A Hymn to Shiva
by Swami Vivekananda
Salutation
to Shiva! whose glory
Is immeasurable,
who resembles sky
In clearness,
to whom are attributed
The phenomena
of all creation,
The preservation
and dissolution
Of the universe!
May the devotion,
The burning
devotion of this my life
Attach itself
to Him, to Shiva, who,
While being
Lord of all, transcends Himself.
In whom Lordship
is ever established,
Who causes
annihilation of delusion,
Whose most
surpassing love, made manifest,
Has crowned
Him with a name above all names,
the name of "Mahadeva", the Great God!
Whose warm
embrace, of Love personified,
Displays,
within man's heart, that all power
Is but a semblance
and a passing show.
In which the
tempest of the whole past blows,
Past Samskaras,[1]
stirring the energies
With violence,
like water lashed to waves;
In which the
dual consciousness of "I" and "Thou"
Plays on:
I salute that mind unstable,
Centred in
Shiva, the abode of calm!
Where the ideas
of parent and produced,
Purified thoughts
and endless varied forms,
Merge in the
Real one; where the existence ends
Of such conceptions
as "within", "without"-
The wind of
modification being stilled-
That Hara
I worship, the suppression
Of movements
of the mind. Shiva I hail!
From whom all
gloom and darkness have dispersed;
That radiant
Light, white, beautiful
As bloom of
lotus white is beautiful;
Whose laughter
loud sheds knowledge luminous;
Who, by undivided
meditation,
Is realised
in the self-controlled heart:
May that Lordly
Swan of the limpid lake
Of my mind,
guard me, prostrate before Him!
Him, the Master-remover
of evil,
Who wipes
the dark stain of this Iron Age;
Whom Daksha's
Daughter gave Her coveted hand;
Who, like
the charming water-lily white,
Is beautiful;
who is ready ever
To part with
life for others' good, whose gaze
Is on the
humble fixed; whose neck is blue
With the poison
swallowed:
Him, we salute!
1. The accumulated
effects of past desires and actions.
(From Complete
Works of Swami Vivekananda: pp. 501-504, Vol. IV)
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