Sung by Geeta Sharma.
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This recitation of the Shiva Panchakshara Stotram is pure and uplifting. I experience a quality of emptiness and deep silence that the tones from the harmonium and the singer’s voice emerge from and subside into. Pure worship, no performing. I have been playing this over and over; it feels so calming, so tender.
Massachusetts, United States
Listening to the profoundly heartfelt rendering of this
stotram transports me beyond the world that I perceive through my senses. I feel guided beyond a limited sense of personality that I perceive through my self-reflecting mind. I find myself reveling in the good fortune I have to be alive in a time-based body on this beautiful temporal planet. At the same time, it gives me the feeling that my true Self is simply visiting here from a greater realm of Consciousness.
For me today, this
stotram is a sublime bridge from the mundane to the spiritual and back. And I am all the better for it.
I am filled with gratitude for this experience.
Hawaii, United States
I find the beautiful pace of this
stotram calming. It allows me to follow the melody with ease and sing along with Geeta while savoring every syllable. I feel connected to Gurumayi’s Message for 2020,
Atma ki Prashanti.
Ste Anne de Bellevue, Canada
Listening to this
stotram this morning, I felt love, nothing but love. How glorious!
Milan, Italy
As I listened to the
Shiva Panchakshara Stotram and then focused on its meaning, I experienced an expanded feeling of warmth and tremendous love for Lord Shiva. When I learned that Lord Shiva takes the form of each syllable of
na-mah-shi-va-ya, I bowed down with reverence again and again, offering my entire being in devotion and service. The meditation that followed filled me with magical silence and stillness, which I had never experienced before.
Nairobi, Kenya
Often when I go for a walk in nature, I mentally repeat the five-syllable mantra
, Om Namah Shivaya. I try to synchronize each step with the repetition of one syllable of the mantra—in the same way that the s
totram singles out a different syllable in each verse. This way of practicing mantra
japa fills me with great joy. It helps me feel centered in my own Self.
Similarly, reading the meaning of this
stotram’s stanzas encourages me to synchronize myself with nature. I make an effort to see nature as the form of Lord Shiva; this brings me a feeling of serenity.
I am grateful for the many postings about Lord Shiva on the Siddha Yoga path website this month. They have provided me with many ways to explore and expand my experience that Lord Shiva is my own Self.
Udaipur, India
The syllable na means “no” in a number of Indian languages and holds a lot of charge for me. When I hear the word or perceive it in someone’s refusal, I sometimes feel a contraction in my chest region, which lingers. I then have to make a conscious effort to relax and breathe deeply to dissipate its effect.
When I read that Lord Shiva “takes the form of the syllable na”(as well as each of the other syllables in Om Namah Shivaya) and “carries Nagendra, the lord of snakes, around his neck,” I received a teaching about how to transcend refusals that I come across—I shall henceforth silently complete the syllable na as Namah Shivaya Om and, in this way, bring to mind Lord Shiva’s vastness.
Vadodara, India
I was especially moved by the words "Lord Shiva who takes the form of the syllable na" (and subsequent syllables of the mantra Om Namah Shivaya). What power is so closely at hand, merely by reciting these syllables! This stotram is a beautiful reminder.
Maine, United States
I’m deeply grateful for the beautiful devotional music available on the Siddha Yoga path website. This
stotram is my current favorite. I listen to it each morning before I meditate and practice singing along to it later in the day. The poetry of the words, the imagery, the melody, all speak to me. To me, it feels like a hymn of love both to Lord Shiva and to the mantra itself.
I can't yet sing it
a capella, but often I hear Geeta's sweet, clear voice quietly singing it inside me as I go about my day. What
prasad!
Corsham, United Kingdom