Brahma's Prayer

Brahmā said:

Oṁ! O Īśāna, O Mahādeva!
O Lord with the Bull as Your conveyance, obeisance be to You.
O Lord of living beings, obeisance be to You.
O Overlord of Brahmā, obeisance be to You.
Obeisance to Brahman in the form of Brahmā.
Obeisance to the Overlord of Brahmā.

O Sadāśiva, may auspiciousness befall me.
O Lord representing Oṁkāra in the physical form, obeisance be to You!
I resort to You! I have resorted to Sadyojāta. Obeisance to Sadyojāta.
Obeisances to the Unborn; the Source of [all] birth,
And who is beyond the worldly existence.

O Bhava, O Īśāna, O Source of the worlds,
O Deity of great luster, bless me.
O Vāmadeva, obeisance to You,
The eldest Being [Jyeṣṭha], O Granter of all boons.
Obeisance to Rudra, to Kāla, the Reckoner of time.
Obeisance to the Lord as the mind,
To the Lord dark in hue,
To the Lord as a religious Student,
To the Lord as the Strength in the strong,
And to the Lord devoid of organs and their function.

Obeisance to the Suppressor of bala,
To the strong One, O form of Brahman.
Obeisance to the Overlord, the Suppressor of living beings.
Obeisance to the Lord, the Impeller of the mind,
Obeisance to the Lord of great luster,
Obeisance to the refulgent Vāmadeva,
And to the Supreme Soul.

Obeisance to the Eldest and the Greatest,
Obeisance to Rudra, the Bestower of boons.
Obeisance to You, the Slayer of Kāla.
Obeisance to You possessed of noble soul.

Liṅga Purāṇa I.16.6-15

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Brahmā's Prayer is based on and is an elaboration of the Pañcabrahma Mantras of the Taittirīya Āraṇyaka (X.17-21) of the Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda. The Pañcabrahma Mantras, in essence, recall the Lord through His five forms - Sadyojāta, Vāmadeva, Aghora, Tatpuruṣa and Īśāna representing His five universal acts: creation, sustenance, dissolution, concealing grace and revealing grace, respectively. The Pañcabrahma doctrine of early Vedic Shaivism is later amplified in the Agamas and Purāṇas, and forms the core of all Shaivite theology. Reorganized and reformatted these mantras have been embedded within Brahmā's Prayer in the Liṅga Purāṇa. Brahmā's Prayer from the Liṅga Purāṇa represents perhaps the oldest recollection of the Pañcabrahma doctrine within the purāṇic corpus.

Aum Namah Shivaya.

Related link: Five forms of the Supreme Brahman.

Related post: Suta's Prayer.