Shankara Parvathi Stotram
A hymn to Shiva and Parvati, the divine couple at the center of the universe.
Sacred chants from the contemplative traditions of the world. The Vedic mantra and the Tibetan invocation, the Gregorian processional and the Sikh hymn, the ninety-nine names of Allah and the syllable of the breath. Each chant is a vehicle: a rope thrown across an interior distance, a small mechanism of attention. To repeat is to enter. To listen is to be carried.
A hymn to Shiva and Parvati, the divine couple at the center of the universe.
The hymn to Ganesh that dispels every danger and obstacle. Sanskrit verse for the inner path.
Inhale "So"; exhale "Hum." "I am that." The simplest mantra; the breath as practice.
Morning invocation to Saraswati, goddess of wisdom and sacred speech.
Tamil devotional to Murugan, son of Shiva. "From the very day I saw you."
"Lead me from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality." The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad mantra in Ravi Shankar's setting.
Hymn to Annapurna, the Mother who feeds. Goddess of nourishment and sustenance.
The Great Death-Conquering Mantra. Tribute to Shiva the Three-Eyed, granted to the rishi Markandeya.
The ninety-nine attributes of the Divine in the Islamic tradition. Each name a contemplation.
The five-syllable mantra of Shiva: Na-Ma-Shi-Va-Ya. The simplest of the great mantras.
"Hosanna to the Son of David." The Palm Sunday processional of the Latin rite, sung in plainchant.
Healing chant for the solar plexus chakra. Fire, will, and digestion of experience.
A Sikh sacred chant of universal listening. "All hearing, all reflection."
The six-syllable mantra of compassion: "the jewel in the lotus." Tibetan Buddhist tradition; one full mala.
A second reading of the Great Death-Conquering Mantra.
"I am Shiva. Consciousness, bliss, my true form." From the Nirvana Shatakam of Adi Shankaracharya.
Hymn to Durga, slayer of the buffalo demon. Sanskrit verse on the goddess of destruction-as-deliverance.
For sustained meditation, healing work, or the full one hundred and eight repetitions.
The Rudra Path chanted by twenty-one Brahmins. Vedic hymn to Shiva-Rudra; layered Sanskrit recitation across more than half an hour.
The Tibetan Buddhist mantra of healing, invoked unbroken for an hour. Bhaisajyaguru, the Master of Remedies, with his lapis-lazuli light.
An hour of unbroken Om. The primordial sound; the syllable from which all syllables come.
An hour of the OM mantra in its most concentrated meditative form.
The remover of obstacles, invoked one hundred and eight times. The full mala of the elephant-headed Lord.