8. सन्नुतेशपदाम्बुजः Sannuteśa-padāmbujaḥ

One who praised Īśvara’s Lotus Feet

The feet, pada, of Īśa, Śiva, are likened to the ambuja, lotus, not only because the Lord’s feet are beautiful, but also because they are, akin to the lotus that is the source of the Creator Brahmā, the very source of creation. Worshipping the feet of the Lord is equivalent to propitiating the Lord Himself, and in fact signifies a high degree of surrender to Him. After all, when Bharata considered Rāma’s pādukas as Rāma Himself and placed them on the throne, what need be said about Rāma’s feet! The word ‘nutaḥ’ means praise and refers here to kīrtana, the second among the nine forms of devotion to the Lord enumerated by Prahlāda.²⁵ Kīrtana includes chanting verses composed by oneself or by others, singing His glories through songs and chanting His nāmas.

The scriptures extol kīrtana as a lofty means to worship the Supreme. They variously state as follows. “Whatever is attained in kṛta-yuga through meditation, in tretā-yuga through yajñas, and in dvāpara-yuga through worship of the Lord, is attained in kali-yuga through singing of the glories of Keśava.”²⁶ “What wonder is there that the Imperishable One seated in the minds of the pure-hearted grants them liberation, when sins are destroyed where that Acyuta’s glories are sung!”²⁷ “By the kīrtana of Vāsudeva done with or without knowledge, the universe completely vanishes, just as salt when placed in the midst of water.”²⁸

Bhagavatpāda states with finality, “The worthy tongue is that which utters the name of Śiva.”²⁹ The Tamil saint Manickavachakar says in a devotional outpouring, “Obeisance to the feet of the Lord of the universe, obeisance to the feet of the Father of all, obeisance to the feet of the effulgent One, obeisance to the red-hued feet of Śiva, obeisance to the feet of the untainted One who is full of love, obeisance to the King who destroys births caused by Māyā.”³⁰

36 8. Sannuteśa-padāmbujaḥ

His Holiness is spoken of in this nāma as not just ‘nutaḥ’, but ‘saṁ-nutaḥ’, One who praised well, the lotus feet of Śiva.

❧

[What follows is His Holiness’s description of what happened immediately after Śiva vanished after granting Him darśana (vide nāma 10).]

“In a state of ecstasy, I began to pay obeisance to and extol Parameśvara through verses that occurred to me spontaneously. My voice kept choking and had any musician been around, he would have been appalled at my unmusical singing.”

At this point, the disciple to whom His Holiness was narrating this, requested Him to kindly grace him with these verses. The following was His Holiness’s response: “I never bothered to put down those verses in writing and do not remember them either. Not attaching any importance to them, I did not subsequently think of and memorise them. They were, after all, just the prattle of an ignorant boy and not the compositions of any mahātman or of literary value.”

❧

His Holiness’s Guru had Himself taught Him the Ardhanārīśvara-stotra (that glorifies Śiva in His form as half-male and half-female) and so He used to chant it every day without fail. He also revelled in chanting the Śiva-pañcākṣarī-mantra. The call, ‘Śambho Mahādeva!’ was very often on His lips while in the midst of activity; He would also chant the same thrice before going to sleep at night. He would sometimes loudly intone, ‘Śivāya gurave namaḥ (Salutations to the Guru who is Śiva)’.

❧

His Holiness invariably commenced His discourses with an invocatory verse about God. He often chanted the verses that mean “Obeisance to Śiva, who has a body constituted by pure consciousness, is conversant with the Vedas, possesses a divine eye, bears the crescent moon and is the means to attain liberation”³¹ and “I pay obeisance to the consort of Śiva whose tresses are decorated with the crescent moon and who is a river of nectar that removes the intense heat of transmigratory existence.”³²

He also always ended every benedictory discourse by chanting, in effect, “Victory to the Lord” and getting His audience too to do so; the exact words that He normally chanted were, “hara namaḥ pārvatī-pataye; hara hara mahādeva. jānakī-kānta-smaraṇam; jaya jaya rāma rāma.” He thus not only chanted the Lord’s name but also induced others to do so. He thereby indicated that one should constantly think of God or do so at least at the start and end of every activity.

❧

In Dewas, Madhya Pradesh in January 1983, while His Holiness was seated giving darśana to the public in the morning, some started to sing a Hindi bhajan. Soon, numerous others joined in. As He heard the words to the effect, “This is my prayer that my mind should remain centred every moment on Your feet; on Your feet, O Bhagavān,” tears of joy began to well up in His eyes. As the singing progressed, He became increasingly moved and soon plunged into meditation. He opened His eyes only some time after the singing was complete. He then appreciated the crowd and blessed that their hearts be ever full of devotion.

❧