Brahman

nijātmāṣṭaka stotram

(Nijatmastaka Stotram in English (IAST))

Also known as nijatmashtaka stotram · nijatmastaka stotra · bhujangaprayata vrttam

Eight verses in the bhujangaprayata metre, and what they praise is not a god at all. Every verse closes on the same line — let us worship our own nature, whose form is consciousness and bliss — so the object of the hymn is the reciter's own self, and the first person plural keeps it from being a private matter. The verses proceed by taking things away: without alternatives, without pairs of opposites, pure, utterly quiet, beyond the strands, one; self-luminous, without sorrow, immeasurable, formless, without division; known only by itself, beginningless, without any wanting. Later verses argue rather than describe, deriving that identity from the fact that the sense of I is always present and never divided. It is a piece of Advaita set to metre, and belongs with the doctrinal texts rather than the devotional ones.

(bhujaṅgaprayāta vṛttam)
anekāntikaṃ dvandvaśūnyaṃ viśuddhaṃ
nitāntaṃ suśāntaṃ guṇātītamekam |
sadā niṣprapañcaṃ manovāgatītaṃ
cidānandarūpaṃ bhajema svarūpam || 1||
sadā svaprabhaṃ duḥkhahīnaṃ hyameyaṃ
nirākāramatyujjvalaṃ bhedahīnam |
svasaṃvedyamānandamādyaṃ nirīhaṃ
cidānandarūpaṃ bhajema svarūpam || 2||
ahaṃ pratyayatvādanekāntikatvāt
abhedasvarūpātsvataḥsiddhabhāvāt |
ananyāśrayatvātsadā niṣprapañcaṃ
cidānandarūpaṃ bhajema svarūpam || 3||
ahaṃ brahma bhāsādi matkāryajātaṃ
svalakṣye'dvaye sphūrtiśūnye pare ca |
vilāpyapraśānte sadaivaikarūpe
cidānandarūpaṃ bhajema svarūpam || 4||
ahaṃ brahmabhāvo hyavidyākṛtatvād
vibhinnātmakaṃ bhoktṛbhogyātmabudhyā |
jaḍaṃ sambabhūvayi pūṃsstryātmanā yat
cidānandarūpaṃ bhajema svarūpam || 5||
anityaṃ jagaccidvivartātmakaṃ yat
viśodhya yatsvataḥsiddhacinmātrarūpam |
vihāyākhilaṃ yannijājñānasiddhaṃ
cidānandarūpaṃ bhajema svarūpam || 6||
svabhāsā sadā yatsvarūpaṃ svadīptaṃ
nijānandarūpādyadānandamātram |
svarūpānubhūtyā sadā yatsvamātraṃ
cidānandarūpaṃ bhajema svarūpam || 7||
jaganneti vā khalvidaṃ brahmavṛttyā
nijātmānamevāvaśiṣyādvayaṃ yat |
abhinnaṃ sadā nirvikalpaṃ praśāntaṃ
cidānandarūpaṃ bhajema svarūpam || 8||
nijātmāṣṭakaṃ ye paṭhantīha bhaktāḥ
sadācārayuktāḥ svaniṣṭhāḥ praśāntāḥ |
bhavantīha te brahma vedapramāṇāt
tathaivāśiṣā niścitaṃ me || 9||
|| iti śrīmat paramahaṃsa parivrājakācārya sadguru bhagavatā śrīdharasvāmiviracitaṃ nijātmāṣṭakastotraṃ sampūrṇam ||

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