•||Om Namah Shivaya||•
Skin as white as camphor,
Dusted with ashes of dead,
I bow down to lord Shiva,
He who resides in the mountains.
Neck adorned with a snake wrapped in three,
Decked with only rudraksh beads,
I bow down to lord Shiva,
He who is the greatest yogi.
Whose hands hold the drum and the trident,
Whose hair holds the sacred Ganges,
I bow down to lord Shiva,
He who is the purifier of the soul.
Whose feet cleanses all sin,
Who wears only a leopard skin,
I bow down to lord Shiva,
He who is the lord of all fallen beings.
For whom the universe dances,
Thus Nataraj is his other name,
I bow down to lord Shiva,
He who created the robust dance of tandava.
Whose throat is blue with the poison withheld, earning him the name neelkantha,
Who coerces the agony of the living and holds it within himself,
I bow down to lord Shiva,
Whose very thought liberates the soul.
For whom the moon became a crown,
Who's eternal consort is Shakti, the divine feminine,
I bow down to lord Shiva,
He who is the youthful Chandrasekhara.
Who resides in the crematorium,
Amongst wraiths and spirits,
I bow down to lord Shiva,
He who is the eases the pain of the souls of the deceased.
Who is the third of the trinity,
The transformer of the universe,
I bow the down to lord Shiva,
He whose name was the first sound emitted in the universe.
Who clears the delusion of mind,
For whom the demon Ravana composed a hymn,
I bow down to lord Shiva,
He who is easily pleased.
Who destroys what has gone to waste,
And gives way for the new to bloom,
I bow down to lord Shiva,
The quintessence of the Supreme Brahman
•||Om Namah Shivaya||•
***
(Old Version)
When the world halts,
When the time ends,
When the creation has perished,
When all hope is renounced,
When gloom consumes,
When the stars grow cold and wither,
When the wind stops to blow,
When the world comes to a sudden recess,
When life has fallen,
When the sun is lost,
When the planets are razed,
When nothing remains,
But a chasm of nothingness,
How did the ray of light,
Enter the dark vacuum,
Alighting the demolished universe?
Who dances there,
As the stars grow bright,
Who returned the gift of life?
How did the sun, rise again?
How the world was made again!
How did the stars glow again?
Destruction of the old is inevitable,
To give way for the new,
What has decayed must wither,
For new to bloom,
That is what Shiva is,
Desecrator of the old,
That is what Shiva is,
The resurrector of new.
*
**
Note; Shiva is known as "The Destroyer" within the Trimurti, the Hindu trinity that includes Brahma and Vishnu. In the Shaivite tradition, Shiva is the Supreme Lord who creates, protects and transforms the universe.
Personally, I attribute Lord Shiva with both destruction and resurrection, the symbol of both the beginning and the end of time and creation.
***
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Forgotten ✓
Poetry"My heart resides in these pages." A collection of nonfiction poetry about the magnificent and benevolent gods of the past told through the eyes of a mortal girl millions of years younger than them. "What I hate, is the smallness of mind, the lack...
