Śiva Sahasranāma in the Mokshadharma Parva

The Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 284, holds a stotra (hymn of praise) of 1,008 names of Śiva. It comes in the account of how Daksha’s yajña was broken and then restored by Śiva’s grace. Janamejaya asks Vaiśampāyana how the broken yajña was set right, and the hymn of 1,008 names is the answer.

Each name comes with an adhyātmika (inner, about the self) commentary that reads the name in the light of the non-dual Vedānta of the Mokshadharma Parva. The stotra is called mānasika (belonging to inner discipline) and not only a prayer to be recited. Each name is a way in to one side of the nature of the Paramātmā. Reciting the names is a form of brahmavidyā-sādhanā (practice of the knowledge of Brahman).

Two Śiva sahasranāma texts in the Mahābhārata

The Mahābhārata has two separate Śiva sahasranāma texts, each of 1,008 names.

  • The first is in the Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 284. Vaiśampāyana tells it to Janamejaya.
  • The second is in the Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 17. Vāsudeva Kṛshṇa tells it to Yudhishṭhira. It has its own line of transmission: Brahmā, Indra, Yama, the Rudras, Tāṇḍya Muni, and on through others to Mārkaṇḍeya, then Upamanyu, then Kṛshṇa. Its commentary stresses Hari-Hara-abheda (that Vishṇu and Śiva are not different).

The rest of this text is about the first sahasranāma, the one in the Śānti Parva.

The question that begins the chapter

Janamejaya asked Vaiśampāyana: in the Vaivasvata manvantara, how was the Aśvamedha yajña of Daksha Prajāpati, held at Gaṅgādvāra, broken? How was it later restored through Śiva’s grace?

The question rests on the principle that no offence against Parameśvara can be set right without Parameśvara’s own anugraha (grace). The chapter tells how Daksha’s yajña was restored, and the means was the 1,008 names of Śiva.

The Daksha episode

Daksha’s great yajña was prepared with care at the foot of the Himālaya, near the holy place where the Gaṅgā came down. Siddhas, gandharvas, ṛshis and the groups of devas gathered.

The yajña was broken by the anger of Śiva, who had been left out. It was the same anger from which the Rudra-jvara (the fever of Rudra) arose. The grief of Śiva’s wife set it off, and Śiva’s power shattered the yajña.

To restore it, two things were needed. The other devas went to Śiva, and they praised him through his names. Praise (stuti) offered with true bhāva (feeling) was the means by which the grace of the offended Bhagavān Śiva could be called back. So the sahasranāma is not only a list for recitation. It is a tool of śaraṇāgati (taking refuge). Each name is an act of surrender and a recognition that Śiva rules over everything that exists.

The inner commentary

The commentary given with each name is adhyātmika. It reads every name of Śiva in terms of the inner truths of the Mokshadharma Parva. Some examples:

  • Deva: read not only as “a deva” but as “the one whose play (krīḍā) is the making of the world”, from the root div (to play, to shine).
  • Deveśa: “ruler of the senses and of the buddhi (intellect)”, the master of the inner organs and not only of the beings of the higher worlds.
  • Devārī-bala-sūdana: “destroyer of the armies of the enemies of the inner śama (calm)”. These are the enemies of śama, dama (self-control) and titikshā (endurance).
  • Sahasrāksha: “the one of a thousand eyes”, understood as sarvajña (all-knowing), the one who knows through all perceptions at once.
  • Virūpāksha: “the one of unlike eyes”. The third eye is the eye of jñāna (knowledge), different in kind from the ordinary two.
  • Tryaksha: “three-eyed”. The three eyes are the three pramāṇas (means of knowing): pratyaksha (direct sight), anumāna (inference) and śabda (word). Or they are the three states: jāgrat (waking), svapna (dream) and sushupti (deep sleep).

This way of reading fits the Mokshadharma Parva’s teaching that every act of devotion is in the end a tool of self-knowledge.

What the sahasranāma gives

At the end of the chapter the sahasranāma is declared a direct means to brahma-prāpti (reaching Brahman). It is not only a pious act that gathers puṇya (merit). It is a jñāna-sādhanā (practice of knowledge) in itself. A person who recites it and understands the inner meaning of each name is practising brahmavidyā in the form of devotion.

So the sahasranāma joins the two great paths of the Mokshadharma Parva: the jñāna-mārga (the path of knowledge, through viveka, discernment, and vairāgya, dispassion) and the bhakti-mārga (the path of devotion, through surrender to the personal form of the Paramātmā).

Sources

  • Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 284
  • Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 17 (the second Śiva sahasranāma, told by Kṛshṇa to Yudhishṭhira)