5.19.2009

Sri Rudram - Divine Verses to Lord Rudra

The literal translation of the RUDRAM as follows:

A call to the Great Lord Aghora Rudra, who should not reveal himself in a form that scares us, who should keep away my enemies from me, who should grant us happiness in this world and in heaven, all material dear to us here and in heaven, endearing relations, prosperity, comfort, name, fame, fortune, enormous riches, proper guidance from elders, palatial mansions, support from the family, undaunted courage, chivalry and valour, command obedience from our progeny, circumvent untimely death, be free from ailments, ensure longevity, assure bountiful sleep, a very successful glamorous day, wealth and fame derived by me, longed and valued by others, increase my worldly possessions, give me attractiveness and personal charm, feeling pride of the body, with excellent and harmonious resorts for my stay and recreation as diversion, secure well guarded paths for my movements of coming and going, gold, silver and the sacred navaratna stones... and so the Rudram goes on into a never ending wish list of everything we can wish for...

Is this the real Rudram - To keep asking Lord Shiva for things, endlessly including the condition that we would prefer to see his soumya rupa instead of his aghora rupa?



Or is this the real Rudram?

Into the depths of heaven

Does my soul fly
Into the intensity of the element
Does my heart rule
At the feet of the Great Lord Rudra
Do I wish to live

The ever flowing Ganges
Those ancient verses
The depth in the waters of nature
The excitement to be in the audience of the learned
That which completely engages my mind
That chill in the air
The purity in untouched nature
Thar which is left behind in ancient temples
The potency in the stone idol that remains
The holiness of the water in my hand
The warmth in the fire
The energy that is the Goddess
She who describes him as his power
Decorated in vilva and flowers
The great Lord meditates...
The world churns
I churn
And you cease to understand me anymore...

THE RUDRAM

To the ignorant who dont care to know, THE RUDRAM is a series of verses sung in a meter, rhythmic and monotonous making no immediate difference to their lives

To the bhakta who still craves to live, THE RUDRAM is a long list of wishes to the great lord Aghora Rudra Shiva to keep away enemies, to grant great wealth, to ward away decease, to deliver healthy progeny who will be rich and charming and learned and prosperous, to grant land and gold and silver...the list goes on (refer above)

To the intellect who wants to discover, THE RUDRAM is a intriguing tale of secret medicine and alchemy that is hidden in the sacred syllables as they fall out as divine notes.

To the pure soul, the undefined person who neither looks for intellectual stimulation nor do they look to decipher secret code within these verses nor are they attempting to be immortal or wishing for a longer life nor do they find any great happiness in riches feeding a never ending greed... to the pure soul it seems to be pure love, pure rhythmic love, unadulterated pure rhythmic love.

The primordial sound of Om, the calling for Ganesha, the adoration of Aghora Rishi, the prayer to Parama Purusha RUDRA Devata, the recitation of the sacred beejam of Na Ma Shi Va Ya, invoking the Shivataraye Shakti. I call you, in a language that has lived, that has been defined and practiced through the centuries, a tried and tested method of ritual, to come down into this world and reveal yourself to me.

Your Rudraksha mala is my protection, the rhythm in the verses that brings alive the sound of creation is the beat of my heart, and as I live on I realize you are my focus, and once I set eyes on you this life in this state has completed its purpose. I have no more purpose, no more need, no more desire to want to live. I have nothing more to do here, my task is complete.

And so I wait, wait for you to reveal yourself to me, be it your beauty as the consort of Parvati, or be it the charming Bhikshatana, or be it the enchanting Nataraja or be it the fierce Lord Kalabhairava...I wait for you.

I wait for you as a human in this form, I wait for you as a ghost or a ghoul after I leave this body, I wait for you as a deva if I have been honest and pure and have not sinned as much, I wait for you to come and reveal yourself.

I wait, and while I wait I contemplate on you as I play my role within this maya as a child, as an adult, as a wife, as a mother, as a dauther in law, as a boss, as an employee, as a citizen, as a compassionate human being in this state.

I simply wait, I contemplate and while I immerse myself in your thoughts, I worship you...

Courtesy:
youtube > cacofonics

12 comments:

JC said...

"Necessity is the mother of invention." Similarly, 'fear' is the mother of Lord Rudra, the angry Shiva! But, He is also imagined in reality as Bholenath or the Simple God beloved of all 'devtas' and 'rakshashas'!

It is believed by the 'wise ancients' to appear thus on account of the illusory or temporary exterior animal forms, as the 'images' of the Formess Creator itself that is responbsible for the apparent duality in all aspects of 'Nature' - like the two faces of coin reflected thanks to the neutral or blank side!

Of course, it's not easy to comprehend and believe by the 'average human being' who naturally gets carried away by the apparent hierarchy...The phenomenon is also exhibited ideally by those logs of wood - flowing in a rapidly flowing river - that alone can hope to reach their true destination, the sea, if they continue to flow in the 'middle stream' only...and hence the message similarly conveyed by The Buddha - to follow the 'middle path'...and by 'Krishna' - to remain unmoved under all circumstances...

One needs to ever remind oneself of the Absolute Truth lest the 'seeker' fails!

JC said...

For the sake of elaboration (as well as time pass!), many 'Hindu' mythological stories convey how certain characters, in different Yugas in the 'past', and in the 'present' also (for truth believably remains unaffected by 'time') apparently had to undergo physical and/ or mental suffering when they accepted God as benevolent or 'karunanidhi', the sea of kindness...The story related to Satyuga of 'satyavadi' or 'Truthful' king Harishchandra conveys how he remained unmoved even when he lost virtually all material possessions...but in the end everything ended well!

However, the story related with Tretayuga, Ramayana, also has a similar plot when in the end Lord Rama returns home with Sita...but with a twist in the tale, for Sita had to suffer further and it was only when her sons, twins Luv and Kush, defeated their father's army that everything became alright...In dwaperyuga, Pandavas also eventually regained what all material possessions they had lost to their cousins who used unfair means ('adharma')...

Unknown said...

Very well said.

This seems like a natural evolution of the orthodox religious interpretation. Only a fully baked enlightened Rishi really knows though .... has it pat down. The rest of us are groping around in dark caves of the online world.

JC said...

Hi 'Shiv Bhakt', The 'wise ancients', the Yogis, have clearly indicated a physical form as yoga or fusion of (temporary)matter and (immortal) energy, the exterior form and the 'soul' within...and they have given 100% weightage to soul as the VIP, common in all physical forms...

Thus it apparently is only a matter of 'mental attitude'...And, eventually one has perhaps to believe that there must be some purpose that remains unknown to all humans at any time, who naturally are imperfect, and that only Shiva is perfect who alone knows what He/ it seeks in the repetitive review of all His Own Images!

Maybe it seeks its mother, or origin! For the 'wise ancients' also failed and just believed Him as Unborn and unending too..

JC said...

For the sake of Kavitha's visitors, 'I' give below copies of three of my posts in a blog on 'science' (in two comments due to limitation on number of words)...
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47. May 20, 2009 8:33 am

Talking of intelligent design, in ‘India’, perhaps the ancient most country in the eastern part of the common globe that we all share with innumerable animal forms too since time immemorial, it is believed that man himself is the superior most animal, a model or ‘essence’ of the universe itself. And that it is being operated through the agency of essences of 9 numbers selected members of our solar system, from Sun to Saturn…
And, today it’s well known that our ‘Milky Way Galaxy’ of innumerable stars and other ‘heavenly bodies’ in appearance is disc-shaped, thick in the middle and thin at the periphery. And that It revolves around its centre, say like a centrifuge as its model and it, similarly, has our solar system located near its outer periphery, just as ‘cream’ moves to the outer periphery of the centrifuge when milk is churned….
— JC Joshi
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200. May 20, 2009 10:57 pm
Hypothetically speaking, if as an artist cum mathematician I were to look around me, I would find that outlines of ‘mammals’ - mice to elephant, including ‘man’ - can be basically represented by geometrical figures, i.e., ‘circles’, or ‘two zeros’, of different sizes. And interestingly, mathematicians use two zeros, one zero above another (or one vessel over another) to symbolically represent the numeral ‘8’ (eight, cardinal directions?). And the two zeros, also symbolically represent infinity - when ‘8’ is written horizontally!
I thus can see the entire ‘Nature’ with almost a spherical shaped ‘earth’ as the datum, the direct or indirect provider of all my basic needs, of ‘material’, as well as ‘energy’ the sole supplier of which is the distant sun during the day and mysterious moon during the night and thus indicating some role being played by other members of the solar system too…
And, looking through the eyes of ‘ancient Egyptians’ - who existed thousands of years ago - I can perhaps see a geometrical form of ‘Pyramid’, that is, a grand edifice in stone masonry (oriented such that its four numbers triangular shapes face each one of the cardinal directions, N-E-W-S) in which a large square shaped base at earth level eventually ends in a point at the peak, as a symbolically representative model of inverted earth, although a cone could perhaps be an ideal one…Pyramid means ‘fire within’, and earth literally has it in the form of molten rocks or magma!
— JC Joshi
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JC said...

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252. May 22, 2009 5:44 am

Continuing from my comment @ 200, I would like to add that a city is dynamic - it virtually starts from a point and expands outwards, if ideal conditions for sustenance of life are available to start with and also for its sustenance to a certain point in time, when if the population increases any further it might collapse due, say, to some calamity…
Looking for a model, one can perhaps notice that the ordinary bacteria multiplies by division, and not by addition as seen in relatively more evolved human life :)
And, I had the opportunity in my college days to see through a microscope how a bacterium cultured in agar media within a few days filled up the circular dish, perhaps initially a 2D expansion and later adopting to man-like high rise 3D formation due to boundary constraints… And, historians also confirm that ‘advanced civillisations’, viz Mayas, etc. in the past also appear to have started from a restricted area - to then develop further to cover larger areas around that central region……
And the ‘relatively advanced civilisations in the past’ appear to have used pyramids because of apparent development of some form of energy within the structure due particularly to the shape and orientation of the structure, which helped preserve dead bodies longer…Thus suggesting that they had believably reached a stage where they believed they could revive their dead Pharaohs…and in the present also, on account of apparent development in technology, dead bodies of rich people are reportedly preserved in deep freezes instead…
As I said earlier, perhaps a conical shape would be ideal, but humans being ‘imperfect’, compared to perfect members of the solar system that are in existence for over 4 billion years already (and even ordinary e-coli bacteria exists on earth for over 3 billion years whereas man landed here only about a few million years ago only), and are.perhaps explained best by the definition, “Square peg in a round hole,” and a pyramid literally is that peg…
Maybe, thus one finds in ancient countries, such as India, major cities to have perhaps already reached the saturation point, and therefore migration to ‘west’ is a common phenomenon in the recent times…
— JC Joshi

JC said...

Once someone has understood Earth as Shiva (as referred in the 'Hindu Mythology') - and the 'scientific knowledge' that our apparently most beautiful planet earth, in our galaxy that alone supports 'life', is believed to have evolved from a 'fireball' and also that the cool moon ('Indu' in Sanskrit, respnsible for the origin of 'Hindu') evolved from earth itself - it's easy to realise it as the Lord Rudra the 'angry God', and also Shiva as the Destroyer, earth being called 'mrityulok'...

The seed named 'rudraksha', found in the Himalayan forests and used as one of the 108 beads in the rosary is believed to have fallen from Lord Rudra's eyes - maybe thus indicating its tree as one of the earliest form of plant life...

JC said...

In the good old days, as a child, it looked funny how 'my father' used to get letters from home that had the opening line read as "Shri Shri Shri 108 Shri Hari Krishnaji"...

'I' could onlu later correlate the 108 as perhaps indicating the expected human life span on earth as 108 years. And that instead of rounded off 1000 cycles of Mahayugas each of 4,32,000 years in one Brahma's day it should perhaps be 1080 numbers (360 degrees representing the space multiplied by 3 the 'magical number' or 'om' reflecting the three aspects of the 'creator')...

JC said...

In so far as 'scientific basis' is concerned, Bhootnath Shiva (the supreme soul, or spirit) is also called Mahakal, ie., the Controller of Time, who itself believably is related with zero time and space, visualised as formless Nadbindu the believable unique source of infinite sound energy as the 'creator' of the infinite universe (Brahmand or literally 'Creator's egg' for ancient 'Hindus')...

And the universe is reported by 'present day scientists' to be expanding like a balloon in which its contents, the innumerable heavenly bodies that constitute innumerable galaxies, including our own 'Milky Way Galaxy' also apparently are expanding...And, today its anybody's guess whether it would stop expanding till a certain stage only and perhaps then start reducing (as observed when a supernova explodes and at a certain stage implosion of the resultant debris starts)...

However, the ancient Indian astronomers have indicated the process as unending...while the Yogis, reading between lines, have indicated physical universe as illusory projection of a phenomenon that happened in zero time. For creation and destruction both would logically have happened within zero time as well as space...

The above can perhaps be visualised with the apparently 'present day' advancement in technology that permits one to review through 'slow motion pictures' - as many times as one likes - an event that apparently occurs in no time, by projecting images at a much reduced rate over expanded time...

And, similarly, ancient but apparently wiser 'Hindus' have indicated review of His Own stories by formless Bhootnath Shiva/ Vishnu in Yognidra on the bed formed by the celestial serpent Ananta/ Sheshnag at the middle of the 'kshirsagar' that is 'Milky Ocean'...thus indicating its influence extended over infinite space thanks to it being omnipotent and omnipresent...

With the above realisation yogis or 'highly elevated souls' appear to have communicated as essence of innumerable mythological stories to the other souls at lower elevations that the only pupose of man is to realise existence of the supreme formless soul, and also physical forms of God that reflect hierarchy as illusory, creation of 'maya' by the supreme soul (for it own purpose)...

Thus Lord Rudra is like a bad dream in sleep generally seen by an average soul :)

JC said...

Life in the plains appears much faster than the life in the hills and during each day has many sources that generate fear in the minds of city dwellers mostly on account of the fast life-style...

However, fear of unknown beings was introduced to us when as a young school-going boy 'I' visited with my other siblings and parents our home-town in the hills - in the pre-independence years or even later, when 'development' was yet to take place...

The local relatives, boys, told us stories of different types of ghosts believably associated with certain locations where certain trees acted as landmarks :(

However, since childhood 'we' were also told by seniors that if at any time one expected to encounter ghosts, one should repeat 'Hanuman chalisa', a prayer that invoked Hanuman, the 'sankat mochan', or the 'trouble shooter', an 'elevated soul' whose name (because physical forms that reflect hierarchy came into being with sound energy) acted like a 'kavach' or a protective shield from all 'inferior souls'...It proved handy to 'me' once when 'I' had been to see night show of a film with some boys, relatives...and had to walk for over 15 minutes through dark unilluminated track to our ancestral home :)

JC said...

Maybe as part of review of the essence, 'I' find stone masonry structures called 'pyramid' to apparently have within it generated some 'fire'. or 'energy', ie., one of the 'panchbhootas' as per the terminology used by 'Hindus', who instead provided the same shape to a part of their temples, but called them 'vimanas' since time immemorial.

A pyramid apparently has the capacity to preserve 'dead bodies', whereas, Hindus apparently used it to elevate the energy level within 'live' human beings who visited the temple, for they realised human beings also like it formed of the panchbhootas, mere instruments, or media used by God for its own purpose, which could even also be to realise the self as humans are also advised to do...

JC said...

As 'I' have tried to analyse it - by entering the minds of some 'Hindu' characters as typical examples of the so-called 'blind faith' by 'westerners' - 'I' believe 'I' saw the purpose of 'meditation' is simply to train the mind to gradually become immune to the day-to-day actions related with fulfilment of basic needs of food, clothing and shelter so that at a certain stage, called 'sanyas', one could devote more time only for realising the purpose of human life...

And, for 'common man's' benefit one might find it already spelled out in the scriptures available in 'India' since time immemorial. But, the 'present day youth' (perhaps as per design), simply avoids going into the subject to get away by saying he/ she doesn't believe in God!

It thus might find it too late even if one gets to change one's mind at a late stage...And, today it's clearly noticeable that 'we' the present day humans can only be called 'after the event wise'...as 'we' now get to see how human activities, despite apparent 'advancement', has virtually led to possibility of extinction of human life shortly, although we have witnessed extinction of many other animal species from time to time...

However, god being mischievous no one is certain what one would get to see in 'future' - back to Satyuga or 'Brahma faling asleep' any time now :)