DakshiNa-mUrti ashTakam Verse 0

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> Namaste Friends

>

> Here is the first instalment of the series of verses I am going to post

> from Prof. V Krishnamurthy's webpage, with his permission. Thanks to Prof

> V Krishnamurthy for allowing us to use his commentary. Please take note

> that this will be posted twice a week. Om Shanti.

>

> Verse No.0

>

> mauna-vyAkhyA-prakaTita-para-brahma-tatvaM yuvAnaM

> varshishTAnte vasad-Rshi-gaNair-AvRtaM brahma-nishTaiH /

> AcAryendraM kara-kalita-cin-mudram-Ananda-rUpaM

> svAtmArAmAM mudita-vadanaM SrI-dakshiNA-mUrtim-IDe //

>

> Translation:

>

> I propitiate that dakshiNA-mUrti, who is the Transcendental Absolute

> declared by an eloquence called Silence, who is a youth, who is the best

> of the Gurus surrounded by great disciples who are themselves firmly

> rooted in brahman, who is the prince among preceptors, who shows by his

> hand the cin-mudrA, who is Bliss personified, who revels in His own Self

> and who always radiates happiness.

>

> Commentary:

>

> This has been numbered verse No.0 because, it is not part of the

> dakshiNA-mUrti ashTakam. But it is traditionally recited as a preliminary

> verse to the hymn. Maybe it was also composed by Sankara himself. It

> propitiates that form of Lord Siva by which He is known as a youthful

> world teacher seated beneath the sacred fig-tree, facing South (dakshiNa

> means 'south') and teaching elderly disciples through silence. The South

> indicates a downward path (spiritually) and the North indicates an upward

> path. He faces south so that we may face Him and therefore face north,

> that is, face the side of, and look forward to, Immortality. The word

> dakshiNA means also 'efficient'. He is the One who can teach us the most

> difficult thoughts in the most efficient manner. He is the teacher of all

> teachers. He is the Ultimate which is inaccessible even to the mind and

> speech. His silence is an eloquence of the Experience of Bliss. He is the

> Form which makes us understand if only we make the effort. The Absolute

> and its Energy -- namely, the Lord and the Mother Goddess -- have

> sometimes two different Forms, sometimes a single form in which it is half

> masculine and half feminine - the classical ardha-nArISvara Form - and

> sometimes they have a third Form in which one of them is subordinate to

> the other. In the Form of kAmAkshi the Lord is subordinate and the

> feminine

> Sakti is dominant. In the Form of dakshiNA-mUrti, the Lord is the dominant

> factor; here is the Form where there is no explicit expression of vibrant

> Energy. The Form of the Bliss-filled Goddess is sublated by the

> sat-cid-Ananda Form of dakshiNA-mUrti. That is why She is called

> dakshiNA-mUrti-rUpiNI in the lalitA-sahasranAma.

>

> Commentary and translation by Prof V Krishnamurthy

> The website is at:

> http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/2952/gohitvip/63.html