DAKSHINAMURTI STOTRA
(Translated by Alladi Mahadeva Sastry,
Samata Books, 2001, Madras, India)
Atman as the Ego
To Him who by illusion of Atman, as
by sleep, sees the universe existing within Himself – like a city seen to exist
within a mirror – as though it were manifested without; to Him who beholds,
when awake, His own very Self, the secondless; to Him who is incarnate in the
Teacher; to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South; to Him (Shiva) be this
bow!
Atman as the First Cause
To Him who, like unto a magician, or
even like unto a mighty Yogin, displays by His own will this universe,
undifferentiated in the beginning like the plant within the seed, but made
afterwards picturesque in all its variety in combination with space and time
created by Maya; to Him who is incarnate in the Teacher; to Him in the
Effulgent Form Facing the South; to Him (Shiva) be this bow!
Unity of Atman
To Him in the Effulgence Form Facing
the South, whose light, which is Existence itself, shines forth entering the
objects which are almost non-existent; to Him incarnate, in the Guru who
instructs the disciples in the Vedic text "That thou art"; to Him who
being realized there will be no more return to the ocean of samsara; to Him
(Shiva) be this bow!
Atman the One Existence and Light
All this world shines after Him
alone shining in the consciousness "I know", – after Him alone whose
consciousness, luminous like the light of a mighty lamp standing in the bosom
of a many-holed pot, moves outwards through the sense-organs such as the eye.
To Him who is incarnate in the Teacher; to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the
South; to Him (Shiva) be this bow!
False Personations of Atman
Those who contend that the Ego is
the body, or the vitality, or the sense-organs, or the fickle buddhi, or the
void, they are verily on the same level with women and children, with the blind
and the possessed; they are quite deluded. To Him who destroys the mighty
delusion set up by the play of Maya's power; to Him who is incarnate in the
Teacher; to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South; to Him (Shiva) be this
bow!
Atman the Eternal Existence
To the Atman who, going to sushupti
on the withdrawal of sense-organs, becomes the One Existence, enshrouded by Maya
like unto the sun or moon in eclipse, and whose then existence is recognized on
waking in the consciousness "I have slept till now"; to Him who is
incarnate in the Teacher; to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South; to Him
(Shiva) be this bow!
Atman the Eternal Light
To Him who, by means of the blessed
symbol, manifests to the disciples the True Self that always shines within as
the Ego, constant in all the varying states of infancy, (manhood, and old age),
of jagrat (svapna and sushupti ) and so on; to Him who is incarnate in the
Teacher; to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South; to Him (Shiva) be this
bow!
Maya
To the Atman who, deluded by Maya,
sees, in jagrat or svapna, the universe in variety, as cause and effect, as
master and servant, as teacher and disciple, as father and son, and so on ; to
Him who is incarnate in the
Teacher; to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South; to
Him (Shiva) be this bow !
Devotion to Ishvara
To Him whose eightfold body is all
this moving and unmoving universe, appearing as earth, water, fire, air, space,
the sun, the moon, and soul – beyond whom, supreme and all-pervading, there
exists none else for those who investigate; to Him who is incarnate in the
Teacher; to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South; to Him (Shiva) be this
bow!
Perfection
Because the universality of Atman
has thus been explained in this hymn, therefore by hearing it, by reflecting
and meditating upon its teaching, and by reciting it, that Divine State which
is endued with the mighty grandeur of being the Universal Self shall, of
itself, come into being, as also that unimpeded Divine Power presenting itself
in forms eight.
OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTI !