Hari Om !I propose to take up from today श्रीशिवापराधक्षमापणस्तोत्रम् (śrīśivāparādhakṣamāpaṇastotram) by Sri Adi Shankaracharya for discussion. There are many variants of this in terms of number of shlokas, the sequence of shlokas and even wordings. I will be following the 12 shloka version as commented upon by Swami Chinmayananda and hope to conclude on the auspicious occasion of Mahashivaratri on March 11, 2021.
This is Adi Shankaracharya’s – who spent his lifetime propagating Advaita Vedanta – one of the rare devotional works. Here he is imploring the Lord for forgiveness for all wrongs done by oneself in the past – knowingly or unknowingly, born of commission or omission – en-route his journey from the womb to the tomb, in the form of twelve beautiful and ardent appeals.
आदौ कर्मप्रसङ्गात्कलयति कलुषं मातृकुक्षौ स्थितं मां
विण्मूत्रामेध्यमध्ये क्वथयति नितरां जाठरो जातवेदाः ।
यद्यद्वै तत्र दुःखं व्यथयति नितरां शक्यते केन वक्तुं
क्षन्तव्यो मेऽपराधः शिव शिव शिव भो श्रीमहादेव शम्भो ॥ १॥
ādau karmaprasaṅgātkalayati kaluṣaṃ mātṛkukṣau sthitaṃ māṃ
viṇmūtrāmedhyamadhye kvathayati nitarāṃ jāṭharo jātavedāḥ ।
yadyadvai tatra duḥkhaṃ vyathayati nitarāṃ śakyate kena vaktuṃ
kṣantavyo me’parādhaḥ śiva śiva śiva bho śrīmahādeva śambho ॥ 1॥
Even before I saw the light of this world, my sins from my previous birth punished me as I lay in my mother’s womb. Due to my previous birth karmas, I was born inside my mother’s womb, and was made to go through the suffering of being placed in the midst of urine and excreta and afflicted by the heat of her digestive fire. Who can describe the pain and unhappiness that I underwent in my mother’s womb?
And So O Shiva ! O Shambho! O Mahadeva! Please pardon all my faults, sins, transgressions, O All-Merciful One !