Om Namo Bhagavate Dakshinamurthaye

Namah, my salutations, to the Lord, Bhagavan, the one who has bhaga, the six-fold glories: aisvarya, overlordship; Sri, wealth and health; virya, strength; yasas, fame; jnana, knowledge, and vairagya, freedom from a sense of want. The word Bhagavan, by which I invoke the Lord, is everything that I seek. Not only do I seek moksa, knowledge, I also seek blessings for achieving whatever I need to achieve in life. Therefore, in relating to the Lord as Bhagavan, I am invoking the grace of Bhagavan.

Amürtih is the one who is formless and who is the truth of everything. With maya-sakti Isvara is daksinah, the one who has the capacity to be the creator and sustainer, and also the one who can take back the whole creation into himself. Therefore, Isvara who is daksina as well as amürti is Daksinamürti.

Daksina also means the southern direction. He is the Lord who is facing the south, daksinn-dik-abhi-mukha murtih. What is the significance of the southern direction? The north attracts, and it stands for moksha. The south stands for samsara; it is Lord Yama’s place. The Lord is everywhere, but the one who wants release from samsara faces the Lord in the north. The Lord has to face you to teach. As the source of all-knowledge, he faces the south. Salutations unto Lord Daksinamürti who is the source of all-knowledge and the source of all blessing.

Mahyam, to me, prayaccha, give; what? Asking is important. Always ask for what do you want. Often we hear, “Do not ask Bhagavan. He knows everything. He knows what do you need.” Asking is part of prayers, as a karma. Bhagavan’s grace is always available, but you have to tap it. This grace is like ground water that has to be tapped by the act of prayer. Gaining anything in terms of worldly or spiritual life depends upon your making the right decisions. Life is a series of decisions. You are what you are because of your decisions. For making the right decisions you require two things, prajña, clarity of knowledge and medha, availability of memory. In understanding any topic, you require prajña. It means alertness, clarity of vision. No matter what the topic is, whether it is a moral issue, a legal issue, or an economic issue, to succeed you require prajna.

Medha, thinking power and memory has to be at service always. Memory is important. If medha and prajna are there, all success will come to you. That is why you pray, “Oh Lord please bless with me with medha and prajna.”

Svaha is a word used at the time of offering oblations unto fire for different devatas. Here the meaning would be, “This chanting is my offering to you.”

Excerpt from the book “Prayer Guide” by Swami Dayananda