Shatha Rudriyam

March 7, 2007

Dear Alfred, My heart gladdens as you email me that you were inspired by my postings to do sadhana on Lord Shiva. Glad to note that you are learning Shata Rudriyam yourself and you are in the eight Anuvaka. Westeners like you rush to our land in search of eternal peace and Vedic wisdom, whereas our folks rush

here to California and Newyork in search of tags like "Microsoft", "Cisco"."Oracle"!! Not that Iam against materiality but that Iam against "only-materiality". I loved my days in Sholingur,Chennai and Thiruvannamalai more than the bedded comfort of Rochester.My legs used to ache walking the 14 kms walk of Arunachala valam but my heart used to feel light and blissful. Unnaamulaiyaane' Potri! Arunaachalame' Potri! Since now you plan to go to Arunachala, time it with your first full recitation in Arunachala sannidhi and don't forget Divine Mother Unnamulai Ambal (Apeethakuchambal--Apithakucha-Ambika)when you go

there. (Arunachala Koil) I had many an experience there with one recent experience where my sister and I washed the samadhi of a yogi (which had a linga atop). This happened a couple of years ago when we were doing our Girivalam on a hot afternoon!(we were brave, thats all I can say!,

else we were termed morons by my father, who asked us to walk in the night like all). We soon began to see why our father called us "morons", the heat was unbearable, we were fried like French fries in hot oil!(maybe they too have a respite after a few minutes but this seemed endless), we wished we heeded our father's words--"Thandaichol mikka mandiram illai"!(No greater mantra than father's words!) The road was tar-furnace, the small respite was stones which pricked our feet,then the greenery was just thorns on the end of the road. To compound the problem we did not wear socks. My sister was cursing me "You said we will not get full results if we wear socks but now I feel Iam in hell" I replied back " Yes we are and maybe this will purge us, don't curse me

praise the Lord!!"But then even I too felt the heat--I skimpered from the bushes to the tar road to the stones alternatively and finally we found a stone slab out of nowhere to rest. We both sat exahusted on it. Out of nowhere a smiling young yogi (andi-yogi) came to us and said, "There is a yogi samadhi here will you both wash it?" We were surprised" Where is the water, Mister???" we wanted to shout! We nodded our heads sheepishly. He said in chaste Tamil "Mikka Nandri" and then he brought a Vaali(an ancient type of bucket) full of cool water" We washed the samadhi applied chandan to the linga but actually we felt more happy because the cool water sort of provided the required manna to our blistered soles! We got down grudgingly to complete our Arunachala valam and He said to us " Children,good good, you now go, hope your feet

feels fine" He said in broken english. We replied back "Oh! Ayya you know english" He smiled back and said "Canada Canada"(We were then in Canada) and we smiled and tunred our heads and after a certain distance I said to my sister "How did he know we were in Canada?" My sister brushed it away as a non-event. Next time when I went for Girivalam, to my consternation, neither did I find any samadhi that place nor any young andiappan! The place is filled with Yogis and Siddhas, Alfred. It is only because of poorvajanma vasanas that you want to go there from Sunnyvale,USA. There are three types of prayer modes, my friend Kaayika, Vaachika and Maanasika. Kaayika is a vedic fire ritual,because one's limbs and material are used to perform this ritualistic prayer. Vaachika is oral prayer Maanasika is mental prayer Shatha Rudriyam is used in all these three prayer modes.There is nothing as noble or purifying as Shata Rudriyam. Even for

Chittanaischalya, the freedom from emotional upheavals in one's life, the Shatarudriyam is highly recommended by people who know Vedic tradition well. In Kaivalyopanishad it is said that Yah Shata Rudriyam Adhite Sah....Brahmahatyaayaah Puto Bhavathi, Suvarnasteyaath Puto Bhavathu.... "One who repeats the Shata Rudriyam is freed from the sin incurred by killing a Brahmana(a spiritual person in search of Brahman) or robbing gold...." Kurma Purana also has a story of Vasumanaas, a king who did Gayathri Upasana for many years and due to this, Lord Shiva appeared before Him and said "Listen to these secret names of mine given to you together, even though they are mentioned individually, in different parts of vedas. Add the word, Namaha, to each word and do Namaskara,living a life of Dharma. You will free yourself from Samsaara" What is the logic here? The Nama os the Lord is greater than the Naami. In other words the name

"Rudra" is greater than Lord Rudra Himself. There is a certain truth to this attitude.There is no name without a Naami. The name Vivekananda had gained a sacred status only because of the Naami,the person and the same goes with a notorious person(say Osama). It is clear therefore that Naama has no meaning without the Naami. But it is not true that the Naami having quit the scene with all the bio-graphical non-details,had left behind the Nama, the name,whose content survives the levelling hands of time? In other words, Alfred, the content survives even in the absence of the historical Rudra.It is said that Hanuman used to do the japa of Lord Rama even when Lord Rama was around.This might

sound outright silly to a westener like you but it is very logical for Hanuman to do so because the person "Rama" cannot be rolled and put in the mind it is only japa which fixes it.Japa being an act of repetition, the naami has no place there. Shata Rudriyam which you do is popular in Southindia as Namakam.In the first nine sections of the Rudram, the word namaha appears three hundred times.This hymn is followed invariably by another hymn where the syllables "cha" and "me" occur every sentence.Cha means and and Me means for me/me/to me. First you supplicate with Namaha and then you begin to ask. Suppose you go to your boss in Heinz and say "Hey Richard give me that..." will he give you that?, Maybe a good whack on your back! But try this "Hey Richard! You are great....you played real well...wow what a homerun it was....." This is Namakam for your Richard and then You say " Richard, I need this file to be disposed off tonight to that section...And I also need the packers to come in....And I need the Heinz proposal to move today..." Then Richard will do everything you request him(or atleast the probability of him doing it is great. This is Chamakam!! I know this is stretching things a bit but still it drives home the point. The Shatha Rudriyam consists of eleven anuvaakas. Each Anuvaaka has a number of hymns in different vedic meters. Each hymn has a seer,rishi and a devata.There are also places where more than one hymn is attributed to a given rishi. This is found in Krishna Yajurveda taittariya Samhita under the fourth chapter as the fifth (Namakam) and Seventh Sub Chapter as Chamakam. Veda meka gunam japtva tadahynva vishuddhyate |Rudrai Kaadashini Japtva takshanaa Deva shuddhyati || (Yamasmruti). By reciting Veda once he becomes pure on that day. But by Rudradhyayam the very next moment he gets

purified. The persons who wrote the treatises (meaning) of Rudradhyayam are Maha pandit Shayanacharya, Bhatta Bhaskara, Visnu suri. Shrimadabhinava, Shankaracharya. The present text contains the agreed views of all the four commentators. Rudra is (Shiva), Agni Svarupa. It is stated that “Shriyamieche ddhutaashanaat” people desirous of all auspicious things have to worship the Agni Svarupa Rudra through Japa, Homa, Abhiseka and Archana. In our Country persons born during the time of bad stars, and at such bad times of maturity of girls(Dur-rajaswam) and during the intervening bad conjunction of stars as per horoscope and to get over the evil effects and difficulties and to obtain Shanti, Rudrabhishekam and Rudrarchana will be performed.

Some others conduct in an elaborate way Maha Rudram and Atirudram. It is to be noted here that Shrimadabhinava Shankara Bhagavadpada had written Commentary for Namakam and not for Chamakam. (Rudra Homam) Rudram and Chamakam are exclusively intended for three main classes of persons. Who are (1) afflicted with troubles and miseries (2) Seekers of knowledge (3)

for pleasures of earth and heaven and for riches. These three are Sakama and these goals ultimately leads to the fourth goal, the highest form of mediation (Nishkaama) which leads to liberation. Rudram is fire itself. He has two forms one terrible and the other auspicious i.e. reflected in this Brahmana. Rudro Vaa Esha yadagnih tasyante tanuvow Ghora Anya Siva anya |Yacchatarudriyam Juhyeti yaivasya Ghora tanuh tam tena shamayati || By chanting Rudras he pacifies his terrible form. This is Karmakanda which is very efficacious and dictated in Veda Bhaga of Shata Rudriyam. The other is the regular worship in temples and houses i.e. upaasana khanda which stands on a high pedestal It is said: Chamakam Namakam caiva purusa suktam tathaiva ca |Nityam trayam prayunjano Brahmaloke mahiyate || He who ever recites Namakam and Chamakam along with Purusa suktam daily will be honoured in Brahmaloka. More on this later, for now, my jataraagni is roaring and I have to feed some Ahuti for it! See you on Sunday...before you go! Yours Yogically, Shreeram Balijepalli

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