Oam, Asatow ma'am Asatomah, Tama, Tamsoamah, Jotyrgamaya,

Mreathyrma, Amritam Gama Soma, Jotirgamay, Mreeturma, Amritam Gamaya.

Ome, Shanty, Shanty, Shanty.

Ome, lead us from the unreal to the real, lead us from darkness unto light, lead us from death to immortality.

Ome, peace, peace, peace.

Good morning and namaste.

Shiva Rattri, the annual night-long worship of Shiva.

It's a few days hence, actually.

We are doing an early observance.

And I was thinking, what better way to worship Shiva than to sing the glories of Shiva, in praise of Shiva.

And what better way to praise Shiva than through the Shiva Mahim Nostotra.

Probably the most beloved, most well-known and most magnificent hymn,

Sanskrit hymn for Shiva.

So I'm going to talk about that.

It's something that's recited by millions of people who are Hindus in India and elsewhere every day.

Monks who as a rule do not in India and elsewhere every day.

Monks who as a rule do not frequent temples and do ritualistic worship,

but they worship Shiva.

Shiva is the god of them for the monks.

And so I remember this monastery I stayed in for a couple of nights in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Kailash Ashram. Kailash is the abode of Shiva.

The ashram is also called Kailash Ashram.

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