Dakäiëàmùrti Stotra Sri Shankaracharya
Verse 7
Notes:
1. Mudrās are certain mystic poses of fingers and hands. Sometimes a mudrā is defined as that which gives pleasure (mudaṁ rāti) to the gods and make their hearts melt out of compassion (= drāvayati). Sculptured images of gods invariably exhibit the mudrās. Dakṣiṇāmūrti is usually shown with the cinmudrā or jñānamudrā, the pose indicating transmission of wisdom. 2. Unless one takes refuge in the guru, he will not teach spiritual wisdom. The Gītā (4.34) says:
तद्विद्धि प्रणिपातेन परिप्रश्नेन सेवया । उपदेक्ष्यन्ति ते ज्ञानं ज्ञानिन तत्त्वदर्शिनः ।।
‘Know that (Truth) by making obeisance to the knowers of Truth and by asking inquisitive questions. (Those) wise men, the seers of Truth, will teach you (that) knowledge.’ 3. The Self of Īśvara, the Supreme Lord, and the Parama-guru, the Supreme Teacher, is the same as the Self of all beings. This has already been dealt with in the previous sections. 4. Whatever be the state, the sense of ‘I’ inside does not change. ‘I, who was a child, am now an old man’; ‘I, who had slept, am waking up now’; ‘I, who was seeing, am now hearing’— This is how the ‘I’-consciousness persists through all the states. Dakṣiṇāmūrti Stotra with Mānasollāsa. Translated and Annotated by Swami Harshananda
July 2019
7. Obeisance to Śrī Dakṣiṇāmūrti, who is the Guru, who by the auspicious mudrā1 is revealing to his votaries2 his own Self3, which is persistently present as the ‘I’ always shining inside, in all the various and mutually exclusive states like childhood etc. as also waking etc.4
7 The Vedanta Kesari
PA G E S P O N S O R : S M T. R A J A N I C H A K R AVA R T H Y S . , C H E N N A I
बाल्यादिष्वपि जाग्रदादिषु तथा सर्वास्ववस्थास्वपि व्यावृत्तास्वनुवर्तमानमहमित्यन्तस्स्फुरन्तं सदा । स्वात्मानं प्रकटीकरोति भजतां यो मुद्रया भद्रया तस्मै श्रीगुरुमूर्तये नम इदं श्रीदक्षिणामूर्तये ॥ ७ ॥
