Stotra · स्तोत्रStotra

Rudrashtakam — verse 1

I bow to Ishana, whose form is nirvana — Tulsidas's eight-verse hymn to Shiva, opening stanza.

Rudrashtakam, Tulsidas — Ramcharitmanas, Uttara Kanda verse 1edition

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

नमामीशमीशान निर्वाणरूपं विभुं व्यापकं ब्रह्मवेदस्वरूपम् । निजं निर्गुणं निर्विकल्पं निरीहं चिदाकाशमाकाशवासं भजेऽहम् ॥

namāmīśam īśāna nirvāṇarūpaṃ vibhuṃ vyāpakaṃ brahmavedasvarūpam nijaṃ nirguṇaṃ nirvikalpaṃ nirīhaṃ cidākāśam ākāśavāsaṃ bhaje'ham

Read in another script

No verified recitation yet. We publish audio only with a named reciter and a recorded licence, rather than files of unknown provenance.

Meaning

I bow to the Lord, to Ishana, whose form is liberation itself; the all-pervading one, whose own nature is Brahman and the Veda. I worship him who is self-existent, without attributes, without division, without any want — the sky of consciousness, who dwells in space.

This rendering is by a DharmSetu editor, not a quotation from a published translation. Compare with the public-domain translation.

A Hindi meaning has not been written for this mantra yet. Hindi is authored by a named editor rather than machine-translated, so it arrives more slowly.

How to recite

Bhujangaprayata metre — four feet of ya-gaṇa, giving a rolling, wave-like line. Each printed line here is two feet; take one breath per line if you can. Namāmīśam is namāmi + īśam elided. Bhaje'ham is bhaje + aham, with the apostrophe marking the dropped a. Both are single words in recitation.

Repetitions: 1 · 3
Time: brahma muhurta, sandhya

Pronunciation key — sounds commonly got wrong

ट ठ ड ढ ण · ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ: Retroflex — the tongue curls back and touches the roof of the mouth. Distinct from the dental त थ द ध न, where the tongue touches the teeth.
श ष स · ś ṣ s: Three different sounds: ś as in “shy”, ṣ retroflex and further back, s plain. Collapsing them changes words.
ः · ḥ (visarga): A soft outward breath echoing the preceding vowel — not a hard “ha”.
ं · ṃ (anusvara): Nasalises the vowel; the closing sound follows the consonant that comes next.
Long vs short vowels — a / ā, i / ī, u / ū: Vowel length is meaningful in Sanskrit. Hold the macron vowels roughly twice as long.
Aspirated consonants — kh, gh, ch, th, dh, ph, bh: A distinct puff of breath. ph is an aspirated p, never an English “f”.

Word by word

नमामिnamāmi: I bow to(1st sg. pres.)MW1899-CDSL p.528
ईशम्īśam: the Lord(acc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.171
ईशानīśāna: O Ishana, the ruler — a name of Shiva(voc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.171
निर्वाणरूपम्nirvāṇarūpam: whose form is liberation
विभुम्vibhum: the all-pervadingMW1899-CDSL p.978
व्यापकम्vyāpakam: extending everywhereMW1899-CDSL p.1037
ब्रह्मवेदस्वरूपम्brahmavedasvarūpam: whose own nature is Brahman and the Veda
निजम्

Context

Eight verses, which is what aṣṭaka means. Tulsidas set the hymn inside the Ramcharitmanas — it is sung in the Uttara Kanda, where Kaka Bhushundi recounts it — but the Rudrashtakam is composed in Sanskrit, unlike the Avadhi of the surrounding poem, and it circulates independently as a stotra. The verse is built almost entirely out of negations: nirguṇaṃ, nirvikalpaṃ, nirīhaṃ — without qualities, without division, without wanting. Then it ends on an image rather than a negation: cidākāśa, the sky made of consciousness. The turn from denial to picture is the point of the stanza. It is recited widely during Shravan and on Maha Shivratri.

Shadanga — the six limbs

The traditional analytic frame for a mantra. Blank limbs are simply not recorded for this text.

chhanda: Bhujangaprayata
devata: Shiva (Rudra)

Recited at / traditionally recited for

Maha Shivratri Dhyana (meditation)Aarti

Classified as Stotra — Devotional hymn literature — praise poetry rather than a Vedic formula. Basis for this classification.

← All mantras

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Namaste Rudra Manyava — opening of the Shri Rudram

The first line of the Shri Rudram, the central Vedic hymn to Rudra — Taittiriya Samhita 4.5.1.

Krishna Yajurveda, Taittiriya Samhita 4.5.1Shiva

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Aham Brahmasmi

The mahavakya of the Yajurveda — I am Brahman. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.106 syllables