Thrailokya Nethra

Eye of the three worlds,
dispeller of the darkness of delusion,
endowed with the knowledge of fearlessness,
refuge and lord of all worlds,
who by the power of the perfections
conquered the fierce, brave, unstoppable Mara,
to the lotus feet of the glorious Sakya Lion
I bow with devotion.

His six-coloured rays streaming out, filling the ten directions,
destroying the darkness of defilements, covering the whole world,
cooling the ceaseless suffering in this hollow of the world of beings,
with devout homage, head bowed, I worship the sage’s feet.

The pure Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha,
destroyers of greed, hatred and delusion,
the Triple Gem, worshipped by the world,
I worship.

Adorned with the glorious virtues of compassion and loving-kindness,
at the glorious lotus feet of the Lord of Sages,
placing down my head in reverence,
I bow to the Buddha, the Eye of the Three Worlds.

This is a Buddha-vandana, a formal verse of worship, and it reaches for the elevated, Sanskritic language of classical devotion rather than everyday Sinhala. Its central title for the Buddha is thrailokya netra, “the Eye of the Three Worlds,” the one whose vision and wisdom take in all planes of existence. He is praised as “the dispeller of the darkness of delusion,” possessed of “the knowledge of fearlessness,” and the “refuge and lord of all worlds,” and the singer bows “with devotion” to the “lotus feet of the glorious Sakya Lion,” the Buddha of the Sakya clan.

The imagery of light runs through it. The Buddha’s “six-coloured rays,” the traditional aura of the enlightened one, stream out to “fill the ten directions,” destroying “the darkness of defilements” and covering the whole world. In this “hollow of the world of beings,” full of ceaseless suffering, that light is a cooling relief, and again the worshipper bows his head to the sage’s feet.

The verse then honours the Triple Gem, the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, as the “destroyers of greed, hatred and delusion,” the three poisons at the root of all suffering. It closes as it began, in humble reverence: “adorned with the virtues of compassion and loving-kindness,” the Lord of Sages receives the devotee’s bowed head. What the listener is left with is pure, formal devotion, a song not of story or emotion but of homage, laying one’s head at the feet of the one called the Eye of the Three Worlds.