Prajnana Vani
Compiled discourses of Paramahamsa Prajnananada
Prajnana Vani is a series of discourses compiled in our quarterly magazine Sthitha Prajna.
The Jan 2012 issue of Prajnanavani talks of the divine qualities of Lord Shiva and their inner significance.
We also have the archives of each quarter since the year 2000. please click the link below to read the archives.
Prajnavani Archives
MEDITATION ON QUALITIES OF LORD SHIVA
Chandrodbhasita sekhare smarashare gangadgare shankare
Sarpairbhushita kantha karna yugale netrottha vaisvanare
Dantitvakkritasundarambaradhare trailokya sare hare
Mokshartham kuru cittavrittimamalamanyaistu kimkaramabhi
Sivaparadha Kshamapana Stotram
"O Lord, who wears the moon - ornamented crown, who is the enemy of the God of Love, who carries Ganga on his head, who gives peace to his devotees, who adorns snakes on his neck and ears, who has vishvanara fire rising in his eyes, who wears the beautiful cloth of elephant skin, and who is the Lord of the three worlds, please make my mind steady for my liberation, for what use is there for any other path."
This beautiful hymn from Sivaparadha Kshamapana Stotra of Adi Shnakara describes both the beauty of Lord Shiva and also how to meditate on Lord Shiva.
Candrodbhasita sekhare smarashare gangadgare shankare - "O Lord Shiva, you are adorned with the crescent on your head, you are the destroyer of cupid, the lord of love. You are Gangadhara, holding Mother Ganga in your locked hair. You are Shankara."
The next line states Sarpaihi bhushita kanthakarna yugale netrottha vaisvanare. kanthakarna yugale means 'the two ears and the throat'. Lord Shiva has an ornament of a snake on his ear and on the throat. Why would one use snake as an ornament on their body? It is a symbol. The snake has been used as a form of symbolism throughout history. One may find references of snake in the Bible. The snake is depicted in two places in two ways. In the Old Testament the snake came to Eve and encouraged her to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge though she was forbidden from eating the fruit assured her she would not die by eating the fruit.
As we know Eve brought this fruit and seeing that it was very nice and pleasing to the eyes, called Adam and said they should taste it. And when they ate it, they found that they were naked. So they took fig leafs and stitched them together and covered their bodies with it. In the evening hours, when the Lord was strolling in the garden, searching for him he was not to be found, because he was feeling shy and also guilty for not obeying the Lord's words and was hiding. When the Lord saw, he put a curse upon the snake.(Genesis 3:1-15) Here snake is a symbol of delusion that made Adam and Eve ignore the instructions of God and made them become slaves of their desires.
In the New Testament, when it states Jesus taught his students to be "innocent like the dove and shrewd like the snake". (Mathew 10:16) What is the intelligence of snake? Snake is intelligent because it does not make its own dwelling. It lives temporarily in the holes made by others. Jesus wanted his renunciate disciples to be move from place to place preaching and teaching without attachment and used the snake as an example for detachment.
Snake is also a symbol of energy. In all Shiva temples you will find the symbol of a snake. When a snake is coiled it represents unmanifested energy. In the yogic philosophy, it describes the five presiding deities in the five chakras: The Vishuddha chakra is the place of the element of space, ether or vacuum, and the two sense organs are of speech and hearing. Although we call the tongue as the organ of speech, the sound comes from the throat, from the vocal cord. We use a lot of energy in speaking and listening. When we talk in a loving way, it creates joy in others. If we are emotional and speak emotionally, we create emotions in others. If we are unhappy, we will bring unhappiness to others through our talk. If we are angry or agitated, we bring agitation towards others. So Lord Shiva kept a snake in the ears and throat, which means to be careful of the energy that we use or misuse by talking and listening. Lord Shiva, being a yogi and an external symbol of regulated energy, used it carefully. One should not speak or listen unnecessarily.
The last two words of the line are netra uttha vaiswanare. netra means eye and uttha means rising up and vaiswanara means 'a special fire'. It is said that the three eyes of a yogi are represented as follows: the left eye is the moon, the right eye is the sun and the third eye is fire. The third eye is the eye of wisdom or the spiritual eye. Lord Shiva, Mother Durga, Mother Kali, Ganapati and Surya have three eyes. Lord Shiva's two eyes are horizontal and the third one is vertical. With vertical eye, one looks upwards. The image of Lord Shiva with vertical eye contains a symbolic message.
Let your look always go up, not go down. Ordinarily our look goes down towards money, pleasure, food - towards the lower chakras. If it goes up, it will be always be perceiving divinity, and peace from above. So netra uttha vaiswanare means, O Lord from your third eye, vaiswarnara is emanating.
In ordinary people, vaiswanare is the fire remaining in the navel center, the digestive fire. Here it is said that Lord Shiva has vaiswanare fire from his third eye at the midpoint of the eye brows. If the word vaiswanare, is split up we find that vai means 'specially' and asnan means 'to eat', thus it means to eat in a special way. When we eat food with the mouth it goes to the stomach. Lord Shiva doesn't eat through the mouth, he is eating or consuming all our sins and vices, and in turn giving us knowledge and devotion. He does it with his special fire which burns our negativities.Through his look he is killing our vices and destroying our weaknesses.
Dantiva krita sundara ambaradhare trailokya sare hare – It is a beautiful expression. Danta means 'tooth'. One who has teeth is danti. We all have teeth, but we hide them. The one animal that always shows its teeth is the elephant. So danti is usually used for the elephant. It is also said, "Oh elephant, you have such beautiful teeth, they are useless". The elephants' tusks are not useful for eating their food. They are just a showpiece. However, tvak means skin and so dantitvak means the skin of the elephant. krita means made of, sundara means beautiful and ambara means cloth or clothing. "O Lord Shiva, you have made the skin of the elephant as your cloth."
In this verse it says that Lord Shiva used elephant skin as his cloth. It shows a sense of detachment.
The last words of the line are trailokya sare hare – trailokya means the three worlds: heaven, earth and netherland and sara means the essence or the best and hara is another name of Lord Shiva. Shankara is saying that Lord Shiva is the best in the three worlds.
Now the last line is a prayer which states mokshartham kuru cittavrittimakhilam anyaistu kimkaramabhi
"O Lord Shiva, you make my mind still. moksha artham: for my liberation. Citta usually means the mind but also memory.
Chitta vritti is a beautiful technical word that you will find in Yoga Sutra of sage Patanjali (Samadhi padha, sutra 2) when he is defines what yoga is. yogah chitta vritti nirodh, yoga is the art of disciplining your mind.
We will contemplate more on chitta. Whatever you have experienced till now, everything is remaining in your memory. Memory is like a storehouse, where we knowingly or unknowingly preserve all the experiences and impressions. It is just like going to a retreat and purchasing many books and then bringing them home and putting them on the bookshelf. Maybe you have purchased so many books, and have a huge collection, not remembering that you purchased a particular book.
We remember a lot and likewise we forget a lot. Even if we forget, it is still there in the memory and could come out occasionally. The biggest problem with memory is we have both good and bad experiences. Now which memory should we entertain more? Which memory should we avoid? We should entertain positive inspiring, motivating memory, not the negative things. Ordinarily we entertain or discuss what was bad, because of our negative attitude towards life. We can compare chitta, memory, to a pond, a reservoir. When you throw a stone into the pond into the center, a little circle, and ripple came and it is not ending with one. One after two, three, four, five, six, so many coming up and they are coming towards the bank of the pond. In the memory, one stroke, one thought, brings up series of thoughts – one after the other.
Vritti means modification or thought in memory. One who can easily regulate one's own thoughts is a yogi. Here, Shri Adi Shankara is praying to the Lord for mokshatam - for liberation or freedom. Freedom from what - From bondage of thought - nothing else. Here thought means attitude. So thought is the cause of misery. If we can eliminate thought or we can transform or modify thought or stop thinking, two things are needed. Those who are intelligent can bring good thoughts, productive thoughts, and useful thoughts to use in day-to-day life. And they eliminate negative thought in practical life. In the same manner as we can tell our friends that we want to be alone, similarly we can tell the memory to leave us alone; To stay in a quiet state of no thought, or just in one thought is the state of yoga or meditation.
So here Adi Shankara is saying, "O Lord, whatever mistakes I might have committed, now I have one request. I do not want to stop my thoughts, you stop them." Anyaistu kim karmabhi - What is the need of other activities? Now if Lord Shiva comes forward and says, "Ok, I switch off your thinking system, full stop," it would make things much easier. But when we pay to the Supreme Being, is our prayer sincere? Remember, if the prayer is sincere, it will not go in vain. But people pray half-heartedly. Have you ever questioned the sincerity of your prayer?
Shri Adi Shankara is praying to the Lord that he does not need any other karma and to stop his useless thinking and make him free. However if we want to be free, we should stop or transform our pattern of thinking. By changing the way of thinking, life is changed.
