Pushpadantas Shivamahimna Stotram

(A Free Rendering into English)

A Paean to Lord Shivas Power and Glory
V.V.B.Rama Rao
2009
 Acknowledgements

I remember with gratitude the blessings of His

Holiness Mahamandaleswar,
Parama Poojya Vidyanandagiri Maharaj of
hallowed memory,
of Kailash Ashram, Rishikesh,
He made available to devotees an excellent
exegesis of the great paean in Hindi.
But for His Divine blessing, I could not have
attempted this arduous task.
A good deal of credit for the production of this
work must rightfully go to my better half
Srimati Ramani.
Rendering a Sanskrit Classic relating to faith and
devotion can only be possible with the blessings
of the Supreme Being.
This work is a pooja pushpa, a flower offered in
devout prayer to the parama para, paramaatma,
Bholanth Shiv Shankerji.
I cannot claim any credit for this rendering but if
there are any short-comings, inadequacies or
inaccuracies,
I take the entire blame.

V.V.B.Rama Rao

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 Introduction

Pushpadanta was a king of the divine species of Gandharvas,

renowned for their powers of delectable singing. This Gandharva
used to steal flowers for his daily worship of the Supreme Being,
Lord Shiva from the flower gardens of a kings flower gardens.
Once, the king came to know about this. He caused nirmalya to
be thrown in the Gandharvas way in order to spell ruin on him.
It is believed that nirmalya flowers used once in worship, when
crossed on the way, would render the transgressor lose all his
brilliance. Unknowingly, Pushpadanta walked over the strewn
flowers and suffered the loss of his brilliance. He was shocked,
but being a blessed devotee, he realized why that happened. He
composed his monumental Shivamahimna Stotram in expiation of
his sin. Pleased, Lord Shiva blessed him and Pushpadanta
regained his brilliance. The recitation of this great paean, or
listening to it sung by a devotee would absolve the listener of his
sins and lead him to the refuge of the Supreme Being, Lord Shiva.

Sloka.1

Mahadeva! The Supreme Lord! The one who would destroy all
grief arising out of ignorance! Even Brahma is quite incapable of
praising all Your attributes and qualities adequately. This is not
surprising. None can ever exhaustively describe Your innumerable
infinite qualities. .Since that is so, if it is found that this work is
incomplete or inadequate, readers may condone its deficiencies..
Compositions describing the glory of Lord Shiva can never be
exhaustive for His Power and Glory are impossible to describe in
all their infinite variety. Even angels and deities would find it a
baffling task. Still composers like me (Pushpadanta) are not to
blame for attempting to do the impossible. In devotion inspired by
the Supreme Being, I offer this at His feet.

Sloka 2

Your power and glory transcend all limits of expression and

imagination. The Vedas themselves are unequal to describe in
entirety the nature and qualities of the formless divine and the

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divine with form, nirguna and saguna. But the devout and the
blessed, learned or lay, who contemplate and realize the Supreme
Being, cannot desist from singing Your praises in humility, which
pleases You.

Sloka 3.

Mahadeva! O Lord! Form of Brahman! The creator of the treasure

of Vedas, the most sublime, musical and nectar-like, Your power
and glory would strike even Brihaspati, the preceptor of the deities
with wonder. With Your blessing I venture to attempt to sing
Your manifold powers and glory. My attempt itself is inspired by
Your Divine grace. It is only my desire and intention to sanctify
my expression. It is only my devotion and Your grace that
inspired me to sing Your praises.

Sloka. 4

O Shambhu! The ever auspicious and doer of good, giver of all!

You are the splendid combination of the three attributes, sattwa,
rajas and tamo gunas and the unique one combining in Your self
the three deities entrusted with the three acts of Creation,
Sustenance and Destruction. The thickheaded and the faithless
attempt with their foolish garrulity to mislead people around
presenting the glorious and the most beautiful things about You as
disagreeable ones.

Sloka. 5

Atheists and the dull-witted with their garrulousness and devious

logic doubt and question as to how it would be possible for one
without a body, substance or equipment to create sustain and
destroy all the worlds. With no understanding, they prattle and
mislead the gullible, ignorant mobs.

Sloka. 6

O Mahadeva! The Lord of all and everything! With Your

enormous powers You create, sustain and destroy the worlds. The

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atheists argue, discuss and try to convince the ignorant mob
asking silly questions. They say that You are without any devices,
instruments, personnel or implements. They question as to how
You could create fourteen worlds without either implements or
substance.

Sloka. 7

The faithless unbelievers wonder as to how to choose among the

various darshanas (systems of philosophy like Sankhya, Yoga
etc) and doctrines like Paashupata in Shaivism and
Pananchraatra in Vaishnavism, little realizing that all paths lead
to the one and only ultimate goal, the absolute peace which You
are! Dont the sacred Ganga and all the rivers run to the same
destination, the ocean?

Sloka. 8

Wouldnt You strike all the angels and deities aghast with Your
extraordinary richness and limitless divine powers! The wealth of
Your powers is in Your persona: an old bull for your mount,an
axe, tiger hide, sacred ash, serpents, cot-leg and skull-cup for your
appurtenances. You bless deities like Indra with treasures of
divine powers! But, You are free from all moha, the enticements
and illusions of all luxury or comfort. Creating maya Yourself,
You are free from it. Such is your splendid quality. Those with
devotion to You are not enticed by or attracted to the mirage of
affluence and comfort.

Sloka.9

O Slayer of Tripura Demons! Some call the world one without

beginning and end. Some say it is transient; some say it real,
some say it is unreal. All these surprise me but amidst all these
very beliefs I sing Your praises without any hesitation or shyness.
Arent the garrulous always stubborn!

Sloka 10

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O Shankar, the one ever in contemplation on the Himalayas! Your
form with effulgent brilliance, Your pervasive light and
inconceivably limitless hugeness could not be assessed or seen
even by Brahma and Vishnu who once tried to see the top and the
bottom of Your form. They could find neither the end nor the
beginning. But, when once they sent up ardent prayers, didnt
You in Your infinite love for the devout manifest Yourself! For
those who seek refuge in You wholeheartedly and with a sense of
total surrender there could never be any dearth of Your blessings!

Sloka. 11

Lord of the Mountain! Ravana conquered all the three worlds and
acquired powers and capacity to be ever invincible, with no
enemies or contenders. With his thirst for battles and victories, he
had twenty shoulders and ten heads. With intense and unwavering
faith he offered his own heads as offering to you. Was not that the
very reason for his prowess and courage!

Sloka 12

With his extraordinary devotion and worship and the powers You
bestowed on him, Ravana could shake Your abode, the Kailash
mountain. But didnt You, with a little movement of the tip of
Your big toe, crush him! Then he could not find shelter
anywhere. The one ungrateful cannot escape being enticed in
moha, the undesirable sinful attachment.

Sloka 13

O Wish fulfilling Deity! It was with Your grace that the demon
Banasura could subdue even Devendra, who had limitless wealth
and power. Being devout and obedient to You would lead anyone
to sublimity and height of glory.

Sloka 14

O, The Three-eyed Supreme! The Sun, Moon and Fire are Your
three eyes. While the deities and demons were churning the ocean,

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up came kalaakoota, the dire and deadly poison that would have
burnt all the three worlds. With Your compassion for all, You
swallowed it in and retaining the poison in Your throat You saved
the creation. The garaLa, poison turned Your throat blue and left
a stain there. For this reason, You were given the appellation of
Neelakanth, the blue-throated one. That very stain marks You out
as the greatest, the most powerful and noble. That very stain is
extremely praiseworthy for it could dispel the fears of all the
deities and save all the worlds.

Sloka 15

O the Lord of the Universe! Manmadha, the love deity, the one
who for the victory of the universe could shoot his arrows on
anyone, remained just a memory for You burnt him down by
opening Your third eye for belittling You by misjudging that You
could be won over by his proud arrow. Little did he realize that
You were jitendriya, the one who conquers his own sensory
organs. Trying to tempt anyone who has won all desire for sense
gratification does not yield any thing good.

Sloka 16:

While You are at Your cosmic dance, Tandava Nritya, with the
tread of Your feet, suddenly the earth and the sky fall into utter
befuddlement. In Vishnus realm, space, the stars and planets
break down when Your huge club-like shoulders hit them. With
the strokes of Your matted plaits of hair, the borders of Indras
kingdom, heaven, suffer often. Saviour of the Universe! The
Tandava nritya You perform for welfare surprisingly creates the
contrary effect.

Sloka 17:

The effulgence of the flow of the Holy Ganga pervades and is

reflected as little flakes of foam exceedingly brighter than the very
stars. Those little droplets on Your matted plaits in the shape of
the oceans built the world as a circular group of islands. This is
proof of Your Divinity, Your extra-ordinary power and glory.

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Sloka 18:

With Earth as chariot, Brahma as charioteer, Sumeru Mountain as

Your bow, the Sun and the Moon as wheels and Vishnu as arrow
You charged to kill the demons Tripurasura. Was any help or any
appurtenances really necessary for You to blow away those demon
as mere straws! Was it not just Your whim to play giving Your
obedient followers a sense of participation!

Sloka 19:

O Destroyer of Tripura Demons! While Sri Mahavishnu was

worshipping Your feet as usual with a thousand lotuses, he
suddenly found that he was short of one lotus. That very moment,
in his sublime and unparalleled devotion he plucked the lotus of
his own eye and offered it to complete the worship. Was it not for
that, pleased as You were, You had given him the charge of the
sustenance of all the three worlds and blessed him with the Sacred
Discus, the powerful weapon, Sudarshana Chakra!

Sloka 20:

Parameshwara! You are ever ready and eager to bestow the fruit
for performing fire rituals like Yagnas and Yagas as soon they
come to completion: not the one who leads the performance or
presides over the ritual. All those who have faith and all those true
believers intensely believe that You are the giver, the Supreme
Being, You. Without worshipping You nothing can be gained by
the mere performance of a jad, lifeless, ritual. With the knowledge
and understanding of the Vedas and shastras, performing fire
rituals following the procedures laid in the agama shastras with a
firm, unwavering faith in You alone would get Your blessing.

Sloka 21:

Parama Shiva! You are the one who gives refuge to those without
any other hope for the mere asking. Prajapati is the lord of those
wearing the body performing fire rituals with competence and

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skill. With sages and seers as the conductors with strict adherence
to the scriptures, with Brahma and other deities as audience and
spectators, the performance by Daksha came to nothing. The
simple reason is that the ancient lawmaker, Daksha Prajapati
failed in his duty of offering worship to You, the Supreme Being.
When the basic duty of obedience and devotion to the Supreme
Deity is neglected, would any performance ever succeed! Would it
not lead even to utter destruction!

Sloka 22:

O the Supreme Maintainer of the Holy Law! Once Brahma was

enamoured by his own creation Sandhya and wanted union with
her. The damsel with a sense of shame transformed herself into an
animal. When Brahma himself took the form of an animal, did
You not in Your frightful ire take a bow and arrow to discipline
him? This led to Brahma taking the form of the star Mrigashira in
the firmament. You as a skilled marksman still stand close to him
as the star Arudra observing him.

Sloka 23:

Paragon of discipline and acme of self-control! Believing that he

was helping Paravati, naturally the most beautiful, when
Manmadha shot his arrow, in a trice, You reduced him to ashes.
Later, impressed by her devotion, You made Parvati, arthangini,
Your half. What if the unknowing think that You are uxorious!

Sloka 24:

O Destroyer of desires foul! Playing blissfully in a graveyard with

souls unearthly, ash-smeared, wearing an elephant hide, a
mendicant with a skull in Your hands, You are seemingly
inauspicious. But are You not the one who fulfills all the desires
of the devotees and bless them with the fruit they pray for! For
Your devotees, Your appearance and appurtenances are ever
auspicious and welfare giving.

Sloka 25:

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O Mahadeva! I realize that You are the form of that very bliss,
which those performing praanaayaama, as laid down in the
scriptures, restraining the movement of life force get. They enjoy
the universal souls experience personally. Those who experience
that bliss have their eyes filled with tears and their bodies have
divinely caused goosebumps. In such a blessed state of mind they
would be taking dips continuously in the lake of nectar with
inward bliss.

Sloka 26:

O Deva! The learned see in You the eight forms of divinity

(ashtha moorti). You are the Sun and the Moon; You are Wind;
You are Water; You are Sky; You are Earth; You are Fire, You
are the Soul. This is how the knowing ones conceive and express
themselves in the limited vocabulary at their disposal. It can be
more appropriately declared that there is absolutely nothing in this
vast universe that is not You, Your creation or Your
manifestation.

Sloka 27:

Oh Mahadeva the one granting asylum to all those who seek it in

devotion!! Omkara, the pranava naada inheres the three sounds
a u and m; the three Vedas, Rig, Yaju and Sama and the three
states of Wakefulness, Dream and Sleep as also Creation, Being,
and Dissolution. The sound also includes in itself the Creator
Brahma, the Sustainer Vishnu and the Destroyer Shiva. Thus
perceived OM represents YOU in all Your effulgence and power.

Sloka 28:

O Mahadeva! Only the Holy Scriptures and the Vedas can

describe You fully. You are the base of all creation, bhava,
destroyer sarva, the and one who punishes and disciplines, rudra,
the lord of the beings, pashupati, the annihilator of ignorance and
sin ferociously, ugra, the one dealing out strong and frightful
punishments, mahaan, bheemaa and eesaana. The learned devout

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described You thus by the eight names. I am too small and
insignificant to describe You exhaustively. I prostrate before You
and offer my salutations to You as the form of effulgent light.

Slokla 29:

O Lord! My salutations to You. You are very near and very far
too: near to the knowing ones, jnaanis and far, far away to the
ignorant and faithless, pervading the entire universe. You are the
tiniest among the tiny and the most voluminous among the
voluminous: I offer salutations to You again and again. O Three-
eyed one! O, The most pristine! O, The one without beginning or
end! I salute You again and again, the One and All; the Present
and the Non-present; the Complete and Perfect and the Supreme
too!

Sloka 30:

O Deva Deva! Again and again I salute You who creates as

Brahma all the animate, those with chaitnaya (live awareness) and
those without it becoming a personification of rajo guna, the
attribute of passion. Again and again I salute You who blessed all
creation as Vishnu with Your satwa guna, the attribute of
kindness and compassion. Again and again I salute You who as
Rudra becomes a personification of tamo guna, the attribute of
Darkness. I salute You, the Perfect and the Greatest, becoming
one or the other at will, going beyond the tri gunas, the three
attributes (gunas) mentioned above. You are both the One with
attributes and the One without any attribute (nirguna).

Sloka 31:
O Bountiful One! I am susceptible to disease; just a bubble to
burst any moment, weak, subject to various kinds of affliction
(aadi vyaadhis), one utterly poor in deserts and ineligible for
anything, Meekly I prostrate before You, the One transcending
gunas and the One with limitless powers and effulgence. Utterly
scared, I seek solace in devotion to You by submitting this paean
as a flower at Your glorious feet.

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Sloka 32:

O Maheswara! The goddess of Saraswati would be scripting ever

without let up Your delectable divine qualities using the ink
obtained by mixing the blackness of the Anjanadri (Black Mount
Anjana), in the oceans (abdhi), with the earth as the ink container,
the branches of the Wish-fulfilling (Kalpa taru) tree as the quill.

Sloka 33:

The emperor of Gandharvas, the consummate poet Pushpadanta,

described in this venerable song of praise, shiva mahimna stotra,
Chandrasekhara, Chandramouli (the deity who wears the crescent
moon on His head) in Sanskrit, in a metre (chandas) called laghu
vritta. His song was lauded extensively by sacred sages and seers.

Sloka 34:

The one who reads this paean to the pristine and flawless Being
every day with devotion, with a clean conscience, would be
blessed with health, wealth, fine offspring, fame and long life in
this life and in proximity with the Supreme Being in the life to
come.

Sloka 35:

The recital of this paean in a devout frame of mind gives the

devotees manifold blessings and several fruits. One gets affluence
and wealth and the merit of performing arduous tapas
(contemplation) or performing elaborate fire rituals. Even
shodashi kaLaa upasanaa (contemplation and worship of the
sixteen forms of divine radiance) does not stand comparison
with a recital or repetition of this paean.

Sloka 36:

Pushpadantas devout song-offering extolling Parama Shivas

power and glory and descriptions of His form, nature and

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attributes are replete with incomparable beauty. The recital
ensures peace and welfare all around.

Sloka 37:

Sankara is the deity incomparable, with none above Him. There is

no song of praise greater or more welfare-bestowing than this.
There is no chant or hymn, no incantation, which excels AUM.
There is no principle (Tattwa) which can excel guru, the
preceptor.

Sloka 38:

O Mahadeva! Wearing the Crescent Moon on Your crown You

are at the top of the list of deities! The king of Gandharvas,
Kusumadashana, also called Pushpadanta, incurred Your wrath for
treading on nirmalya. Thereby he forfeited his powers of
withdrawing using his gift of vanishing. Caught in a tight corner,
in a moment he composed this paean in devotion asking for Your
forgiveness. You in Your infinite mercy restored his earlier power
of disappearing at will. .

Sloka 39:

Those who recite or read the song of praise, extolled by the sacred
seers and sages, with folded hands in supplication as a gesture of
salutation wholeheartedly, from the depths of manas, heart-mind-
feeling would obtain salvation and get the greatest good fortune of
staying in proximity to the Divine Supreme.

Sloka 40

His devotees would delight Sarvabhootapati, the Lord of All

Beings, by singing every day this hymn in complete devotion.

Sloka 42:

Listening to our prayers and recitals of His praise in paeans

sonorously in powerful syllables, may Sadaashiva, the ever

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auspicious and the ever desire-fulfilling, be compassionately
inclined towards us all!

AUM TAT SAT

Dr V.V.B.Rama Rao, D-94 NTPC Shaurya, Plot No C-55 Sector 33

Noida 201 307 Phones: 0120 2508990 & 2508991
Mob: 09910726313

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