Śiva Mahimna Stotram: Hymn to the Greatness of Śiva
Purportedly written by the gandharva/celestial musician (or the sage) Pushpadanta, the Śiva Mahimna Stotram, is said to be supremely auspicious to recite and almost equally auspicious simply to have in your home, pleasing Shiva and bringing the greatest of blessings on every level: spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical.
Śiva Mahimna Stotram, Panel 1, 2011, oil on canvas, 16” x 20”. Panel #1 includes verses 1-9 of the stotram. These opening verses answer the questions: “Why praise God?” “Is it even possible for us to praise God?” “How do we know that there is a God?” and “What is the nature of God?” Some of the answers: It’s impossible to praise God adequately, but there’s nothing wrong with trying. We praise God not for God’s sake, but because we benefit from doing so. Verse 7 summarizes: There are thousands of paths to You, winding and straight. Everyone follows the path suited to their nature. All paths reach You, just as all rivers enter the ocean.
Śiva Mahimna Stotram, Panel 2, 2011, oil on canvas, 16” x 20”. Panel #2 includes verses 10-14, and the image is of 5 triangles, alternating between pointing upwards and downwards, which forms the Yantra of Śiva as Destroyer of Desire. These verses begin a section of allegorical/mythological stories that primarily illustrate the boundless nature of Śiva and of his generosity and magnanimity. “What prosperity does not result from bowing down to You?” He is Varada, Granter of Boons. Stories include that of Ravana attempting to move Mount Kailasa (Śiva’s home) and of Śiva acquiring the blue stain on his throat by drinking the poison to save the world.
Śiva Mahimna Stotram, Panel 3, 2011, oil on canvas, 16” x 20”. Panel #3 includes verse 15-through-half of verse 20. These verses continue to illustrate the greatness, unimaginable power, and easy generosity and compassion of Śiva through allegory and mythology. Verse 17 is an ecstatic lyrical ode to vastness and breathtaking beauty of Śiva’s body, of which the entire Universe is but like a drop on his head.
Śiva Mahimna Stotram, Panel 4, 2011, oil on canvas, 16” x 20”. Panel #4, the central panel, is a square pattern, with red, blue and yellow, loosely reflecting a Śiva-Śakti yantra. It includes the latter half of verse 20 -through- verse 25. These verses continue to illustrate the greatness, unimaginable power, and easy generosity and compassion of Śiva through allegory and mythology. There is a strong emphasis on Śiva’s love of granting boons. He is easy to please. Offerings or requests made to him from a place of truth always bear fruit.
Śiva Mahimna Stotram, Panel 5, 2011, oil on canvas, 16” x 20”. Panel #5 (verses 25 – 30) is a sky-blue bindu-and-circle pattern. The pattern and colors are simple, but deep, since this panel includes some of the most poetic and other-worldly verses of the entire stotram. Rapturous and transcendent images describe what cannot be described. Verse 26, ”The Learned say, ‘You are the Sun, the Moon, Fire, Air, Water, Space, Earth, The Self; but we do not know that thing which You are not.”
Śiva Mahimna Stotram, Panel 6, 2011, oil on canvas, 16” x 20”. Panel #6 returns to the Yantra of Śiva as Destroyer of Desire: five triangles, alternating between pointing upwards and downwards. It includes verses 31 - 36. These verses continue the poetry and other-worldliness of the previous 5 verses, using metaphor and rapturous, transcendent images to describe the Divine (Śiva). Verse 32 is the last verse of original verses, written by Pushpadanta. The following verses are “phalasrut,” enumerations of the benefits of recitation of the hymn.
Śiva Mahimna Stotram, Panel 6, 2011, oil on canvas, 16” x 20”. Panel #7, the concluding panel, is a multileveled bindu-circle pattern, multicolored with purple, blue, and gold predominating. It includes verses 37 - 43. These final verses continue as “phalasrut,” enumerations of the benefits of recitation of the hymn. For example: “If a person reads, or even keeps in the home this Hymn, which is dear to Śiva, He is pleased. All sins are destroyed.”