Asita’s Stotra to Śiva

The Śaṅkara Stotra of Asita is a hymn of praise to Bhagavān Śiva, also called Śaṅkara. The ṛshi (seer) Asita, son of Pracetasa, sang it in Śivaloka when he went there to ask Bhagavān Śiva for a child. It is found in the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapter 30, where Bhagavān Kṛshṇa tells it to Rādhādevī.

The setting

Ashṭāvakra Muni gained moksha (liberation) at the feet of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa and was carried to Goloka. Rādhādevī then asked Bhagavān Kṛshṇa who this muni was. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa told her the whole history. It goes back to the time of the pralaya (the dissolution) and Bhagavān Brahmā’s new creation.

Among the ṛshis whom Brahmā made by the power of his thought (mānasa-saṅkalpa) was Pracetasa. Pracetasa’s son was Asita, a brilliant and powerful muni. Asita did tapas (austerity) for a thousand divine years together with his wife, but no child came to them. In his grief Asita was about to give up his prāṇas (life breath). Then a voice from the sky (ākāśavāṇī) spoke to him:

“Do not give up your life. Go to Śiva and receive the mantra-upadeśa (teaching of the mantra) from his own lips. It is the mantra of the deity who will grant your wish. That devī will appear before you. Through her vara (a boon) you will have a son.”

Asita heard this and gave up the thought of ending his life. By the power of his earlier puṇya (merit) he reached Śivaloka. This is a realm beyond ordinary understanding, which only yogins can reach. There, with his wife, he stood before Bhagavān Śaṅkara and sang this stotra.

The stotra

The stotra praises Bhagavān Śaṅkara by the following names and attributes.

• Jagadguru. He is the guru (teacher) of the whole world.
• Maṅgala-Śiva. He is greeted as Śiva, the auspicious one. His name and nature are maṅgala itself, the source of all that is good, of welfare and of moksha.
• Yogīndreśvara. He is the Īśvara of the yogīndras (the chiefs among yogins) and himself the supreme Yogīśvara, the master of all yoga in all its forms. Obeisance is made to him as the Guru of gurus.
• Mṛtyuñjaya. He is saluted as Mṛtyuñjaya, the conqueror of death. He takes the form of mṛtyu (death) in order to cut the cycle of death and saṃsāra (rebirth). He is the master of mṛtyu and its root cause (mūla-kāraṇa).
• Kāla-Kāla. He is the kāla of kāla, the death of death and the time of time. All the divisions of time, from the nimesha (blink of an eye) to the parānta (the end), are under his rule. Even kāla is subject to him. Those who count and measure time serve the kāla of Śiva; he himself is beyond it.
• Triguṇātīta. He is beyond the three guṇas (sattva, rajas and tamas), and at the same time their support (ādhāra) and root (mūla). He is the seed (bīja) of the guṇas of the five mahābhūtas (great elements). He is the very form of the eight guṇas, which are both the eight siddhis of yoga and the eight guṇas of the state of mukti. He is the Īśa (master) of yogins and the seed of those who have gained the eight siddhis. He is the guru of all beings who have guṇas.
• Brahma-Svarūpa. He is Brahma-svarūpa, one with Brahman itself. He is brahma-vettā (the knower of Brahman), brahma-dhyāna-tatpara (devoted to meditation on Brahman) and brahma-bīja-svarūpa (the seed-form of Brahman).

What came after

Bhagavān Śaṅkara heard Asita’s stotra and was moved, for he is always bhakta-vatsala (fond of his devotees). He said: “I know your desire. I will give you a son who will be my own aṃśa (part), equal to me in power and in qualities. This is true.”

Bhagavān Śaṅkara then gave Asita the Shoḍaśākshara Mantra of Rādhādevī, her mantra of sixteen syllables. He gave its stotra, its pūjā-vidhi (way of worship) and the Saṃsāra-vijaya Kavacha, the armour for victory over saṃsāra. He also gave the rules for the puraścaraṇa (the fixed course of repeating the mantra). He told Asita: “The chosen deity of this mantra will appear before you and grant you the vara.”

Asita went away and did japa (repetition) of this mantra for a hundred years. Rādhādevī herself appeared and gave him the vara of a great son. In time Asita’s son Devala was born. He was a Śivāṃśa, a part of Bhagavān Śiva, full of jñāna (knowledge) and as beautiful as Manmatha.

Devala later went to Gandhamādana mountain for tapas. There he met the apsarā Rambhā. She pleaded with him again and again, but he refused her. Rambhā gave him a śāpa (a curse) that his body would be crooked and ugly. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa then appeared before the sorrowing Devala and comforted him. He gave him the name Ashṭāvakra, “the one whose eight limbs are crooked”. He told him to do sixty thousand years of tapas in Malaya-droṇikā. That tapas ended in Ashṭāvakra’s moksha at the feet of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa.

The phalaśruti

Whoever recites this Śaṅkara stotra of Asita for one year with bhakti (devotion), eating only havishya (simple sacrificial food), gains the following.

• A person without children gets a child who is chirañjīvī (long-lived), a devotee of Bhagavān Vishṇu and a mahātmā (a great-hearted one).
• A poor person, afflicted by poverty and sorrow, gets wealth and plenty.
• A person who cannot speak gets the power of speech and becomes learned.
• A man without a wife gets a wife of good character (suśīlā) who is loyal to her husband (pativratā).
• In this life the devotee enjoys happiness. At the end of life he reaches Bhagavān Śiva’s presence, Śivaloka.

The Purāṇa adds that Brahmā first taught this stotra to Pracetasa, and Pracetasa taught it to his son Asita.

Sources

• Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapter 30