Vajra Claw

Vajra Claw—Dorjé Dermo in Tibetan and Vajranakhi in Sanskrit—is a wrathful dakini invoked as a means to protect a practitioner’s domestic space, family, friends, and allies, and to avert any obstacles that might threaten them. According to The Dharani of Glorious Vajra Claw, featured in this booklet, Buddha Shakyamuni revealed Vajra Claw’s dharani in a place called the Vajra Palace to an assembly of monks and tantric practitioners. There the Buddha advised them that reciting the dharani would make Vajra Claw their guardian and protector and ensure that they obtain abundant qualities and encounter only favourable circumstances.

At the end of the dharani, Vajra Claw recounts how countless aeons ago she took birth as a female practitioner. At that time the buddha Dridha-shurarana-sena-praharana-raja (The King who Has an Army and Weapons and is Heroic and Steadfast in Battle) visited the world and when Vajra Claw met him, he placed his hand upon her head and entrusted her with the dharani. He predicted that if she were to recite the dharani continuously, in the future she would become the deity known as Vajra Claw and bring great benefit and happiness to all sentient beings. In addition, this booklet also features a condensed form of the long dharani arranged by Karma Chakmé.