Chapter 18 - Viṣṇu’s praise of Śiva (viṣṇustava)

Viṣṇu said:

1. Obeisance to the single-syllabled Rudra, ‘a’ in the form of Ātman; obeisance to the primordial deity whose physical body is learning.

2. Obeisance to lord Siva, the supreme soul in the form of the third syllable ‘m’. Obeisance to the lord who is as lustrous as the sun or the fire or the moon. Obeisance to him in the form of yajamāna who performs sacrifice.

3. Obeisance to fire in the form of Rudra. Obeisance to the lord of Rudras. Obeisance to Siva of auspicious mantra. Obeisance to Sadyojāta. Obeisance to Vedhas, the creator.

4. Obeisance to the illustrious Vāmadeva, the granter of boons and the immortal lord. Obeisance to Aghora, Atighora, Sadyojāta and the deity of vehemence and impetuosity.

5. Obeisance to Īśāna, Śmaśāna (i.e. the lord of cremation ground); obeisance to one of high velocity. Obeisance to the speedy lord whose foot is the Vedas, who has an upward Liṅga and who is Liṅga himself.

6. Obeisance to him who has a golden Liṅga or who is gold himself or who is of watery Liṅga or who is water himself. Obeisance to Śiva, the Liṅga of Śiva. Obeisance to one who pervades all, including the firmament itself.

7. Obeisance to the wind or to one who has the velocity of the wind, and who pervades the wind. Obeisance to the fire, the lord of all fiery articles and who pervades the fire.

8. Obeisance to the water and to one who has become water. Obeisance to one who pervades water. Obeisance to the earth or the atmosphere. Obeisance to one who pervades the earth.

9. Obeisance to one, of the form of sound and touch, taste and smell and to one who has smell. Obeisance to the lord of Gaṇas, and to one who is the most secretive.

10. Obeisance to the infinite, devoid of forms, obeisance to the infinite, devoid of ailments; obeisance to the permanent, the most excellent, who is in the womb of waters, and who is the Yogin.

11. Obeisance to one who is stationed in between Brahmā and Viṣṇu in the midst of waters; obeisance to the splendour, the protector, the destroyer, the perpetual maker and the Death. Obeisance to lord Śiva.

12. Obeisance to the insentient, worthy of contemplation who removes the stress and strain of the sentient, who is formless or of good forms, who has no limbs or who is attractive with limbs.

13. Obeisance to one who has smeared ashes all over the body; obeisance to the cause of the sun, moon and fire; obeisance to the white, of white colour; and to one moving about on the mountain of snows.

14. Obeisance to one of excessively white complexion, white face, white tuft, and white blood.

15. Obeisance to one who facilitates easy crossing (of the ocean of mundane existence), obeisance to the splendid one, obeisance to one having two forms, to one of hundred forms, to one devoid of forms and to one holding a banner.

16. Obeisance to one who has prosperity, grief and absence of grief; obeisance to the Pināka-bearing lord, with matted hairs, devoid of noose, holding a noose, the destroyer of noose.

17. Obeisance to one of good sacrifice, to one having sacrificial offering, to one favourably disposed to the Brahmins. Obeisance to one who is a poet. Obeisance to one having good face and good mouth; who is difficult to be suppressed and who is of good mental control.

18. Obeisance to one who assumed the form of a Brahmin,^[1] who is Yama^[2] and who has made serpent his bangle. Obeisance to one who is Sanaka, Sanātana, Sanandana and Sanat.

19. Obeisance to one who hunts the deer,^[3] who is the great ātman, and the eye of the world. Obeisance to one who has three abodes and to one who is devoid of rajas.

20. Obeisance to Śaṅkhapāla, Śaṅkha, rajas and tamas. Obeisance to Sārasvata, the cloud and the cloud-vehicled. Obeisance be to you.

21. Obeisance to one of good vehicle, devoid of vehicle, the bestower of boons to the devotee, to Śiva, Rudra and pradhāna.

22. Obeisance to you, possessed of three guṇas, having the nature of the four vyūhas, the cause of existence and dissolution.

23. Obeisance to you of the form of salvation, the granter of liberation, the supreme soul, the sage and the all-pervader.

24. Obeisance to you the holy lord, the lord of serpents, of the form of ‘Om’ and the omnipresent lord.

25. Obeisance to you identical with all,^[4] all-pervader, and the primordial lord.

26. Obeisance to the unborn, the lord of subjects, the cause of vyūhas and the great lord of Devas.

27. Obeisance to Śarva, Satya, (truth) and Śamana (the subduer) and Brahmā. Obeisance to the omniscient deity of living beings.

28-29. Obeisance to you, the supreme soul. Obeisance to one invested with the form of intellect, consciousness, memory and knowledge. Obeisance to one comprehensible through knowledge. Obeisance to one in the form of concord and summit. Obeisance to one whose neck is blue.

30. Obeisance to one whose half body is female^[5], who though unmanifest has eleven forms. Obeisance to one who is immovable.

31. Obeisance to the sun, the moon, who establishes and destroys the universe. Obeisance to one who is the cause of fame, who brings on peace and is the lord of all.

32. Obeisance to the lord of Ambikā, and the lord of Umā. Obeisance to one of golden arms and of golden semen.

33. Obeisance to the blue-tressed one who is wealth. Obeisance to the black-necked deity with matted hairs Obeisance to one with the serpent for his ornament.

34. Obeisance to one riding the bull; obeisance to the creator and destroyer of all; obeisance to one who excelled even the heroic Rāma in prowess; obeisance to you, the lord of Rāma.

35. Obeisance to the Emperor of kings, to one attained by kings, to the overlord of protectors; obeisance to you, O Destroyer of demons.

36. Obeisance to one bedecked in keyūras (armlets). O lord of cows, obeisance be to you. Obeisance to lord Śrīkaṇṭha holding a likuca fruit in the hand.

37. Obeisance to the lord, the chief of the worlds; and to one whose Scripture is the Veda; obeisance to you, to Sāraṅga the Royal Swan.

38. Obeisance to one with golden necklaces and shoulder-lets; to one with serpents for sacred thread, ear-rings and garlands; obeisance to one who has made a serpent his waistband.

39-42. O Śiva, obeisance to you, having the Vedas in the womb. Obeisance to the foetus containing the entire universe.

Brahmā said:

After having eulogised thus, Viṣṇu ceased along with Brahmā. This excellent hymn is holy, it is destructive of all sins. He who reads this himself or narrates this to the brahmins well versed in the Vedas goes to Brahmā’s region though he might have incurred sins. Hence one should perform the Japa of this, read this or narrate this to splendid brahmins for washing off his sins. It has been so ordained by Viṣṇu.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

It refers to Śiva disguised as a Brāhmaṇa. Śivatoṣiṇī (a commentary on the Liṅgapurāṇa).

[2]:

i.e. Yama, the god of death and destruction. Śivatoṣiṇī (a commentary on the Liṅgapurāṇa).

[3]:

as a hunter kills the birds and animals. Śivatoṣiṇī (a commentary on the Liṅgapurāṇa).

[4]:

The epithet is applied to Viṣṇu because the waters (nāra) were his first place of motion (ayana). (Cf. Manu: [āpo nāra iti praktāḥ]), but here, as applied to Śiva it means “one who lives among the people”—[narāṇāṃ samūho nāraṃ tadayanaṃ sthānaṃ yasya tasmai] Śivatoṣiṇī (a commentary on the Liṅgapurāṇa).

[5]:

Cf. note 27. on p. 18.