शान्ताकरं भुजगशयनं......

शान्ताकरं भुजगशयनं......

Too common, but too great and too sublime is this prayer..

Even the most common statements should have some meaning..

I was just pondering what would be my translation of this prayer.. which I have chanted and have watched devotees around chanting throughout my life of sixty five years, or so

शान्ताकरं भुजगशयनं पद्मनाभं सुरेशं

विश्वाधारं गगनसदृशं मेघवर्णं शुभाङ्गम्

लक्ष्मीकान्तं कमलनयनं योगि हृत् ध्यानगम्यं

वन्दे विष्णुं भवभयहरं सर्व लोकैक नाथम्

śāntākaram bhujagaśayanam padmanābham sureśam

viśvādhāram gaganasadṛśam meghavarṇam śubhāmgam

lakṣmīkāntam kamalanayanam yogi hṛt dhyānagamyam

vande viṣṇum bhavabhayaharam sarva lokaika nātham

May my worship be directed to the all pervading Vishnu,

who is serenity personified in form and spirit,

who reclines on the bed formed by the Divine serpent Anantha,

who is having a lotus carrying brahma sprouting from his navel,

who is the lord of all the gods,

who manifests himself as the foundation and edifice for the whole universe,

who resembles the sky in vastness and black cloud in colour,

who is having well shaped and beautiful limbs,

who is the consort of the Goddess of wealth Lakshmi,

whose pair of eyes that resemble the petals of a lotus,

who is the ultimate thing to be realized in the hearts of the sages sitting in deep meditation

who is the annihilator of the fear and woes of the beings mired in this earthly life,

and

who is the one and only master of the whole world.

With lots of love for that eternal Vishnu, the Krishna..

==========

Note..

there is a lot of discussion as to whether it is Vishvaakaram विश्वाकारं or Vishvaadhaaram in the second line of the slokam

The standard procedure followed in Palakkad.. while chanting this as the Dhyanaslokam of Vishnusahasranamam is Vishvaakaaram..

But this is a common prayer and not a part of Vishnusahasranamam as found in Mahabharatham. So we have no way of testing the authenticity..

Palakkad people chant Vishvaakaaram and I too do that alone in my pooja during Avahanam and while chanting Sahasranamam..

But literaray aesthetics would demand that when Shantaakaram comes in the first line, instead of aakaaram, aadhaaram would rhyme better.. Repetition of the same word is not considered as good poetic craft..

However, both words make sense..

Vishvaadhaaram.. means who is the foundation for the whole universe.

Vishaakaaram means one who is manifesting himself in the Universal form.. the Vishvaroopam as we see in Gita..