Todalatantra 9: Toḍalatantra, Navamaḥ paṭalaḥ

The auspicious Goddess said:
The great mantra of Tripurā has been heard by me in the Nityātantra;
now I wish to hear the esoteric meaning of the nine-syllabled [mantra].

Śrī Śiva said: / Earth, the moon, Śiva, Māyā, Śakti, the destroyers of fire, / the half-moon, and bindu: [this] nine-syllable [mantra] is called Meru.

Simply from the japa of the earth-bīja, one quickly becomes a lord of the earth. / Simply from the japa of the moon-bīja, one attains great beauty.

Simply from the japa of the Śiva-bīja, one wanders on the earth like Śiva. / Truly, from reciting them together, it grants the fruits of the four aims of life.

Śrī Devī said: / That which was spoken by you, O Lord, such as knowledge of yoga and dissolution— / so long as desire and the like are inflamed, the yoga of contemplation is not attained.

[He whose] semen is drawn upward is a great yogin; below that, it is through connection with Śakti. / Tell me, O Lord of the worlds, how may long life come to be?

Śrī Śiva said: / Hear, O Goddess, I shall explain that by which long life comes to be. / Having heard it, conceal it with effort; it must never be revealed.

One should worship the goddess Kālikā, or Tāriṇī, or Sundarī, / with sixteen ritual offerings [and] with the five elements, O Pārvatī.

Having worshipped for three days, one should then contemplate the six cakras. / Thereafter, O supreme ruler, one should practice the garland-mantra.

Either [the mantra] Ṣoḍaśī or Mahāpūrvā; and one should perform the practice on the petals: / eight times on the four petals, [and] one should recite [it] twelve times on the six petals;

twenty on the ten petals, twenty-four on the twelve, / ten in number on the sixteen, and four times eight [on the two petals] between the eyebrows.

One should recite the mantra with breath-retention across the garland of six [cakras], O ruler of gods. / When, in this order, O ruler of gods, life has become firm,

one should recite [it] on a rosary so that one becomes a conqueror of death. / The suṣumṇā is declared to extend from the root cakra to the head; / and the power situated within its hollow is that goddess in the form of a coil.

[Śrī Devī said:] / The goddess Kuṇḍalinī is always adorned with the fifty letters. / How does she have the form of a garland, O God? This is the doubt in my heart.

Śrī Śiva said: / In the great thousand-petaled lotus, in the pericarp, the abode of Śiva, / one should bring [her] up by means of the haṃsa, through union with the breath, by inhalation.

Having reached the sahasrāra, and seeing Śiva, the passionate lady, / Kuṇḍalī, constantly surrounds that liṅga in the shape of a garland.

Beginning with the letter A and ending with the letter La, with the letter Kṣa united with the mouth, / the passionate lady, with her own tail, [pierces] the final letter and the aperture;

having pierced the serpent-noose above that with her own tail, / when Kuṇḍalī stands pervading this cause,

at that very moment one should recite the mantra; he attains immortality. / Due to exhalation, the passionate goddess enters her own abode.

One should not recite the mantra then; from japa [at that time] one would meet death, / when the garland is severed during exhalation; this is the truth, O you who are praised by gods.

When the thread is severed, death occurs; this has already been spoken by me. / Thus has been told to you, O beloved, that whereby one becomes a conqueror of death.

Or, fixing one's gaze with effort on the tip of one's own nose, / holding the breath with effort, one should utter [it] in a single recitation.

If every day, O Pārvatī, one recites a thousand [times] the mantra— / the garland-mantra, or the sixteen-syllable, or the eighteen-syllable—

having conquered death, old age, and disease, he lives for a long time. / A seeker of enjoyment does not attain any other great yoga than this.

Or, O supreme ruler, according to the injunction stated in the Ḍāmara, / one should diligently worship the goddess Kātyāyanī, who is Bhūtapūrvā.

Then he certainly lives for five thousand years. / Thus everything has been told to you, the means for preserving the body.

The hedonist does not attain enjoyment, nor does the yogin attain yoga; / by this principle, O ruler of gods, enjoyment certainly becomes yoga.

Śrī Devī said: / What fruit does a man obtain merely by japa on which garland? / O Mahādeva, tell one by one the fruit of the garland of petals.

Śrī Śiva said: / One who desires land should recite the mantra in the four[-petaled] mūlādhāra. / Merely from japa in the svādhiṣṭhāna, one quickly becomes a great Indra.

Merely from japa in the maṇipūra, one becomes worthy of heaven. / From japa in the great lotus of the anāhata, one goes to the world of Brahmā.

Merely from japa in the [lotus] named viśuddha, one will certainly dwell in the world of Viṣṇu. / And when japa is performed in the ājñācakra, one dwells always in Śvetadvīpa.

That which is [known as] the rosary, O supreme ruler, is declared to be the external garland. / The internal garland, the great garland, consists of the fifty letters.

How can its greatness be spoken by me, O ruler of gods? / If, becoming steady in the sahasrāra, one recites [it] one hundred and eight [times],

not even one ten-millionth part of that fruit exists through any other [means]. / His body indeed becomes imperishable on the earth, there is no doubt.

Indeed, for the sake of practice, O Pārvatī, one should recite the mantra on that garland. / Thus it has been told to you, O Goddess, how one may become long-lived.

Now, O supreme ruler, hear about Bhūtakātyāyanī: / the beginning of the Veda, the sound-bīja, and thereafter Mahāmāyā,

a pair of astras, and the wife of fire: [this is] the supreme seven-syllable mantra. / Śrī Śiva is declared to be its seer, and the virāj meter is proclaimed.

The goddess Bhūtakātyāyanī always grants righteousness, wealth, and desire. / With the praṇava [one performs] the six limbs and breath-control, O beautiful lady.

I shall describe her visualization; listen attentively, O beautiful lady: / fair-complexioned, with disheveled hair, adorned with every ornament,

dressed in silk garments, her eyes constantly rolling, / holding in her left hand a skull-bowl filled with blood, and in her right hand

a golden vessel filled with wine, adorned with a necklace at her throat, / shining like the autumn moon, resplendent in her toes.

Thus one should contemplate that eternal bestower of boons for the sake of siddhi. / Then, O Goddess, one should place the general arghya offering to one's own left.

Having performed the placement of life and the rest, one should worship the supreme sovereign / with sixteen ritual offerings [and] with the five elements, O beautiful lady.

One should worship her with great effort inside the house for three days. / Then one should recite the great mantra eight thousand times.

And thereafter one should worship the goddess in a deserted house for three days; / every day one should recite the mantra eight thousand times.

When this has been done, O great ruler, if siddhi does not arise, / then one should recite the mantra in the cremation ground for three days.

Then siddhi will occur, O Goddess; this is truly, truly so, O dearly beloved. / That prayer text was spoken by me in the work named Ḍāmara.