Through his teaching and writing, Sri Shankara, a preceptor in the Advaita (Non-Dualistic) Theology, renovated Hinduism. He was instrumental in reconverting India back to Hinduism from its near total conversion to Buddhism some hundred years before. Besides his massive instructional writings, he founded five holy places of pilgrimage throughout India that are still used by millions of devotees. He died at 32.
Dakshinamurti: The 'non-terrible' of Shiva's five faces. It is the form facing South, the one having the ability and kindness to redeem.
Maya: The veil of delusion covering Absolute Being. It makes one believe reality is in the outer, transitory realm of the senses rather than in the eternal Essence of one's true being.
Bramha: The Godhead, the transcendent Absolute Ground of existence. Meditative absorbtion in this state creates the Bliss of Pure Consciousness
I.
The Universe's reality is like
the body's image in a mirror.
Because of Maya, though inside,
it appears to be outside,
like the world seen in a dream.
To that One, who on waking realizes
all this as His Self only, without other.
To Dakshinamurti, in the form of the Guru,
this salutation is offered.
II.
Originally this universe is undifferentiated,
Like the sprout inside the seed.
Later it becomes infinitely and wondrously
variegated by the activities of space, time and thought,
creations of Maya. To that One who manifests all
this at will, like a magician or a great Yogi.
To Dakshinamurti, in the form of the Guru,
this salutation is offered.
III.
His lucent vibration, the very essence of Being,
illumines the scarcely real Universe of things
and thoughts, and gives it an appearance of reality.
To those sheltered in Him, He directly imparts the
revelation beyond the words, "That thou art."
Realizing Him, one does not return to this endless sea of movement.
To Dakshinamurti, in the form of the Guru
this salutation is offered.
IV.
His awareness is like the light of a great flame
inside a clay pot with many openings.
It streams out through the eye and other senses
so that this whole world,
but palely reflecting that Great Light,
and says, "I know."
To that Dakshinamurti, in the form of the Guru,
this salutation is offered.
V.
The contending truth-seekers hold
'I' to mean the body, the vital-energy,
the faculties, the ever-moving mind, or the void.
In their various delusions they are like
overly body-conscious libertines, like naive children,
like the dumb and the foolish. All this is great delusion
created by the manifestation of the power of Maya.
To the One who destroys or gathers up this illusion,
to Dakshinamurti, in the form of the Guru,
this salutation is offered.
VI.
The Self, withdrawing His faculties
into their source: non-knowing,
in the state of deep sleep,
becomes Absolute Being.
Thus veiled by Maya, He is like the sun or moon
under eclipse, apparently without illumination.
On waking, He recognizes Himself
with the idea, "Before this, I slept."
To that Dakshinamurti, in the form of the Guru
this salutation is offered.
VII.
Childhood, youth and other states of body,
wakefulness, dreams and other states of mind,
all these are ever changing. But there is some
Thing unchanging, aware of all states.
This resplendent unchanging Principle is within
as the true meaning of the notion 'I'.
To those who earnestly seek, He reveals Himself with
the hand-gesture of supreme wisdom, clarity and identity.
To that Dakshinamurti, in the form of the Guru,
this salutation is offered.
VIII.
Apparently spun round by Maya
in the states of waking and dream,
He sees a universe of diverse relations,
such as product and cause, servant and master,
student and teacher, child and parent, and the like,
each element apart from yet relative to the other.
To that Dakshinamurti, in the form of the Guru,
this salutation is offered.
IX.
The earth, water, air, fire, the sun, the moon
and the individual spirit, in these eight forms
He shines and they comprise and cover
the Universe, moving and unmoving. Nothing exists
other than this Supreme Lord, for those who can see
all this clearly as His forms only.
To Dakshinamurti, in the form of the Guru,
this salutation is offered.
X.
Clearly revealed in this hymn of praise
is that you are the Self of all.
Thus by listening to this, by pondering it,
by meditating upon and by singing it
you will win Lordship over every being and thing
and the peerless glory of all-Self-hood.
Then mastery over the eight-fold powers
will naturally come of itself, unimpeded.
XI.
I bow down to the luminous Dakshinamurti,
seated on the ground near a banyan tree,
directly imparting wisdom to all sages.
Of the Three worlds, He is Lord, Master and Guru,
competent to remove the distress that comes
from repeating cycles of birth and death.
XII.
Lo, what is this wonder at the sacred tree's root.
Disciples are old, teacher in young. Silence
the only explanation the teacher gives.
And all the doubts of his disciples are no more.
XIII.
I worship Dakshinamurti. He reveals the essence
of the Supreme Infinite through stillness.
He is young, surrounded by groups of aged seers,
their minds absorbed in the Bliss of Pure Consciousness.
He is master of all teachers. As Bliss embodied,
His hand held in the auspicious gesture of wisdom,
He revels in His own Self, His face alight with Joy.
