Shri Hevajra is a principal meditational deity of the Anuttarayoga classification in Buddhist Tantra. According to the Sakya system, Hevajra belongs to the sub-class of 'non-dual' tantra. The Kagyu system classifies Hevajra as 'Wisdom-mother' tantra. From the numerous texts within the cycle of Hevajra, the root Tantra of 'Two Sections' is the most important.

Shri Hevajra has a body blue in colour, eight faces, sixteen hands, and four legs. The main face is blue, the right face is white, the left is red, and the upper face is smoky; the two remaining pairs of faces are black. Each face has three eyes and four bared fangs, with yellow hair flowing upwards. The top of the head is marked with a vishvavajra. The sixteen hands hold sixteen skullcups.

• The first right hand holds a white elephant, and the first left holds the yellow God of Earth; these two embrace the Mother.

• The second right hand holds a blue horse, the third an ass with a white patch, the fourth a yellow bull, the fifth an ash-coloured camel, the sixth a red man, the seventh a blue sharabha, and the eighth a cat with a white patch.

• The second left hand holds the white God of Water, the third the red God of Fire, the fourth the green God of Air, the fifth the white God of the Moon, the sixth the red God of the Sun, the seventh the blue Yama, and the eighth the yellow Holder of Wealth.

Each head has a crown of five dry human skulls and a necklace of fifty fresh heads. Hevajra is adorned with six bone ornaments. The two right legs are extended, while the toes of the two folded left legs press on the thighs in a half-vajra posture, dancing in a manner that expresses the nine sentiments of dancing: grace, strength, and ugliness; laughter, ferocity, and frightful; compassion, fury, and peace.

In his lap is the mother Vajra Nairatmya, with a body blue in colour, one face, two hands, and three eyes. Her yellow hair flows upwards. She holds a curved knife in her right hand and a skullcup in her left, while embracing the father. She wears a crown of five dry human skulls, a necklace of fifty dry skulls, and five bone ornaments. Her left leg is extended, and her right leg is drawn up as she embraces the father.

Both are standing in the middle of a blazing fire of pristine awareness.

(Source: Ngagwang Legpa)