4 - Kashi Vishwanath Gange
These four verses are from a prayer called the Shiva Stuti from the Ramacharitamanasa (Ramayana) of Tulsi Das.
The story of Rama incarnation and lilas is being told by a crow to Garuda, the King of birds. The crow Kakabhusundi is repeating the story that Shiva had told Parvati.
Garuda asks the crow how he has come to know the story and how he gained so much wisdom. Kakabhusundi tells his life story. He was an arrogant disciple of a very loving guru. No matter how much his guru loved him, he just didn't get it. One day he was meditating and his guru walked in the room. He knew it was his guru but still he didn't get up. At that instatnt Shiva himself manifested out of the Lingam and cursed him to become a crow and undergo millions of births of torture and hell for disrespecting his guru. His guru was so upset at the curse that he prayed to Shiva to rescind it. This is that prayer.
Shiva was so moved by the prayer that even though he could not rescind the curse he added to it, saying that even though the disciple would remain a crow he would become the foremost knower of God in the universe and would be able to see all the lilas(Play) of the Lord in all His manifestations in all the universes.
Namaameesha meeshaan nirwaana roopam
Wibhum vyaapakam braham wedaswaroopam
I bow to the Lord of the Northwest(Shiva)
Whose form is liberation itself.
The supreme Brahman, in the form of the Vedas,
Spread out over the whole Universe.
Nijam nirgunam nirwikalpam nireeham
Chidaakaasha maakaasha waasam bhajeham
You are without attributes and beyond time,
without any limitation; beyond desire.
You are the sky of bliss. I worship you.
Niraakaara monkaara moolam tureeyam
Giraa gyaana goteeta meesham gireesham
You are the formless One
beyond the Omkar which has it root in you.
You are beyond words, knowledge and the physical world,
Oh Lord of Mountains.
Karaalam mahaakaala kaalam kripaalam
Gunaagaara sansaara paaram natoham
You are the terrifying One who devours time;
which devours everything.
You are the most compassionate one.
All the qualities and attributes of experience,
originate in you,
But the world can never find your end.
Hara Hara Mahaadeva Shaambho(Bom Bom)
Kaashi Vishwaanaatha Gange
I call the names of The Great Lord Shiva
Who lives on the Banks of the Ganges at Kashi(Benares)
I sit on the banks of the river of life,
watching children being born, seeing how they grow,
how they take on the lives they have been given,
how they bend and wither with the weight of this world,
how those lives
disappear back into the Earth and Sky.
I breathe into them as they come
and they breathe into me as they leave.
I am the Great Lord in whom all find rest
In their true nature, my Self.
Shivoham- I am Shiva!
