Praatah Smaranam - Early Morning Prayer

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In These Three Verses, Sri Sankara Bhagavadpata explained the essence of Advaita

Vedanta:

 

Praatah-smaraami hrudi samsphuradaatma-tatwam

Satchit-sukham paramahamsa-gatim tureeyam

Yatswapna-jaagara-sushapti-mavaiti nityam

Tadbrahma nishkalamaham na cha bhoota-samghah

 

I remember in the morning the Self which shines in the heart, which is

existence-consciousness-bliss, which is the goal to be attained by Paramahamsa

sannyasis, which is called the 'fourth' because it is beyond the three states of

waking, dream and deep-sleep, and which always witnesses the states of waking,

dream and deep-sleep. I am that Brahman which is indivisible and not the

aggregate of the five elements: ether, air, fire, water and earth.

 

Praatar-bhajaami manasaam vachasaamahamyam

Vaacho vibhaamti nikhilaa yadanugrahena

Yanneti-neti-vachaner-nigamaa-avocham

(S)tam devadeva-maja-machyuta-maahuragrayam

 

I worship in the morning that supremely effulgent Being who is spoken of (in the

Vedas) as unborn, changeless, and the highest, who is inaccessible to the mind

and whom words cannot directly describe, but by whose blessing the faculty of

speech functions, and who is described in the Upanishads by the words 'not this,

not this'.

 

Praatar-namaami tamasah-paramarka-varnam

Poornam sanaatanapadam purushottamaakhyam

Yasminnidam jagadasesha-masesha-moorthim

Rajwaam bhujamgama iva praati-bhaasitam vai

 

I bow down in the morning to the Infinite, Eternal Being who is known as the

Supreme Purusha, who is beyond the darkness of ignorance, who is resplendent

like the sun, who is everything and on whom this entire universe appears, just

as a rope appears as a snake.

 

Slokatraya-midam punyam lokatraya-vibhooshanam

Pratah-kaale pathedyasthu sa jachchet-paramam padam

 

One who reads every morning this sacred triad of verses which is an ornament for

all the three world will attain to the supreme state of liberation.

 

Iti Srimat-Sankara-Bhagavadpaada virachitam

Parabrahmanamha-praataha-smarana stotram sampoornam