Śatānanda's Stuti to Satyanārāyaṇa

Śatānanda Stuti, “the praise by Śatānanda”

Śatānanda‘s stuti to Satyanārāyaṇa is the praise that the poor brāhmaṇa Śatānanda of Kāśī spoke when Bhagavān Hari, who had come to him as an old brāhmaṇa, showed him his own four-armed form. The Pratisarga Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa tells it as part of the spreading of the Satyanārāyaṇa vrata.

The occasion

Sūta tells the ṛshis how Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa himself, in his compassion, spread this vrata. In the famous city of Kāśī lived Śatānanda, a learned, poor brāhmaṇa householder devoted to the Vishṇu vrata, who lived by begging. One day on the road he met an old brāhmaṇa, who was Hari himself. Hari told him that the Satyanārāyaṇa vrata is the best means in the Kali Yuga to end poverty, grief and all torment and to gain moksha. When Śatānanda asked who Satyanārāyaṇa was, Hari said that the Deva who takes many forms, true to his vow, pervading all, had come before him in the form of a vipra, and that the feet of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa are the boat across the ocean of saṃsāra.

As he said this, Śatānanda had direct darśana of Purushottama Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa: blue like the clouds, with śaṅkha, cakra, gadā and padma in his four arms, wearing yellow silk, with eyes like a newly opened lotus, a soft sweet smile and the forest garland, his lotus feet kissed by bees. Every limb of the brāhmaṇa thrilled, tears of love filled his eyes, and he fell to the ground in full prostration and praised him in a choked voice.

The stuti

I bow to Bhagavān Satyanārāyaṇa: master of saṃsāra, cause of even the cause of the world, protector of those who have no protector, giver of welfare and auspiciousness, giver of refuge, stainless, pure, the unmanifest who becomes manifest, who uproots the three kinds of suffering.
Namaskāra to Satyanārāyaṇadeva, creator of this saṃsāra.
Namaskāra to the pure Sattva form that sustains the universe.
Namaskāra to the terrible Mahākāla form that withdraws the universe.
Bhagavān Satyanārāyaṇa, whose form is the ātmā, who do good to the whole world, namaskāra to you.
Today I am blessed, today I have puṇya, today my birth has borne fruit, for you, beyond the reach of mind and speech, have come before me.
How shall I praise my fortune? I do not know of what puṇya this was the fruit.
Prabhu Nārāyaṇa, you have made fruitful the body of this dull one, who had done no rite.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 2, Chapter 25

What followed

Śatānanda asked by what rule Satyanārāyaṇa should be worshipped. Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa answered in a sweet voice that his pūjā needs no great wealth: whatever comes without effort should be offered with śraddhā. As Gajendra and Ajāmila were freed by remembering him, so by this vrata a person is at once freed from trouble. About a sawā ser of wheat flour with milk, sugar and ghee is offered to Hari, Śālagrāma is bathed with pañcāmṛta and worshipped with all the offerings, with sweets and the fruits and flowers of the season.