‘Om Namah Shivay Chanting’ from devotional album Shiva’s Ecstasy by Anandmurti Gurumaa.
In form, Lord Shiva is the epitome of perfection, beauty, grandeur, wisdom. He is master, creator. In his formlessness, He is the cosmic, macrocosmic existence. A perfect lover, teacher, innovator, redeemer, brimming with compassion for all sentient beings and perpetually in samadhi. He is the first master who gave methodological formulations for inner world. His instructions in ‘Shiva Bhairava Tantra’ lists 112 methods of meditation. No wonder, he is worshipped the most by all ascetics. ‘Shiva’s Ecstasy’ brings the beautiful Sanskrit chants which are soothing to the ear and the heart. The soft mellowed music in the background gives a perfect reason to experience Lord Shiva’s love in our heart.
‘Invocation’ (Namami shamishaan stotra) is dedicated to the worship of Saguna Shiva. His beauty, grace, and peaceful demeanor is celebrated; His compassion for all sentient beings is glorified. He is seated on a deer skin i.e. mind, snakes are around his neck, and poison in his throat. But He is ever blissful, ever compassionate. Ganges i.e. awakened kundalini is seated in his matted hair. Adi Shankaracharya’s immortal composition of ‘Aatamashtak’ celebrates Nirguna Shiva, the eternal cosmic existence. Layers of ignorance are peeled off one by one: ‘I am not body, senses, mind, and intellect. I am the truth, I am.’ Shiva is the ultimate truth which dawns in higher stages of meditation. Truth is beyond senses and the mind; thus we cannot use these mediums to understand what Truth is. Virtue, evil, birth and death – dualities exist in the mind and True self is beyond. Attachment, greed, lust, ego are bondages of mind, not of the self, and the self is purest of pure. Self is like the sky, vast, beyond horizon, without boundaries. Knowing this fundamental reality redeems us from all pain, all anguish, all anxieties. Realization of this knowledge brings us to the stage where each and everything seems null and void – what remains is pure emptiness. This world seems to be a dance of illusionary images – just like a dream where everything is real but the moment sleep is broken, all is gone. ‘Shivoham’ is the starting point, not the end – from here, one begins to know that you and I are both illusions and changeable but truth is neither me nor you. ‘Om Namah Shivay’ mesmerizes – just sway with it and experience the joy. ‘Shivoham’ is a melodious sortie of bliss. Beautiful sound of chorus, flute and Gurumaa’s voice weaves the ultimate magic.
‘Shiva’s Ecstasy’ is a soothing, cool, hypnotic score. Listen to it with shut eyes and share an experience. ‘Shiva’s Ecstasy’ is dedicated to all Shiva devotees, sadhus and ascetics living in this world in which Lord Shiva can be seen living immortally.
