Chapter 2 - Greatness of the Immovable Liṅga of Śaṅkara

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Brahmā said:

1. I recited the Vedas through all my mouths. After performing a mental worship, I eulogized Śiva with great devotion:

2. “Obeisance to the great Śiva, the sole cause of all the worlds. Salute to that Lord by whom everything is illuminated and sustained forever.

3. This splendour (of yours) always pervades the whole universe and illuminates it always. But those deprived of your grace, do not perceive it, like those who are born blind aṇḍ (hence) do not see the sun.

4. This is indeed the Bhūliṅga (i.e. terrestrial Liṅga) without impurities. It is experienced (i.e. realized) by means of spiritual vision by your devotees, whether it is stationed within or without.

5. O Lord of Devas, this form of yours, that cannot be accurately defined, shines in the inner soul of the Yogin as though in a mirror.

6. Or, the Śakti of Śaṅkara is true; it is minuter than the minutest. It is not something different from me since it merges in me too.

7. The atom that becomes the recipient of your kindness certainly attains greatness. There is no one superior to you, nor to me because of my resorting to you.

8. The mind dedicated to you does not expect separation from you. How can speech function adequately in glorifying your greatness!

9. O Mahādeva, O Lord, be pleased yourself, O Lord superior to the universe. Command your diligent devotee in the requisite engagements.”

10. After humbly submitting this, I bowed down again and again to the Lord of the Chiefs of Devas. Then with palms joined in reverence, I sat near the Lord.

11. Thereupon, making his words pure and blessed by means of the eulogies of Śaṅkara, Viṣṇu with a voice as majestic as the rumbling sound of a fresh cloud, spoke thus:

12. “Be victorious, O Overlord of the three worlds; be victorious, O Lord holding Gaṅgā. Be victorious, O Lord with uneven (three) eyes. Be victorious, O Lord with the crescent moon on the crest.

13. Unmeasured and genuine, O Śaṃbhu, is your compassion whereby the entire sin of the devotees has been washed off and perfect knowledge has been instilled.

14. (Defective Text) You maintain all Vidyās. You lead them to the status of Purāṇas by means of prosperities^) Like a father you nurture and develop those having sons.^[1]

15. O Īśāna, we are not capable of eulogizing (adequately) even a single idol from among the hundred of idols (of yours), by means of fresh prayers. What then about the collection (of all)!

16. You alone are competent enough to understand yourself, or by means of your grace. Does not a bee, having dragged a worm to itself, transform it into itself (a bee)?

17. Do the Devas not become lords by being born by a digit from you? Does the heated iron nail not have the power of burning?

18. Just as it is possible that there may be different kinds of fire due to difference in place, time, activity etc., so also although you are one, you become different as the objects differ.

19. O benevolent Lord Śaṅkara, reveal your form to us, the form that gives delight to our eyes, O support of all.”

20. As we two bowed down with faith and devotion, as We two eulogized (him), Lord Śaṃbhu became extremely delighted.

21. From that column of effulgence, the Lord with the crescent moon on his crest came out as a person of tawny complexion with black throat.

22. With his (two) hands he was holding an axe and a fawn and with (his other two) hands he was giving (us) immunity from fear and rest. The Puruṣa, the Lord (himself) spoke to us as his sons.

23-24. “I am delighted with you both and your devotion to me. You both have joined yourselves with the Ātman. You two shall be the lords of creation and sustenance.

Since I have manifested myself for the sake of your realization of what you two desire, choose another boon too. I have come to you as the bestower of boons.”

25. At these words of the Lord, both of us became exceedingly delighted. With the palms joined in reverence, we individually expressed our respective wishes.

26. Making the three worlds mostly as my infant I eulogized the unconquered Īśāna by means of the Vedic Mantras:

27. “I bow down to the Lord of the form of this visible world, the perpetual bestower of boons, the great Lord full of refulgence, the unsullied one worthy of being meditated upon by Yogins.

28. The void space of the sky when filled with refulgence by you, O Lord, becomes in a moment the residence of Suras, which becomes one that is asked about and sought after.

29. Siddhas, Cāraṇas, Gandharvas, Devas and great sages would not have lived in the firmament if they had not acquired the ability to move about in the sky through your refulgence.

30. Being scorched by your refulgence, the entire earth will cease to be capable of producing the mobile and the immobile living beings.

31. For the sake of blessing the worlds, withhold and withdraw your refulgence, and become an immobile Liṅga with the name Aruṇācala.

32. Those men who devoutly bow down to this fiery form named Aruṇācala become superior even to the immortal ones.

33. May all the worlds, Siddhas, great sages and different Gaṇas assume human form and serve you.

34. May the celestial trees beginning with Kalpaka growing in the divine gardens, serve you and thereby grow laden with different kinds of fruits.

35. Let the groups of the celestial medicinal herbs (be so). Let the animal species beginning with lions become calm and move about. Let there be washing off of the dirt of sins.

36. Though he has two different types of transit, the Sun will not transgress your peak while you are in the form of a Liṅga.

37. O Lord, be served through the dances and songs of celestial damsels, the sounds of the divine Dundubhi drums and conchs and showers of flowers.

38. Let the human beings who come to your presence, obtain immortality, Siddhahood, skill in alchemy and extreme bliss.

39. O Aruṇācala, may all men resorting to you obtain Īśitva (i.e. mastery over everything), Vaśitva (he. ability to win over others), Saubhāgya (i.e. good fortune) and Kālavañcana (i.e. ability to defy death).

40. Be visible on the earth through blessings granting all limbs, destroying all ailments and bestowing everything desired.”

41. The Lord of Kamalā (i.e. Viṣṇu) too prayed in the same manner to Lord Śiva, the bestower of boons, the Lord of the Aruṇa mountain. He bowed down and spoke thus:

42. “Be pleased, O Lord of Śoṇa-Śaila (i.e. Aruṇācala), full of mercy. O Maheśa, you have manifested yourself for the sake of the welfare of all the worlds.

43. Just as I, by resorting to you, became capable of protecting the universe and acquired the husbandhood of Lakṣmī, so also let your devotees be so.

44. Your great and wonderful form cannot be adored by the persons of insufficient merits, O Lord whose foot and crest have not been seen by me and by Brahmā.

45. Those men who worship you by means of circumambulations, obeisances, dances, songs and adorations are blessed with all their sins gone.

46. Let those human beings who worship you by observing fasts, performing holy rites, sacrifices, offerings as well as adorations, become emperors.

47. O Lord of Aruṇācala, be in the vicinity of those who build and maintain parks, platforms, sacrificial halls and wells for freedom from adverse fate.

48-50. May a man who circumambulates you rolling on the ground, become endowed with all the eight Aiśvaryas (‘superhuman powers’). Let him be immediately liberated from all sins. Let him be pure in mind. Let us both not leave off your lotuslike feet that should be meditated upon by all men who come to your vicinity.”

After granting the boon saying “So be it” to Viṣṇu, the Moon-crested Lord assumed the state of an immobile Liṅga in the form of Aruṇācala.

51. Indeed this Liṅga which is well-known as Aruṇādri and is seen on the surface of the earth, is Taijasa (i.e. of fiery or effulgent nature) and the sole cause of all the worlds.

52. The ground near it is not at all touched by the four oceans that become agitated at the close of the Yuga and that have the extremities of the worlds submerged in them.

53. The great clouds beginning with Puṣkara fill the three worlds with drops of water of the size of elephants. They take rest on its ridge.

54. When the annihilation of all living beings takes place, when all created things are reabsorbed into Prakṛti, all the future seeds are certainly deposited there.

55. Brāhmaṇas who resort to the foot of that mountain are called again by me (i.e. Brahmā) after the deluge and I make them study the Vedas and make the collections thereof.

56. All the lores, arts, wealth of scriptures, Āgamas and the Vedas are truthfully well arranged there.

57. Sages of well-praised holy observances and rites, who abide within the caves of that mountain, shine with their matted hair. They have the refulgence of a crore of suns and fires.

58. Sadāśiva who is of the nature of Nāda (i.e. the divine sound) is seated on the Akārapīṭhikā (i.e. the pedestal of the letter ‘A’) along with the five Vedic Mantras that assume the forms of the five syllables (i.e. namaḥ śivāya).

59. He is worshipped by the Guardians of the eight quarters always by means of the eight Liṅgas.

Having the eight physical forms,^[2] he bestows the eight Siddhis^[3] (‘superhuman powers’).

60. Siddhas leave off their own respective worlds and leading Suras abandon the Meru mountain and stay there (i.e. in Aruṇācala) waiting for their salvation.

61. Thus the entire collection of the ultimate fruits of all the merits of the earth is well-known as Aruṇācala. It yields devotion to devotees as a boon.

62. Śaṃbhu, the bestower of all boons, of the nature of Śoṇaśaila (i.e. Aruṇācala) is worshipped by the groups of Devas coming from Kailāsa and the summit of Meru.

63. After hearing devoutly these words orally transmitted by the Lotus-born Lord, Śaṅkara became delighted in his mind. The son humbly bowed down to the father and asked him the essence of the Veda.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

sa-putrāṇām. But this should be emended as su-putrāṇām ‘of good sons’.

[2]:

The eight forms of Śiva are the five elements, the sun, the moon and the sacrificing priest. Cf. the maṅgala (Nāndi) of Śakuntalā. The Names given to these in Tantra works are as follows:

1. earth-form: Sarva;
2. water-form: Bhava;
3. fire-form: Rudra;
4. wind-form: Ugra;
5. sky-form: Bhīma;
6. Yajamāna-form: Paśupati;
7. moon-form: Mahādeva;
8. sun-form: Īśāna.

[3]:

These eight supernormal powers are enumerated as follows:

aṇīmā laghimā prāptiḥ prākāmyaṃ mahimā tathā |
īśitvaṃ ca vaśitvaṃ ca tathā kāmāvasāyitā ||