Greatness of Shiva : Mahimnastava of Pushpadanta with commentary

MAHIMNASTAVA. 19

26 Thou art Sun, Moon, Air and Fire Water, Ether, Earth and the Sacrificer toot By such words did the ancients seek to define and limit Thee? But we ourselves do not know that which Thou art not®

27 Oh Giver of Refuge! The Mantra Om# with its three letters A, U & M

1 Atma: according to Yogavashishtha Yajaména is so called.

2 The verse deals with Shiva’s eight forms called Ashtamurti. Ishana (sun), Mahadeva (moon), Ugra (air), Rudra (fire), Bhava (water), Bhima (ether), Sarvva (earth) and Pashupati (yajamana the sacrificer here called Atma).

3 The ancients (it is here suggested) were unable, as we too are, to conceive the Formless and so conceived of and described Shiva with form as the intelligence must do. But here eight forms only are given. But there is no form which is not His. Brahmam is not the forms which are but finite creatures of his infinite power (Shakti) but is in them as their inmost self (Pratyagatma) and witness (Sakshi) that is as knower. It is That the object of which (as Shangkara says) is all the forms of knowledge (Sarvve pratyah vishaye bhavanti yasya) which is the Knower in all cognitions and the Seer in them all as the power of consciousness in itself (chichchakti svartipa matrah). Objects (Ripa) and ideas of objects (Nama) are the constituents of our differentiated knowledge which is underlain by the “undifferenced Blissful consciousness which is true Being or Shiva Himself.

4 Here he speaks of the great mantra Om, which is comprised of the letters A and U and M;; the first two coalescing by Sandhi into O. Its greatness exists both in its wholeness (Om) and the parts which constitute it (Samastavyastatay4), It is the mystic (Guhya) syllable of which Manu says that he who knows its sense knows the Veda (xi, 266). Within it as