திருவாசகம் — சிவபுராணம் — Benefits & How to Chant
திருவாசகம் — சிவபுராணம்
Complete guide to chanting correctly for maximum benefit
Benefits of Chanting திருவாசகம் — சிவபுராணம்
Opens with the supreme Panchakshara mantra 'Namasivaya', the heart of all Saiva worship.
The Sivapuranam is recited daily by Saivas as the foremost of Manikkavacakar's hymns, melting the heart in love of Shiva.
Believed to purify the mind, dissolve the bondage of birth (samsara), and draw the grace of Shiva as Guru.
Chanting it cultivates total surrender
praising the Lord's feet as the sole refuge and the destroyer of inner passions.
Cherished in the saying that one whose heart does not melt at the Thiruvasagam will melt at no other scripture.
How to Chant திருவாசகம் — சிவபுராணம்
Instructions
Bathe, apply sacred ash (vibhuti) and sit before an image or lingam of Lord Shiva. Light a lamp and recite the Sivapuranam slowly with feeling, beginning 'Namachivaya Vaazhga'. The hymn is meant to be felt as much as recited — let the heart melt in love as you praise the feet of the Lord. Many recite the full Sivapuranam daily; these opening lines may be chanted as a complete invocation.
Spiritual Significance
Tradition holds that Lord Shiva Himself, in the form of a Brahmin scribe, came and wrote down the Thiruvasagam from Manikkavacakar's lips at Chidambaram and signed it; in the morning the priests found the manuscript on the temple steps in the Lord's own hand, bearing His seal — a testimony to the divine origin of these hymns.
Origin & History
Source: Thiruvasagam — Sivapuranam (opening lines), Tirumurai 8, by Manikkavacakar (Tamil, c. 9th century CE)
Author: Manikkavacakar (Nayanar / Saiva saint)
Manikkavacakar was a learned minister of the Pandya kingdom sent to buy horses, who instead met Lord Shiva seated as a Guru beneath a kurundai tree at Tirupperundurai. Overwhelmed, he renounced the world and poured out the hymns of the Thiruvasagam in ecstatic love. The Sivapuranam, its first hymn, sets out the whole path of grace, beginning with the praise of the holy name and the Lord's feet.