Sri Appayya Dikshitar who lived around 1500 AD, once
questioned his own bhakthi (devotion) towards Shiva. ( If such an elevated soul
can question, where do we commoners fall!) So, he summoned his disciples and
gave them a cup of a paste made with Datura seeds which makes one lose his mind
and almost drive one towards insanity. He also gave them another paste which
would be the anti-dote for the first medicine that will bring back one from a
state of insanity to a normal one. He asked them to give him the first potion
for a week and write down everything that he said in that state of mind loss
and then subsequently after a week, give him the anti-dote that would bring him
back to normalcy.
His reasoning was this: the two states of mind that remain
pure and do not get corrupted by “shows”, social polity and agenda are those of
a child and of an insane person. This is why they say that a child and an
insane person do not develop karma with their acts. Sri Appayya Dikshitar felt
that in the state of losing his mind, if he spoke things that have nothing to
do with Shiva, then his bhakthi was imperfect and that he needed to do more
work and tapas (penance); on the other hand, if his bhakthi was perfect then he
would be still meditating on Shiva even though he had temporarily become
deranged.
Quite an experiment indeed to conduct showing how serious he
was serious about Shiva. The experiment started; and what he composed in that
state IS the Atmarpana Stuthi otherwise known as Unmattha Panchaa Shath.
Unmattha in Sanskrit means “one who has lost his mind”; Panchaa Shath means 50
verses. This is one of most beautiful hymns in praise of Lord Shiva. Even if
one does not understand the meaning of the verses, the way the words dance
around is sure to take the listener to a world of bliss and love for Lord
Shiva.
Sri S.N.Shastri has put forth the English translation to
this hymn and the link to that is given at the bottom; it is highly recommended
that one read this wonderful translation .
From a recitation standpoint, the majority of the hymn is in
the Mandakranda meter with the syllable sets as 4+6+7, similar to Sri Stuthi in
this blog and towards the end there are verses
in Malini, Shikarini, etc. This wonderful recitation is offered to the Holy
Feet of Sri Kanchi Maha Periyava, Sri Sivan Sar and Sri Dr. G.Krishna Kumar of
Michigan All of Whom are forms of Shiva and Shakthi !
This is a long hymn. 20 MB
And now the audio: 21 minutes 52 seconds long.
( Mobile devices: click download; then play.)NOTE: BECAUSE THIS IS A VERY LARGE FILE ABOUT 20 MEGABYTES, YOU WILL HAVE TO DOWNLOAD AND THEN LISTEN. On mobile devices and some computers, you may get the message -- This file is too large for Google to scan, download anyway? -- You will have to answer "YES" and then listen after download. On some computers, when you hit the play button, if nothing seems to happen, click the Download arrow at the top, click download anyway and then listen. Sorry for the inconvenience -- but this is a big file and praise to Lord Shiva -- His Grace is magnificent !
There is one error in the audio: Verse 46/Line 2: Audio should be "Bhava" not "Bhuva".
The Sanskrit lyrics along with the English translation by Sri S.N.Shastri can be found at :
http://www.palamadai.in/snsastri/atmarpanastuti.pdf
The Sanskrit lyrics along with the English translation by Sri S.N.Shastri can be found at :
They may also be found at:
http://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/snsastri/Atmarpanastuti-English.pdf
One can learn more about Sri Appaya Dikshitar at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appayya_Dikshita
Om Namah Shivaya !
