Prayer by the Sages

The Sages said:

Obeisance to the Lord, who is clad in the directions,
Who bears the trident, who dissolves the universe,
Who is handsome, who is an axe to the tree of the universe,
To the One with a terrifying face. [1]
Obeisance to the formless One, to the One of handsome form;
To the One of the form of the universe.
Obeisance to the One who embraces the elephantine face of His Son, Ganeśa;
Obeisance to Rudra; obeisance to the One in the form of Yajamāna. [2]
Obeisance to the One bowed to by all;
Obeisance to the One who bows to His own Atman;
Obeisance to the One with a blue tuft;
Obeisance to the One whose neck is blue with poison. [3]
Obeisance to the One who is blue-necked,
To the One who smears ashes all over His body.
You are Brahmā among the Devas.
You are Nilalohita among the Rudras. [4]
You are the Soul of all living things.
You are known as Puruṣa in the Sāṅkhyā system.
You are Meru among mountains and Moon among planets;
Vasiṣṭha among sages; Indra among Devas;
Oṁ among Vedas; and the excellent Sāman among Vedic verses. [5-6]
You are the lion among beasts;
Bull among animals; and Lord of all men. [7]
In whatever form You are, whatever form You may assume,
May we be able to see You there in that manner mentioned by Brahmā. [8]
Lust, anger, covetousness, despondency and arrogance -
We wish to know about all these (vices); be pleased, O Supreme Lord. [9]
When the time of great dissolution arrived, O Lord,
The fire (of dissolution) was generated by You, the self-possessed Soul,
By rubbing Your hand against Your forehead. [10]
Then, the whole world was enveloped by that fire.
Hence these (vices - lust, anger, etc.) are distorted fires equal to the fire of dissolution. [11]
Lust, fury, greed, delusion, arrogance and harassment -
All living beings - mobile and immobile are burning from the fire originating from You.
O Lord of Devas, be our Protector even as we are being burned.
O highly blessed One, O Supreme Lord, O auspicious Observer,
O Lord, command us, for we shall carry out Your behest.
In thousands and crores of living beings in thousands and crores of forms,
We are unable to reach the extremities (of Your forms).
O Lord of Devas, obeisance be unto You. [12-16]

~Liṅga Purāṇa I.32.1-16

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The above is a hymn from the Liṅga Purāṇa sung by the assembly of fourteen sages of Dāruvana (Bhṛgu, Aṅgīras, Vasiṣṭha, Viśvāmitra, Gautama, Atri, Sukeśa, Pulastya, Pulāha, Kratu, Mārīci, Kaśyapa, Kaṇva, Saṁvarta). In the Liṅga Purāṇic legend, the assembled sages eulogize Śiva upon seeing a form of the Lord manifest in front of them. Esoterically, however, the fourteen sages represent the fourteen stars of the Ursa Major (Big Dipper) and the Ursa Minoris (Little Dipper), and Śiva is the resplendent Sun rising in their midst. Since in classical Vedic theology, the Sun is the visible aspect of the Lord, the esoteric equation of Śiva with the Sun is both apt and appropriate.

Aum Namah Śivaya.

That indeed

That unchanging Consciousness existing the core of all,
That eternal stillness, that timeless being, that supremely exalted state,
That indeed is supreme Shiva.

That ever-changing flow of creation, sustenance and dissolution,
That grand universal experience, that all-enveloping divine love,
That indeed is supreme Shakti.

That mystical word, that tri-syllabic holy mantra in which they are united,
That AUM, that seed which brings together Tripurantakari and Tripurasundari,
That indeed is the supreme Essence.

That Shiva and that Shakti, that eternal inseparable universal entity,
That alone is the whole of my being, of all that is internal and external,
That indeed is supreme Bliss.

That alone is, that alone exists, that alone and nothing else apart from that,
That is fullness, that is emptiness, that is completeness, that is perfection,
That indeed is supreme Truth.

Aum Namah Shivaya.

Agnideva © 2008. All rights reserved.

Within the very seed

Within the very Seed of all seeds, that supreme Shiva I reside,
Resonating as the primal sound, that deeply mystical Omkara,
As Shakti, the Divine Mother, the universal Creatrix,
That is the true fabric of my Being, of all Being.

That supreme calmness, that divine exalted State,
The eternal land, the realmlessness beyond all heavenly realms,
Free from all pleasures and pains, all desires and deeds,
That is my true residence, and has been always.

Where there is no time or space, cause or effect, no birth or death,
Bereft of parts or wholes, unions and separations, heres and theres,
Effortlessly flowing through the manifest, yet remaining ever unmanifest,
That is my true nature, the eternal, the immortal, the infinite, Aum.

Aum Namah Shivaya.

Agnideva © 2008. All rights reserved.