Chapter 23: Bringing Relief to All Beings Encountering Difficulties

23.1“Now, to benefit all beings, I will present a chapter on expelling Śaniścara. During difficult times, yogins should visualize themselves in the form of Mahākāla and perform one thousand fire offerings using bilva fruit while reciting the mantra oṁ khaḥ hūṁ vajrāgraye svāhā. Things will then become easier.

23.2“If one uses the mantra oṁ cītili hili hūṁ mahāśanaiścaraṃ kha kha hūṁ phaṭ while smearing kadalasundala with cow fat and performing one hundred fire offerings, this will cause Śaniścara to flee, and things will get easier. If he is killed permanently, the entire city will have an abundance of food and wealth.

23.3“One should set up an image of the twelve-armed form and worship it by supplying it with alcohol. One should then recite his mantra five thousand times and perform one thousand fire offerings with pomegranate. Śaniścara will surely flee or die. If this does not happen, one should perform an additional mantra recitation, and he will surely flee.

23.4“In the evening of the eighth day of the waning moon, one should take a seat on a tiger skin and recite the mantra oṁ ketu khaṃ hūṁ phaṭ with five yoginīs. Ketu will then flee. If one recites the previously stated mantra one thousand times on the fourteenth day while consuming various types of food and alcohol with five yoginīs, Rāhu will surely flee. [F.77.b]

23.5“During a plague of insects, one should perform a fire offering with alcohol and five thousand datura flowers, and the insects will flee and die. The mantra for the rite is oṁ hṛīḥ hūṁ pataṅga nu cchedaya kṣiḥ phaṭ. When these steps are complete, all calamities will be pacified.

23.6“One should go to a water source and first incant milk from a red cow one thousand times with mantra oṁ jala ham jaḥ. One should then perform a fire offering with five thousand jasmine flowers. The milk will surely restore the water.

23.7“When an entire crop of grain has been lost, one should perform a fire offering with five thousand dried emblic myrobalan fruits and alcohol and then offer food, drink, song, and alcohol to the goddess. The grain crop will be restored by the mantra oṁ stuṃ vaṃ śāntim prakuru svāhā.

23.8“If that does not work, then I will have committed the five actions entailing immediate retribution and lied about the entire Dharma. Therefore, yogins must be consistent in reading and listening. If they do not read and listen, yogins will not have the slightest success in relation to the dying, the crippled, and the hunchbacked. If they act exactly as the Blessed One taught, they will quickly accomplish anything.

23.9“When a meteorite falls on the residents of a city, one should recite this mantra before a painting or statue of four-armed Mahākāla while performing five hundred fire offerings with datura seeds. One should offer food and drink to the five yoginīs, followed by a bali offering. The effects will be mitigated through this sequence, and none other.

23.10“If there is an outbreak of a severe fever, one should recite the mantra oṁ hrīḥ sarva­sattvānu­kampayā hrīḥ hūṁ phaṭ while making five thousand fire offerings with jasmine flowers. The five yoginīs will pacify it so that things are as they were before.

23.11“In the case of boils, dysentery, or jaundice, the five yoginīs should eat and drink as much of the five meats as they like. [F.78.a] Then, one should recite the preceding mantra one thousand times and perform five thousand fire offerings. They will surely be pacified.

23.12“All that has been taught in this tantra is not taught anywhere else. Even the most trifling explanation has been presented here just as it was taught.”

23.13This is chapter twenty-three in The Sovereign Tantra of Mahākāla, “Bringing Relief to All Beings Encountering Difficulties.”