The Intensity of the Festival of Devotion by Utpaladeva is to get entry in universal God Consciousness.
Nov 03, 2025This is a beautiful excerpt from the devotional text of the Hymns to Shiva, Utpaladeva’s Shivastotravali, explained by Swami Lakshmanjoo. In which Utpaladeva asks Lord Shiva: “When that festival will appear to me?”
The Intensity of the Festival of Devotion by Utpaladeva is to get entry in universal God Consciousness.
Chapter 9 (11:49)
कदा मे स्यात्विभो भूरि भक्त्यानन्दरसोत्सवः ।
यदालोकसुखानन्दी पृथङ्नामापि लप्स्यते ॥५॥
kadā me syātvibho bhūri bhaktyānandarasotsavaḥ /
yadālokasukhānandī pṛthaṅnāmāpi lapsyate //5//
Vibho, O Lord, when that day will come to me when I will possess bhūri bhaktyānanda rasotsavaḥ, I will possess the intensity, the utsavaḥ, the intense festival of Your devotion?
SCHOLAR: Of the bliss of Your devotion.
SWAMIJI: Bliss of Your devotion. And that festival will take place in me, that great festival. This is the only festival for me, i.e., to get Your devotion, to achieve Your devotion. This is the only festival for me. I have no other festival, no charm in other festivals.
When that festival will appear to me?
I want to ask You, yadāloka sukhānandī pṛthak nāmāpi lapsyate, when will I get entry in prathamābhāsa, [when] will I get entry in universal God Consciousness, loka sukha ānandī?
SCHOLAR: Ālo.
SWAMIJI: Āloka sukha, āloka sukha.
SCHOLAR: Prathamāloka.
SWAMIJI: Yes, prathamābhāsa. Prathamābhāsa means “the appearance of God-consciousness in universal objectivity”136.
SCHOLAR: In this ālocana137 moment.
SWAMIJI: Yes. Pṛthak nāmāpi lapsyate, and when differentiated names and forms and speeches also will vanish for good.
SCHOLAR: So, that God-consciousness there is flowing up from that first moment of perception like a fountain?
SWAMIJI: Yes, first moment. Fountain. That is nirvikalpa138.
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136. “This starting point (prathamābhāsa) is found just at the beginning of any perception or thought, before it has become determinate.” Vijñāna Bhairava, The Manual for Self-Realization, revealed by Swami Lakshmanjoo, Universal Shaiva Fellowship, Los Angeles, 2007. Introduction xxvi.
137. In this instance “ālocana refers to the very first sensation of any perception before it reaches the state of knowledge.” Ibid, p92, fn138.
138. Nirvikalpa “In reality . . . everything, whatever exists, it is in nirvikalpa state [where] you can’t define anything . . . you can define only in the vikalpa state, in the cycle of vikalpa, e.g., when you say “this is specks cover”. But it is not specks cover in the real sense, i.e., in the state of God-consciousness. It is just nirvikalpa, you can’t say what it is. But it is! Saṁketādi smaraṇam, when you understand, “this is mine”, “O, this was in my house and this is mine”, this memory takes place in the vikalpa state, not nirvikalpa state. And that vikalpa state cannot exist without anubhavam, the nirvikalpa state.”
“Nirvikalpa is the cause of all vikalpas, i.e., the undifferentiated state is the cause of all vikalpas . . . It is not something foreign [to vikalpas]. It is their life. It is the life of all vikalpas”. Parātrīśikā Vivaraṇa, USF archives.
Source: Hymns to Shiva, Utpaladeva’s Shivastotravali, revealed by Swami Lakshmanjoo
