Verse 2 [Invocation to Śiva]

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English commentary of verse 2:

स्थूलं सूक्ष्मं परं च त्रिविधमिह तगद् यत्प्रथावेशसिद्ध्या युक्तं सत्ता यदीया स्फुरति च परतः स्वप्रथैकस्वभावा ।
भामूर्ति यं विमर्शक्रियमनुपतिता लक्ष्यते लोकवृत्तिः सन्मार्गालोकनाय व्यपनयतु स वस्तामसीं वृत्तिमीशः ॥ २ ॥

sthūlaṃ sūkṣmaṃ paraṃ ca trividhamiha tagad yatprathāveśasiddhyā
yuktaṃ sattā yadīyā sphurati ca parataḥ svaprathaikasvabhāvā |
bhāmūrti yaṃ vimarśakriyamanupatitā lakṣyate lokavṛttiḥ
sanmārgālokanāya vyapanayatu sa vastāmasīṃ vṛttimīśaḥ || 2 ||

Comparative analysis of commentaries and excerpts in English:

[Invocation to Śiva]

Īśvara is invoked as the dispeller of kārmaṇamala—desire of doing good and evil. The supreme Lord Īśvara or kāla’s true nature can be conceived or understood as the apparent entity or seeming separate existence of three fold creation-Visible, Subtle and Invisible or the formal, the Spiritual and the Divine creation. He is of lustrous form and his action flows in the form of Power Discriminate, in whose wake or by whose presence the creation exists or seen. He is invoked to light the path of true knowledge or give the eye of true knowledge.^[1]

Salutation to Śiva—Lord of Three worlds

Śiva the Prakāśa aspect is worshipped to do away the kārmic limitations (kārmaṇa mala)—śubhāśubha anuṣṭāṇarūpa (experience of good and bad actions) which the empirical beings suffer.

It is said—

“Īśvarānugrahāteva puṃsām advaitavāsanā”

(The Impression of Non-duality is attained only with the grace of God).

Śiva is the illuminate of the three worlds viz.,

1. the gross world—Earth, mountains, man etc.,
2. the subtle world—Five tanmātras and objects of perception pañcabhūtas,
3. the subtlest—the unmanifest form of the world understood only by the śāstras and pramāṇas.

Śiva the substratum of Knowledge

Śiva is the very form of knowledge. His only act is to create the Vimarśa Śakti—the awareness of “I” (aham). The significance of the prayer to Śiva is to remove our ignorance due to limitations acquired through the kārmaṇamala and lead us in the path of Kramamukti—The orderly progress from the empirical I-self (ego) to the universal I-self (Supreme consciouness).

Notes and Sanskrit references:

[1] Cf. [Divyacakorikā] p 10-[Cidgaganacandrikā] 2.

sādhakānāṃ māyīyamalanirāsaphalakagaṇeśastutirūpamaṅgalānantaraṃ cikīrṣita cidgagana candrikāstotraupayikakārmaṇamalanirāsahetukamākāśaśarīraṃ śivatattvamapi parāmṛśati.