Prathana: Prayers of Bhakti Marga

By Bhakti Marga

Prathana is a collection of Hindu prayers used by Bhakti Marga for daily worship. The book includes a compilation of hymns and ceremonial prayers to the Guru and Hindu Deities and their respective translations into English.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bhakti Marga Publications
• Release date: Apr 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9783963430091

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Prathana: Prayers of Bhakti Marga

Complete with Translations and Devotional Chants

Bhakti Marga Publications

Order of the prayers, copyright © 2017-2018 Bhakti Event GmbH

Artwork by Gitanjali and Makaria, copyright © 2017 Bhakti Event GmbH

All international rights reserved.

English

eBook from the Fourth Edition Print version (ISBN 978-3-96343-006-0)

ISBN 978-3-96343-009-1

bhaktimarga.org

Bhakti Marga Publications

Am Geisberg 1-8

65321 Heidenrod-Springen

Germany

[e-mail]

bhaktimarga.org/publications

Prathana

PRAYERS OF BHAKTI MARGA

COMPLETE WITH TRANSLATIONS

AND DEVOTIONAL CHANTS

Page 3

The prayer book you are holding in your hands

is an embodiment of Saraswati Devi Herself.

Please take good care of Her: do not drop Her,

place Her directly on the floor, or step over Her.

Table of Contents

Enjoying the Prayers of Bhakti Marga

About this Edition

The Joy of Community Prayer

MORNING PRAYERS

Guru Stotram

Paramahaṁsa Śrī Swāmī Vishwananda Aṣṭotram

Vaiṣṇava Mantra

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Suprabhātam

The Govinda Prayer

Śrī Nṛsiṁha Prayer

Śrī Viṣṇu Bhagavān Āratī

Śrī Lakṣmī Mātā Āratī

Closing Prayers

EVENING PRAYERS

Guru Stotram

Paramahaṁsa Śrī Swāmī Vishwananda Aṣṭotram

Śrī Nṛsiṁha Kavaca Stotram

Śrī Nṛsiṁha Prayer

Śrī Hanumān Cālīsā

Śrī Durgā Cālīsā

Guru Āratī

Closing Prayers

OTHER PRAYERS

Lingāshtakam

Gāyatrī Mantras

Mantra Puṣpam

108 NAMES

Paramahaṁsa Śrī Swāmī Vishwananda Aṣṭotram

Śrī Mahāvatār Bābāji Aṣṭotram

Śrī Rāmānuja Aṣṭotram

Śrī Śirḍī Sāī Aṣṭotram

Śrī Mahālakṣmī Aṣṭotram

Śrī Durgā Mātā Aṣṭotram

Śrī Sarasvatī Mātā Aṣṭotram

Śrī Kālī Mātā Aṣṭotram

Śrī Tulasī Devī Aṣṭotram

Śrī Gāyatrī Devī Aṣṭotram

Śrī Rādhikā Aṣṭotram

Śrī Gaṇeśa Aṣṭotram

Śrī Mahāviṣṇu Aṣṭotram

Śrī Kṛṣna Aṣṭotram

Śrī Nṛsiṁha Aṣṭotram

Śrī Rāma Aṣṭotram

Śrī Hanumān Aṣṭotram

Śrī Śiva Aṣṭotram

Śrī Viśvakṣena Aṣṭotram

ARATI

Śrī Viṣṇu Bhagavān Āratī

Śrī Ṣirḍi Sāī Bābā Āratī 1

Śrī Ṣirḍi Sāī Bābā Āratī 2

Śrī Lakṣmī Mātā Āratī

Śrī Durgā Devī Āratī

Śrī Kālī Mātā Āratī

Śrī Gāyatrī Devī Āratī

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Āratī

Cākara Rākho Jī Giridhāri Lāla

Śrī Śiva Āratī

DEVOTIONAL CHANTS

Pranāma

Śrī Sūktam

Puruṣa Sūktam

Śrī Viṣṇu Sahasranāma Stotram

Nārāyaṇa Sūktam

Nārāyaṇa Upaṇiṣad

Kṣamā Prārthanā

ENJOYING THE PRAYERS

OF BHAKTI MARGA

Our life path in Bhakti Marga is one of devotion, and that’s the reason we begin and end each day with prayers to the Divine.

Our morning and evening prayers allow us to pray from the heart through the bhajans we sing. Why is music such an important element of our prayer time? Music is the language of the soul and music allows devotion to flow more easily by engaging our hearts.

In addition to music, by understanding the intention and meaning of these prayers, we are able to connect more deeply from the heart so that we can pour our love into the prayer itself.

For example, the Krishna Suprabhatam: Suprabhatam means ‘auspicious dawn’ and this is sung in the morning. It is a prayer to gently wake up the deity within our hearts and also to awaken the deity upon the altar. We literally sing our beloved deity awake and welcome Him into our lives each morning.

The Govinda Prayer: This is a small part of the Brahma Samhita which is a song that was composed by Brahma in praise and love to Krishna. It came about when Brahma, having been thwarted in his efforts to play a trick on Krishna, realises the magnificence of who Krishna really is: the Lord of all creation and all the gods. This song recognises Krishna’s many forms of divinity and opulence.

The Narasimha Kavacham: Narasimha is an incarnation of Narayana who incarnated to save His beloved devotee, Prahlad. Kavacham means ‘armour’ and by singing it, we seal ourselves from negativity inwardly and externally which helps us on our spiritual path. When we sing the Narasimha Kavacham, we can imagine ourselves asking Narasimha to protect our minds and bodies so that we may manifest the perfect Love that Prahlad had, and infuse it into our day’s service to the Lord.

Arati: Performed at the end of prayers, we now see the beauty of the Lord in all His glory. We circle the light around the deity to remind us that God is the centre of all things in life; He is the Divine Light of spiritual knowledge deep within us which we also offer to Him. We gesture to the arati light: to our eyes so that our limited vision may be clear, and to our heads so that our negative, judging thoughts may be transformed.

Guruji’s wish is that everyone participates during prayers by singing and clapping to stay focused. Prayer is not a time for meditation, ‘zoning out’ or catching up on your Facebook or Telegram. Sing, clap and even dance a bit if you wish. The shift from mind to heart is worth the time you give your full focus to these special prayers, and will bring you great benefits, if you let it do its work. But for that, you have to be devoted, focused, and surrendered.

We hope you enjoy morning and evening prayers, not only at Shree Peetha Nilaya, but at Bhakti Marga temples all over the world!

ABOUT THIS EDITION

Please note that we have made an effort to update and correct each word of our prayers, so you may find a few changes to some words that you have previously learned by heart.

For example, our Closing Prayers on page 31 and 54 include the Maha Sudarshana Mantra (changes shown in bold):

oṁ klīṁ kṛṣṇāya govindāya gopījana-vallabhāya / parāya parama-puruṣāya /

parakarma mantra yantra tantra auṣadhāstra śaṣtrāṇi /

saṁhara saṁhara mṛtyor mocāya mocāya /

oṁ namo bhagavate mahā sudarśanāya dīpte jvāla prītāya sarvadik-kṣobhaṇa huṁ phaṭ / parasmai parabrahmaṇe paraṁjotiṣe / svāhā

Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language considered to be the ‘language of gods’.

Each letter is a manifestation of a cosmic divine sound and so its correct pronunciation is associated with a unique sacred vibration. That’s why this new edition of ‘Prathana’ has a feature designed to help you pronounce all the words correctly and consistently.

It shows all Sanskrit words transliterated according to the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST).

The IAST alphabet uses a combination of Latin letters and dashes, dots, accents, hyphens and tilde to indicate the sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet. Though at first the prayers might seem more complicated than what you may be accustomed to, over time these symbols will actually help you pronounce the Sanskrit more accurately.

Since this is prayer book and not a study guide, if you’d like more precise instructions on how to pronounce the Sanskrit, please refer to the pronunciation guide found in Bhakti Marga’s Shreemad Bhagavad Gita: Verses and Translations. In the future, the Bhakti Marga Academy will be offering courses and materials on Sanskrit chanting and pronunciation as well.

THE JOY OF

COMMUNITY PRAYER

FIVE GUIDELINES FOR COMMUNITY PRAYERS AT

SHREE PEETHA NILAYA, SPRINGEN

Based on the teachings of Paramahamsa Sri Swami Vishwananda and Saint Theophane the Recluse:

PLACE COMMUNITY PRAYER OVER WORK

Work is successful if God’s blessing is upon it. Don’t allow the urge to miss this or that Divine Service (established by the Ashram rule) tempt you because of a need to complete necessary work. Remember that any work cannot be successful if God’s blessing is not upon it, and that blessing must be called down from Heaven. When the blessing has been sought, one hour takes the place of a whole day’s labor; without the blessing, everything falls apart.

PLACE COMMUNITY PRAYER OVER PERSONAL PRAYER

Community prayer is stronger than personal prayer. Don’t be tempted to yield to the artificially attractive idea of staying in your room while the others are going to Church/Temple, out of the wish to pray with a little more fervency in solitude. When there is community prayer everyone has to go there. Personal prayer everyone can do at anytime; to do it during community prayer is fruitless because one is breaking the first rule itself, the rule of obedience.

Mutual Love is stronger: ‘Where two or three are gathered in My Name’, says the Lord, ‘there am I in the midst of them’, and where there is God, there is every spiritual good. In community prayer people forget about their own egoistical pride for themselves and are concentrating on the Divine.

Very often the mind tries to find excuses not to do it. The one who is at loss is the person having such thoughts. It’s better to set yourself a rule once and for all never to yield to such a thought.

ATTEND THE FULL PRAYER

Don’t be tempted to indulge yourself in not coming to the Church/Temple in the beginning of service or leaving before it is over. Remember, each service is a complete unit and can provide its full benefit only in its entirety.

BE ATTENTIVE, BE PRESENT AND PARTICIPATE

One must go to prayer not inattentively, but as one should. Entering the Church/Temple, we must put on reverence like a garment, remembering to Whom we are coming and to Whom we intend to address our prayers. In this way, we won’t be bored in Church/Temple, looking here and there and starting conversations, but also doing kriyas, japa, meditating (i.e. personal prayer), etc. and we won’t be wishing that the service be over soon.

Instead, passing from one prayerful feeling to another and from one reverent thought to the next, we will be like those in a fragrant garden, moving from one group of flowers to another. Consequently, spiritual warmth, which is the fruit of attentive prayer, will fill our hearts with ineffable sweetness.

Using Church/Temple service as we should, we will gain, little by little, the main thing for which the visible Church/Temple is given to us – that is, continuous mental prayer to God in our heart, which makes of our heart a temple of God not built by human hands.

BE DISCIPLINED

Change comes with discipline. Really want God, don’t pretend, don’t ‘bluff’ that you want Him. The one who comes to all the services without fail and listens to them as one should can easily attain the highest priceless spiritual goods. He/she doesn’t have to add much to this labor of uninterrupted attendance at Church/Temple; but he/she must take care to preserve unextinguished the warmth of heart which is ignited in Church/Temple through preservation of attention, by which his/her soul is blessed.

Through these labors, the soul will be sanctified more and more with the blessed presence of God, which raises the mind to God and lifts the heart with delightful sighing: this, really, is uninterrupted prayer.

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Morning Prayers

Guru Stotram

Paramahaṁsa Śrī Swāmī Vishwananda Aṣṭotram

Vaiṣṇava Mantra

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Suprabhātam

The Govinda Prayer

Śrī Nṛsiṁha Prayer

Śrī Viṣṇu Bhagavān Āratī

Śrī Lakṣmī Mātā Āratī

Closing Prayers

Mahā Sudarśana Mūla Mantra

OṂ OṂ OṂ

GURU STOTRAM

akhaṇḍa maṇḍalākāraṁ

vyāptaṁ yena carācaram

tat padaṁ darśitaṁ yena

tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ

My salutations to that Guru who revealed to me

that truth, which is unfragmented, infinite, timeless

divinity, and which pervades the entire universe,

movable or immovable.

ajñāna timirān dhasy

jñānāñjana śalākayā

cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena

tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ

My salutations to that reverential teacher, who

opened my eyes by applying the Divine collyrium

of Self-knowledge in my eyes, which had been

blinded by the cataract of ignorance.

gurur brahmā gurur viṣṇuḥ

gurur devo maheśvaraḥ

gurur sākṣāt paraṁ brahma

tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ

Guru Himself is the creator, sustainer and the

destroyer. He is verily the very transcendental

divinity (the timeless life-principle, which is the

very essence of the Creator). My reverential

salutations to that glorious teacher.

sthāvaraṁ jaṅgamaṁ vyāptaṁ

yat kiñcit sacarācaram

tat padaṁ darśitaṁ yena

tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ

My salutations to that reverential teacher, who

revealed to me that which pervades everything

in this world, whether animate-inanimate or

movable-immovable.

bābāji vyāpi yatsarvaṁ

trailokyaṁ sacarācaram

tat padaṁ darśitaṁ yena

tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ

My salutations to that glorious Guru, who revealed

to me that self-effulgent divinity (the pure

unconditioned consciousness) which pervades

all the three worlds, with all its movable and

immovable objects.

sarva śruti śiroratna

virājita padāmbujaḥ

vedāntām bujasūryo yaḥ

tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ

My salutations to that reverential teacher, who is

like a Sun for the blossoming up of the lotus-like

mantras of Upanishads and at whose Lotus Feet

lie the beautiful flowers, symbolising the best of

the jewels of the Vedas.

caitanyaḥ śāśvataḥ śānto

vyomātīto nirañjanaḥ

bindunāda kalātītaḥ

tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ

My salutations to that reverential teacher, who

is verily the eternal consciousness. He who is

beyond ether, beyond Bindu, Nada and Kala – the

subtle aspects of the mystic syllable ‘Om’.

jñāna śakti samārūḍhaḥ

tattva mālā vibhuṣitaḥ

bhukti mukti pradātā ca

tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ

My salutations to that glorious Gurudev, who

is established in knowledge and power, who

is adorned with the garland of knowledge and

who grants both worldly prosperity and spiritual

liberation.

anekajanma samprāpta

karma bandha vidāhine

ātma jñāna pradānena

tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ

My salutations to that reverential teacher who by

imparting the Self-knowledge, has swiftly burnt

away the bondage of karma which had taken so

many lives to accumulate.

śoṣaṇaṁ bhava sindhoś ca

jñāpanaṁ sāra sampadaḥ

guroḥ pādodakaṁ samyak

tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ

I bow to the Divine Guru whose grace dries up

the ocean of seeking and the subsequent sorrows

and makes one realise the supreme truth. My

salutations to the Lotus Feet of that glorious

Gurudev.

na guror adhikaṁ tattvaṁ

na guror adhikaṁ tapaḥ

tattva jñānāt paraṁ nāsti

tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ

There is no higher truth than the Guru, no higher

penance than service to the Guru, and there is

nothing higher than realisation of the knowledge

of the truth imparted by the Guru. My salutations

to such a Gurudev, who is Himself that very

timeless truth.

mannāthaḥ śrī jagannāthaḥ

madguruḥ śrī jagadguruḥ

mamātmā sarva bhutātmā

tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ

My Lord is the Lord of the universe; my teacher is

the teacher of the entire universe and my self is

the Self of all. My salutations at the Lotus Feet of

such a Guru, who has revealed such knowledge

to me.

gurur ādiranā diś-ca

guruḥ parama daivatam

guroḥ parataraṁ nāsti

tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ

The Guru is the beginning of the universe, yet

He Himself is without beginning; the Guru is the

highest Deity, and there is none higher than the

Guru. My reverential salutations at the Lotus Feet

of the Divine Guru.

tvam eva mātā ca pitā tvam eva

tvam eva bandhuś ca sakhā tvam eva

tvam eva vidyā draviṇaṁ tvam eva

tvam eva sarvaṁ mama deva deva (2)

Oh Lord! You alone are my mother, my father,

my brother and my friend. You alone are the

knowledge, my real wealth. You are everything for

me. You are verily my God alone.

PARAMAHAṀSA ŚRĪ SWĀMĪ VISHWANANDA AṢṬOTRAM

01   oṁ mahāvatāra śiṣyāya namaḥ

Salutations to He who is Mahavatar Babaji’s

disciple

02   oṁ viṣamāya namaḥ

Salutations to He who is unequalled

03   oṁ devakārya samudyatāya namaḥ

Salutations to He who has been born for a

Divine purpose

04   oṁ sūkṣma tanave namaḥ

Salutations to He who has a mystical form

05   oṁ cinmayāya namaḥ

Salutations to He who is pure awareness

06   oṁ guru mūrtaye namaḥ

Salutations to He who is a Divine teacher

07   oṁ sundarāya namaḥ

Salutations to He who is delightful

08   oṁ sulocanāya namaḥ

Salutations to He whose eyes sparkle with

the light

09   oṁ sumukhāya namaḥ

Salutations to He who has