Todalatantra 6: Toḍalatantra, ṣaṣṭhaḥ paṭalaḥ

The auspicious Devī said:
The most secret mantra of Mahākālikā has been heard;
it has been spoken in brief, O Lord; tell me the esoteric meaning.

The auspicious Śiva said:
Hear, O Devi, the esoteric meaning of the great mantra, which grants all siddhis,
by the mere hearing of which mantras indeed become perfected!

In the upper corners of the letter "ka," the prāṇa wind is established;
the apāna is in the north-west corner, and the samāna is in the central region;

the udāna is in the hook corner, and the vyāna is in the mora.
The bīja is the form of Kālikā; hear its manner, O Pārvatī:

in the portion of the kalā are the matted hair and the braids, O Parameśvarī;
the bindu is the head and forehead, and the nose and eye, O Pārvatī;

the pair of ears and also the mouth are situated from the shoulders;
the four arms, the body, the pair of breasts, and the pair of hips,

the heart, belly, feet, and all the fingers and toes, O Śivā.
The letter "ka" is the form of Brahman; every limb is indeed her body.

The letter "śa" is desire-formed, and the form of the yoni, not otherwise;
and the letter "ra," having the form of moon, sun, and fire, is supremely difficult to attain.

It is the brilliance illuminating all limbs, embodying the bliss of the universe.
The bindu gives nirvāṇa, and the nāda always bestows great liberation.

The letter "ka" removes all obstacles, O Devi, having the nature of water.
The letter "ra" removes all sins; therefore it is fire, not otherwise.

The letter "ī," O Parameśānī, is Śakti of imperishable nature.
The Devī is the bestower of great liberation; therefore she is proclaimed as Māyā.

The letter "ka" has the form of Brahmā, and the letter "ma" has the form of Viṣṇu;
because of its destructive nature, the letter "ra" has the form of Śiva, not otherwise.

The letter "ka" is Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva directly, O Parameśvarī.
Without being combined with Māyā, O Śivā, that itself cannot be pronounced.

When joined with Māyā, O Devi, then it is the great bestower of liberation.
Therefore, O Maheśānī, she is called the power of Māyā.

The letter "ka" gives righteousness, O Devi, and the letter "ī" bestows wealth;
the letter "ra" gives pleasure, O beloved, and the letter "ma" bestows liberation.

From pronouncing them together, O Devi, she is the giver of the liberation of nirvāṇa.
How can its greatness be spoken by me, O Queen of the god of gods?

Even with tens of millions of thousands of tongues, with hundreds of tens of millions of mouths,
and in thousands of other lifetimes, it cannot be described.

The preparatory rite is said to consist of one hundred thousand repetitions according to rule.
This Mahāmāyā has this form, and the kūrcabīja, O beautiful one;

the Vāgbhava [bīja] and the Praṇava, O Devi, have this form, without a doubt;
the wife of Agni [Svāhā] and the Mahāvidyā have this form, without a doubt.

The vidyā is the bestower of swift siddhi; the supreme mantra is the wife of Agni [Svāhā].
By the vocative word alone, she always brings about [her] presence.

Now I shall declare the excellent preparatory rite of the Mahāvidyā.
Hear the three preparatory rites of the king of mantras spoken:

Eating sacrificial food with subdued senses, one should chant the mantra one hundred thousand times by day;
in the doctrine of the divine and heroic [adepts], O Devi, the wise one should chant one hundred thousand times by night.

Now hear, O goddess, the preparatory rite of this six-syllable [mantra],
by the doctrine of the divine and heroic [sādhaka]s with twenty-one [lakhs of japa], O Pārvatī.

And likewise, the foremost sādhaka should recite the three-syllable mantra.
Meditation, worship, and the rest are all equal, O goddess praised by heroes.

There is no vidyā giving fruit equal to this, O yoginī.
Hear attentively, O Pārvatī, of the consciousness of every mantra.

Having raised Kuṇḍalinī by the haṃsa mantra
to supreme Śiva in the form of a bindu in the great thousand-petalled sahasrāra, the wise [sādhaka]—

when a steady gaze arises at the tip of the nose, O supreme sovereign goddess,
only then does the consciousness of the mantra go into the cakra of Kuṇḍalī.

One should meditate on the guru along with Kuṇḍalī in the great thousand-petalled sahasrāra;
[then] the consciousness of all mantras arises, O beloved.

Only then should one recite the mantra; it bestows siddhi, without doubt here.
[The Goddess said:]
Now tell the esoteric meaning of the Tāriṇī mantra, O Śaṅkara.
Kālikā gives liberation eternally; Tāriṇī [saves] in the ocean of worldly existence.

The venerable Śaṅkara said:
The kalā is said to be the hair, O great sovereign goddess; the bindu is the head;
the nāda is the face, the forehead, the nose, and the eye, O Pārvatī.

By the letter 'm', O queen of the gods, [meditate upon] the four arms, the body,
the pair of breasts, the chest, the back, and both hips.

By the letter 't', the excellent sādhaka should meditate on
the pubic region, the anus, both feet, all the fingers, and the nails.

The letter 'r' consists of sun and moon, the bīja of fire and none other;
likewise, all nāḍīs, the light, body hair, ornaments, and so forth.

And the letter 'ś' is Mahāmāyā, revealing the form of Śakti.
From the head to the feet, the bīja of Śakti is extremely rare to obtain.

What greatness of this mantra can be spoken by me now?
Thousands of horse-sacrifices and hundreds of Vājapeya sacrifices,

sacred sites such as Kāśī, O queen of the gods, consisting of fifteen million worlds,
the earth with seven continents filled with grain, O queen of the gods,

gold equal to Mount Meru given to a brāhmaṇa who has mastered the Vedas,
every vow with its priestly gift, the extensive study of the four Vedas,

a cow standing on the ground, and likewise elephants and horses,
an animal sacrifice, O great sovereign goddess, and likewise a sacrifice to the ancestors,

and whatever prescribed great merit is stated by knowers of scripture—
[all these] are not worth a sixteenth part of a single recitation, O great sovereign goddess.

With a single utterance, O queen of the gods, what more [is needed]? They become solely Brahman,
and the authors of creation, preservation, and dissolution, there is no doubt here.

With attributes and without attributes, directly formless and having form,
this Mahāvidyā is corporeal speech, rooted in letters, completely unmoving.

Because it is an entity without letters, therefore she is celebrated as Tārā.
She has the nature of the wisdom of Brahman, bestowing the fruit of enjoyment and liberation.

Even in ten million lifetimes it is not possible to describe [her].
What can be spoken by me now with [only] five mouths, O queen of the gods?

The single-syllable Mahāvidyā is worshipped in the three worlds.
Whoever takes a mantra devoid of the single syllable, O Pārvatī,

siddhi does not arise for him even in ten million kalpas.
The letter 's' is the form of Viṣṇu, and the letter 't' is Prajāpati;

the letter 'r', because it has the form of destruction, is directly Śiva, no doubt.
And that which is the primordial, supreme vidyā, that is Māyā, the supreme kalā.

The formless supreme light and the bindu are designated as imperishable.
By the word 'bindu' the void is meant, and likewise it indicates the guṇas.

The nectar of the circle of the bindu, O goddess, overflows through the half-measure;
nāda has the shape of the half-measure, all-pervading, protector of the universe.

Just as this vidyā is corporeal speech, so also is the Kūrca-vidyā;
there is no difference in greatness and in worship, O sovereign of the gods.

With Tāra (Oṃ) and likewise bindu, Māyā (Hrīṃ) is the supreme five-syllable [vidyā].
When the syllables are divided, the conception of the form is made.

The five-and-a-half-syllable vidyā is Tāriṇī, an embodied form Herself;
that form is indeed the form of a bird, and Vāgbhava (Aiṃ) and the beloved of Hari (Śrīṃ),

praṇava (Oṃ), the bīja of desire (Klīṃ), sky (Ha), and Śiva, O auspicious one;
that itself is the astra-bīja (Phaṭ), and the wife of fire (Svāhā), O sovereign of the gods.

Through the vocative case, she constantly grants her presence.
Through the five-syllable [mantra], O queen of the gods, Tāriṇī takes any form at will.

Likewise, see the five-syllable [mantra] as consisting of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva;
and by the five-syllable [mantra] the form of Śakti is formless.

Just as is the five-syllable vidyā, so is the six-syllable vidyā,
likewise the sixteen-syllable vidyā, and so too the three-syllable vidyā.

Likewise the eight-syllable vidyā, and so the supreme nine-syllable [vidyā];
there is no difference in greatness, meditation, and worship, O sovereign of the gods.

Out of extreme love, O queen of the gods, what have I not revealed?
Even at the end of life, one should not reveal corporeal speech before an uninitiated bound soul.