shankaracharyahastamalakaadvaitavedanta

Hastamalakiyam (Hastamalaka Stotram)

हस्तामलकीयम् (हस्तामलकस्तोत्रम्)

🕉️ hindu·📿 1× repetitions·🕐 Early morning after bath, or during meditation and Vedantic study (svadhyaya)·📜 Advaita stotra recorded by tradition; verses spoken by Hastamalakacharya, commentary by Adi Shankaracharya

Also known as: hastamalakiyam · hastamalaka stotram · hastamalaka stotra · hastamalakeeyam · kastvam shisho · nityopalabdhi svarupo'ham atma

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हिन्दी / देवनागरीతెలుగు தமிழ்ಕನ್ನಡ മലയാളം ગુજરાતી বাংলা ଓଡ଼ିଆ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ English සිංහල 𑌗𑍍𑌰𑌨𑍍𑌥

✦ Meaning

The Hastamalakiyam (Hastamalaka Stotram) is a famous Advaita hymn of twelve core verses spoken by the boy-sage Hastamalaka in answer to Adi Shankaracharya's question 'Who are you?'. The child replies that he is none of the bodily or social identities, but the eternal witness-consciousness — 'sa nityopalabdhi-svarupo'ham atma', 'that Self whose very nature is eternal awareness, am I' — the refrain of each verse. Using luminous similes of the sun, the mirror and reflected moonlight, it teaches the Self as the self-luminous reality behind mind and senses. Shankara was so moved that he wrote a commentary on it.

Origin & Story

Advaita stotra recorded by tradition; verses spoken by Hastamalakacharya, commentary by Adi Shankaracharya · Hastamalakacharya (verses); Adi Shankaracharya (compiler and commentator) · Classical (traditionally 8th century CE)

According to tradition, when Adi Shankaracharya was travelling he met a boy who, though appearing dull and silent to others, was in fact a great soul absorbed in the Self. When Shankara asked him 'Who are you, child? Where do you come from?', the boy responded with these twelve luminous verses declaring the Self as the eternal witness-consciousness, untouched by body, caste, ashrama or the senses. Shankara, recognizing his realization to be 'as clear as a fruit in the palm', named him Hastamalaka and made him one of his four chief disciples. So profound were the verses that Shankara wrote a commentary on them.

✦ As told in scripture

Tradition relates that the boy Hastamalaka had been regarded by his own family as dull-witted and mute, for he was forever absorbed within; yet at Shankara's single question the entire wisdom of Vedanta poured forth from him in these twelve flawless verses, revealing that what the world took for a simpleton was in truth a sage whose Self-knowledge was as plain to him as an amalaka fruit held in the hand.

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Complete Text with Meaning

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Verse 1

कस्त्वं शिशो कस्य कुतोऽसि गन्ता किं नाम ते त्वं कुत आगतोऽसि। एतन्मयोक्तं वद चार्भक त्वं मत्प्रीतये प्रीतिविवर्धनोऽसि॥१॥

kastvaṃ śiśo kasya kuto'si gantā kiṃ nāma te tvaṃ kuta āgato'si | etan mayoktaṃ vada cārbhaka tvaṃ mat-prītaye prīti-vivardhano'si ||1||

Meaning:(Shankara asks:) Who are you, O child? Whose are you? Where are you going? What is your name, and from where have you come? Tell me all this, dear boy — you delight me, you swell my affection.

Verse 2

नाहं मनुष्यो न च देवयक्षौ न ब्राह्मणक्षत्रियवैश्यशूद्राः। न ब्रह्मचारी न गृही वनस्थो भिक्षुर्न चाहं निजबोधरूपः॥२॥

nāhaṃ manuṣyo na ca deva-yakṣau na brāhmaṇa-kṣatriya-vaiśya-śūdrāḥ | na brahmacārī na gṛhī vanastho bhikṣur na cāhaṃ nija-bodha-rūpaḥ ||2||

Meaning:(The boy replies:) I am not a man, nor a god or yaksha; not a brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya or shudra; neither a celibate student, householder, forest-hermit nor mendicant — I am of the nature of pure Self-knowledge itself.

Verse 3

निमित्तं मनश्चक्षुरादिप्रवृत्तौ निरस्ताखिलोपाधिराकाशकल्पः। रविर्लोकचेष्टानिमित्तं यथा यः स नित्योपलब्धिस्वरूपोऽहमात्मा॥३॥

nimittaṃ manaś-cakṣur-ādi-pravṛttau nirastākhilopādhir ākāśa-kalpaḥ | ravir loka-ceṣṭā-nimittaṃ yathā yaḥ sa nityopalabdhi-svarūpo'ham ātmā ||3||

Meaning:The cause behind the working of the mind, eyes and the other senses, yet free of every limiting condition and subtle as space — like the sun that is the impartial cause of all activity in the world — that Self, whose very nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Verse 4

यमग्न्युष्णवन्नित्यबोधस्वरूपं मनश्चक्षुरादीन्यबोधात्मकानि। प्रवर्तन्त आश्रित्य निष्कम्पमेकं स नित्योपलब्धिस्वरूपोऽहमात्मा॥४॥

yam agny-uṣṇavan nitya-bodha-svarūpaṃ manaś-cakṣur-ādīny abodhātmakāni | pravartanta āśritya niṣkampam ekaṃ sa nityopalabdhi-svarūpo'ham ātmā ||4||

Meaning:That one, motionless reality, of the nature of eternal consciousness as heat is inseparable from fire, depending upon which the mind, eyes and senses — themselves insentient — carry out their functions — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Verse 5

मुखाभासको दर्पणे दृश्यमानो मुखत्वात्पृथक्त्वेन नैवास्ति वस्तु। चिदाभासको धीषु जीवोऽपि तद्वत् स नित्योपलब्धिस्वरूपोऽहमात्मा॥५॥

mukhābhāsako darpaṇe dṛśyamāno mukhatvāt pṛthaktvena naivāsti vastu | cid-ābhāsako dhīṣu jīvo'pi tadvat sa nityopalabdhi-svarūpo'ham ātmā ||5||

Meaning:The image of a face seen in a mirror has no real existence apart from the face itself; just so the individual soul is only the reflection of Consciousness in the intellect — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Verse 6

यथा दर्पणाभाव आभासहानौ मुखं विद्यते कल्पनाहीनमेकम्। तथा धीवियोगे निराभासको यः स नित्योपलब्धिस्वरूपोऽहमात्मा॥६॥

yathā darpaṇābhāva ābhāsa-hānau mukhaṃ vidyate kalpanā-hīnam ekam | tathā dhī-viyoge nirābhāsako yaḥ sa nityopalabdhi-svarūpo'ham ātmā ||6||

Meaning:As, when the mirror is absent and the reflection ceases, the one face still remains free of all imagining, so the reality that remains without any reflection when the intellect is withdrawn — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Verse 7

मनश्चक्षुरादेर्वियुक्तः स्वयं यो मनश्चक्षुरादेर्मनश्चक्षुरादिः। मनश्चक्षुरादेरगम्यस्वरूपः स नित्योपलब्धिस्वरूपोऽहमात्मा॥७॥

manaś-cakṣur-āder viyuktaḥ svayaṃ yo manaś-cakṣur-āder manaś-cakṣur-ādiḥ | manaś-cakṣur-āder agamya-svarūpaḥ sa nityopalabdhi-svarūpo'ham ātmā ||7||

Meaning:That which is itself ever apart from the mind, eyes and senses, yet is the very mind of the mind and eye of the eye, whose true nature the mind and senses can never reach — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Verse 8

य एको विभाति स्वतः शुद्धचेताः प्रकाशस्वरूपोऽपि नानेव धीषु। शरावोदकस्थो यथा भानुरेकः स नित्योपलब्धिस्वरूपोऽहमात्मा॥८॥

ya eko vibhāti svataḥ śuddha-cetāḥ prakāśa-svarūpo'pi nāneva dhīṣu | śarāvodaka-stho yathā bhānur ekaḥ sa nityopalabdhi-svarūpo'ham ātmā ||8||

Meaning:The one who shines by his own light, pure consciousness, who though of one nature appears as many in the many intellects — as the one sun appears multiplied in many bowls of water — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Verse 9

यथानेकचक्षुःप्रकाशो रविर्न क्रमेण प्रकाशीकरोति प्रकाश्यम्। अनेका धियो यस्तथैकः प्रबोधः स नित्योपलब्धिस्वरूपोऽहमात्मा॥९॥

yathāneka-cakṣuḥ-prakāśo ravir na krameṇa prakāśī-karoti prakāśyam | anekā dhiyo yas tathaikaḥ prabodhaḥ sa nityopalabdhi-svarūpo'ham ātmā ||9||

Meaning:As the sun, the light of countless eyes, does not illumine objects one after another but reveals all at once, so the one awareness illumines the many intellects together — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Verse 10

विवस्वत्प्रभातं यथा रूपमक्षं प्रगृह्णाति नाभातमेवं विवस्वान्। यदाभात आभासयत्यक्षमेकः स नित्योपलब्धिस्वरूपोऽहमात्मा॥१०॥

vivasvat-prabhātaṃ yathā rūpam akṣaṃ pragṛhṇāti nābhātam evaṃ vivasvān | yad-ābhāta ābhāsayaty akṣam ekaḥ sa nityopalabdhi-svarūpo'ham ātmā ||10||

Meaning:Just as the eye grasps a form lit by the sun but cannot grasp the sun that is not itself lit by another, so that one by whose shining the eye itself is made to function — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Verse 11

यथा सूर्य एकोऽप्स्वनेकश्चलासु स्थिरास्वप्यनन्यद्विभाव्यस्वरूपः। चलासु प्रभिन्नः सुधीष्वेक एव स नित्योपलब्धिस्वरूपोऽहमात्मा॥११॥

yathā sūrya eko'psv aneka-ścalāsu sthirāsv apy ananyad vibhāvya-svarūpaḥ | calāsu prabhinnaḥ sudhīṣv eka eva sa nityopalabdhi-svarūpo'ham ātmā ||11||

Meaning:As the one sun appears as many in rippling waters yet remains undivided in still waters, ever one in its real nature — appearing divided among restless intellects yet one in the wise — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Verse 12

घनच्छन्नदृष्टिर्घनच्छन्नमर्कं यथा निष्प्रभं मन्यते चातिमूढः। तथा बद्धवद्भाति यो मूढदृष्टेः स नित्योपलब्धिस्वरूपोऽहमात्मा॥१२॥

ghana-cchanna-dṛṣṭir ghana-cchannam arkaṃ yathā niṣprabhaṃ manyate cātimūḍhaḥ | tathā baddhavad bhāti yo mūḍha-dṛṣṭeḥ sa nityopalabdhi-svarūpo'ham ātmā ||12||

Meaning:As a person whose sight is veiled by clouds thinks, in his folly, that the cloud-covered sun has lost its light, so to the deluded vision the ever-free Self appears as though bound — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Verse 13

समस्तेषु वस्तुष्वनुस्यूतमेकं समस्तानि वस्तूनि यन्न स्पृशन्ति। वियद्वत्सदा शुद्धमच्छस्वरूपं स नित्योपलब्धिस्वरूपोऽहमात्मा॥१३॥

samasteṣu vastuṣv anusyūtam ekaṃ samastāni vastūni yan na spṛśanti | viyadvat sadā śuddham accha-svarūpaṃ sa nityopalabdhi-svarūpo'ham ātmā ||13||

Meaning:The one consciousness threaded through all things, which no object can touch or taint, ever pure and clear like space itself — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Verse 14

उपाधौ यथा भेदता सन्मणीनां तथा भेदता बुद्धिभेदेषु तेऽपि। यथा चन्द्रिकाणां जले चञ्चलत्वं तथा चञ्चलत्वं तवापीह विष्णो॥१४॥

upādhau yathā bhedatā san-maṇīnāṃ tathā bhedatā buddhi-bhedeṣu te'pi | yathā candrikāṇāṃ jale cañcalatvaṃ tathā cañcalatvaṃ tavāpīha viṣṇo ||14||

Meaning:As the apparent difference among genuine gems is due only to their settings, so the apparent difference (in You) is due only to the differing intellects; and as the reflected moonbeams seem to quiver only because of the moving water, so the seeming restlessness, O Lord, is but apparent in You.

Word-by-Word Meaning

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कः त्वं शिशो🔊kaḥ tvaṃ śiśoWho are you, O child? (Shankara's opening question)

कस्य कुतः असि गन्ता🔊kasya kutaḥ asi gantāWhose are you, from where do you come, where are you going?

किं नाम ते🔊kiṃ nāma teWhat is your name?

नाहं मनुष्यः🔊nāhaṃ manuṣyaḥI am not a human being (the boy's reply)

न च देवयक्षौ🔊na ca deva-yakṣaunor a god nor a yaksha

न ब्रह्मचारी न गृही वनस्थः भिक्षुः🔊na brahmacārī na gṛhī vanastho bhikṣuḥneither a celibate student, nor householder, nor forest-dweller, nor mendicant (the four ashramas)

निजबोधरूपः🔊nija-bodha-rūpaḥI am of the nature of pure self-luminous Consciousness

निमित्तं मनश्चक्षुरादिप्रवृत्तौ🔊nimittaṃ manaś-cakṣur-ādi-pravṛttauthe cause behind the activity of the mind, eyes and the other senses

निरस्ताखिलोपाधिः🔊nirastākhilopādhiḥfree from (having cast off) every limiting adjunct (upadhi)

आकाशकल्पः🔊ākāśa-kalpaḥsubtle and all-pervading like space

रविः लोकचेष्टानिमित्तं यथा🔊raviḥ loka-ceṣṭā-nimittaṃ yathāas the sun is the (impartial) cause of all activity in the world

स नित्योपलब्धिस्वरूपः अहम् आत्मा🔊sa nityopalabdhi-svarūpo'ham ātmāthat Self, whose very nature is eternal awareness, am I (the recurring refrain)

अग्न्युष्णवत्🔊agny-uṣṇavatas heat is inseparable from fire

नित्यबोधस्वरूपम्🔊nitya-bodha-svarūpamof the nature of eternal consciousness/awareness

मनश्चक्षुरादीनि अबोधात्मकानि🔊manaś-cakṣur-ādīny abodhātmakānithe mind, eyes and the rest, which are themselves insentient (without their own consciousness)

मुखाभासकः दर्पणे🔊mukhābhāsako darpaṇethe reflection of a face in a mirror

चिदाभासकः धीषु जीवः अपि तद्वत्🔊cid-ābhāsako dhīṣu jīvo'pi tadvatlikewise the jiva is but the reflection of Consciousness in the intellects

शरावोदकस्थः यथा भानुः एकः🔊śarāvodaka-stho yathā bhānur ekaḥas the one sun (appears multiple) reflected in many bowls of water

यथा सूर्यः एकः अप्सु अनेकः🔊yathā sūrya ekaḥ apsu anekaḥas the one sun appears as many in (moving) waters

घनच्छन्नदृष्टिः🔊ghana-cchanna-dṛṣṭiḥone whose sight is veiled by clouds

बद्धवत् भाति यः मूढदृष्टेः🔊baddhavad bhāti yaḥ mūḍha-dṛṣṭeḥthe Self (ever-free) appears as though bound to the deluded vision

समस्तेषु वस्तुषु अनुस्यूतम् एकम्🔊samasteṣu vastuṣv anusyūtam ekamthe one (consciousness) threaded through all objects

वियद्वत् सदा शुद्धम् अच्छस्वरूपम्🔊viyadvat sadā śuddham accha-svarūpamever pure and untainted like space (which nothing can stain)

तथा चञ्चलत्वं तव अपि इह विष्णो🔊tathā cañcalatvaṃ tavāpīha viṣṇoso too, O all-pervading Lord (Vishnu), the apparent restlessness is attributed to You (though You are ever still)

Benefits of Chanting Hastamalakiyam (Hastamalaka Stotram)

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Presents the essence of Advaita Vedanta through vivid, easy-to-grasp similes (sun, mirror, reflected moon)

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Strengthens the realization 'I am the eternal witness-consciousness, not the body or mind'

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An excellent text for Self-enquiry (atma-vichara) and meditation on the true 'I'

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Calms the mind by revealing the ever-free, untainted nature of the Self

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Treasured in the Advaita tradition as the spontaneous utterance of a Self-realized child-sage

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Recited for clarity of understanding (viveka) and steadiness in non-dual awareness

How to Chant Hastamalakiyam (Hastamalaka Stotram)

Repetitions1times

Best TimeEarly morning after bath, or during meditation and Vedantic study (svadhyaya)

Sit calmly facing east or north. Begin with Shankara's opening question and then recite the twelve reply verses slowly, dwelling on the refrain 'sa nityopalabdhi-svarupo'ham atma' — 'that Self of eternal awareness am I'. Contemplate each simile (the sun reflected in many waters, the face in the mirror) as a pointer to your own witness-nature. A single attentive recitation daily is ideal for contemplation; it may also be studied with its meaning.

Frequently Asked Questions

It is a short Advaita Vedanta hymn, also called Hastamalaka Stotram, composed of twelve verses (with an opening question and a concluding verse). It records the answer of the boy-sage Hastamalaka to Adi Shankaracharya's question about his identity.

'Hasta' means hand and 'amalaka' means a gooseberry (myrobalan). The name signifies that the truth of the Self was as clear and direct to this sage as a fruit held in the palm of one's hand. It is also the name given to him by Shankara, who made him one of his principal disciples.

It means 'that Self, whose very nature is eternal awareness (constant cognition), am I'. Every verse ends with this line, affirming that one's true identity is the unchanging, self-luminous consciousness that witnesses the mind and senses.

Yes. Shankara was so struck by the depth of the young Hastamalaka's spontaneous reply that he himself wrote a commentary (bhashya) on these verses, and the boy became one of his four chief disciples, alongside Sureshvara, Padmapada and Totaka.