Śaṅkukarṇa’s Stotra to Śiva

This is the stotra of the ṛshi Śaṅkukarṇa to Bhagavān Śiva as Kapardīśvara. Śaṅkukarṇa was a great muni who practised yoga and worshipped Bhagavān Śiva at the Kapardīśvara liṅga in Kāśī. He sang the stotra after his grace freed a piśāca (a hungry, restless spirit). It is found in the thirty-third adhyāya (chapter) of the Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, in the section on the greatness of Vārāṇasī (māhātmya).

The stotra praises Bhagavān Śiva as brahma-pāra (beyond Brahman), the Ananta (the endless), the Svayambhū (the self-born), and the supreme light (teja) that swallows time (kāla) itself. When the stotra was done, Śaṅkukarṇa merged into the liṅga and attained moksha.

The setting

At the Kapardīśvara liṅga in Kāśī, near the Piśācamocana kshetra, the muni Śaṅkukarṇa lived and worshipped Bhagavān Śaṅkara with deep devotion. He chanted the Oṃkāra. He offered flowers and incense. He served the liṅga with stotras, namaskāras (bows) and pradakshiṇas (walks around it).

One day a piśāca came to him. His body was only bones, he sighed without rest, and he was tormented by hunger and thirst. Śaṅkukarṇa asked him with compassion who he was.

The piśāca’s account

The piśāca said: “In my past birth I was a wealthy brāhmaṇa of family. I never worshipped the devas. I never honoured cows or guests (atithis). I never did even a small act of puṇya. But once, in Vārāṇasī, I saw Viśveśvara, the master of all, who rides the bull (vṛshabhavāhana). I touched him and honoured him with a praṇāma (bow). Because of that one darśana and namaskāra, I did not have to see the terrible Yamaloka. But because of my other karma that I had piled up, I received this birth as a piśāca, and I suffer hunger and thirst.” He then asked Śaṅkukarṇa to tell him a way to be free from this birth.

Śaṅkukarṇa’s answer and the piśāca’s freedom

Śaṅkukarṇa said to the piśāca: “Even in this world no one is more fortunate than you, because you once saw Bhagavān Śiva himself, touched him and bowed to him. Now go quickly and bathe in this kuṇḍa (pool).”

As Śaṅkukarṇa told him, the piśāca remembered Kapardīśvara and bathed in the Piśācamocana kuṇḍa. His piśāca form was destroyed at once. He appeared in a divine body that shone like the sun. He sat in a divine vimāna shaped like the crescent moon, wearing divine ornaments. With him went the Rudras who move in the sky, yogīs of glory beyond words. The siddhas in the sky praised him. The assembly of devas rejoiced. Lovely apsarasas danced. Gandharvas, vidyādharas and kinnaras showered flowers on him. By the grace (anugraha) of Bhagavān Śiva he gained divine jñāna (knowledge). He entered the holy divya-pada (divine station) where Rudra himself shines, the realm that is made of the three Vedas (Vedatrayātmaka).

The stotra

Śaṅkukarṇa saw the piśāca‘s freedom and was filled with joy. He meditated on Maheśvara and bowed low before the excellent Kapardīśvara (Kapardīśvara śreshṭha). Then he offered this stotra:

To you, greater than the greatest, the protector (rakshaka) who has no equal, the Purāṇapurusha, I bow. I take refuge in the Yogeśvara, the Īśvara, whose form is Agni and Sūrya, the Deva who dwells in the hidden place.

You are known through Vedānta (Vedāntagamya). You rest in the heart. Your form is golden (Hiraṇmayarūpa). You are the yogī, without birth (Janmarahita), the great Munīśvara of the sky, the pure (Pavitra), the one who is beyond Brahman (Brahma-atīta). O Rudra, I take refuge in you.

You have endless feet, eyes and heads, and endless arms. You are beyond the guṇa of tamas. You are the aim (lakshya) of the Vedas. You are the master (adhipati) of Hiraṇyagarbha Brahmā. You have three eyes. O Śambhu, I salute you.

From you this universe is born and destroyed. By you the whole world is made. O Bhagavān Īśvara, who are to be known through Vedānta, I bow to you and take refuge in you always.

You are without a mark (cihna). Your form is not seen by ordinary sight. You are independently sovereign. Your chief form is the image of knowledge (jñāna-pratimā). You are known through Vedānta (Vedāntagamya). O Parameśvara, I bow to you (namaskāra). There is nothing other than you.

The yogīs who have given up the seed of bondage, who have reached dhyāna and samādhi and have become of the form of the Paramātmā, behold the Para-Brahman. That form of yours, beyond even Brahmā, I bow to always.

For the tattva (reality) that names cannot satisfy, whose own form cannot be reached by the knowledge of the senses, O Svayambhū, O Brahma-pāra, taking refuge in you, I bow always.

Those people of the family of faith (śraddhā-kula) who in many ways behold in the Vedas the tattva that is without body, without difference and whole (akhaṇḍa) — to that Brahma-pāra form of yours I bow at all times.

From whom the Pradhāna-tattva and the Purāṇa-purusha undergo change (pariṇāma); to whom the devas bow; who stands firm in a form made of light (tejomaya rūpa) — to that Mahākāla form of yours I bow.

I always take refuge in Maheśvara. I take refuge in the Purāṇapurusha, Śiva who dwells on the mountain. I take refuge in Śiva who bears the moon. I take refuge in you, the bearer of the Pināka bow.

Śaṅkukarṇa’s moksha

After offering this stotra, Śaṅkukarṇa spoke “Oṃ” in deep meditation and fell to the ground like a stick (daṇḍavat). At that very moment a supreme light came out of the Kapardīśvara liṅga. It was the form of Śiva, made of knowledge and bliss, without difference, like millions of fires of the end of the world (pralayakāla). The great muni Śaṅkukarṇa merged into this divine liṅga without parts (nishkala). He became all-pervading (sarvātmaka) and free from fault (dosharahita). His moksha thus came at once when the stotra was complete.

The phalaśruti

The Kūrma Purāṇa tells this through Vyāsa. Whoever hears this account of Kapardīśvara and its kathā at any time, morning, noon or night, at a śrāddha or a deva-kārya, on a river bank or in a temple, is freed from all pāpa (sin) and reaches the nearness of Bhagavān Śiva. One who recites the brahma-pāra stotra every day with a pure mind, in the morning and at midday, will gain yogasiddhi.

Where it is told

This account is part of the long Vārāṇasī māhātmya of the Kūrma Purāṇa. Vyāsa tells it to Jaimini and the ṛshis gathered at the Kapardīśvara liṅga itself, after he had seen the wonderful freeing of a deer in front of the same liṅga (Chapter 33).

Sources

• Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 33