Dakshinämurti-Stotram

Dakshinämurti-Stotram

Meditation Verses

I salute Sri Dakshinämurti, the Young Guru, who teaches the knowledge of Brahman through silence, who is surrounded by disciples, who are themselves Rsis and scholars in the Vedas. (I worship Sri Dakshinämurti), who is the teacher of teachers, whose hand is held in the sign of knowledge (cin-mudrä), whose nature is fullness, who reveals in himself, and who is ever silent. (1)

I bow down to Sri Dakshinämurti, the teacher of the three worlds, the Lord, the destroyer of the miseries of birth and death, who seated on the ground under the Banyan Tree, grants knowledge to all the Rsis, who have assembled near Him.(2)

Wonderous indeed! Under the Tree are the aged disciples around the Young Guru. He taught them with silence, but the doubts of the disciples were all dispelled. (3)

Salutations to Sri Dakshinämurti, the storehouse of all learning, the healer of all those who suffer from the disease of ‘saàsära’, and the teacher of the whole world. (4)

Salutations to Sri Dakshinämurti, who is the meaning of Praëava (Om), who is in the form of pure knowledge, who is taintless, who is silence, to that Sri Dakshinämurti, my salutations. (5)

Sri Dakshinämurti-Stotram

This salutations to Sri Dakshinämurti, who is manifest in the form of my teacher, who on account of Mäyä (ignorance) sees the universe, which is like a city seen in the mirror (mithyä-unreal), and which really exists within the self, but who (on account of Mäyä) sees it as though existing without, as in a dream, and upon waking up (to his true nature) beholds it as his own non-dual self. (1)

This salutations to Sri Dakshinämurti, who is manifest in the form of my teacher, who by his own will , like a magician or a mighty yogi, projects this universe repeatedly outside, undifferentiated in the beginning like a sprout in a seed, and which after creation, is made variegated by the power of time and space created by Mäyä. (2)

This salutation to Sri Dakshinämurti, who is manifest in the form of my teacher, whose light (consciousness) is existence itself, appears as unreal (creation), who imparts immediate knowledge, with the help of the Vedic statement 'That thou art' to those who have sought refuge in Him, and by the direct knowledge of whom there is no more return to the ocean of birth and death. (3)

This salutation to Sri Dakshinämurti, who is manifest in the form of my teacher, whose knowledge, like the light of a luminous lamp placed inside a pot with many holes, issues forth through the sense-organs such as the eyes etc., and this entire creation shines after Him, when He shines in the form of Consciousness 'I know'. (4)

This salutation to Sri Dakshinämurti, who is manifest in the form of my teacher, who destroys the stupendous delusion caused by the inscrutable power called 'Mäyä', impelled by which vociferous pseudo-philosophers, whose comprehension is comparable to that of the unseeing, childish, misguided and dull-witted, continually speak in error, of the body, life-breath, sense-organs, or the fleeting cognitions of the mind, or even the non-existence as 'I' (Ätmä). (5)

This salutations to Sri Dakshinämurti, who is manifest in the form of my teacher, who as the self, becomes one existence in deep-sleep upon the withdrawal of sense-organs, being enshrouded by (the veiling power of 'Mäyä'), like even the Sun or the Moon intercepted by Rähu (during eclipse), and who, upon waking, recognises, 'It was I who slept.' (6)

This salutation to Sri Dakshinämurti, who is manifest in the form of my teacher, who reveals to his worshippers (disciples), with the help of the auspicious ‘jnäna-mudrä’ (the hand-gesture of joining the forefinger with the thumb, symbolising the identity of the self and Brahman), the true nature of the self, which manifests in the heart as the ever present sense of 'I' that remains unchanging in and through all the ever-changing states of infancy etc., waking etc., and so on. (7)

This salutation to Sri Dakshinämurti, who is manifest in the form of my teacher, who as the self under the sway of 'Mäyä', in the waking and dream, sees the universe as consisting of the divisions of cause and effect, master and servant, teacher and disciple, father and so, and so on. (8)

Phalasruti

This salutation to Sri Dakshinämurti, who is manifest in the form of my teacher, whose eight-fold manifestation  is the sentient and insentient (universe) consisting of (the five elements) earth, water, fire, air, space, (the luminaries namely) the sun, the moon, and the conscious being, and beyond whom, the all pervasive Lord, there exists none else for the discerning persons. (1)

Because the all-pervasiveness of the self is clearly revealed in this hymn, by listening to it, by reflecting upon it, by meditating upon its meaning, and by reciting it, a person attains unrivalled lordship endowed with the great glory of being the all pervasive self, as also receives effortlessly, without impediment, the eightfold divine powers. (2)

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