Shankaracharya's Hymn to Dakshinamurti
(Translated from Sri Bhagavan's Tamil rendering)According to Hindu legends, Dakshinamurti (which
means `southward-facing') is God or Siva manifested as a
youth who is the divine Guru and guides disciples older
than himself through silent influence on their Heart. The
name is also divided as Dakshina-amurti and taken to mean
`formless power'.
The Maharshi was Siva manifested, the divine Guru who
taught through silence and was therefore identified with
Dakshinamurti.
Invocation
That Shankara who appeared as Dakshinamurti to grant
peace to the great ascetics (Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatkumara
and Sanatsujata), who revealed his real state of silence, and
who has expressed the nature of the Self in this hymn, abides
in me.
The Hymn
He who teaches through silence the nature of the Supreme
Brahman [?], who is a youth, who is the most eminent Guru
surrounded by the most competent disciples that remain
steadfast in Brahman [?], who has the hand pose indicating
illumination,2 who is of the nature of bliss, who revels in
himself, who has a benign countenance -- that Father who
has a south-facing form,3 we adore.
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To him who by maya, as by dream, sees within himself the
universe which is inside him, like a city that appears in a
mirror, (but) which is manifested as if externally to him who
apprehends, at the time of awakening, his own single Self, to
him, the primal Guru, Dakshinamurti, may this obeisance be!
To him who like a magician or even like a great yogi
displays, by his own power, this universe which at the
beginning is undifferentiated like the sprout in the seed, but
which is made differentiated under the varied conditions of
space, time, and karma and posited by maya [?]to him, the Guru
Dakshinamurti, may this obeisance be!
To him whose luminosity alone, which is of the nature of
existence, shines forth, entering the objective world which is
like the nonexistent; to him who instructs those who resort to
him through the text `That thou art'; to him by realizing whom
there will be no more falling into the ocean of birth; to him
who is the refuge of the ascetics, the Guru Dakshinamurti,
may this obeisance be!
To him who is luminous like the light of a lamp set in a pot
with many holes; to him whose knowledge moves outward
through the eye and other sense organs; to him who is effulgent
as `I know', and the entire universe shines after him; to him,
the unmoving Guru Dakshinamurti, may this obeisance be!
They who know the `I' as body, breath, senses, intellect,
or the void, are deluded like women and children, and the
blind and the stupid, and talk much. To him who destroys the
great delusion produced by ignorance; to him who removes
the obstacles to knowledge, the Guru Dakshinamurti, may
this obeisance be!
To him, who sleeps when the manifested mind gets
resolved, on account of the veiling by maya [?], like the sun or
the moon in eclipse, and on waking recognizes self-existence
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in the form `I have slept till now'; to him the Guru of all that
moves and moves not, Dakshinamurti, may this obeisance
be!
To him who, by means of the hand-pose indicating
illumination, manifests to his devotees his own Self that forever
shines within as `I', constantly, in all the inconstant states
such as infancy, etc., and waking, etc. -- to him whose eye is
of the form of the fire of knowledge, the Guru Dakshinamurti,
may this obeisance be!
To the self who, deluded by maya [?], sees, in dreaming and
waking, the universe in its distinctions such as cause and effect,
master and servant, disciple and teacher, and father and son,
to him, the Guru of the world, Dakshinamurti, may this
obeisance be!
To him whose eightfold form is all this moving and
unmoving universe, appearing as earth, water, fire, air, ether,
the sun, the moon, and soul; beyond whom, supreme and
all-pervading, there exists naught else for those who enquire
-- to him the gracious Guru Dakshinamurti, may this
obeisance be!
Since, in this hymn, the all-self-hood has thus been
explained, by listening to it, by reflecting on its meaning, by
meditating on it, and by reciting it, there will come about
lordship together with the supreme splendour consisting in
all-self-hood; thence will be achieved, again, the unimpeded
supernormal power presenting itself in eight forms.
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