Red Tara (Kurukulla)

Red Tara, also known as Kurukulla, is according to M. Foucher, 'the heart of Tara' (Etude sur l'Iconographie bouddhique de l' Inde, Paris, 1900). She is worshipped by unhappy lovers, and is believed to be particularly successful in bewitching men and women. Her mantra repeated ten thousand times is said to bring about all of one's desires.

Standing precariously balanced with her right leg raised she supports her awesome frame on her left leg, under which she tramples Kamadeva, the god of desire.

She is four-armed, and holds various symbolic attributes in her hands. With two of her main arms she holds an arrow, stretched on a flower bow. The shaft of this arrow is made of flowers and the flight is made of leaves.

Her upper right hand holds a flower-hook, and the final left hand holds a noose. Both these implements enable her to catch those of us who have strayed from the path Dharma.

The Goddess Kurukulla is invoked for the controlling activities of subjugating, magnetizing, and attracting. She is extremely seductive: her red color and subjugating flower-attributes emphasize her more mundane activity of enchanting men and women, ministers and kings, through the bewitching power of sexual desire and love (Skt. vashikarana). The eroticism of her symbolism is further enhanced through the imagery described in her sadhana. For attracting or subjugating a man, the flower-hook and arrow are visualized as piercing his heart; and for attracting a woman these attributes are visualized as penetrating her vagina.

From a red eight-petalled lotus at the practitioner's heart arise eight red bees, which are visualized as flying out from his nostril and entering the nostril of the person to be subjugated. Here they suck the vowel syllables from that persons heart with their 'pollen gathering sucking tubes', then return with their 'nectar' to their 'hive' in the practitioners heart. The symbolism of red bees intoxicated with honey, of red utpala flowers laden with fragrant nectar, and of the snaring, hooking, and piercing activities of Kurukulla's flower-attributes, reveal the sexual magnetism of this seductive goddess.

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