SIVAPARADHA KSAMAPANA STOTRAM-1

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SIVAPARADHA KSAMAPANA STOTRAM-1

 

By Adi Sankaracharya

(Commentary by Swami Chinmayananda)

 

Introduction

 

Man is essentially a being full of love and in his life he is often

highly emotional. In fact, no purely intellectual being exists. If there were

one, he would be an abominable devil of a man, no doubt perniciously efficient

and diabolically competent. There would be no sweetness of culture in such an

individual. In fact, he would be shattered personality, disabled from living

joyously because of his lopsided development.

 

In Sankara's life and works, we find a man lovingly intelligent and

intelligently devoted to Truth. One of Sankara's famous and popular

invocations to the Lord is his " Appeal for Forgiveness " , sent out from his

heart, melting in deep devotion, to the sacred altar of Truth, consecrated here

as Lord Siva, the great Jagadiswara (Lord of the Universe).

 

While giving a running commentary upon the pain-ridden march of an

individual from the womb to the tomb, Sankara makes, as it were, twelve stops to

fall down in prostration and beg forgiveness of the Lord for all the wretched

sins of one's past, known and unknown, born both of commission and omission.

Sankara, the father of Advaita Vedanta, who spent his lifetime propagating the

theme of the Upanishads, is here demonstrating to his followers that with

devotion alone can the rubbish heap of our gross, sensuous Vasanas (tendencies

born out of our past thoughts and actions, our `hang-ups' which determine the

colours of our present personality.) be trucked out and burned down. This is the

only way to purify our impure minds, which are dancing endlessly in lustful

agitation and running about in sensuous fields of endeavour, vainly seeking

therein total satisfaction.

 

The wise student of Vedanta, who has studied the Upanishads and the

Gita and who is striving to become established in spiritual sadhana (any

discipline undertaken for the purpose of spiritual growth). Has no demand for

any worldly gain through the grace of the Lord. The student only seeks the

Lord's help in rendering his vasanas null and void through an act of His divine

forgiveness. The Lord neither judges nor forgives. But when a student realizes

the folly of his false expectations and ardently expresses his wish to come out

of their

strangulating grip, the poignancy of his own powerful thoughts –

sankalpas – blesses him; the negative vasanas, products of his past actions

undertaken in ignorance, automatically whither away from his personality

composition.

 

In his `Appeal for Forgiveness', both the philosopher and the poet

in Sankara have merged with the ardent devotee that he evidently was.