Shiva Mahimna Stotra

Shloka 7

Note: Last week, in a summer camp, I taught ‘Introduction of Shiva Mahimna Stotra’ to 8th and 9th-grade students along with a few high school seniors and alumni. I had five periods, and each was forty-five minutes long. For the introduction, I selected nine shlokas out of the forty-three shlokas of the Shiva Mahimna Stotra, namely, 1, 7, 10, 12, 26, 29, 30, 32, and 43. Therefore, I have decided to talk about these shlokas first and then fill in the other shlokas later. In the last blog, I covered the ‘Introduction’, ‘Pranam Mantra’, and ‘Shloka 1’ of the Shiva Mahimna Stotra. Here is the Shloka 7 of the stotra.

Meaning: Three Vedas, Sankhya, Yoga, Shaivite sect, Vaishnava’s sect, and others have described several paths to realize God. People say that ‘this path or that path is the best or more helpful’. But, as the ocean is the one destination of all the rivers’ water, all these various religious paths, created to match various likings of the people, straight or difficult they appear, they all lead to You (One God).

Reflections:  There is only one God and people worship It with various names and forms. Sri Ramakrishna says that mothers cook dishes according to the digestive capacity and the liking of the children. Similarly, God has created all these religious paths to suit the needs of the people. It is futile to try to prove that one path is better than the other. I love my mother, but I cannot tell my neighbor that ‘my mother is the best and he/she should love only my mother’. My neighbor will say that he/she loves his/her mother and thinks that she is great. In essence, mothers are different, but the ‘motherhood’ is the same. 

Rig Veda says, “Ekam Sat Vipra Bahuda Vadanti”, Truth is one, sages call It by various names. Sri Ramakrishna says that follow the path you like to realize God, but do not think that your path is the only right path, and all other paths are wrong. If we sincerely follow our path, we can realize God. Even if our path has some mistakes, if we are sincere and open-minded, then God will correct all our mistakes and guide us in the right direction. Only politicians and religious fanatics who are interested in power and other worldly benefits guide people into religious fights and differences. They are not really interested in realizing God. We hope people understand this truth that God is one and all paths lead to the same God. This way we can avoid hatred created in the name of religion.

As I had mentioned in the last blog, Swami Vivekananda, in his famous speech given on September 11, 1893, at the Chicago World Parliament of Religions, quoted this shloka saying:

“I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: ‘As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee’.”