AUM
HYMN TO DAKSHINAMURTI
THE INITIATOR OF INITIATES

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1. May this obeisance be directed to the Blessed Dakshinamurti to Him who takes the form of the auspicious Guru, who by means of maya as by dream, sees the inward cosmos within Him like unto a city seen in a mirror and manifested as if outward; who comprehends, at the time of awakening, His own unitary SELF!

2. May this obeisance be directed to the Blessed Dakshinamurti, to Him who takes the form of the auspicious Guru, who like a magician or even like a mighty Yogin manifests through his own volition this cosmos which in the beginning is indivisible like the sprout in the seed, but which is again rendered composite under the variegated conditions of Space and Time projected through maya!

3. May this obeisance be directed to the Blessed Dakshinamurti, to Him who takes the form of the auspicious Guru, to Him whose very resplendence is the essence of the Real, blazing forth into the objective realm which is like unto the Unreal; to Him who enlightens those who seek Him through the Vedic saying "THAT THOU ART"; to Him by knowing whom truly there will be no more descent into the ocean of Becoming!

4. May this obeisance be directed to the Blessed Dakshinamurti, to Him who takes the form of the auspicious Guru, to Him who is luminous like the light of a great lamp set in the belly of a pot with many apertures; to Him whose gnosis emanates through the eye and other organs; to Him who blazes forth as the presence of gnosis, thus making the entire cosmos shine brilliantly!

5. May this obeisance be directed to the Blessed Dakshinamurti, to Him who takes the form of the auspicious Guru, to Him who destroys the great delusion produced by the sport of Mayashakti; those who apprehend the "I" as body and breath, the senses and the volatile intellect or the Void, are deceived like women and children, whilst the blind and the foolish prate profusely!

6. May this obeisance be directed to the Blessed Dakshinamurti, to Him who takes the form of the auspicious Guru, to the Self who in deep, dreamless sleep regains pure Being, when the veiling by maya is withdrawn, like unto the solar or lunar eclipse, and on waking realizes that "I have dozed until now!"

7. May this obeisance be directed to the Blessed Dakshinamurti, to Him who takes the form of the auspicious Guru, to Him who by means of the blessed mudra of his hand displays to his devotees His own Self that forever blazes forth from within as "I", constant amidst all the inconstant states such as infancy and so on and also as waking consciousness!

8. May this obeisance be directed to the Blessed Dakshinamurti, to Him who takes the form of the auspicious Guru, to the Purusha who, when dazed by maya, sees in dream and on waking the cosmos with its contrasts, such as cause and effect, owner and owned, preceptor and pupil, and, likewise, father and son!

9. May this obeisance be directed to the Blessed Dakshinamurti to Him who takes the guise of the auspicious Guru, to Him whose eight-fold Form is this entire motionless and mobile cosmos, manifesting as earth, water, fire, air, aether, the sun, the moon and the soul; beyond whom, all-pervading and supreme, there exists nought else for those who truly search!

10. Since the state of the Universal Self has thus been expounded, by listening to this, by pondering its meaning, by meditating on it, and by chanting, there will naturally arise the lordship and supreme splendour of universal selfhood, and again, will be attained the unobstructed sovereign power that presents itself in an eight-fold manner.