Shiva Purana — Vayaviya Samhita, Shloka 32

शैवधर्मप्रशंसा तथा पञ्चविधसाधनविभागः / Praise of Śaiva Dharma and the Fivefold Classification of Practice

Devanagari script

यं वेदादौ स्वरं प्राहुर्वाच्यवाचकभावतः । वेदैकवेद्ययाथात्म्याद्वेदान्ते च प्रतिष्ठितः

Transliteration

yaṃ vedādau svaraṃ prāhurvācyavācakabhāvataḥ | vedaikavedyayāthātmyādvedānte ca pratiṣṭhitaḥ

Translation

ဝေဒ၏အစမှာပင် “အောမ်” ဟူသော သန့်ရှင်းသံတော်ကို အညွှန်းနှင့် အညွှန်းခံ အဖြစ် ကြေညာကြသော သူတော်မူသည်။ ဝေဒတစ်ခုတည်းဖြင့်သာ အမှန်တရားကို သိနိုင်သော သူတော်မူပြီး၊ ဝေဒാന്ത၌လည်း နောက်ဆုံးအဓိပ္ပါယ်အဖြစ် တည်မြဲစွာ ထင်ရှားတော်မူသည်—အမြင့်ဆုံး ပတိ ဖြစ်သော သခင် ရှီဝ (Śiva) တော်မူ၏။

Word by Word

• yam: whom/which
• yam: Karma (Object/कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: yad (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Puṃliṅga, Dvitīyā Ekavacana; relative pronoun referring to īśvara/svara

• veda-ādau: at the beginning of the Veda
• veda-ādau: Adhikaraṇa (Location/अधिकरण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: veda + ādi (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Puṃliṅga, Saptamī Ekavacana; सप्तमी-तत्पुरुषः ‘at the beginning of the Veda’

• svaram: the sacred sound/Om (svara)
• svaram: Karma (Object/कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: svara (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Puṃliṅga, Dvitīyā Ekavacana; object-complement with prāhuḥ

• prāhuḥ: they declare
• prāhuḥ: Kriyā (Action/क्रिया)
• Type: Verb
• Root: pra-√ah (धातु; अह्)
• Form: Laṭ (Present), Prathama-puruṣa Bahuvacana; parasmaipada

• vācya-vācaka-bhāvataḥ: by the relation of signified and signifier
• vācya-vācaka-bhāvataḥ: Hetu (Cause/हेतु)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: vācya + vācaka + bhāva (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Ablative in sense of कारण (reason) formed with -taḥ (तसिल्-प्रत्ययान्त अव्यय) ‘from/as per the relation of signified and signifier’; compound: vācya-vācaka (dvandva-like pair) + bhāva (tatpurusha)

• veda-eka-vedya-yāthātmyāt: from its true nature knowable by the one Veda
• veda-eka-vedya-yāthātmyāt: Hetu (Cause/हेतु)
• Type: Noun
• Root: veda + eka + vedya + yāthātmya (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Napुंसकलिङ्ग, Pañcamī Ekavacana; बहु-तत्पुरुष-समासः ‘from the true nature (yāthātmya) that is knowable by the one Veda’

• vedānte: in Vedānta
• vedānte: Adhikaraṇa (Location/अधिकरण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: vedānta (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Puṃliṅga, Saptamī Ekavacana; ‘in Vedānta’

• ca: and
• ca: Sambandha (Connector/सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: ca (अव्यय)
• Form: Samuccaya-nipāta (conjunction/समुच्चय)

• pratiṣṭhitaḥ: established
• pratiṣṭhitaḥ: Kriyā (Predicative/क्रिया)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: pratiṣṭhita (कृदन्त; prati-√sthā स्था)
• Form: Puṃliṅga, Prathamā Ekavacana; Past Passive Participle (क्त) used predicatively ‘is established’ (refers to yaṃ)

Speaker

Suta Goswami

Shaiva Theology

Tattva Level: pati

Shiva Form: Sadāśiva

Mantra Metadata

Mantra: oṃ

Type: gayatri

Shakti Dimension

Role: teaching

Characters & Entities

• Shiva

FAQs

What is the spiritual significance of this verse in the Shiva Purana?

It identifies Śiva with “Om,” teaching that the Supreme Lord is both the reality indicated by scripture and the very means by which scripture points to that reality—culminating in Vedānta as the final purport leading to mokṣa.

How does this verse relate to the worship of the Linga or Saguna Shiva?

By declaring Śiva as the Vedic “Om,” the verse supports Saguna worship (like the Liṅga as a sacred sign) as a valid vācaka (indicator) that leads the devotee to the vācya (the indicated Supreme), ultimately realizing Śiva’s transcendent nature.

What ritualistic or meditative practice is suggested here?

Meditate on “Om” as Śiva—beginning japa with Om and aligning it with the Pañcākṣarī (Om Namaḥ Śivāya), contemplating how the mantra (vācaka) leads the mind to Śiva (vācya).