Guru means master, teacher or lama, so we say Guru before the name of each manifestation.  Gyalpo means king.  Guru Padma Gyalpo openly exhibits the splendor and magnificence of his wisdom.  He is surrounded by a glorious retinue of the dakas and dakinis who received his teachings and in displaying the richness of this gathering, he is offering the same wealth to all sentient beings.  That is the external way to understand this emanation.

On the inner level,  Guru Padma Gyalpo is saying that those who follow this path must be in control of their own sense perceptions, subdue ego-clinging and transcend their emotions.  If you begin to cut through ego-clinging, you are a great ruler.  You are like a king insofar as you have mastered your relationship with everything you see and hear.  You are in command of your feelings and responses so that you have the power and dignity of a splendrous king or queen.

The secret way to understand this is that once you have subdued ego-clinging and your attachment to negative emotions, you are truly victorious, like a great monarch.  To overcome all negativity is known in Tibet as having attained the heroic state, to have become a conqueror or universal monarch.  According to ancient Buddhist cosmography, a universal monarch or Chakravarti, is one whose kingdom includes all four continents of a world system.  Chakravarti translates as the one who turns the thousand-spoked wheel.  To subdue ego-clinging and be free of neurosis is to fully awaken to the enlightenment of all the victorious ones as your very own.  In brief, that is the meaning of Guru Padma Gyalpo, the Lotus King or Padma Raja. 

The Eight Manifestations of Padmasambhava, (unpublished) by Khenpo Palden Sherab Rinpoche, translated by Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal, from a teachings given at Padma Gochen Ling, Monterey, Tennessee