Recently I revised and improved my translation of the closing verses of this extraordinary text. Now, after ten years of off-and-on work, my translation is close to its final form. I’m extremely pleased and proud to announce the imminent release of the VBT meditation app that my team and I have developed, which is called TANTRA 112. The app will include more than 60 guided meditations, a complete VBT audiobook with detailed analysis of the text, and much more. The guided meditations are not just ‘inspired’ by the VBT, they are as close as possible to the original text. This is the first time in history that an entire Tantrik scripture has been presented in app form. Please go here to be notified as soon as the app is available (which will be sometime in October 2025).
Here are the last 23 verses of the text, in the newly revised translation. (Note the symmetry, by the way: the 112 practices are framed by 23 opening verses and 23 closing verses.) These concluding verses of the scripture sum up its purpose and spiritual View. Yet these verses also take the opportunity to provide yet more instructions for contemplation and subtle practice, offering us a fascinating reinterpretation of the fundamental practices of the mainstream Tantrik tradition.
Note: when reading, ignore square brackets and read through them as if they weren’t there. It is a convention that Sanskritists use to indicate that which is clearly implied by context and/or syntax but not explicitly stated, Sanskrit being a highly elliptical language compared to English. By contrast, parentheses are used to provide a relevant Sanskrit term when knowing it might be helpful to the reader.
Concluding verses of the VBT
O Goddess, I have taught 112 concise teachings on how to become ‘waveless’. One who can understand them attains wisdom. || 139
By ‘waveless’ (nistaraṅga), the author means internally still, free of mental and emotional agitation. This state of being ‘waveless’ is probably to be understood as a Tantrik version of the state of citta-vṛtti-nirodha that Patañjali defines as ‘yoga’ in Yoga-sūtra 1.2. The Tantrik commentator Jayaratha defines nistaraṅga as svātma-mātra-viśrāntyā śānta-rūpā (ad TĀ 3.5), which means “peaceful due to reposing in one’s essence-nature alone”.
A practitioner who is [fully] connected (yukta) to even one of these methods becomes Bhairava himself.* He is beloved of the yoginīs and presides over all the melāpas. Though still in the body, he is fully liberated even as he goes about his daily life. || 140-142ab
*Here I omit a couple of lines that I regard as later interpolations. Those lines read: “He performs actions by the [power of his] word, effecting both curses and blessings. He enters the state free from old age and death, and is endowed with the qualities of ‘atomism’ and the rest.” Adding hyperbole in the form of phala-śruti (promised magical rewards for hearing or practicing a given text) was a common practice to try to ensure the text gets preserved and passed on. And note that “He is beloved of the yoginīs” is a sentence that often, in Tantrik sources, follows directly after “…becomes Bhairava himself.”
The blessed Goddess said:
O great Lord, if this [teaching you have given] is the true form of Parā (the Supreme Goddess), how can there be mantra or its repetition in this teaching? What would be visualized, who worshipped and who gratified? And who is there to receive fire-offerings? Whose is the worship, and how [could it be done]? || 142c-144b
In other words, the teaching of the VBT omits much that is typical of classical Tantra, such as deity yoga and ritual worship. Does this text, then, completely undermine the mainstream practices of the tradition? Not exactly—as Bhairava is about to show, those practices are not thrown out but radically re-interpreted in a nondual mode.
The revered Bhairava replied:
In this [teaching], O doe-eyed woman, external procedures are considered coarse & superficial (sthūla). Here ‘japa’ is ever greater meditative absorption (bhāvanā) into the supreme state; and similarly, here the ‘mantra’ to be repeated is the spontaneous resonance [of self-awareness], which is the soul of all mantras. || 144c-145
As for ‘meditative visualization’ (dhyāna), it is a mind that has become motionless, free of forms, and supportless, not imagining a deity with a body, eyes, face and so on. || 146
Pūjā is likewise not the offering of flowers and so on. A mind made firm, that through careful attention dissolves into the thought-free ultimate void [of pure awareness]: that is pūjā. || 147
When one is connected to [even] one of the practices given here, the aspect of Bhairava called ‘nourished fullness’ (bharita) will arise and develop day by day: it is absolute wholeness, it is contentment. || 148
Offering the elements, the senses, and their objects, together with the mind, into the ‘fire’ that constitutes total dissolution [of the separate self] into the Great Void, with consciousness (cetana) as the ladle: that is [the real] homa. || 149
Worship (yāga) is here the gratification characterized by innate joy, Parameśāni. ~ O Pārvatī, the state of Immersion in Divine Power is the highest meditation (parā bhāvanā), the [true] holy place (kṣetra), because it destroys (kṣap) negative karma and [has the capacity to] save (tra) all [beings]. || 150-151b
In the last clause, we see a nirukti or interpretive etymology: since that mystical Immersion destroys (kṣap) and saves (tra), it is called a ‘holy place’ (kṣetra).
Otherwise (i.e., without this Immersion), what worship could there be of that Reality, and whom would it gratify? | 151cd
This line alludes to the nondual Tantrik principle that “Only God can worship God.” It’s impossible to venerate the deeper nature without knowing it, and the only true knowing of it is experiential immersion in it (samāveśa in the Sanskrit, which is as it happens the subject of my doctoral dissertation).
The essence of one’s real being is simply Freedom, Joy, and Awareness (or: simple awareness of the joy of freedom, svatantra-ānanda-cin-mātra-sāraḥ svātmā). Thorough immersion into one’s true nature (so defined) is here proclaimed as the true ‘purificatory bath’. || 152
The transcendent-yet-immanent [Divinity] who is worshipped and gratified with the various substances, those substances themselves, and the worshipper: all this is One. How, then, [can we use the term] ‘worship’? || 153
The prāṇa-exhale moves forth, and the jīva-inhale enters, forming into a coil [of energy] by [the power of] the Will. The prāṇa extends & lengthens [up the central channel]—that is the Great Goddess, both transcendent and immanent (parāparā), the ultimate place of pilgrimage. || 154
Here we have an implicit reference to kuṇḍalinī, and an early reference at that. In the VBT app, and also on the Tantra Illuminated learning portal, I will be offering a ‘deep dive’ commentary on this verse. If you compare this to verse 24, you will see that here the text comes ‘full circle’.
Attending on Her and abiding within Her in the rite consisting of supreme delight (viz., the kulayāga), one who is penetrated & permeated (samāviṣṭa) by that Goddess attains supreme Bhairava. || 155
This verse may or may not allude to the esoteric sexual ritual described in chapter 29 of the Tantrāloka, but either way the key here is that the yogī must be penetrated, permeated, and even ‘possessed’ (for the word samāviṣṭa means all of these) by the Goddess in order to attain Supreme Bhairava.
With the sound ‘sa’ She goes forth; with the sound ‘ha’ She enters in again. A living being always repeats this mantra—haṃsa, haṃsa—[in the form of the breath]. || 156-A (or 155-b)
This verse is generally regarded as an interpolation, as it is not found in many of the manuscripts, but it is cited by Kṣemarāja (c. 1025 CE), so it appeared in his version of the text 1000 years ago, and therefore seems worthy of inclusion. ‘Haṃsa’ literally means a swan or goose, but can also be used to refer to the jīva (embodied consciousness) and, more importantly, is often considered a Tantric version of the Vedāntic mantra So’ham (“I am That”).
The [natural] japa of the Goddess is enumerated as 21,600 times in each day and night. This practice is easily mastered [by some], but difficult to attain for those who are dense. || 156
This verse refers to the natural human breath cycle, which takes about four seconds on average, and thus happens 21,600 times in a 24-hour period. The breath itself is the natural mantra of the Goddess. Here again the text comes full circle—see verse 24.
Thus, O Goddess, I have related the ultimate supreme nectar [of the Tantrik teachings]. It should never be given to someone who is a disciple of another tradition, or who is cruel or mean-spirited, or who is not devoted to his or her teachers. || 157-158ab
Technically, then, I have committed a fault in sharing this scripture with a largely unknown audience, some of whom are not disciples of the Tantrik tradition. The only reason I have done so is that, in the case of this text, the cat is already out of the bag, since it has been already been published in multiple Western languages, however imperfectly.
But it should be given without hesitation to those noble ‘heroes’ (i.e., Kaula practitioners) whose minds are free of projections & dualistic views (nirvikalpa), and who are devoted to all their teachers. || 158cd-159ab
So, y’know, strive to be like that, please. ;)
Relinquishing [attachment to] all that [one is attached to], this [teaching] is to be taken up, O doe-eyed woman. O goddess, what is the point of impermanent things? [Only] this supreme wealth is permanent. One should sooner give up one’s own life than give up this Supreme Nectar! || 160-61b
Here I omit a line I regard as an interpolation (grāmo rājyaṃ puraṃ deśaḥ putradārakuṭumbakam [parityajya], a thoroughly un-tantrik sentiment), noting that the normally verbose commentator Śivopādhyāya completely ignores it, as if it wasn’t in his version.
The blessed Goddess said:
“O God of gods! O great Lord! I am completely satisfied, O Śaṅkara. Now I have learned the essence of the system [of practice] arising from our union (rudra-yāmala-tantra); and now I understand the very heart of all the various kinds of energy (śakti).” Having spoken thus, delighted, the Goddess flung her arms about Shiva’s neck. || 161cd-162ef
FIN
Copyright ©2025 by Christopher Wallis. All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce or distribute without permission. Translation work is my livelihood.