Śrī Rudram

by Dayananda Saraswati

"The book contains Śrī Rudram, a hymn from the Vedas, the sacred book of the Hindus. Diving deeply into the book brings Īśvara into one's life so that one comes out with 'namaḥ' on one's lips and Īśvara in one's heart."

Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Genres: India

254 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Swami Dayananda Saraswati (दयानन्‍द सरस्‍वती) (born August 15, 1930, died September 23, 2015) was a monk of the Hindu monastic order, a renowned traditional teacher of Advaita Vedanta and a scholar in Sanskrit in the tradition of Sankara. He has been teaching Vedanta in India for more than five decades and around the world since 1976. His deep scholarship and assimilation of Vedanta combined with a subtle appreciation of contemporary problems make him that rare teacher who can reach both traditional and modern students. A teacher of teachers, Swami Dayananda taught six resident in-depth Vedanta courses, each spanning 30 to 36 months. Four of them were conducted in India and two in the United States. Each course graduated about 60 qualified teachers, who are now teaching throughout India and abroad. Under his guidance, various centers for teaching of Vedanta have been founded around the world; among these, there are three primary centers in India at Rishikesh, Coimbatore, Nagpur and one in the U.S. at Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. There are more than one hundred centers in India and abroad that carry on the same tradition of Vedantic teaching. In addition to teaching, Swami Dayananda has initiated and supported various humanitarian efforts for the last forty-five years. The most far-reaching of these is the establishment of All India Movement for Seva in 2000. Awarded consultative status with ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) by the United Nations in 2005, this organization is devoted to serving people in the remote areas of India, mainly in the field of Education and Health Care. Swami Dayananda Saraswati has also promoted several international events and participated as a speaker in several global forums, among which are: the United Nations gathering of NGO's, the UNESCO Seoul Global Convention, the United Nations 50th Anniversary Celebration, the Millennium World Peace Summit, the International Congress for the Preservation of Religious Diversity, the Conference on the Preservation of Sacred Sites, the World Council for Preservation of Religious Diversity, the Youth Peace Summit, the Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders, a Hindu-Christian dialogue with the World Council of Churches, and the Hindu-Jewish Leadership Summit.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Salutation to the one who obtains in the kettle-drum and in the drum-beating stick, who is brave and analytical, who is a messenger in war, who is interested in the welfare of the kingdom, who has a sword in his hands and a quiver of arrows on his shoulders, who has sharp missiles and who is equipped with all the weapons, who obtains in narrow walking paths as well as in highways, who obtains in ponds and waterfalls, who obtains in marshy land and lakes, who obtains in the river and small tanks, who obtains in the wells and the valleys, who obtains in the rains and in drought, who obtains in the clouds and lightning, who obtains in the autumnal clouds and the sun, who is in the form of Prana and Rudra, who is in the form of every object and in the vastu deity." -Anuvaka 7, Sri Rudram

Did I seriously never add this? This is one of my favorite Hindu texts and one of my favorite books period. Rudra is my God.

Look at the quote carefully and you'll notice that the point of a lot of those comparisons is to illustrate a God which transcends all duality. The drum (hollow, inert, but emits sound) stick (hard, striking, fast, brave AND analytical, interested in welfare and in warfare, in fast and slow moving water, etc. And finally at the end, it is in literally any and every given object in the world. This is the most macro-possible context, and also the most difficult to conceptualize. And yet is also in the vastu deity, the deity which one propitiates before building a house on a plot of land. A highly micro example, and also a very easy example to conceptualize as it probably has an anthropomorphic form.

The commentary is really very useful, and would be essential to someone coming to this text with little prior knowledge of Hinduism or Advaita Vedanta. I don't know how to briefly explain it. I did my best with the quote above. Rudra here is described so beautifully and delicately as inhabiting and pervading every aspect of existence from the most abstract and general to the most particular and embodied. From the galaxies, planets, skies, to time and space itself, down to the vastu, the leaves, the moss, the lakes, the cattle, the drum.

And furthermore in other quotes I could give, Rudra is described as pervading all types of qualities, transcending even moral categories. Rudra is the compassionate one, the giver of medicine, the helper, the one who protects from arrows. But Rudra is also the one who abides in the arrows let loose upon the evildoers. But furthermore he also abides in the thief, the robber, the warlord. Rudra ultimately is a very energetic deity. If there is a binary which is not crossed here it is that. In all manifestations Rudra is an active force (though it may be motionless in its most macro-level sense). It also seems to have a natural and pastoral bias reflecting the time period it was written, as opposed to an urban bias, or a description of settled town life. This appeals to me. In any case, for a naturalist, pantheist, who rejects deontological ethics, and who values a certain sort of warrior morality and an aesthetic vision of the world wherein not just peace and compassion, but also violence and struggle are perfectly valid and praiseworthy facets of existence exhibiting the virtues of virility and strength, this is the text for you. Herein lies the foundation of both Kshatriya Dharma and Hindu naturalism.