azapa: ga:yatri hamsà hamsà zapith,
aham trö:vith suy adà raTh |
yèmy trov aham suy ru:d pa:nay,
bà na ö:sun chuy vvapàdi:S ||
Recite the unchanted mantra
(hamsa or so'ham)
with every breath.
Having cast away "I,"
meditate on Him.
They who renounce
the ego,
find the Self.
The lesson
to be learned
is that there is
no "I."
Note: When one chants the famous "so'ham" mantra (I am He), with repetition it tends to become "hamsa," which means "swan." In either case, the sound of the mantra imitates the sound of the breath, so one can chant this mantra by simply breathing. When this is done, the mantra is said to be "unchanted" ("ajapa" in Sanskrit, or "azapa" in Kashmiri). In another poem, Lalla told us that she had removed "aham" ("I"") from the so'ham mantra, leaving only "sa" (He). This was her figurative way of saying that she had rejected the sense of a separate "I."
ॐ नमः शिवाय ॐ
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