[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Buddhist Sanskrit literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit) › [Protective spells and dhāraṇī-sūtras](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani) › [Other dhāraṇīs](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other) › [Dhāraṇīs for Purification](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification) › [Sarvakarmāvaraṇaviśodhanīnāmadhāraṇī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani) › [འཕགས་པ་ལས་ཀྱི་སྒྲིབ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་རྣམ་པར་སྦྱོང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009) › The Dhāraṇī “Purifying All Karmic Obscurations” # The Dhāraṇī “Purifying All Karmic Obscurations” Translation of [འཕགས་པ་ལས་ཀྱ་སྒྲབ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་རྣམ་པར་སྦྱང་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས (འཕགས་པ་ལས་ཀྱི་སྒྲིབ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་རྣམ་པར་སྦྱོང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009) - **Language:** English - **Translators:** [Gergely Hidas](https://indike.org/pramana/person/gergely-hidas), [Péter-Dániel Szántó](https://indike.org/pramana/person/peter-daniel-szanto) - **Extent:** 33 passages, 1,860 words - **Text:** partly digitised - **Source:** 84000 · Published by 84000 (v 1.1.0 2024). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha,… · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha). Shown whole and unaltered, with its notes, on a… ## Contents - [intro 84000's introduction](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.intro) — 5 parts - [1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.1) - [2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.2) - [notes Notes](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes) — 26 parts ## Text ### 84000's introduction ### [intro.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.intro.1) The Dhāraṇī “Purifying All Karmic Obscurations” is a relatively brief text consisting of a short dhāraṇī and a passage about its applications and benefits. Most applications have to do with death and funerary rituals, as the text provides many methods to aid the departed toward a favorable rebirth. ### [intro.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.intro.2) The Dhāraṇī “Purifying All Karmic Obscurations” is a short but important text providing many teachings to aid the dead toward a favorable rebirth. The text provides glimpses into the types of practices Buddhist communities in India and Tibet undertook for a situation that affects us all: the death of a loved one. The most important canonical text in this regard is The Tantra Purifying All Evil Destinies (Toh 483), and indeed, if the form of the dhāraṇī is anything to go by, our text does seem to have some kind of connection with that major scripture. ### [intro.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.intro.3) The evidence for the original Sanskrit is somewhat thin: a mere fragment of two and a half lines in an Indian Compilation of Dhāraṇīs.¹ However, even from this small fragment, which contains the full dhāraṇī and a passage from the applications, we can surmise that the version transmitted in India was somewhat different. We also know of an eponymous goddess who is clearly a personified dhāraṇī from the Indian tradition. The distinguished and influential scholar Abhayākaragupta in his Niṣpanna­yogāvalī describes her as an inhabitant of the Dharmadhātuvāgīśvara maṇḍala, green in color and holding a white lotus with a red tint marked by a vajra scepter with three prongs. ² ### [intro.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.intro.4) The Tibetan translation is recorded in the imperial catalogs³ and there is at least one Dunhuang witness available to us.⁴ Unfortunately, the identity of the translators was not recorded, or if there was once a record, this has not survived. This witness from the famous Dunhuang collection is, despite its age, not a perfect copy. However, it provides some interesting variant readings, which we discuss in the notes to the translation. This text is included in both the Action Tantra section (Toh 743) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section (Toh 1009) of the Degé Kangyur and other Tshalpa-lineage Kangyurs that include such a separate section. As far as we are aware, there is no extant Chinese translation. ### [intro.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.intro.5) This English translation was made principally on the basis of the Tibetan translations of the text found in the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus) of the Degé Kangyur in consultation with the Stok Palace Kangyur. We also compared these texts carefully against the Dunhuang witness, as will be evident from the notes that mark all major discrepancies. Additionally, we consulted the Sanskrit manuscript fragment, a transcript of which we include here in an appendix. ### [1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.1) Obeisance to the Blessed Akṣobhya! namo ratna­trayāya | oṃ kaṅkani kaṅkani rocani rocani troṭani troṭani trāsani trāsani pratihana pratihana sarva­karma­param­parāṇi me svāhā | ⁵ The application of this dhāraṇī is as follows: If one recites it constantly,⁶ the entire succession of karma will be purified one by one. If one recites it at the three junctures of the day,⁷ even the five sins of immediate retribution will be purified. If one recites it once, bad omens, bad dreams, and inauspicious events will disappear. If one holds it on one’s body or writes it into a booklet and⁸ wears it tied around one’s neck, one will never experience any of the untimely deaths. If one is overcome with compassion and recites it into the ears of a moribund⁹ beast, bird, human, or nonhuman being, that being will not be reborn in the unfavorable destinies. Moreover, if somebody has died some time ago and one recites it one hundred, one thousand, or one hundred thousand times, with friendly kindness and compassion, in the name of the dead person,¹⁰ that sentient being will be liberated at that very moment, even if they have already been born in the hells. If one recites it over some earth, or sesame seeds, or mustard seeds, or water and scatters that over the corpse, or washes the corpse,¹¹ and then has it cremated,¹² or places it for keeping in a caitya,¹³ or if one writes the spell and places it on their head, that person will certainly be liberated in seven days, even if already born in an unfavorable destiny. That person will be reborn in a favorable destiny, ### [2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.2) among the gods, or wherever the aspirational prayer wished. If one undergoes purification by ritually bathing throughout the waxing fortnight of the moon, changes clothes three times a day, fasts or eats white meals, and recites the spell one hundred thousand times in the name of a dead person,¹⁴ while circumambulating a caitya containing a relic, that person will be liberated from the lower realms. That person will then be reborn among the gods of the Pure Abodes and appear in front of the practitioner,¹⁵ perform worship, manifest his own appearance,¹⁶ congratulate the practitioner,¹⁷ circumambulate him three times, and then finally disappear. If one writes down a dead person’s name, recites the spell, and creates one hundred thousand caityas ¹⁸ worshiped with parasols, banners, streamers,¹⁹ and so on, and casts them into the sea or a great river, then that person will be liberated from the hells, and so on.²⁰ Alternatively, having performed worship in the same way, if at the end one constructs a great caitya at a crossroads, worships it with parasols, banners, streamers, and so on, and then offers a meal and makes donations to the noble monastic community in worship²¹—as well as proclaims, “May this become a root of merit for so-and-so!²² Indeed, by this,²³ may he attain a favorable rebirth among the gods!”—that person will be reborn there, manifest his own appearance, offer one congratulations,²⁴ and then disappear. ²⁵Whether one has committed the five sins of immediate retribution, or whether one is an apostate of the true Dharma, or whether one has disrespected the noble ones, if one sees this dhāraṇī, say, written on a wall at the time of death, all one’s karmic obscurations will cease, how much more so if one chants and recites it! That very tathāgata shall come to one and say “Noble son! Come to me!”²⁶ ### Notes ### [notes.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.1) 1. Published from Cambridge University Library Ms. Add. 1680.8.3 and marked at the time as “unidentified” in Hidas 2021, p. 42. ### [notes.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.2) 2. Lee 2004, p. 79: Sarva­karmāvaraṇaviśodhanī haritā tri­śūka­vajrāṅkasitaraktakamaladharā; Toh 3141, folios 127.b–128.a: las dang sgrib pa thams cad rnam par sel ba ljang gu ste rdo rje rtse gsum pas mtshan pa’i padma dkar dmar ’dzin pa’o ||. The Tibetan translation las dang is surprising, as we would expect las kyi. ### [notes.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.3) 3. Denkarma, folio 303.a; no. 415 in Herrmann-Pfandt, pp. 237–38; and no. 382 in Kawagoe 2005, p. 21. ### [notes.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.4) 4. Pelliot tibétain 49.3; Pelliot tibétain 49 itself is a kind of proto-Compilation of Dhāraṇīs. The identity of the text was first determined by Lalou 1939, pp. 16–17. ### [notes.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.5) 5. The translation of this dhāraṇī is: “Obeisance to the Three Jewels! Oṃ, kaṅkani kaṅkani radiant, radiant, destroyer, destroyer, trembler, trembler, remove, remove my entire succession of karma, svāhā!” The reading in the Dunhuang manuscript (henceforth marked as Z) is corrupt at the end: na mo rad na tra ya ya | om ka ka ni | ka ka ni | ro tsa ni | ro tsa ni | tro tha ni | tro tha ni | tra sa ni | tra sa ni | pra ti hA ni | pra ti hA ni | sa rwa pA ra mA | pA ra mA | pA ri ni mA swA hA. Also, note that the Sanskrit differs slightly. ### [notes.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.6) 6. Z is marred by a serious eyeskip here: the text jumps two sentences, reading, “If one recites it constantly \[…\] bad omens,” etc., with the bracketed ellipsis marking the omitted text. ### [notes.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.7) 7. Normally “the three times” (dus gsum) refers to “the past, the present, and the future,” but in the present context, it must mean “at the three junctures” (i.e., dawn, noon, and dusk). Cf. Candrakīrti’s Pradīpoddyotana (Chakravarti 1984, p. 189 and p. 215 respectively): triṣkālaṃ sandhyātraye and triṣkālaṃ trisandhyam. ### [notes.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.8) 8. Z reads “or” (sam) instead of “and” (nas). The canonical reading is not impossible if we understand the booklet to be very small. ### [notes.9](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.9) 9. Z reads “at the time of death” (’chi ba’i tshe) instead of “of a moribund” (’chi ba’i). ### [notes.10](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.10) 10. That is to say, the dhāraṇī is customized by replacing the me (“my”) with the name of the beneficiary in the genitive. ### [notes.11](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.11) 11. If the empowered substance was water. ### [notes.12](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.12) 12. The Stok Palace manuscript reads “worshipped” (mchod) instead of “cremated” (bsreg), which is also the reading of Z. ### [notes.13](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.13) 13. A funerary caitya (mchod rten); Z has a fascinating variant, “tomb” (mchad pa). It is not impossible that the text was customized to fit local practices around Dunhuang. ### [notes.14](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.14) 14. See . ### [notes.15](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.15) 15. Z reads “shadow” (bsgrib pa) for “practitioner” (sgrub pa po); if the reading is not a corruption, it must mean the shadow cast by the aforementioned caitya. In that case, understand the following elements to refer to the caitya, not the ritualist. ### [notes.16](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.16) 16. The string “manifest his own appearance” is not found in Z. It is possible that it is a contamination from a similarly phrased passage below, in the penultimate paragraph. ### [notes.17](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.17) 17. Lit. “will say, ‘Well done!’ ” ( legs so), which usually corresponds to sādhu in Sanskrit. Z repeats the words (legs so legs so). ### [notes.18](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.18) 18. These are clearly small votive caityas. ### [notes.19](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.19) 19. The difference between the two, at least according to Bhavabhaṭṭa, a commentator of the Catuṣpīṭha­tantra, is that banners (dhvaja) have an emblem or design (cihna) on them. Ad 2.3.11: patāketi cihnarahitā matsyapakṣyādicihnāṅko dhvajaḥ (Szántó 2012, vol. 1, p. 288 and vol. 2, pp. 91–92); the Tibetan is slightly different, but the import is the same, see Toh 1607, folio 180.b: ba dan zhes bya ba ni nya dang ngang pa la sogs pa’i ri mo med pa’o || rgyal mtshan zhes bya ba ni ri mo dang bcas pa’o. ### [notes.20](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.20) 20. Z does not transmit “etc.” ### [notes.21](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.21) 21. Up to here, Z reads merely, “Or, having fashioned a caitya, having worshiped it…”; it is quite likely that some text was lost here. Having said that, it is odd that the canonical reading has “having performed worship in the same way” and then repeats the articles of worship. Therefore, it appears that we have some contamination. ### [notes.22](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.22) 22. Instead of “so-and-so” (che ge mo zhig), Z transmits “this person” (myi ’di). ### [notes.23](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.23) 23. Instead of “indeed, by this \[merit\]” (’di kho nas), Z transmits “from this transmigration” (’di ’i ’khor nas), which may well be the original reading. ### [notes.24](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.24) 24. See . ### [notes.25](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.25) 25. This last paragraph is not transmitted in Z. Some parts of it are, however, attested in the Sanskrit fragment. The sentence with “written on a wall” is attested in the fragment as antaśaḥ kuḍyalikhitām api. It is also noteworthy that antaśaḥ here means “ultimately” and not “at the time of death” as the Tibetan would suggest. ### [notes.26](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000.notes.26) 26. This passage proves that the initial obeisance to Akṣobhya (also see the expanded obeisance in the Sanskrit fragment) is part of the text and not the translators’ obeisance, despite the fact that it is also not transmitted in Z. No other tathāgata was mentioned before. The invitation refers to Akṣobhya’s pure land, Abhirati. Alternatively, emend de nyid to nyid and understand it as a reference to a generic tathāgata with an emphasis (i.e., “the tathāgata himself”). --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.purification.sarvakarmavaranavisodhaninamadharani*bo-d1009~en-84000) · Pramāṇa