta, Preta, Pisacha, Raksasa,

Daitya, foremost of Danava, Yaksa, Lords of Naga.

Wrathful Dakini, great birds, tigers and other dreadful creatures

Forthwith take flight at but the remembrance of Thy name,

And are powerless to do aught of evil.

 

Who serves Thy lotus feet, to him siddhi is given.

He surpasses the Lord of Speech.

And obtains the beauty of Kama,

He can charm and paralyze multitudes of elephants upon the field of

battle,

And has power to stay the flow of water.

The Siddha and prosperity are under his control.

 

Phalasloka

Whoever, being pure and self-controlled,

Reads this eight-versed hymns to Tara,

At morn, at noon, at evening,

To him is given

The power to write beautifully in prose or verse,

Knowledge in all Sastra,

Imperishable fortune,

The Enjoyment of whatsoever he may desire,

Fame, beauty, and wealth,

The love of all men,

And at the end liberation.

>From Nila Tantra

Arthur Avalon