Rudra.. the eternal god...

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Rudra Hymns

 

or

 

shatarudriiyam

 

 

 

Sri rudram, a famous litany, also called

shatarudriiyam, is considered an Upanishad, one of 108

Upanishads. Its virtues are extolled in jaabala and

other Upanishads.

 

It is made up of two hymns, called namaka and chamaka.

They occur with slight variations in both the shukla

Yajur Veda (vaajasanayi Samhita, adhyaayaa 16 and

 

18 respectively) and the kRshhNa Yajur Veda

(taittiriiya samhita, Book 4, prapaaThakas 5 and 7

respectively). rudra in these hymns is not a sectarian

deity, but the

 

supreme Lord, the Lord of evolution who continuously

guides the universe from one level of perfection to

the higher one.

 

 

 

It is the only hymn of its kind in the religious

literature of the entire world which focuses on the

idea of God, not only associated with the ideas of

pleasant and

 

good, but also with the idea of dread and destruction.

Its name shatarudriiyam means the many aspects of

rudra, shata meaning many, not a mere hundred. The

 

hymn focuses not only on the transcendent idea of

Godhead, but also on the immanent idea, i.e., that the

God permeates everything in manifestation, including

 

aspects deemed not ethical by the purists and

fault-finders.

 

 

 

Various meanings are given to rudra, derived from the

meanings of its roots namely ru, to cry or to teach,

rud, to make a person weep, and dra to flow. Hence

rudra

 

is considered as a deity who teaches the supreme

knowledge to all; Another meaning is he who causes

persons to cry since they cannot keep up with his

 

demands for perfection. Still another meaning is he

whose energy flows in everything.

 

 

 

There are commentaries on these two hymns in Sanskrit

by SaayaNa Aacharya, Bhatta Bhaskara, vishhNu suuri

etc. The first two commentaries focus only on the

 

meanings of the epithets relevant for the ritual. Only

the third commentary by vishhNu Suuri focuses on the

deeper or spiritual meaning of the hymn. A translation

 

of the gist of the suuri's comments is available in

the book in English "Sri rudram and purushha suuktam"

by Swaami Amritaananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai

 

(Madras), Tamil Nadu. This book has the devanaagari

text of the verses from the kRshhNa Yajur Veda

version. Even suuri's commentary does not emphasise

the

 

deeper symbolism in it.

 

 

 

I will focus here on the deeper meanings of some of

the epithets. In the first verse he is called manyave

or the Lord of wrath which can be understood in two

ways.

 

The wrath of the Divine Lord is quite different from

that of the ordinary self-righteous humans. The Lord's

wrath is a divine force which overcomes all the

obstacles;

 

alternatively rudra destroys the anger of

self-righteous persons.

 

 

 

There is an epithet for rudra namely, `Lord of robbers

and thieves'; critics use this phrase to declare that

Hinduism does not rigorously support ethics. However

this

 

epithet has a deep meaning. First we have to ask "who

is a robber". Moderns conversant with the

environmental movement realise that most of us,

especially the

 

affluent ones, are robbing the environment of its

purity. Many physical objects which we

self-righteously declare legally as ours has been

obtained by causing

 

misery to many persons in distant countries. The great

God rudra makes us realise that all of us are robbers

in one way or another and puts the pressure on the

 

humanity or community to correct itself.

 

 

 

Another epithet is, "He is in the leaves and the

falling of the leaves".

 

 

 

Most of us enjoy the colourful leaves of the autumn

season and have no problem associating them with the

Divine. But it is the same force which makes the

leaves

 

wither and fall. Without the dead leaves falling,

there cannot be a place for new leaves. The

destruction of the forms of the entities which have

served their

 

purpose is necessary so that fresh forms can be

created. We should welcome all the changes trusting in

the Divine.

 

 

 

One modern commentator states that "Having declared

that rudra is in the tree, it is superfluous to state

that he (rudra) is also in leaf". This writer misses

the entire

 

idea. Leaf represents a form which perishes quickly

and also comes into form quickly every season. A tree

or a stone seems to last for ever. The supreme

infinite

 

power is present in every aspect of manifestation, say

a leaf, stone, ant, etc whatever may be our human

characterisation of it as significant or otherwise.

Supreme

 

need not manifest all its power in every object; it

manifests only so much of it as is necessary for its

function. The important idea is that the Lord is not

limited by

 

the leaf or stone or ant or man, even though the

Divine's force activates all these entities.

 

 

 

The two hymns are named namaka and chamaka. In the

namaka hymn, every verse begins with namo or

salutation. In the chamaka hymn, every verse contains

the

 

phrases chame, meaning `and me'. Here the devotees

invoke rudra to install in them all the good

psychological qualities and other felicities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Symbolism:

 

 

 

In the rudra hymn, there are four epithets which

appear often namely, arrow, bow, hands of rudra which

releases the arrow and the wrath or manyu of rudra.

For the

 

western orientalists and their Indian followers, these

epithets clearly indicate that rudra is the Dravidian

tribal god who was taken over by the invading aaryans

and

 

given an important place in the hierarchy. Obviously

this explanation does not have any credibility because

in the entire history of universe, no one can give one

 

instance of the conquering nation giving a high status

to a god of the conquered.

 

 

 

Orthodox Hindus seem to be satisfied with the

explanation that rudra with bows and arrows is nothing

but the famous hunter kiraata in the famous duel

between the

 

hunter and arjuna in the mahaabhaarata.

 

 

 

The symbolic interpretation gives a deep spiritual

insight.

 

 

 

The word for arrow in the text, ishu, has the meaning

of impelling power behind an action. Every action,

physical or mental, in any being is nothing but an

impulse

 

or arrow from Sri rudra. Every power needs an

instrument for release. The word for bow is dhanuH,

Two words close to it are dhana and dhenu which mean

store of

 

wealth or psychological felicities and store of

knowledge respectively. Just as the same bow releases

many arrows, the same store of knowledge or store of

love or

 

store of friendship releases many impulses for action.

The bow is the external instrument. The hands of Sri

rudra, baahu, are the symbolic organs of actions which

 

powers these actions.

 

 

 

Every action must have a goal and the goals of all

actions is to destroy all the tendencies which oppose

the trend towards all around perfection or

divinisation.

 

manyu or the Divine wrath symbolises this goal of the

destruction of hostile forces. manyu should not be

viewed as ordinary human anger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

The audio of the namakam & chamakam are at:

 

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/music/l/02000H000Y

 

Regards,

 

Sunder

 

 

 

advaitin, Ramachandra sastry <kcr_sastry> wrote:

> Note from the List modertors:

> This is an excellent article explaining the meaning and symbolism

behind Rudram.

>