(compiled by Śrī Amṛtānandanātha Sarasvatī)
This Guru Stotram was compiled by Śrī Amṛtānandanātha Sarasvatī. It was transcribed from a cassette tape with minor grammatical edits. The verse translations came from direct translations as well as various internet sources.
Guruji provides introduction to the Stotram, gives the recitation and also provides commentary on the verses. Unfortunately the tape ended as he was giving his commentary on the 5th stanza.
Introduction
I’ve collected what I believe are some important stanzas in praise of the Guru. The grace of the Devi is passed on through the feet of the Guru. It is only right that one must remember that it is the Guru who gives you the spiritual education.
In the first stanza of the Guru Stotram I have given the Guru Parampara — the line of the Guru. My dikśa namam is Amṛtānanda, my Guru’s name is Svaprakāśānanda, and his Guru’s name is Kalyāṇānanda Bhārati, so this is the Guru parampara.
The Supreme Guru in our line is Dattātreya, who has written 11,000 upanishads, and who has given to the world 7 crores of mahāmantras, so he is the Mantra Śastra Supreme. He is Trinātha — Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva, all together in one form — and who is the Supreme Being.
There are two main Gurus in the Śrī Vidyā Upāsana, one is Dattātreya and the other is Dakṣiṇāmūrti. Dakṣiṇāmūrti is yourself and Dattātreya is a form of the Guru; there’s no distinction between these two. Dakṣiṇāmūrti is the Ardhanārīśvara form of Devi and Dattāreya is the Trinātha form of the Guru.
Dattātreya has given the external modes of worship. Dakṣiṇāmūrti has only concentrated on the internal modes of worship. This is the only difference. The external modes of worship are the route through which you learn the internal modes of worship. Without knowing what to do, how can you internalize the process? So first you need to know how to do the pūjā externally, then you can translate that into a mental action.
Stotram
[1]
ativarṇāśramaṃ buddhaṃ kalyāṇānanda-bhāratim |
svaprakāśātmakāṃ vande amṛtānanda-vigraham ||
I praise the Enlightened One, who is beyond all castes and stages of life, who bestows knowledge like Sarasvatī for peace, auspiciousness, and bliss — Kalyāṇānanda Bhāratī — whose nature is self-illumination (Svaprakāśa) and whose form is the bliss of immortality (Amṛtānanda).
[2]
namo’stvanantāya sahasra-mūrtaye sahasra-pādākṣi śiroru bāhave |
sahasra-nāmne puruṣāya śāśvate sahasra-koṭi yuga dhāriṇe namaḥ ||
Salutation to the Infinite One, of a thousand forms, with a thousand feet, eyes, heads, and arms; of a thousand names; the eternal Puruṣa; the bearer of billions of eons.
[3]
ṛtaṃ satyaṃ paraṃ brahma puruṣaṃ kṛṣṇa piṅgalam |
ūrdhvaretaṃ virūpākṣaṃ viśvarūpāya vai namo namaḥ ||
Salutation again and again to the Supreme Brahman — Truth, Cosmic Order — the Puruṣa of dark-blue and golden hue, ever-celibate, multi-eyed, all-pervasive.
[4]
akṣaratvād vareṇyatvād dhūta-saṃsāra-bandhanāt |
tattvam-asyādi lakṣyatvād avadhūtaṃ guruṃ bhaje ||
I worship that Avadhūta Guru who is imperishable, supreme, freed from the bonds of saṃsāra, and realized in the truth of “Tat Tvam Asi.”
[5]
dattātreya hare kṛṣṇā unmattānanda-dāyakā |
digambara mune bāla piśāca jñāna-sāgarā ||
O Dattātreya — Hari, Kṛṣṇa, giver of mad bliss!
O naked ascetic, sage, child, ghoul — ocean of knowledge!
[6]
vaktre caturmukho yasyā hṛde viṣṇu sadā sthitaḥ |
liṅge sadā śiva-sākṣāt tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ ||
In whose face is Brahmā, in whose heart is Viṣṇu, in whose liṅga is Sadāśiva — to that revered Guru, I bow.
[7]
yatra kutra sthitaṃ liṅgaṃ talliṅgaṃ pūjayet śivam |
sabhūmiṃ viśvato vṛtva atyatiṣṭhad daśāṅgulam ||
Wherever a liṅga is found, it should be worshipped as Śiva. Having pervaded the universe, He exceeds it by ten digits — He is limitless.
[8]
gamāgamasthaṃ gamanādiśūnyaṃ cidrūpadīpaṃ timirāpahāram |
paśyāmi te sarvajanāntarasthaṃ namāmi saṃsthaṃ paramātmarūpam ||
I behold the One who abides in the moving and unmoving, beyond action, the lamp of consciousness removing darkness. I bow to the One established in all beings as the Supreme Self.
[9]
deho devālayaḥ prokto jīvo devaḥ sanātanaḥ |
tyajed-ajñāna-nirmālyaṃ so’haṃ bhāvena pūjayet ||
The body is the temple; the jīva is the eternal deity. Let one discard the withered flowers of ignorance and worship with the awareness “I am That.”
[10]
haṃsa-haṃsaḥ paramahaṃsaḥ |
haṃsa-so’haṃ | haṃsa-so’haṃ | so’haṃ-haṃsaḥ ||
[11]
haṃsa-haṃsāya vidmahe
paramahaṃsāya dhīmahi
tan no haṃsaḥ pracodayāt ||
May we know the Hamsa; may we meditate on the Paramahaṃsa; may that Hamsa illuminate us.
[12]
vāgarthāviva saṃpṛktau vāgartha-pratipattaye |
jagataḥ pitarau vande pārvatī-parameśvarau ||
As word and meaning are inseparable, so are the parents of the universe, Pārvatī and Parameśvara. I bow to them.
[13]
yā devī sarvajananī yoniścaitanya-rūpiṇī |
vāme pūjyā svātma-śaktiḥ guruliṅgāṅga-yoginī ||
The Goddess, Mother of all, the Yoni of Consciousness, is to be worshipped on the left as one’s own Śakti — the Yoginī who unites one with the Guru-Liṅga.
hariḥ oṃ | śrī gurubhyo namaḥ | hariḥ oṃ
Commentary by Guruji
I’ll explain the meaning of these stanzas.
Hariḥ Oṁ. Ha is the symbol of Śiva and Ra is the symbol for Agni. Hari is the Śivāgni and it is the name of Viṣṇu. The nature of Viṣṇu is to take away your mind — manohara. The one who takes care of your mind is called Hari.
And the way to take away your mind is to concentrate on the Oṁ, which is the Ahāhata’s sound in your heart. So this is starting with Hariḥ Oṁ.
Among the three important deities — Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva representing creation, sustenance and destruction — obviously we are most interested in the sustenance aspect of it, not in the destructive aspect. Neither we desire our end prematurely, nor are we being born at the time when we are interested in the pūjā.
So the pūjā starts with Hari, Viṣṇu, and then he shows us a way to Śiva, and Śiva's job is to give you mokṣa.
The nature of Śiva is — ati varṇāśramam. Varṇa means a caste or color, and āśrama means the stage in which you are in: Brahmacharya, Gṛhastha, Vānaprastha, Sannyāsa.
The stage when you are getting educated is the first stage.
When you are married and you are enjoying, this is the second stage.
When you are married but have foregone the pleasures of marriage and live the life of just being together, that is called Vānaprastha.
And Sannyāsa is when you have renounced everything.
Ati varṇāśramam — He is beyond all these four categories. He is neither a Gṛhastha, nor a Brahmachārī, nor a Vānaprastha, nor a Sannyāsī. He is beyond all forms of categorization and all stages of life.
He experiences the fullness. He is of the world and out of the world. So this is the stage that is called turīyātīta avasthā, or a brahmajñānī, or a muktapuruṣa. That is the nature of the Guru.
Buddham means the one who knows, the one who is enlightened. Kalyāṇānanda Bhārati. Bhārati is Sarasvatī, the one who gives knowledge. And the knowledge is aimed at giving kalyāṇa, peace, auspiciousness and ānanda. So this is the nature of Kalyāṇānanda Bhārati. This is my Paramaguru.
Svaprakāśātmaka. Sva means self, prakāśa means illuminating; the one who illuminates himself. Because he is identified at all times with the Divine, there is nothing that can illuminate him — he illuminates himself.
Amṛtānanda. Amṛta means immortality. The one who takes bliss from immortality. The one who transcends Time is called Amṛtānanda.
These are the names of the Gurus. The names also represent the paths one follows. First you have to understand and transcend the nature of Time; then you have to illuminate yourself; then you have to wish the entire world peace and prosperity.
So starting with Amṛtānanda, Svaprakāśānanda and Kalyāṇānanda Bhārati — these names are the paths which the spiritual aspirant has to progress in order to be able to bless this world and attain the sāyujya with Devi.
The nature of the transcendental being is described in the next stanza.
namo'stvanantāya sahasra-mūrtaye — He is unending.
sahasra-mūrtaye — all the forms that you see are the divine expression. Therefore, sahasra-pādā — He has 1,000 feet; sahasrākṣi — He has got 1,000 eyes. All of our eyes are the eyes of God. Sahasraśiraḥ — He has got the 1,000 heads. 1,000 is the symbol of infinity. And sahasra uru and sahasra bāhu, He has got the 1,000 legs and 1,000 hands — the infinity of legs and infinity of hands.
Everything that you see is the divine expression and if I count the number of people and the number of hands, it is an infinite number. Sahasranāmne — He has got the infinite number of names. Puruṣāya śāśvate — He is not Prakṛti, the manifested world, but He is the transcendental, the unmanifest source, which is called Puruṣa. Śāśvate — He is not limited in time. Sahasra-koṭi yuga dhāriṇe namaḥ — therefore He exists in all Time in the past and is going to exist in all Time in the future.
ṛtaṁ satyaṁ paraṁ brahma puruṣaṁ kṛṣṇa piṅgalam |
ūrdhvaretaṁ virūpākṣaṁ viśvarūpāya vai namo namaḥ ||
The operative word here is virūpākṣa. Virūpa means not having a form, akṣa means axis. The axis of God is not having a form. The manifested form is one half — it is called Devi — and the unmanifested half is called Śiva. So this is the nature of the Dakṣiṇāmūrti.
The next stanza defines what is meant by Avadhūta. Avadhūta is the one who goes naked in the world. Which means that he is clad only by space. Digambara — dig is also used as ākāśa — means that his clothes are only his thoughts and he has removed them to become Digambara.
In the definition of the Avadhūta each of the letters — A, Va, Dhu and Ta — are shortened forms of certain names:
A — Akṣaratvāt — means not being limited in any way, because of indestructibility.
Va — Vareṇyatvāt — among all the Gods, He is the Supreme Being.
Dhu — Dhūtasaṁsārabandhanāt — stands for eliminating all kinds of bondages; the one who has washed away all of his family bondages.
Ta — Tat Tvam Asi is the mahāvakya, which says that whatever you see is yourself.
There are four mahāvākyas: Prajñānam Brahma; Ayam Ātmā Brahma; Tat Tvam Asi; and Aham Brahma Asmi.
Akṣaratvāt, Vareṇyatvāt, Dhūtasaṁsārabandhanāt and Tat Tvam Asi — the combination of these four qualities define the word Avadhūta. It’s not just somebody who’s going around naked on the street. Only if a person contains all these qualities he can be called an Avadhūta. And the Guru Parampara is of this class — ati varṇāśramam and Avadhūta.
dattātreya hare kṛṣṇā unmattānanda-dāyakā |
digambara mune bāla piśāca jñāna sāgarā ||
The jīvanmuktam state is being described here. He acts like a child, he acts like a mad fellow, he acts like a [undecipherable], but his nature is jñāna sāgarā — he is the ocean of knowledge.
[END OF TAPE]
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