ଶ୍ରୀଶିଵନୀରାଜନସ୍ତୋତ୍ରମ୍

A nirajana — the hymn sung while the lamp is waved — in Sanskrit rather than a spoken language, with the refrain set at the head where the singers will return to it: protect me, Shambhu, of your kindness, lord of the world. What follows the refrain is a garden rather than a doctrine, which is what makes this one memorable: with the parijata and the harichandana and the thickets of wishing trees, with canopies of flowering creepers full of humming bees. The verses build the setting first and only then bring the god into it, so that the lamp is being circled in a place the singer has been made to see. Twenty-six verses, and the refrain returns often enough that a room can hold it after one hearing.