Friday, 25 August 2017

August 25, 2017: Vishnu Shatpadi


ādiśaṅkaraviracita śrī viṣṇuṣaṭpadī   (closing verse)

nārāyaṇa karuṇāmaya śaraṇaṃ
karavāṇi tāvakau caraṇau           |
iti ṣaṭpadī madīye
vadanasaroje sadā vasatu          ||

Re-ordered Word-by-word meaning

nārāyaṇa - Oh Narayana! 
karuṇāmaya - One full of compassion! 
tāvakau caraṇau - to your lotus feet
karavāṇi   śaraṇaṃ - I shall bow down
        |
iti ṣaṭpadī -  May These six words 
madīye vadanasaroje - in my lotus face/mouth
sadā vasatu  - dwell always  !   

The ṣaṭpadī ends with this prayer that I may utter these six words always. It has a second meaning, owing to clever Samskrita construction, that these six words are like a bee (shatpadi also means a six-legged creature!), and may that bee always dwell inside the lotus called my mouth. The mouth gets sanctified into a lotus by the utterance of these six words of prayer, and the prayer buzzes like a bee constantly in my mouth!

Glory to Shankara!

1 comment:

  1. Great work!!!! It is very helpful to learn Sanskrit by understanding the each word. Does not matters, However, if slokas posted in Devanagari script will be really makes good.

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