Shiva Mahimna Stotra

Transliteration (IAST)

mahimnaḥ pāraṃ te param-aviduṣo yady-asadṛśī stutir brahmādīnām-api tad-avasannāstvayi giraḥ athāvācyaḥ sarvaḥ sva-mati-pariṇāmāvadhi gṛṇan mamāpy eṣa stotre hara nirapavādaḥ parikaraḥ

English meaning

O Shiva — if even the praise of Brahma and others, who do not know the limit of your greatness, is unequal to it — then their words too fall silent before you. Yet, since each is praised within the limit of his own understanding — O Hara, my own attempt at this hymn, too, is therefore beyond reproach.

Transliteration (IAST)

atītaḥ panthānaṃ tava ca mahimā vāṅ-manasayoḥ atad-vyāvṛttyā yaṃ cakitam-abhi-dhatte śrutir-api sa kasya stotavyaḥ kati-vidha-guṇaḥ kasya viṣayaḥ pade tv-arvācīne patati na manaḥ kasya na vacaḥ

English meaning

Your greatness lies beyond the path of speech and mind — even the Veda, awe-struck, can describe you only by negation ("not this, not this"). By whom can such a One be praised? Of how many qualities? In whose grasp? Yet upon your accessible form (the manifest one), whose mind and words do not fall in love?

Transliteration (IAST)

madhu-sphītā vācaḥ param-amṛtaṃ nirmitavatas tava brahman-kiṃ vāg-api sura-guror-vismaya-padam mama tv-etāṃ vāṇīṃ guṇa-kathana-puṇyena bhavataḥ punāmīty-arthe'smin pura-mathana buddhir vyavasitā

English meaning

O Brahman who pours forth honey-sweet speech, the supreme nectar — how can even the speech of the Guru of gods (Brihaspati) be a cause of wonder before you? Yet by the merit of describing your virtues, my speech I shall purify — O Destroyer of the Three Cities, my mind is firmly resolved upon this.

Transliteration (IAST)

tavaiśvaryaṃ yat-taj-jagad-udaya-rakṣā-pralaya-kṛt trayī-vastu vyastaṃ tisṛṣu guṇa-bhinnāsu tanuṣu abhavyānām-asmin vara-da ramaṇīyām-aramaṇīṃ vihantuṃ vyākrośīṃ vidadhata ihaike jaḍa-dhiyaḥ

English meaning

Your sovereignty does the world's creation, sustenance, and dissolution — distributed across the three guna-bodies of the Vedic trinity. Yet, O boon-giver, some dull-witted ones in this world, towards the unworthy, raise foolish objections, attempting to refute what is delightful to the wise.

Transliteration (IAST)

|| — rucīnāṃ vaicitryāt — || trayī sāṅkhyaṃ yogaḥ paśu-pati-mataṃ vaiṣṇavam-iti prabhinne prasthāne param-idam-adaḥ pathyam-iti ca rucīnāṃ vaicitryād-ṛju-kuṭila-nānā-patha-juṣāṃ nṛṇām-eko gamyas tvam-asi payasām-arṇava iva

English meaning

— The most famous verse — The three Vedas, the Sankhya, the Yoga, the Pashupata doctrine, the Vaishnava — these are different paths, and each declares "this is supreme, this is the wholesome way." Yet because of the variety of human tastes, some prefer the straight road and some the crooked — all paths lead to You alone, O Lord, as the rivers, in all their windings, flow at last to the same ocean.

Transliteration (IAST)

mahokṣaḥ khaṭvāṅgaṃ paraśur-ajinaṃ bhasma phaṇinaḥ kapālaṃ cet-īyat-tava varada tantropakaraṇam surās-tāṃ tām-ṛddhiṃ dadhati tu bhavad-bhrū-praṇihitāṃ na hi svātmārāmaṃ viṣaya-mṛga-tṛṣṇā bhramayati

English meaning

A great bull, a cot-pole, an axe, an antelope-skin, sacred ash, serpents, a skull — these few are all your equipment, O boon-giver. And yet the gods receive their prosperity by a mere arching of your eyebrow. For the mirage of sense-objects cannot deceive one who delights in his own Self.

Transliteration (IAST)

asita-giri-samaṃ syāt kajjalaṃ sindhu-pātre sura-taru-vara-śākhā lekhanī patram-urvī likhati yadi gṛhītvā śāradā sarva-kālaṃ tad-api tava guṇānām-īśa pāraṃ na yāti

English meaning

Were the entire mountain of black antimony to be ink in the ocean as the inkwell, a branch of the celestial wish-tree the pen, the whole earth the paper, and Saraswati herself the scribe, writing for all eternity — even then, O Lord, the limit of your virtues would not be reached.

Transliteration (IAST)

bhavaḥ śarvo rudraḥ paśu-patir-atho-graḥ saha-mahāṃ s-tathā bhīmeśānāviti yad-abhi-dhānāṣṭakam-idam amuṣmin pratyekaṃ pravicarati deva śrutir-api priyāyāsmai dhāmne pravihita-namasyo'smi bhavate

English meaning

The eight names — Bhava, Sharva, Rudra, Pashupati, then Ugra, and Mahadeva, Bhima, and Ishana — these eight names are yours. O God, the Veda itself moves through each of these names individually. I bow in salutation to that beloved abode of yours — to you.

Transliteration (IAST)

prajā-nāthaṃ nātha prasabham-abhikaṃ svāṃ duhitaraṃ gataṃ rohid-bhūtāṃ riramayiṣum-ṛṣyasya vapuṣā dhanuṣ-pāṇer-yātaṃ divam-api sa-patrākṛtam-amuṃ trasantaṃ te'dyāpi tyajati na mṛga-vyādha-rabhasaḥ

English meaning

O Lord, when Prajapati lustfully pursued his own daughter who had become a doe, taking the form of a stag himself — you, bow in hand, sent an arrow that pierced him as he fled feathered into the sky. Even now, the rush of you, the divine hunter, does not release that trembling one.

Transliteration (IAST)

sva-lāvaṇyāśaṃsā dhṛta-dhanuṣam-ahnāya tṛṇavat puraḥ pluṣṭaṃ dṛṣṭvā pura-mathana puṣpāyudham-api yadi straiṇaṃ devī yama-nirata-dehārdha-ghaṭanā- d-avaiti tvām-addhā bata vara-da mugdhā yuvatayaḥ

English meaning

O destroyer of the Three Cities — though you reduced the flower-armed Kama, who came confident in his own beauty, bow drawn — to ashes in an instant, like dry grass — if the Goddess (Parvati), seeing herself as half of your body where the other half is rapt in austerity, still imagines you fond of women — alas, O boon-giver, how easily young women are deluded.

Transliteration (IAST)

|| — phala-śruti-sthānāt — || mahimnaḥ pāraṃ te param-aviduṣo yady-asadṛśī stutir brahmādīnām-api tad-avasannāstvayi giraḥ athāvācyaḥ sarvaḥ sva-mati-pariṇāmāvadhi gṛṇan mūko'pi śrī-kaṇṭhaṃ mama manasi kalyāṇa-mayate

English meaning

— Closing — May Shrikantha (Shiva) — whose greatness exceeds the limit of all understanding, before whom the praises of even Brahma and the others fall silent — be a flood of well-being in my mind, though I be as one who is mute.

Transliteration (IAST)

mahimnaḥ-stotram-idaṃ puṣpadanta-praṇītaṃ anudinam-iha yaḥ śiva-pādaṃ dhyāyan paṭhati sa yāti paramāṃ gatiṃ harāśīr-bhir āpya niśeṣaṃ phalam-atulaṃ gāṇa-patyaṃ sa labhate

English meaning

Whoever recites this Mahimna Stotra composed by Pushpadanta every day, meditating on Shiva's feet, attains the supreme goal — and by Hara's blessings, attains complete and unequalled fruit, including the rank of leader of Shiva's ganas.