Shankara's Dakshinamurti stotra

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Guruevents,

shriidakshiNaamuurtii stotraM

 

Introduction

 

Please direct all your suggestions and corrections to

mgiridhar@u...

 

Offered on this holy day of guru puurnima, this poem is

transliterated and translated as a humble dedication to my various

spiritual teachers including my Guru, Yogiraj Vethathiri, and

paramaguru,

Adi Shankaracharya, and the Guru of all, Shrii Dakshinaamuurti.

 

They took pity on this unworthy disciple enslaved, enticed and

ensnared by Maya and taught me to respect reason, aspire for Truth,

discriminate between the real and the unreal and remain dedicated,

disciplined and devoted to Shakti, residing with us all . Just as a

beggar,

for his own satisfaction, offers copper coins to a king, I, while

remaining indebted, humbly offer this compilation at their Lotus feet

as a

small token.

 

shriidakshiNaamuurtii stotraM was written by Jagadguru Adi

Shankaracharya

Please refer to the biography of Shankara and His other compositions

of vedic literature in

ftp://jaguar.cs.utah.edu/private/sanskrit/shankara.tex.

 

shriidakshiNaamuurti stotraM is one of the minor compositions of the

spiritual giant and exquisite philosopher, Adi Shankaracharya . The

popularity of this hymn is not just due to the poetic masterpiece but

also

because it encompasses the fundamental teachings of Vedanta

succinctly and

briefly . Dakshninamurti ( Shiva) manifests in three different forms

as God,

Preceptor and the Self ( Atman) . The all-pervasiveness of the Atman

is

clearly expounded in the tenth verse of the hymn.

 

The practice of vedanta is to get rid of avidya ( ignorance) by

exercising the will over attachment to the unreal, and by overcoming

fear and anxiety by finding the bliss in the eternal . The sadhaka

( aspirant) is often aided by a teacher who is self-realized, and the

aspirant follows the teachings of this Guru, whom he/she considers to

be an

embodiment of God . The embodiment of Dakshinamurti in the Guru, by

whose

grace and grace alone, the illumination becomes apparent is saluted in

the fourth line of each sloka in the hymn . The final understanding

that

there is no duality between Guru and God is the essence of religious

life,

according to Advaita Vedanta [please refer to shvetasvatara

upanishhad,

6-23] .

More on the knowledge of Atman can be found in brihadaranyaka

upanishhad

4-4-12-21-

 

The stotraM aids in the comprehension of the fact that Jiva, Ishvara

and

Brahman are all the same on the plane of Reality . The recital of this

hymn, accompanied with contemplation of the meaning, is said to

enable one

to reach the plentitude of realization and become one with the

Brahman.

( Actually, it is the realization that you are already and always

Brahman) .

 

An excellent commentary on the dakshinamurthi stotra was written by

His immediate disciple, Sureshvara, and it is called maanasollaasa.

Another beautiful commentary on the work is tattvasudhaa by

svayamprakaashayatinindra . Both of the works, along with a lucid

commentary

of the dakshinamurti stotra, has been published by the Sringeri

Math . The

book is called 'Sridakshinamurtistotram' and translated by Dr. D.S .

Subbramaiya.

The book has two volumes and over 1200 pages . The fact that one

requires

over 1200 pages to explain the sridakshinamurti stotra provides an

idea

of the depth required to understand the stotra.

 

May shri daksinamurti embodied in the acharya( s)

lead us from ignorance to Truth.

 

OM tat sat

 

** * **

 

from: http://sanskrit.gde.to/doc_shiva/

 

look for: dakshiNAmurti stotra ( sha.nkarAchArya )

with a choice of 5 formats: | ITX | PS | PDF | XDVNG | GIF |

(click "file formats" at the top, if you dont know what this means)

text is in English and Devanagari

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