The verse and its meaning · Stotras · Stotras — Shiva Tandava Stotram

The One Who Cuts Away

Shiva Tandava Stotram 9

प्रफुल्लनीलपङ्कजप्रपञ्चकालिमप्रभाऽवलम्बिकण्ठकन्दलीरुचिप्रबद्धकन्धरम् । स्मरच्छिदं पुरच्छिदं भवच्छिदं मखच्छिदं गजच्छिदान्धकच्छिदं तमन्तकच्छिदं भजे

Meaning · English

His throat glows dark as spread blue lotuses in full bloom. I worship him who cuts away desire, the cities, worldly becoming, the sacrifice, the elephant, Andhaka, and Death.

The first half stays with his throat. Its dark sheen is like a whole spread of blue lotuses opened at once. The second half becomes a list, and each item ends in the same word: the one who cuts. He cuts away desire, the three cities, the round of birth and becoming, a sacrifice, an elephant, a demon named Andhaka, and last of all Death. The list moves from passions and enemies to the thing everyone fears most. Then the singer says simply: him I worship.

Picture a gardener walking along an overgrown hedge with one pair of shears. Snip, step, snip. Each cut is the same motion aimed at a different branch, until the real shape shows underneath. The list works that way. One repeated cut is aimed in turn at desire, at enemies, at the cycle of becoming, and finally at Death itself.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: A Neck Like Moonless Night · Shiva Tandava Stotram 8
• Next: The Bee Who Ends Death · Shiva Tandava Stotram 10
• All of Stotras · Ask Krishna about it

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