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Netra Tantra
The Tantra of the Eye — Mṛtyujit, the conqueror of death: Amṛteśa and the nectar of the moon, the protection of the king, and one mantra fitted to every cult.
Called the Netra Tantra, the Tantra of the Eye, and also the Mṛtyujit — conqueror of death. Its deity is Amṛteśa, the Lord of Nectar, white as the autumn moon and better known under the name Mṛtyuñjaya; its subject is one mantra and everything that mantra can be made to do. It is among the most valuable texts in the whole Śaiva corpus for understanding how tantric religion actually operated, precisely because it is less concerned to defend a doctrine than to equip a practitioner who must serve many kinds of patron.
The eye, and what it means
The title admits more than one reading, and neither the scripture nor its commentator settles on one. It points at Śiva's third eye — the eye that burned Kāma to ash, and so the eye of destroying power, but equally the eye that sees past appearances, and so the eye of knowledge. It points also at the mantra itself, called the eye of all mantras: the faculty by which the rest of the ritual apparatus sees what it is doing. The text works all these senses. It is a manual of protection and healing, and at the same time a teaching on the vision that ends the fear the protection is called in to address.
Amṛteśa and his mantraअमृतेश
Amṛteśa is visualised white — the colour of the moon, of camphor, of milk — seated on a lotus, holding the vessel of nectar, with his consort Amṛtalakṣmī. His mantra is short. It is built on the syllables juṃ saḥ, prefixed by oṃ, and the whole of the text's ritual apparatus is an elaboration of what may be done with those few sounds: recited, installed in the body, breathed, written, poured into water and given to the sick.
Nectar, moon, binduअमृत
The practice turns on amṛta, the nectar of deathlessness, visualised as flooding down from the moon-disc at the crown of the head and filling the body to its limits. Death is not defeated by force in this scheme. It is defeated by saturation: the practitioner is imagined so filled and overflowing with nectar that decay has nowhere left to take hold. Rites of healing extend the image outward — water is charged with the mantra until it is the nectar, and is then poured over the patient or given to drink.
This physiology had an enormous future. The moon at the crown dripping nectar, the sun or fire at the navel consuming it, and the resulting slow attrition that is ageing and death — that whole picture passes into the haṭha-yoga literature and becomes its central premise. The Amṛtasiddhi and, later, the Haṭhapradīpikā prescribe viparītakaraṇī, the inverted posture, and khecarī mudrā to intercept and hoard the falling nectar. What changes between the tantras and the haṭha texts is not the image but the mechanism. Here the nectar is received from a mantra-deity; there it is caught and stored by a bodily technique, and the deity has largely withdrawn from the account.
Gross, subtle, supremeस्थूल · सूक्ष्म · पर
The text grades its own practice on three levels, and works the scheme with unusual clarity:
- Sthūlaस्थूल · gross
- The full external rite — image, pot, fire, oblation, the visualised form of Amṛteśa with his attributes. This is where the rites of protection, healing and the averting of untimely death belong.
- Sūkṣmaसूक्ष्म · subtle
- Mantra and breath. The deity is no longer an object set before the practitioner but a movement within the subtle body — the mantra carried on the breath, the nectar traced along the channels.
- Paraपर · supreme
- No object of worship at all. Amṛteśa is consciousness itself, and the deathlessness in question is not extension of life but the recognition that what is aware was never subject to the process.
The scheme is not this text's invention, but the use it is put to here is distinctive: it allows one mantra to serve the frightened patron and the advanced initiate without either being told a different doctrine. The rite does not become false at the higher level; it becomes transparent.
One mantra, many gods
Most tantras teach a cult. The Netra Tantra teaches a mantra, and then shows how to install it inside cult after cult — Amṛteśa visualised in Śaiva form; in Vaiṣṇava form, with the avatāras; as Sūrya; and in the forms of the goddesses. The deity worshipped changes shape according to the situation and the patron. The mantra does not.
For the historian this is unusually valuable, and it is the main reason the text is read outside its own tradition. To prescribe the substitutions the scripture must name the deities and describe their iconography, and in doing so it produces something rare: a survey, from inside, of what was actually being worshipped in Kashmir at the time it was composed. Its lists have accordingly been used to help fix the relative chronology of several goddess cults whose own scriptures cannot be dated independently.
The chaplain and the kingराजपुरोहित
The text contains an extended treatment of the duties of the rājapurohita, the royal chaplain, and of the rites performed on the king's behalf: protection of the royal person and the palace, the averting of untimely death, the pacification of ill omens, the management of the seizers and afflictions that were held to threaten children and the pregnant. This is not decoration. It is a substantial part of the book, and it is written for someone who will be paid to do it.
Alexis Sanderson, in a long study of the Śaiva officiants attached to the king's brahmanical chaplain (Religion and the State, 2004), argued that the Netra Tantra was composed in Kashmir — most probably in the eighth or ninth century — to make room for a Śaiva ritual specialist inside a court establishment whose chaplaincy was formally and unalterably brahmanical. On that reading the mantra's universal applicability is not a philosophical position but the very thing that makes the arrangement possible: the Śaiva officiant can serve the king, and the king's other gods, without requiring anyone to convert.
Whether or not one accepts every step of that argument, it accounts for features of the text that are otherwise puzzling — the near-total absence of sectarian polemic, the attention to occasions and fees, the interest in the calendar of a court rather than of a lineage.
The subtle body and the six limbs
Alongside the ritual the text carries a developed treatment of the subtle body: the channels, the centres, the movement of prāṇa, and the ascent through the levels of sound. Its yoga is a ṣaḍaṅgayoga, a yoga of six ancillaries — prāṇāyāma, dhyāna, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, tarka and samādhi. The six-limbed form is characteristic of the Śaiva scriptures generally, and the differences from the familiar eight limbs are doctrinally loaded: the preliminary restraints drop away, since the initiate's discipline is set by his initiation rather than by a general ethics, and tarka — reasoning, the capacity to think the doctrine through — is added and is often ranked the highest of the six. A tradition that makes reasoning a limb of yoga is telling you something about what it thinks yoga is for.
Kṣemarāja's Netroddyota
Kṣemarāja, Abhinavagupta's pupil, wrote Uddyotas — illuminations — on the Svacchanda and on the Netra, and the two commentaries form a single project. Both scriptures were common property among Kashmirian Śaivas of every persuasion, used by dualist and non-dualist alike, and Kṣemarāja set out to establish that their proper reading is the non-dual one. He argues it steadily, verse by verse, and he is not always gentle about the alternative.
The Netroddyota is therefore two things at once: the indispensable guide to a difficult and technical text, and a sustained piece of advocacy. It is best read with that double character in view. Where the scripture is content with a protective rite, Kṣemarāja will frequently find the rite pointing past itself — the nectar becomes the flooding of consciousness, the death conquered becomes the death that was only ever apparent. The Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies published the tantra together with his commentary in two volumes, edited by Madhusūdan Kaul Śāstrī, and that remains the standard text.
Where it belongs
The Netra Tantra is not a Vidyāpīṭha scripture. It is grouped with the Mantrapīṭha, the god-centred half of the Bhairava stream whose principal text is the Svacchanda, and more loosely among the general tantras — those not tied to one initiatory lineage and available in principle to any Śaiva. That status is why it was so widely used, and why its material has an afterlife out of all proportion to its doctrinal ambition. The rite performed today at a sickbed anywhere in India, under the name Mṛtyuñjaya, descends from this text's central concern, even where the syllables now recited are the Vedic ones.
1,245 verses
आह त्रिधा तिसृष्ववस्थासु रूपमास्थाय शक्तिमान् | उद्भवस्थितिसंहारान् कृत्स्नविश्वस्य शक्तितः
āha tridhā tisṛṣvavasthāsu rūpamāsthāya śaktimān | udbhavasthitisaṃhārān kṛtsnaviśvasya śaktitaḥ
विधाता यो नमस्तस्मै शुद्धामृतमयात्मने | शिवाय ब्रह्मविष्ण्वीशपराय परमात्मने
vidhātā yo namastasmai śuddhāmṛtamayātmane | śivāya brahmaviṣṇvīśaparāya paramātmane
कैलासशिखरासीनं देवदेवं महेश्वरम् | क्रीडमानं गणैः सार्धं पार्वत्या सहितं हरम्
kailāsaśikharāsīnaṃ devadevaṃ maheśvaram | krīḍamānaṃ gaṇaiḥ sārdhaṃ pārvatyā sahitaṃ haram
दृष्ट्वा प्रमुदितं देवं प्राणिनां हितकाम्यया | उत्सङ्गादवतीर्याशु पादौ जग्राह पार्वती
dṛṣṭvā pramuditaṃ devaṃ prāṇināṃ hitakāmyayā | utsaṅgādavatīryāśu pādau jagrāha pārvatī
भगवन् देवदेवेश लोकनाथ जगत्पते
bhagavan devadeveśa lokanātha jagatpate
यत् त्वया महदाश्चर्यं कृतं विस्मयकारकम् | सर्वस्य जगतो देव किन्तु मे परमेश्वर
yat tvayā mahadāścaryaṃ kṛtaṃ vismayakārakam | sarvasya jagato deva kintu me parameśvara
दुर्विज्ञेयं दुरासादं रहस्यं न प्रकाशितम् | कार्तिकेयस्य च न मे न सुरेषु गणेषु वा
durvijñeyaṃ durāsādaṃ rahasyaṃ na prakāśitam | kārtikeyasya ca na me na sureṣu gaṇeṣu vā
योगेश्वरीणां मातॄणामृषीणां योगिनां नहि | तदद्य मे जगन्नाथ प्रसन्नोऽसि यदि प्रभो
yogeśvarīṇāṃ mātṝṇāmṛṣīṇāṃ yogināṃ nahi | tadadya me jagannātha prasanno'si yadi prabho
एवं देव्या वचः श्रुत्वा प्रहासवदनोऽब्रवीत्
evaṃ devyā vacaḥ śrutvā prahāsavadano'bravīt
किं किं वदस्व सुश्रोणि रहस्यं ते हृदि स्थितम् | सर्वं वक्ष्याम्यसंदेहं तोषितोऽहं त्वयानघे
kiṃ kiṃ vadasva suśroṇi rahasyaṃ te hṛdi sthitam | sarvaṃ vakṣyāmyasaṃdehaṃ toṣito'haṃ tvayānaghe
भगवन् देवदेवेश चित्राश्चर्यप्रवर्तक | आश्चर्यमीदृशं रम्यं न श्रुतं तच्छृणोम्यहम्
bhagavan devadeveśa citrāścaryapravartaka | āścaryamīdṛśaṃ ramyaṃ na śrutaṃ tacchṛṇomyaham
विभो प्रसन्नवदन परमानन्दकारक | अमात्सर्येण भगवन् कथनीयं त्वया मम
vibho prasannavadana paramānandakāraka | amātsaryeṇa bhagavan kathanīyaṃ tvayā mama
यत्तदापोऽमयं देव चक्षुः सर्वत्र दृश्यते | तस्मादग्निः कथं रौद्र उत्पन्नः कालदाहकः
yattadāpo'mayaṃ deva cakṣuḥ sarvatra dṛśyate | tasmādagniḥ kathaṃ raudra utpannaḥ kāladāhakaḥ
येन वै दृष्टमात्रस्तु मित्रजो भस्मसात्कृतः | किं तद्रौद्रं कृतं देव वह्निकालदिधक्षया
yena vai dṛṣṭamātrastu mitrajo bhasmasātkṛtaḥ | kiṃ tadraudraṃ kṛtaṃ deva vahnikāladidhakṣayā
प्रज्वालितं जगत्सर्वं ब्रह्मादिस्थावरान्तकम् | कामस्तथैव निर्दग्धो लीलया परमेश्वर
prajvālitaṃ jagatsarvaṃ brahmādisthāvarāntakam | kāmastathaiva nirdagdho līlayā parameśvara
क्रोधनेत्रानलं नाथ दृश्यते यन्न कस्यचित् | कृतं यद् देवदेवेन महाविस्मयकारकम्
krodhanetrānalaṃ nātha dṛśyate yanna kasyacit | kṛtaṃ yad devadevena mahāvismayakārakam
देव नेत्रान्तरे वह्निस्त्वदृते कस्य दृश्यते | किं वा वह्निमयं चक्षुस्तत्कथं न विभाव्यते
deva netrāntare vahnistvadṛte kasya dṛśyate | kiṃ vā vahnimayaṃ cakṣustatkathaṃ na vibhāvyate
येन वै चक्षुषा कृत्स्नं प्रसरंश्च जगत्पते | सर्वामृतमयेनैव जगदाप्यायसे क्षणात्
yena vai cakṣuṣā kṛtsnaṃ prasaraṃśca jagatpate | sarvāmṛtamayenaiva jagadāpyāyase kṣaṇāt
मामानन्दयसे देव प्रसन्नेनैव चक्षुषा | अमृताकारवच्छुभ्रं जगदाप्यायकारकम्
māmānandayase deva prasannenaiva cakṣuṣā | amṛtākāravacchubhraṃ jagadāpyāyakārakam
तस्मात्कालानलप्रख्यः कुतो वह्निः प्रजायते | एतत्सर्वं समासेन भगवन् वक्तुमर्हसि
tasmātkālānalaprakhyaḥ kuto vahniḥ prajāyate | etatsarvaṃ samāsena bhagavan vaktumarhasi
यन्मे नेत्रान्तरे वह्निर्यद्वामृतमनुत्तमम्
yanme netrāntare vahniryadvāmṛtamanuttamam
यत्स्वरूपं निजं शुद्धं व्यापकं सर्वतोमुखम्
yatsvarūpaṃ nijaṃ śuddhaṃ vyāpakaṃ sarvatomukham
सर्वभूतान्तरावस्थं सर्वप्राणिषु जीवनम् | योगगम्यं दुरासादं दुष्प्रापमकृतात्मभिः
sarvabhūtāntarāvasthaṃ sarvaprāṇiṣu jīvanam | yogagamyaṃ durāsādaṃ duṣprāpamakṛtātmabhiḥ
स्वं स्ववीर्यं स्वसंवेद्यं ममैव परमं पदम् | तद्वीर्यं सर्ववीर्याणां तद्वै बलवतां बलम्
svaṃ svavīryaṃ svasaṃvedyaṃ mamaiva paramaṃ padam | tadvīryaṃ sarvavīryāṇāṃ tadvai balavatāṃ balam
तदोजश्चौजसां सर्वं शाश्वतं ह्यचलं ध्रुवम् | सा ममेच्छा परा शक्तिः शक्तियुक्ता स्वभावजा
tadojaścaujasāṃ sarvaṃ śāśvataṃ hyacalaṃ dhruvam | sā mamecchā parā śaktiḥ śaktiyuktā svabhāvajā
वह्नेरूष्मेव विज्ञेया रश्मिरूपा रवेरिव | सर्वस्य जगतो वापि स्वा शक्तिः कारणात्मिका
vahnerūṣmeva vijñeyā raśmirūpā raveriva | sarvasya jagato vāpi svā śaktiḥ kāraṇātmikā
सर्वज्ञादिगुणास्तत्र व्यक्ताव्यक्ताश्च संस्थिताः | सैवेच्छा ज्ञानरूपा च क्रियादिगुणविस्तृता
sarvajñādiguṇāstatra vyaktāvyaktāśca saṃsthitāḥ | saivecchā jñānarūpā ca kriyādiguṇavistṛtā
ज्ञानादिषड्गुणा ये ते तत्रस्थाः प्रभवन्ति हि | सा वै महाक्रियारूपा संस्थितैका क्रिया मता
jñānādiṣaḍguṇā ye te tatrasthāḥ prabhavanti hi | sā vai mahākriyārūpā saṃsthitaikā kriyā matā
अणिमादिगुणानष्टौ करोति विकरोति सा | एवं ममेच्छा ज्ञानाख्या क्रियाख्या शक्तिरुच्यते
aṇimādiguṇānaṣṭau karoti vikaroti sā | evaṃ mamecchā jñānākhyā kriyākhyā śaktirucyate
सूर्याचन्द्रमसौ वह्निस्त्रिधामपरिकल्पना | त्रिनेत्रकल्पना मह्यं तदर्थमिह दृश्यते
sūryācandramasau vahnistridhāmaparikalpanā | trinetrakalpanā mahyaṃ tadarthamiha dṛśyate
च सृष्टिं स्थितिं संहृतिं च त्रितनुर्विदधाम्यहम्
ca sṛṣṭiṃ sthitiṃ saṃhṛtiṃ ca tritanurvidadhāmyaham
तद्वीर्यापूरितं सर्वं मम तेजोपबृंहितम् | इच्छाज्ञानक्रियारूपं नेत्रामृतमनुत्तमम्
tadvīryāpūritaṃ sarvaṃ mama tejopabṛṃhitam | icchājñānakriyārūpaṃ netrāmṛtamanuttamam
तद्वीर्यं परमं धाम यत्परामृतरूपि च | यत्तत्तत् परमानन्दं यदेतत् परमं पदम्
tadvīryaṃ paramaṃ dhāma yatparāmṛtarūpi ca | yattattat paramānandaṃ yadetat paramaṃ padam
मृत्युजित्तेन चाख्यातं सर्वेषां मोक्षदायकम्
mṛtyujittena cākhyātaṃ sarveṣāṃ mokṣadāyakam
सर्वव्याधिहरं देवं सर्वामयहरं शिवम्
sarvavyādhiharaṃ devaṃ sarvāmayaharaṃ śivam
अमोघममलं शान्तं सर्वदं सर्वमोचनम्
amoghamamalaṃ śāntaṃ sarvadaṃ sarvamocanam
सूर्यकोटिसहस्राणां वह्न्ययुतसहस्रशः | यत्तेजसा समं तस्य कलां नार्हति षोडशीम्
sūryakoṭisahasrāṇāṃ vahnyayutasahasraśaḥ | yattejasā samaṃ tasya kalāṃ nārhati ṣoḍaśīm
सर्वतेजोमयं यस्मात् त्वप्रधृष्यं सुरासुरैः | तेन नेत्राग्निना सर्वं निर्दहामि क्षणाद् ध्रुवम्
sarvatejomayaṃ yasmāt tvapradhṛṣyaṃ surāsuraiḥ | tena netrāgninā sarvaṃ nirdahāmi kṣaṇād dhruvam
तस्मात् परतरं नान्यत् किंचिद्वीर्यं प्रदृश्यते
tasmāt parataraṃ nānyat kiṃcidvīryaṃ pradṛśyate
क्षयदं सर्वशत्रूणां शस्त्रं ह्येतत् प्रकीर्तितम्
kṣayadaṃ sarvaśatrūṇāṃ śastraṃ hyetat prakīrtitam
तदेकं बहुधा वीर्यं भेदानन्त्यविसर्पितम्
tadekaṃ bahudhā vīryaṃ bhedānantyavisarpitam
महापाशुपतं मह्यं विष्णोस्तच्च सुदर्शनम् | ब्रह्मणो ब्रह्मदण्डस्तु सर्वेषां स्वं स्वमायुधम्
mahāpāśupataṃ mahyaṃ viṣṇostacca sudarśanam | brahmaṇo brahmadaṇḍastu sarveṣāṃ svaṃ svamāyudham
अनेकाकाररूपेण आयुधं तदनेकधा | सुराणां स्वं स्वरूपेण मया वीर्यं समर्पितम्
anekākārarūpeṇa āyudhaṃ tadanekadhā | surāṇāṃ svaṃ svarūpeṇa mayā vīryaṃ samarpitam
भीतानां सा परा रक्षा त्रस्तानामभयं परम्
bhītānāṃ sā parā rakṣā trastānāmabhayaṃ param
किं वातिविस्तरोक्तेन पौनःपुन्येन सुन्दरि
kiṃ vātivistaroktena paunaḥpunyena sundari
यद्यत्तीव्रतरं रौद्रं श्रीमदूर्जितमेव वा | प्रसादं वरदं श्रेयः प्राकाश्यं तत्तदेव हि
yadyattīvrataraṃ raudraṃ śrīmadūrjitameva vā | prasādaṃ varadaṃ śreyaḥ prākāśyaṃ tattadeva hi
तज्ज्ञेयमप्रमेयं च ज्ञानं मन्त्रमहाबलम् | त्रातारं सर्वभूतानां गुप्तं गोप्यं सदा त्वया
tajjñeyamaprameyaṃ ca jñānaṃ mantramahābalam | trātāraṃ sarvabhūtānāṃ guptaṃ gopyaṃ sadā tvayā
यद्येवं परमं शान्तमप्रमेयगुणालयम् | सर्वानुग्राहकं वीर्यं तव देव मुखाच्छ्रुतम्
yadyevaṃ paramaṃ śāntamaprameyaguṇālayam | sarvānugrāhakaṃ vīryaṃ tava deva mukhācchrutam
भगवन् देवदेवेश लोकानुग्रहकारक | त्रियोनिजमिदं सर्वं तिर्यङ्मानुषदेवगम्
bhagavan devadeveśa lokānugrahakāraka | triyonijamidaṃ sarvaṃ tiryaṅmānuṣadevagam
आधिव्याधिभयोद्विग्नं विषभूतभयार्दितम् | अपमृत्युशताकीर्णं ज्वरकासक्षयान्वितम्
ādhivyādhibhayodvignaṃ viṣabhūtabhayārditam | apamṛtyuśatākīrṇaṃ jvarakāsakṣayānvitam
भूर्भुवर्मानुषे लोके विप्रादिप्राणिनस्तथा | दुःखदोषशताकीर्णाः कुतस्तेषां सुखं विभो
bhūrbhuvarmānuṣe loke viprādiprāṇinastathā | duḥkhadoṣaśatākīrṇāḥ kutasteṣāṃ sukhaṃ vibho
युगानुरूपमानेन तेषामायुः स्वमानतः | जिघांसन्ति बलोपेतास्त्वत्तेजोबलबृंहिताः
yugānurūpamānena teṣāmāyuḥ svamānataḥ | jighāṃsanti balopetāstvattejobalabṛṃhitāḥ
अनेकशतशो भेदैर्व्याधिभिश्च सुपीडिताः | तेषामनुग्रहार्थाय कृपया प्राणिनां हितम्
anekaśataśo bhedairvyādhibhiśca supīḍitāḥ | teṣāmanugrahārthāya kṛpayā prāṇināṃ hitam
येन येन प्रकारेण ज्ञानयोगेन मन्त्रतः
yena yena prakāreṇa jñānayogena mantrataḥ
अत्र तन्त्रावतारकः सङ्गतिं करोति एवं देव्या वचः श्रुत्वा प्रहस्योवाच शङ्करः
atra tantrāvatārakaḥ saṅgatiṃ karoti evaṃ devyā vacaḥ śrutvā prahasyovāca śaṅkaraḥ
अतिकारुण्यमाविष्टा देवि त्वं पृच्छसीह माम् | न केनचिदहं पृष्टो नाख्यातं कस्यचिन्मया
atikāruṇyamāviṣṭā devi tvaṃ pṛcchasīha mām | na kenacidahaṃ pṛṣṭo nākhyātaṃ kasyacinmayā
सत्सु मन्त्रेषु सर्वेषु नेत्रभूतं प्रकीर्तितम् | ममाशये न केनापि लक्षितं तु सुदुर्लभम्
satsu mantreṣu sarveṣu netrabhūtaṃ prakīrtitam | mamāśaye na kenāpi lakṣitaṃ tu sudurlabham
तवाद्य कथयिष्यामि त्रिप्रकारं परं ध्रुवम् | मन्त्रयोगज्ञानगम्यं मोक्षदं सिद्धिदं वरम्
tavādya kathayiṣyāmi triprakāraṃ paraṃ dhruvam | mantrayogajñānagamyaṃ mokṣadaṃ siddhidaṃ varam
आदौ मन्त्रमयं वक्ष्ये सिद्धित्रयसमन्वितम् | साङ्गं स्वमुद्रया युक्तं सर्वत्राणकरं परम्
ādau mantramayaṃ vakṣye siddhitrayasamanvitam | sāṅgaṃ svamudrayā yuktaṃ sarvatrāṇakaraṃ param
भूतयक्षग्रहोन्मादशाकिनीयोगिनीगणैः | भगिनीरुद्रमात्रादिडावीडामरिकादिभिः
bhūtayakṣagrahonmādaśākinīyoginīgaṇaiḥ | bhaginīrudramātrādiḍāvīḍāmarikādibhiḥ
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