Dakshinamurti Stotra
Translated by Alladi Mahadeva Sastry, Samata Books, 2001, Madras, India
Atman as the Ego
To Him who by illusion of Atman, as by sleep, sees the universe existing within Himself – like a city seen to exist within a mirror – as though it were manifested without; to Him who beholds, when awake, His own very Self, the secondless; to Him who is incarnate in the Teacher; to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South; to Him (Shiva) be this bow!
Atman as the First Cause
To Him who, like unto a magician, or even like unto a mighty Yogin, displays by His own will this universe, undifferentiated in the beginning like the plant within the seed, but made afterwards picturesque in all its variety in combination with space and time created by Maya; to Him who is incarnate in the Teacher; to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South; to Him (Shiva) be this bow!
Unity of Atman
To Him in the Effulgence Form Facing the South, whose light, which is Existence itself, shines forth entering the objects which are almost non-existent; to Him incarnate, in the Guru who instructs the disciples in the Vedic text “That thou art”; to Him who being realized there will be no more return to the ocean of samsara; to Him (Shiva) be this bow!
Atman the One Existence and Light
All this world shines after Him alone shining in the consciousness “I know”, – after Him alone whose consciousness, luminous like the light of a mighty lamp standing in the bosom of a many-holed pot, moves outwards through the sense-organs such as the eye. To Him who is incarnate in the Teacher; to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South; to Him (Shiva) be this bow!
False Personations of Atman
Those who contend that the Ego is the body, or the vitality, or the sense-organs, or the fickle buddhi, or the void, they are verily on the same level with women and children, with the blind and the possessed; they are quite deluded. To Him who destroys the mighty delusion set up by the play of Maya’s power; to Him who is incarnate in the Teacher; to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South; to Him (Shiva) be this bow!
Atman the Eternal Existence
To the Atman who, going to sushupti on the withdrawal of sense-organs, becomes the One Existence, enshrouded by Maya like unto the sun or moon in eclipse, and whose then existence is recognized on waking in the consciousness “I have slept till now”; to Him who is incarnate in the Teacher; to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South; to Him (Shiva) be this bow!
Atman the Eternal Light
To Him who, by means of the blessed symbol, manifests to the disciples the True Self that always shines within as the Ego, constant in all the varying states of infancy, (manhood, and old age), of jagrat (svapna and sushupti ) and so on; to Him who is incarnate in the Teacher; to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South; to Him (Shiva) be this bow!
Maya
To the Atman who, deluded by Maya, sees, in jagrat or svapna, the universe in variety, as cause and effect, as master and servant, as teacher and disciple, as father and son, and so on ; to Him who is incarnate in the Teacher; to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South; to Him (Shiva) be this bow !
Devotion to Ishvara
To Him whose eightfold body is all this moving and unmoving universe, appearing as earth, water, fire, air, space, the sun, the moon, and soul – beyond whom, supreme and all-pervading, there exists none else for those who investigate; to Him who is incarnate in the Teacher; to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South; to Him (Shiva) be this bow!
Perfection
Because the universality of Atman has thus been explained in this hymn, therefore by hearing it, by reflecting and meditating upon its teaching, and by reciting it, that Divine State which is endued with the mighty grandeur of being the Universal Self shall, of itself, come into being, as also that unimpeded Divine Power presenting itself in forms eight.
OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTI !
