nidhána patayè namaha

 I was chanting the Mahanaranopanishad in the morning - rather, along with Challakere Bros, was busy ஒத்து ஊதிண்டு இருந்தேன். 😝

I have this bad habit always. Right in the middle of chanting anything, depending upon how much I get attracted by the PRONUNCIATION of the words, I stray away. I stray into trying to fathom the meaning of the words, when they impress me, for whatever reason. I know that it is bad to deviate from the chanting and delve into etymology and the meanings. But I am what I am. 

Back to the the Mahanarayanopanishad. There is an anuvakam called Shivapasana. It goes by the following:

nidhána patayè namaha. nidhána patanti ka yà namaha. urdh va yà namaha. urdh va linga yà namaha. hiranya yà namaha. hinranyalinga yà namaha. suvarna yà namaha. suvarnalinga yà namaha. divya yà namaha. divyalinga yà namaha. bhava yà namaha. bhavalinga yà namaha. sharva yà namaha. sharvalinga yà namaha.   ......   and goes on. 

Note that I have highlighted two of the phrases. 

First, Nidhana pataye Namah... 

Challakere Brothers' diction is so damn perfect, that the moment they pronounced this phrase, it set my mind astray! 

In Chaste Hindi , when someone dies, they say " unkaa NIDHAN ho gaya.." So, I immediately concluded that this phrase must perhaps mean " the Lord of Death". 

But then, I wondered, would an Upnishad deliver such superficial meaning, after all? Most likely not. So, I called upon Vaman Apte, who has been helping me ( even after his Nidhan, in the form of his Sanskrit-English Dictionary) for clarifying. 

Turns out that in Sanskrit, Nidhanam means " dissolution". So, Nidhanapataye namah means not just death, but a deeper "dissolution".   This aligns perfectly with the the 5 jobs of Shiva - படைத்தல், காத்தல், அழித்தல், மறைத்தல், அருளல். 

Now, the next phrase -  Nidhana Pata Anthika - Shiva FINISHES OFF the Lord of Death (Yama) ! Now, dont take that literally. That would be childish. To me, what this means is the following. Yama is widely considered the Lord of Death, and is expected to come riding on an எருமை மாடு and பாசக் கயிறு , and take "you" away. That is, the very thought of Yama sends shivers down the spines of people. Shiva protects us from the frightful prospect of the descent of Yama, ie, மரண பயம் நீக்குபவர். So, for this phrase , I will take the meaning at two levels, with the inner meaning of "one who removes the fear of death", as being more predominant. 

Now, the third phrase - Sharvaaya namah. To be frank, until I heard Challakere Brothers chant, a few years ago, I was under the wrong impression that this was "sarvaaya namah" wrongly pronounced as Sharvaaya namah...  after all, "sarvaaya namah" can easily meaning சர்வத்திலும் இருப்பவர். 

No - Sharvaa is the right way. And this is what proper pronunciation of Sanskrit can do. Bring out the correct meaning even as you mention. In this case, "Sharvaa" means one who manifests as the dissolution of the Unvierse". Again, you can choose to take the meaning in two planes. One - "he who dissolves the universe in it's curent form through a Pralayam, and then recreates a new one". The second level meaning, and I suspect this could be the real meaning from an Upanishadic context - that HE ( Shiva, aka, Brahmam) is beyond creation, and that he is NOT the object, but rather the seer. The reason I mention this is , we are told " look at the entire universe as God, there is God in everything". Fair enough. But for the seeker of the ultimate truth, which is what the Upanishad espouses, HE cannot be encapsulated in any perceptible object. Upanishads give numerous examples of how the Brahmam is beyond what the human mind can comprehend - such as, the rays of the sun can be seen in a mirror relfection, but the Sun itself is much much more...  a drop of water from the ocean has all the characteristics of the ocean, but a drop is a drop etc etc.. 

I know this can be confusing..   but the more I dive deeper into this, the more I realize and feel humbled how little I know and much more the Upanishads have, to offer. One janma is not sufficient to learn and contemplate over this.