Phase four · Prāṇāyāma

The breath as instrument

Two practices are on this site, with the sessions that explain them. As the others are written they will appear here in the same form.

ascribed to Śaṅkara

Nirvāṇa Ṣaṭkam

निर्वाणषट्कम्

Six verses that set down, one by one, everything I am not, and come each time to the same line: I am Śiva, consciousness and bliss.

Why this one

Śānta has no colour and no deity in Bharata. This hymn has no image either. It takes away the mind and the senses, the elements and the breaths, merit and sin, kin and teacher, and what remains each time is cidānandarūpaḥ śivo'ham.

It is traditionally ascribed to Śaṅkarācārya. The Sanskrit is as Arjun gave it, checked against the Ātmaṣaṭkam on sanskritdocuments.org (in verse 5, न जन्मः is mended to न जन्म). The sense given here is ours.

वाचिक: Said out loud, a line to a breath. The syllables light as you say them. उपांशु: The lips move and nobody across the room hears it. The text stays on the screen and stops moving. मानस: Nothing said, nothing shown. The breath and the place. अन्तर्यात्रा: The first third aloud, the second whispered, the last in the mind. Over a stotra this long the voice goes inward by itself; this simply agrees with it.

How to say it

The traditional three, and the order is a withdrawal inwards rather than a ladder. Nothing is locked.

You can stop anywhere. The page remembers the verse you reached, on this device only, and offers it when you come back.

The whole text

1

मनोबुद्ध्यहङ्कार चित्तानि नाहं
न च श्रोत्रजिह्वे न च घ्राणनेत्रे ।
न च व्योम भूमिर्न तेजो न वायुः
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥

2

न च प्राणसंज्ञो न वै पञ्चवायुः
न वा सप्तधातुः न वा पञ्चकोशः ।
न वाक्पाणिपादं न चोपस्थपायु
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥

3

न मे द्वेषरागौ न मे लोभमोहौ
मदो नैव मे नैव मात्सर्यभावः ।
न धर्मो न चार्थो न कामो न मोक्षः
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥

4

न पुण्यं न पापं न सौख्यं न दुःखं
न मन्त्रो न तीर्थं न वेदा न यज्ञाः ।
अहं भोजनं नैव भोज्यं न भोक्ता
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥

5

न मृत्युर्न शङ्का न मे जातिभेदः
पिता नैव मे नैव माता न जन्म ।
न बन्धुर्न मित्रं गुरुर्नैव शिष्यं
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥

6

अहं निर्विकल्पो निराकाररूपो
विभुत्वाच्च सर्वत्र सर्वेन्द्रियाणाम् ।
न चासङ्गतं नैव मुक्तिर्न मेयः
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥

The Sanskrit is older than any copyright and is set down as it is chanted, checked verse by verse against the count this stotra is known by. Everything said about it here was written for this page.

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the third ringthe mind