Om Jai Shiv Omkara

Om, victory to Shiva, the very sound of "Om" — to you, Lord, all praise. The syllable Om is understood here as Shiva's own form, so hailing the sound is hailing him. He is Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Sadashiva the eternal auspicious one, all at once; and he bears his consort as half of his own body, the Ardhanarishvara form in which god and goddess are one being.

He shines with one face, with four faces, with five — the single face of Shiva, the four of Brahma, the five of Sadashiva, all his own. He is adorned riding the swan that carries Brahma, the eagle Garuda that carries Vishnu, and Nandi the bull that is his own mount. Whatever form the divine takes, the vehicle beneath it is still him.

Two arms, four arms, ten arms — in every count of them he is beautiful to behold. He appears as the three qualities that weave the world: sattva, rajas, and tamas, the strands of clarity, passion, and inertia. To catch even a glimpse of that form is to be enchanted, and the beings of all three worlds are held spellbound.

He wears the rosary of rudraksha beads for the ascetic's counting, the forest garland of wildflowers, and the garland of skulls that marks him as lord over death. He is Tripurari, who burned the three demon citadels, and Kamsari, the slayer of Kamsa — Vishnu's deed named as his own, since the two are not separate. In his hand he holds the beads, turning them as the ages turn.

White cloth, yellow silk, and the raw tiger skin all clothe that one body — the ascetic's purity, the sovereign's splendor, and the wild renunciate's hide. Around him gather the sages Sanaka and his brothers, born of Brahma's mind; Garuda and the celestial birds; and the ghosts and goblins of his own strange retinue. Saint and spirit alike keep his company without contradiction.

In his hands he holds the ascetic's water pot, the discus, and the trident. He is the maker of the world, the sustainer who holds it up, and the one who draws it back into himself at the end. Creation, preservation, and dissolution are not three gods but three motions of the same hand.

Brahma, Vishnu, and Sadashiva are taken as three only by those who lack discernment. Within the single syllable Om — its three sounds A, U, and M — these three are one. To hear the sacred syllable rightly is to hear the whole trinity resolved into a single utterance.

On the mountain sits Parvati, "daughter of the mountain," beside Shankara on Kailasa, and the peak is made lovely by them. His food is bhang and datura, the intoxicating plants no householder would touch, and his dwelling is in the ash of cremation grounds. The lord of all the worlds keeps the poorest table and the most inauspicious address, and is untouched by either.

The Ganga pours from his matted hair, caught there when she fell from heaven so the earth would not shatter beneath her weight. Around his neck hangs the garland of skulls, and the great serpent Shesha coils about him as an ornament. Over his shoulders he draws the deerskin of the forest hermit.

In Kashi he is seated as Vishvanatha, "lord of all," with Nandi the celibate bull keeping watch before him. Day after day the devotees rise and come and receive his darshan, the sight of the god that is itself the blessing. And the glory of that place and that seeing is beyond any measure.

Whoever sings this arati to the lord of the three gunas — the master of the very qualities that bind everyone else — receives what this song promises. So says Swami Shivananda, who set these words down. The singer will be given the fruit their heart has wished for. Om, victory to Shiva, the sound of Om; Lord, victory to you.