Siva Manasa Puja The Mental Offering to the Source of All

Auspiciousness Composed by Sri Sankaracarya

with English translation by Katherine Komenda Poole, Ph.D.
[Pictures inserted with love by muktimaa]
I arrange the nine planets
As a seat for you,
On the highest Himalayan peak
Where cold refreshing water flows.

I bathe your feet

And wrap you with an ethereal garment
That resembles the sky.
In turn, I offer you the nine-jeweled planets
Over which you reign
And I anoint you with the musk of a deer
Who wanders around
Like my relentlessly busy mind.

And I delight you

With the fragrant scent
Of sandal paste.

The whole universe is born

From a feminine fragrant flower
And a masculine delicious
Wood apple leaf.
And produces the fleeting essence
Of flower fragrance
And incense that pervades the world.
The Lord who spreads
The light of the divine
Over those who are bound
Has been captured
Within the enclosure of my heart.

I offer to you a golden vessel,

The womb of the world
Studded with the illustrious nine jewels
That are the planets themselves.
This whole universe is a vessel,
The womb of the Great Mother
Containing clarified butter, rice,
Milk, honey, and yoghurt.

The five-fold senses of pleasure

Arise from the combination of
These five sacred liquids,
Especially milk and yoghurt
Which are the Mother and Father of all beings.

I prepare them together

For You
As a drink with
Rice and coconut water.

These are not separate

From the Milky Way
Or a cows embryo
Both of which are the cause of pleasure
Which originates from the camphor flame
Of Your pure compassion.

These offerings are all mentally conjured

By me and offered to You
In the form of speech
Being self-generated by the original creator
Who first spoke the world into being
And to whom I am devoted.

The dome-shaped universe is the umbrella

Of Your protection above us,
Yet as the imperishable Self
You surpass it entirely.
You shower Your omniscient,
Limitless glance
As the supreme blessing
Upon humanity.

You give rise

To the song and dance
Of creation
Through the melody of the vina,
And the rhythm of the mrdanga and the bheri

Being thoroughly pervaded

By Your grace,
I offer all my eight limbs
In prostration to You.
And I send forth innumerable
Praises and salutations.

Having aligned myself

With the effulgence of your Being
I offer this worship
In complete surrender
To your all-pervading Light.

You are the Self

Arisen from the sweet devotion
Of my spoken prayer

And captured in the very breath of my body.

Having offered this worship
To you
From my heart alone
The abode of Your supreme enjoyment
I have become established
In the restful state
Of profound meditation.

Circumambulating you
With my right side facing you,
I extol your praises
To reach everyone
Everywhere
In all languages.
Whenever I perform actions as worship
May they be entirely for the purpose
Of Your worship only
Oh Effulgent One, the Source of the Bright.
Everything is rising out of your feet,
Born inside of me
Through the acute faculty
Of listening.

And if I mistakenly offend you

With my deluded mind
May I remember the most important thing
To understand is
This
Very
Moment.
Praise, praise
To the embodiment of compassion himself
The blessed great Lord
Who is the source
Of my transcendent
Inner light.

OM