The fear of birth and death vanishes by the desire to perceive Your nature

In this excerpt from the The Magical Jewel of Devotion in Kashmir Shaivism – Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa’s Stava Cintāmaṇi Swami Lakshmanjoo tells us how the desire to perceive your nature and to be centralizing the mind in one-pointedness of God consciousness is the most important to have.

The fear of birth and death vanishes by the desire to perceive Your nature. ~Swami Lakshmanjoo

Audio 1 (43:29)

भगवन्भव भावत्कं भावं भावयितुं रुचिः ।

पुनर्भवभयोच्छेददक्षा कस्मै न रोचते ॥१४॥

bhagavanbhava bhāvatkaṁ bhāvaṁ bhāvayituṁ ruciḥ /

punarbhavabhayocchedadakṣā kasmai na rocate //14//

O Lord Śiva (bhagavan, O Lord Śiva), bhāvatkaṁ bhāva-yitum ruciḥ, kasmai na rocate, who cannot own, who will not like to own, the desire for perceiving Your nature? Who will not like to perceive, who will not like to have, the desire for perceiving Your nature? And that desire, the power of that desire, is punar-bhava-bhayoccheda-dakṣā, it is efficient, it is completely efficient, to destroy, to vanish, the fear of the cycle of repeated births and deaths. The fear of repeated births and deaths, the cycle of repeated births and deaths, the fear of that is vanished in a moment, in an instant, instantaneously. By which? By this desire. Who will not own this desire in this world? Everybody would like to have this desire.

So:

Audio 1 (45:07)

यावज्जीवं जगन्नाथ कर्तव्यमिदमस्तु नः ।

त्वत्प्रसादात्त्वदेकाग्रमनस्कत्वेन या स्थितिः ॥१५॥

yāvajjīvaṁ jagannātha kartavyamidamastu naḥ /

tvatprasādāttvadekāgra-manaskatvena yā sthitiḥ //15//

O ruler of the one hundred and eighteen worlds,³⁶ Lord Śiva, yāvat jīvam, as long as I am living in this world, my only work and my only desire is this [world]–not by my efficiency, I am not efficient to have that desire–. . .

Which desire?

STEPHANIE: To perceive Lord Śiva?

SWAMIJI: No.

. . . tvad ekāgra manas katvena yā sthitiḥ, just centralizing my mind in one-pointedness of God consciousness–this kind of desire. This kind of desire, I want to have this desire, but I don’t deserve this desire, I don’t deserve this desire. By Your grace, if You like to bestow that desire to me, then I would like to have that desire. Not by my efficiency, I am not efficient, I am not fit, for [obtaining] that desire. As long as I am living in this world, this desire must come to me by Your grace, not by my efficiency.

This is what he asks in this śloka. Do you understand? It is very easy!

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36 See fn 24 for an explanation of the 118 worlds.

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24 Brahmāṇḍa is the first of five [egg shaped] circles (aṇḍas) that contain the thirty-six elements (tattvas) that, in turn, makes up the one hundred and eighteen worlds. For an explanation of the one hundred and eighteen worlds, see Swami Lakshmanjoo, Kashmir Shaivism–The Secret Supreme, ed. John Hughes (Lakshmanjoo Academy, Los Angeles, 1985-2015), chapter 2, Ṣaḍadhvan, The Sixfold Path of the Universe.

(source: The Magical Jewel of Devotion in Kashmir Shaivism – Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa’s Stava Cintāmaṇi

revealed by Swami Lakshmanjoo

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