śiva keśādi pādānta varṇana stotraṃ

May the matted locks (kapardas) of Śarva bestow welfare upon us — those tawny, towering masses of tangled hair that spread from his crown to the far bank of the celestial river (Gaṅgā), like tall golden stalks of ripened red paddy. Those very locks are the ropes that pull all people out of the pit of unavoidable calamity, and their tips blaze like flames consuming the dense forest of fearful sins.

May the tripuṇḍra — the three sacred ash-lines on Śiva's forehead — protect us always. Those three white lines, pure and bold as Gaṅgā flowing in three streams on the high plain of his forehead, white as moonlight, are marked clearly by the three victories over Tripura. They make the forehead a silver stairway that hints at the path to liberation.

May the crown of Śiva's head (mastaka) be our refuge and shield us from great calamities. Though speckled with rubies sunk in its crystal substance — as if competing with the lac-dot imprinted by Pārvatī's toe when she bowed in anger — it shines like a white fish leaping from the divine river rising over his crown.

May the pair of eyebrows on the face of Śarvāṇī's lord bestow prosperity upon us — those two arched lines that shine with a soft luster like the halos (pariṣa) around the sun and moon, yet vividly declare the destruction of demon-multitudes. Their graceful movement suggests that all three cosmic functions — creation, preservation, and dissolution — have come to take up residence in them, now free of pride.

May those three eyes of Śiva — the two natural eyes golden-brown as the petals of golden lotuses, covered as if by an eclipse when Pārvatī, daughter of the mountain, wrapped him in her dark-blue garment, turning the universe into a vast dark robe — be the two eyes that guide the horses of your senses swiftly. Those eyes that are pure, three-eyed, victorious over the enemies of the gods, and armed with the foremost weapon.

After Śiva desired to offer a gift to Chaṇḍī's (Pārvatī's) face — his own pale-glowing cheeks arose pale with rising inner heat, as if being rubbed by the pointed corners of her gem-earrings in their closeness. May those softly glowing, gem-brushed cheeks of the Lord grant us blessings.

With wide-open, gaping hood fully spread, the great serpent king (Āhīndra), in an attempt to enter through the opening of Śiva's mouth, creates the impression of the throat of the khaṭvāṅga staff held aloft in Śiva's upraised hand — its brilliant white folds panting with great exhalations. May that divine open face (vaktra) of Śiva protect you.

May the earrings (kuṇḍalas) of Śiva protect us — those two ornaments in which Pārvatī, daughter of the mountain, sees her own reflected form shining back at her so brilliantly that she repeatedly grows jealous, suspecting them of being another woman, and falls into anger at her lord.

May the necklace-region of Śiva — the lord of all creatures — protect us: that throat where the poison (gārala) held there for the world's sake has risen so high that the Kaustubha gem seems to hover shyly nearby, full of affection, as if secretly wishing to behold it.

May Śiva's row of teeth (danta-paṅkti) bestow blessings upon us — those teeth that shine with extreme luster like a succession of foam-drops carried in the flow of ambrosia-sweet speech pouring forth like nectar from the moon of his face.

Deep as Parabrahman itself, Śiva's voice surpasses the rolling thunder of monsoon clouds massed over the great mountains, and surpasses even the roaring boom of storm-lashed ocean waves. That unmistakable, profound divine voice — clearly perceivable yet supremely transcendent — may it resound for our liberation.

Śiva's neck (kaṇṭha) is full and glowing — by whose luster the three worlds shine as if submerged in a vast ocean of foam-drops, and whose spread may be compared to the flood of the divine river Gaṅgā — yet that very throat is Nīlakaṇṭha, the blue-throated one, its blue hue turned to glory. May that powerful neck protect and nourish us.

Śiva's five faces shine in their distinct forms and colors: Sadyojāta — water-white and pure, turning northward; Vāmadeva — golden as the finest gold, facing upward; Aghora — dark as monsoon clouds, facing south; Tatpuruṣa — red as the morning sun, facing east; and the fifth, Īśāna — blazing with supreme brilliance in all directions. These five faces are the five cosmic elements, five directions, five actions, and five Vedic revelations made manifest.

On Śiva's throat shine three beautiful lines — dark blue as the finest kohl, as if drawn with loving care by Pārvatī herself using her own special ink as a gift of devotion. These three folds of the neck (tri-valī), auspicious and lovely, are like the sacred letters of creation inscribed on the Lord's own form.

Near the great lower lip (adhara-mahā-kauśtubha) — which is the Kaustubha gem of the moon-face — there stands, for a long time, one who prays for a permanent place beside the lips' moon, yet is turned away by those guarding that sacred territory. May those divine lips bestow their grace upon the devoted.

Śiva's arms — marked with the impressions of Pārvatī's lovely golden bracelets (cāmīkara-valaya) from her passionate, deep embraces when her moon-face is filled with ardent longing — glow with a beautiful luster. Those arms where serpent-armlets (nāgāṅgada) ring with music — may they hold us in their protection.

May Śiva's long arms protect us — those arms that descended as if to embrace the throat of the universe, like the flow of the heavenly Gaṅgā descending from the sky to its beloved. Long as crystal-gem bridges, they span the ocean of saṃsāra for those who seek to cross it.

Śiva's chest — the chest of the enemy of Dakṣa — is smeared with sacred ash blended with sandalwood paste, and it gleams brilliantly. Into that chest have been pressed the thin, trembling breasts of Dakṣa's daughter (Satī/Pārvatī), bowed and shaken by the weight of longing. May that ash-anointed, splendid chest of Śiva be our refuge.

May the vast belly-navel region of Śiva — enemy of Kāla — shelter your mind. Adorned with strands of pearls, graced with beautiful moving waves of abdominal folds, inhabited by the swaying great serpent (Vāsuki or Śeṣa), that wide, decorated navel-whirlpool draws the mind irresistibly inward toward the divine center.

Śiva's waist — where the tiger-skin gleams in its full extension — is like the foothills of the snow mountain, surrounded on all sides as if by dense misty clouds tinged with mist and dew, dark as blue rain-clouds clustering about it. That waist-girded in this royal wild beauty — may it protect us.

Śiva's two powerful thighs — firmly supporting the broad hips of the three worlds themselves — always bear the beautiful luster of the trunk of Indra's finest elephant. They are the essential pillars of the universe, perfectly rounded and full of vitality. May those thighs, which hold up all three worlds, be our support.

May the feet of Śiva — which, during the tāṇḍava dance, perform their contractions like the folding-open of a jewel-box made of moonstone (indriya-kānta) — place the mirror of sages' minds in a state of supreme joy. Those feet, where serpent-kings serve as the kāñcī-girdle, and with whose beauty the celestial world has adorned itself — may they dance in our hearts.

Those two feet of Śiva — praised continuously by celestial beings — are adorned with anklets formed by the gem-studded hoods of the finest groups of serpent lords, whose deep-hued precious gems extend in long streamers, glowing like tender new shoots. May those feet, enduring the praise of the gods, bear us across all difficulties.

Constantly surrounded, with great honor and reverence, by brahma-knowers, devala-priests, and others — who continually offer those feet pure and faultless veneration through multitudes of hymns, weapons-of-praise (śastra), and abundant offerings of devotional feeling — may those well-worshipped feet of Śiva be our complete fulfillment.

May the toenails (pādāṅguṣṭha) of Śiva protect us — those toenails that, when the ten-headed Rāvaṇa came arrogantly trying to lift Kailāsa, caused him by the fall of just a fraction of their weight to cry out loudly, his face flooding with blood, his breath driven out — and Kailāsa the great mountain itself began to shake.

Those feet of Śiva — elevated and supreme — are constantly honored with spotless, brilliant nīrājana (the waving of auspicious lights), bathed in cascades of gems falling from the radiant crowns of bowing great gods headed by ancient Indra (prācīna-barhis). Those feet, reaching upward yet stooping to accept the offerings of devotees — may they illumine our path.

Those who, carrying [the image of Śiva's lotus-feet] like pond-dwelling immortal sages bearing a lotus, find that those feet truly blossom within their hearts — even as the true moon of Śiva's face stands nearby — they attain here and now the supreme lotus-wealth of liberation. May those lotus-feet, with their swaying beauty, grace us.

Those feet — by whose grace ascetics with minds untouched by desire, hatred, and other faults attain liberation; and to whose presence others come, bowing their entire beings, like Śeṣa lying with his form at the heads of the divine-sages' assembly — may those feet of Śiva be our refuge and grant us freedom.

Those feet of Śiva — by whose fullness the entire world is pervaded without limit; which are the supreme abode of all abodes; which are the highest truth of all Sāma-Vedic mantras; which are the primordial, attributeless, supreme reality; which destroy all sins — those feet are both the beginning and the end of all seeking. May reciting this stotra of Śiva's body from crown to feet bring the reciter complete blessedness.