Chapter Two (द्वितीयोध्यायः)

The potency-bestowing ritual placement of any mantra whatsoever should be performed with the fifty letters, including kṣa, placing them on the head, around the face, on the eyes and ears, the two nostrils, both cheeks, both lips, the two rows of teeth, the crown of the head, and in speech; at the joints and extremities of the arms and feet; and on the flanks, back, genitals, belly, heart, seven bodily constituents, vital breath, and individual self. Nṛsiṃha is the presiding deity of kṣa. (1–3)

In recitation and ritual placement, the syllable kṣa is always prescribed as the last of the letters. Prāṇāyāma should be performed by exhaling, inhaling, and retaining the breath, using praṇavas repeated twelve times in each of three rounds, two or one sets of twelve, the respective mantra, or the Gāyatrī together with ten praṇavas. (4–5)

At the very beginning of recitation, one should perform drying, burning, and inundation with the seed syllables of wind, fire, and water after meditating on Hari in the corresponding maṇḍala. (6)

Among the forms of the fifty-one letters are the twenty-four forms; those beginning with Ātman, Vāsudeva, and Viśva; Matsya and Kacchapa; Kola; Nṛsiṃha together with Vaṭu; Jāmadagnya and the scion of Raghu; the two Kṛṣṇas, Vāsiṣṭha and Yādava; Ātreya; Buddha; and Kalkin. (7–8)

Śiṃśumāra is also included; thus there are one hundred kalās known as kalaśas. After worshipping the principal form, accompanied by these in the vessel water, as well as the image and the disciple, according to the previously stated procedure, the wise practitioner should first bathe the image and disciple. During the worship, there should be no fewer than one thousand recitations. (9–10)

After the bathing, the ritual placement of the root mantra and its limbs should establish presence in the image and confer greatness on the disciple. (11)

The kalaśa ritual vessel should bestow fame, longevity, discernment, retentive intelligence, prosperity, strength, fitness, the destruction of sin, and an increase in merit. (12)

When afflictions caused by divine forces, beings, or oneself arise—or to obtain longevity, pacification, prosperity, increased merit, fitness, accomplishment of the mantra, or simply to please Viṣṇu—one should make one thousand, ten thousand, one hundred thousand, or even ten million offerings. (13–14)

Having meditated upon Lord Janārdana in the fire consecrated as before, one should make a square fire-pit with three enclosing bands. It should be raised twenty-four aṅgulas and excavated to the same measure, or alternatively raised only twelve aṅgulas. The bands should be two, three, or four aṅgulas wide; alternatively, the outermost band should be four aṅgulas wide. Its overall extent should be twenty-four aṅgulas, or only twelve. (15–17)

The yoni should be shaped like an aśvattha leaf and measure twelve aṅgulas from its base; sloping downward, it should extend two aṅgulas into the pit. (18)

Having meditated upon Hari within oneself and upon the goddess Śrī in the fire-pit, one should place the fire, which is of the nature of Viṣṇu’s seed, there with the praṇava. (19)

He should perform each of the sixteen rites separately with the vyāhṛtis. Then, pleasing both the fire and Hari present within it, he should make offerings of ghee, milk-rice, fuel sticks from trees that yield milky sap, sesame seeds, rice grains, the three sweet substances alone, fuel sticks from the Brahma tree, or fuel sticks arising from amṛta. The fuel sticks should be regarded as amṛta and should always be four aṅgulas long. (20–22)

In exactly the same way, during initiation the oblations should be made with ghee alone. Before all sacrificial offerings, worship should also be performed according to the prescribed procedure. (23)

For every hundred thousand offerings, the wise practitioner should give the guru one hundred as an honorarium. When one performs the homa oneself, one should give the guru an honorarium according to one’s means. (24)

Thus ends the second chapter of the Tantrasārasaṅgraha, composed by the venerable Ānandatīrtha Bhagavatpādācārya.