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 a weekly posting, so that we have enough time to assimilate the

profound meaning in each of the verses. 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