shrii subrahmaNya bhuja"ngam

[Ravisankar S. Mayavaram]

       shrii subrahmaNya bhuja"ngam is a stotra sung under
inspiration by shrii aadi shankarachaarya at Thiruchendur (
presently located in Tamil Nadu, India). When he meditated upon
shrii subrahmanya, he became aware of the self luminous light
shining in his heart and words came out his mouth in extempore in
bhujanga metre. It is also said that aachaarya then actually saw
the aadisheshaa worshipping the Lord and adopted the bhujanga
metre.

Lord subrahmaNya, called a murugan is Tamil, is most widely
worshipped in the Tamil speaking world. murugu in Tamil literally
means beautiful. He is our beautiful Lord. Murugan is considered
as the patron deity of the Tamil language. All the the famous war
houses (paDai vIDu) in Tamil of skanda, are in the present Tamil
Nadu and the Thiruchendur is one of them. It is one of the
powerful temples in Tamil Nadu. And this shloka, I find it a
equally powerful tribute to the Lord of Thiruchendur. Some of the
verses are often chanted by people for specific purposes like, to
drive mental worries that comes in the way of one's bhakti (aham
sarvada duHkha ..), to control one's senses (kumAreshasUno guha
skanda ..), and so on.

This text is available in complete from the Jaguar site.  Major
portion of the translation which I typed in for the jaguar site
is adopted from, Iyer, Ganesa M,. Srimat Sankara Bhagavat Padal's
Sri Subrahmanya Bhujangam, The Little flower Company, Madras,
1992.


I will close this mail with a quote from the text.

dR^ishi skandamuurtiH shrutau skandakiirti\-
 rmukhe me pavitraM sadaa tachcharitram.h |
kare tasya kR^ityaM vapustasya bhR^ityaM
 guhe santu liinaa mamaasheshhabhaavaaH || 26||

Always may I have before my eyes the Murti of Lord Skanda!
Always let my ears hear only the praises of Lord Skanda!  Always
let my mouth sing the praise of Lord Skanda!  Always let my hands
be of service to the Lord!  Always let my body be a servant to
the Lord!  Let my limbs, thoughts and actions be devoted to
Skanda!


Lord muruga is called guha, as he is the indweller of our hearts.
In the bhuja"gam, shankara pays a fitted tribute to this name
"guhAyaM vasantaM svabhAsA lasantaM" - He lives in the cave (of
our heart) and He shines on his own accord (refer to tameva
bhAnta anubhAti sarvam tasya bhAsa sarvam idam vibhAti). May Lord
shaNmukha bless us all in our spirtual enquiry

Ravi
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam