Karthikai/Karthigai Deepam (29-30th November 2020) is an important festival especially celebrated in South India with the lighting of many lamps. The significance of lighting diyas is to remind us to find and honour our light of awareness. Below is an offering of the Sanskrit Chant ‘Purnamadah-Purnamidam’ from the Isha Upanishad.
Wishing you all completeness on this important occasion which marks the start of the auspicious period of ‘Kaivalyapada’.
The below chant is an offering for this day. The particular music/tune to which this version is set just came to me one day and I couldn’t get it out of my head. So here it is 🙂
Let’s take a closer look at one of the most popular Sanskrit shlokas (verses) which is also one of the most profound and fundamental.
The Shloka
ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्
पुर्णमुदच्यते
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥Om Poornam-adah Poornam-idam
That (there) is complete/infinite, This (here) is complete/infinitePoornaat Poornam-udachyate
Completeness arises from completenessPoornasya Poornam-aadaaya
If completeness is taken away from completenessPoornam-eva-vashishyate
Only completeness remainsOm Shantih Shantih Shantih
OM peace, peace, peacepoornam – infinity/completeness; adah – there; idam – here; poornaat – from infinity/completeness;udachyat
é – arises; poornasya – from infinity/completeness; aadaaya – remove; eva – only; vashishyaté – remains **Notes below
The repetitive sounds in the Vedic system of chanting are strung together in a scientific way to emanate certain rhythmic vibrations whose effect is perceived by the chanter/hearer even if the meaning of the words is not known.
This ancient shloka from from the Isha Upanishad describes the cosmic order. The Creation is Infinite/Absolute/ Complete by itself. Every piece of creation, arising from the Whole, from the Absolute, is also complete by itself. There is Completeness here (in us) and there (in the Creator and Creation).
>>continue reading: The Infinite is Here
