ADI SHANKARACHARYA | dakshinamurti strotram

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ADI SHANKARACHARYA

DAKSHINAMURTI STROTRAM

Let there be peace and love among all beings of the universe. OM Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

M. Desirous of complete freedom, I seek refuge in that self-effulgent One, who projected Brahma at the beginning of creation and revealed the meaning of the Vedas to him, and whose inspiration alone turns my intellect towards the Self. May peace be on us forever.

1. The universe is like a city reflected in a mirror – seen inside the mirror but really outside of it. And it is again, like a dream, an inside phenomenon, appearing outside but really inside. The Truth or Original is the Supreme Reality [Brahman], the one without a second. One's Self [Atman] is Its reflection seen through the media of senses, mind and intellect. The identity of the Supreme Reality and one's Self is understood on self-illumination. He by whose Grace that illumination comes to me – to that Dakshinamurti, the Supreme Being, who is embodied in the auspicious and benign Guru, I offer my profound salutations.

2. He in whom this universe, prior to its projection was potentially present like a tree in a seed [unmanifested], and by whom it was wrought [manifested] to its multiform by the magic, as it were, of His own will or in the manner of a great yogi out of His own power – to that Dakshinamurti, the Supreme Being, who is embodied in the auspicious and benign Guru, I offer my profound salutations.

3. He by whose light the universe, which is unreal, appears as almost real and who graciously teaches the truth of Reality [Brahman] to the disciples seeking refuge in him and who realised through the comprehension of the meaning of the great Vedic statement, Tattvamasi [Thou art That] – which realisation alone puts an end to the cycle of samsara [repetitive history] and rebirth – to that Dakshinamurti, the Supreme Being, who is embodied in the auspicious Guru, I offer my profound salutations.

4. He whose light gleams through the senses, like the light emanating from many holes in a pot in which a brilliant lamp is kept, He whose knowledge alone brings the state of knowing characterised by the awareness "I know", He whose luminosity alone makes everything else shine after Him – to that Dakshinamurti, the Supreme Being, who is embodied in the auspicious and benign Guru, I offer my profound salutations.

5. Vociferous pseudo-philosophers regard the body, life-breath, senses of perception and organs of action, fleeting cognitions and total non-existence [shunya] as the real "I" [Self]. Their power of comprehension is comparable to that of women and children, the blind and the dull-witted. He who destroys this stupendous delusion caused by this inscrutable power called "maya" – to that Dakshinamurti, the Supreme Being, who is embodied in the auspicious and benign Guru, I offer my profound salutations.

6. As the brilliance of the sun or the moon exists even when intercepted by Rahu during eclipse, the power of cognition remains suspended from the senses and the mind during deep sleep. The Purusha or the Self exists as the pure being unrecognised through maya's veiling power. On waking he becomes aware that he himself was asleep earlier and that the dream was unreal. Similarly, the man of realisation on waking to the consciousness of the Self recognises his previous state of ignorance as a past event and an apparent phenomenon [unreal]. He by whose Grace this recognition of the true nature of the Self comes to me – to that Dakshinamurti, the Supreme Being, who is embodied in the auspicious and benign Guru, I offer my profound salutations.

7. He, whose existence and reality shines always and uniformly in various states of the body [like old, young, infancy, etc...] and of the mind [like waking, dreaming, etc...], and who reveals the highest knowledge of the Self by the [mere] auspicious jnana-mudra [the joining of the thumb and the forefinger of a raised right hand signifying the union of the Paramatman and the jivatman, hereby showing their identity] – to that Dakshinamurti, the Supreme Being, who is embodied in the auspicious and benign Guru, I offer my profound salutations.

8. He by whose power of maya the world is experienced during both the waking and dream states in all its variations in the cause-effect relations, like master and servant, teacher and disciple, father and son – to that Dakshinamurti, the Supreme Being, who is embodied in the auspicious and benign Guru, I offer my profound salutations.

9. The moving and unmoving universe is but [the manifestation of] His subtle and unmanifest eightfold form, viz. earth, water, fire, air, sky, sun, moon and jivatman. He by whose Grace all these manifestations disappear with the realisation that, "Nothing exists except the Supreme Reality" – to that Dakshinamurti, the Supreme Being, who is embodied in the auspicious and benign Guru, I offer my profound salutations.

10. The all-pervasiveness of the Self is clearly expounded in this hymn [strotram]. By its recital, hearing and meditation on its implied meaning, the devoted disciple attains to that all-pervasive nature of the Self and fully realises his unity with It, including the unhindered Lordship over the whole universe, thus becoming the very essence of the eightfold manifestation. He reaches the Plenitude of realisation and spiritual joy.

I bow down to Sri Dakshinamurti, Lord and teacher of the three worlds, who dexterously cuts asunder the painful shackles of birth and death, and who is to be meditated upon as sitting beneath a banyan tree and bestowing His Grace of Supreme knowledge on the sages.

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