The Cult of Tara

WORSHIP 151
OM GURU-SARVA-TATHAGATA GANDHE PUJA-MEGHA-
SAMUDRA-SPHARANA-SAMAYE HUM!
"OM Guru and all Tathagatas: perfumes: the gathering swelling
ocean of clouds of offerings HUM"
7) Cooked rice and other pure foods,
prepared with all the countless varieties of cooking,
mixed foods, all of the most excellent flavor,
we offer up to the most excellent of incarnations.
OM GURU-SARVA-TATHAGATA NAIVEDYE PUJA-MEGHA-
SAMUDRA-SPHARANA-SAMAYE HUM!
"OM Guru and all Tathagatas: food: the gathering swelling ocean
of clouds of offerings HUM!"
8) Great drums, conch shells, clay drums, kettledrums,
cymbals, and tabors, hosts of music:
all the most melodious sounds of the world,
we offer up to the most excellent of incarnations.
OM GURU-SARVA-TATHAGATA SABDA PUJA-MEGHA-
SAMUDRA-SPHARANA-SAMAYE HUM!
"OM Guru and all Tathagatas: music: the gathering swelling
ocean of clouds of offerings HUM!"
Even more pictorial than these are some of the ritual hand gestures
that accompany several of the other types of outer offerings. Figure
16, for example, illustrates the gestures that accompany the
seven precious gems of sovereignly:
1) CAKRA-RATNA "the precious wheel"
2) HASTI-RATNA "the precious elephant"
3) ASVA-RATNA "the precious horse"
4) MANI-RATNA "the precious gem"
5) STRl-RATNA "the precious queen"
6) PURUSA-RATNA "the precious minister"
7) KHADGA-RATNA "the precious general" or "sword"
To this list is added
8) UPARATNA "the subsidiary precious things,"
whose gesture is used also to represent the offering called the "spacevast
treasury." One of the rituals by Pema karpo, for example,
contains the following verses and mantras for the presentation of
these offerings: 209