Shiva Shambho Shankara Hara Hara – Meaning, Discussion.

We need the fully sustained belly laugh, to eject pain.

Shiva Shambho Shankara
Hara Hara -

Meaning, Discussion.

Shiva Shiva Shambho (Shambo) Shankara, Hara Hara Hara maha devaya. Translation and discussion of meaning for the healing process.

Shiva Shiva              Shambho                  Shaṅkara
Shiva Shiva              Shambho                  Shangkara
release of pain         simple, yet                 overcome hindrance
                                    effective

Hāra    Hāra     Hāra            mahā                      dev-                āya
Haara Haara   Haara          mahaa                    dev-                aaya
sustaining discharge           full completion radiance        lead to

“Overcoming the hindrances to release of pain can be simple yet effective.
Sustaining discharge to full completion can lead to radiance.”

The Song.

Kevin James Carrol offers an excellent recording of this Sanskrit mantra, in track 5 of his album “Sanskrit Mantras”, 2017.

Kevin’s guitar sounds very clear, and he begins the singing in a very clear voice, to convey the proper pronunciation of each word. The audience follows without hesitation, in call and response.

Then we have an instrumental with Kevin on harmonium, and Chris on bansuri flute. You can see them in front of the heart of lights, on the CD sleeve photo.

Then Kevin ups the energy, and the song becomes quite stimulating.

This is a good Sanskrit mantra to follow the one on track 3 of this album, for it introduces four other Names and characteristics of Shiva: Shambho, Shangkara , Hara and maha-deva.

You can listen to and buy this song at -
https://kevinjames.bandcamp.com/album/sanskrit-mantras-vol-1 Track 5, Shambo

The Mantra in Terms of God Worship.

In terms of God worship, the first line of this mantra presents the friendly side of Shiva, which is Shiva as Shambho, who brings happiness. Also Shiva as Shangkara, who brings goodness.

The second line presents the fierce side of Shiva, which is Shiva as Hara or the God of destruction. This is in religious storey telling, where gods use weapons to destroy demons and monsters, in celestial battle.

The last word is Mahadeva, which can mean supreme God. This is how Shiva devotees view Shiva.

A bhajan is both a spiritual song and a spiritual gathering, where the people sing the Names of God. It is traditional in India. Prabhupāda declared that mantra can mean “a sacred formula addressed to any individual God”. For the people of India, brought up in the beliefs and practices of Hinduism, these Names for God have deep religious significance. The bhajan can lift the participants to a state of religious exhaltation.

However, for us Westerners, without such upbringing, some other interpretation might serve us better. Especially if we do not encounter this God who can be either friendly or fierce. For Hinduism is not limited to just God worship, and embraces other paths too.

Osho Rajneesh was the Hindu teacher of Deva Premal and Miten, and Osho taught a wide range of healing techniques. Many of his disciples have been very successful.

Thus our mantra can be interpreted quite differently. It can express the dynamics of the healing process, and the release of pain. Let’s look at each Name for Deity one by one.

The Mantra in terms of Healing.

In the trimurti of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu, Shiva is the principle of dissolution and change, in Deity. This suggests –

Shiva can mean the dissolution and release of painful thoughts and feelings, as the result of our purification practice, and
Shiva can mean the change from problems to solutions, because we have successfully let go of such suffering, and let go of the causes.

However, such release and letting go of our problems is easier said than done. Something usually blocks this release, and blocks dissolution and change. It is like the blockage in a sewer pipe that some unfortunate plumber needs to unblock. Therefore, we need to find some way of overcoming this attachment and blockage. This brings us to the meaning of Shangkara –

Shangkara can mean overcoming obstacles and hindrances to our healing and success in purification practice.

Thus Shiva needs Shangkara to succeed. Usually the best solution is a simple yet effective solution, which brings us to the meaning of Shambho –

Shambho can mean “simple yet effective.”

Many of the troubles that afflict us in our daily life originate from deep wounding we suffered long ago. In those old traumatic experiences, the pain was not released, but rather locked away inside, partly in mind as painful memories. But partly also in the body.

Since this old stored pain is partly stored in the body, the body “knows” thru its somatic intelligence, how to release it. It does so with vigorous spontaneous movements, strong enough to “throw out” or discharge the pain. Prolonged vigorous laughter that thoroughly shakes our whole breathing apparatus, might be the most common form of discharge. Other forms of discharge include a good deep yawn, vigorous sustained shaking, stomping with thumping, and finally convulsive sobbing with hot tears. Discharge of distress is not widely understood, so I wrote Chapter F on Discharge of Distress, 3800 words long, and published on this website.

This brings us to the meaning of the fourth Name for Deity in our mantra : Hara –

Hara can mean discharge of distress, or the vigorous expulsion of pain.

For discharge to succeed, it needs to be entirely free of any inhibitions, and totally unaffected by any such restrictions. If we feel that other people around us might disapprove, this feeling will sabotage discharge. Therefore, Hara needs Shambho, and cannot succeed without Shambho (read sections F 6 – F 11 on overcoming inhibitions to discharge.)

In addition, discharge needs to be sustained and supported long enough to allow the body to achieve what the body needs to achieve, in release of pain. Therefore, Hara is the only Name for Deity in our mantra that is repeated three times. This repetition of Hara suggests sustaining and supporting expulsion to full completion, and not abandoning it half way thru the process. This brings us to the meaning of the next word in our mantra –

maha can mean “full completion”.

When the pain has been effectively released thru vigorous expulsion like this, the healing effect can be profound. It takes us to clarity , Liberation and light heartedness. Then we are in the best position to start cultivating enjoyment, appreciation, good will, tolerance and forgiveness, contentment, inspiration.
Now we can build these Qualities until we become radiant with these beautiful spiritual Qualities. This brings us to the final word of our mantra –

deva can mean “radiant Presence.”

Putting all this together, we get –

Shiva Shiva              Shambho                  Shangkara
release of pain         simple, yet                 overcome hindrance
                                    effective

Hāra Hāra Hāra                  mahā                         dev-                āya
Haara Haara Haara           mahaa                       dev-                aaya
sustaining discharge full completion         radiance        lead to

“Overcoming the hindrances to release of pain can be simple yet effective.
Sustaining discharge to full completion can lead to radiance.”

Let’s now look at the derivation of these word meanings –

Derivation Details.

Shangkara is made of two words :

shangka (śaṅkā शङ्का) = fear, doubt, suspicion; which are major obstacles to success in spiritual practice,   and
hara हर =   taking away or removing, or overcoming..

Thus Shangkara (Shaṅkara)  can mean “removing obstacles or hindrances”. Thus Shangkara (often spelled Shankara) in our mantra can mean this very overcoming of hindrance or blockage to release.

Hara is Shiva as the Destroyer, a God who destroys demons using weapons in celestial battle. In this religious storey telling, Hara is a violent and frightening character.

When this theme is applied to the dynamics of discharge, it suggests the vigour of discharge, which is likely to be frightening to the inhibited, and “violent” to the uninformed.

So Hara can mean “discharge of distress” in our mantra.

In addition, the word hāra हार means “carrying, bearing, raising”.
This is the purpose and goal of discharge. Discharge is a most important mechanism to carry us from rigid distress patterns to clarity and rational decisions.   It also raises us from suffering to freedom.

In the religious storey telling, Shambho (often spelled Shambo) is a simple yet straight forward character.   When this theme is applied to the dynamics of the healing, it suggests a simple yet straight forward solution to the problem.

So Shambho can mean “simple yet effective”.

deva is a useful word for Deity, for it can mean “radiant one” or “radiance”.

devāya (devaaya) is the dative form of the noun deva. It means “moving towards deva”.

This leads us to the second mantra of this song. This continues the theme of release, in terms of washing away the filth that troubles our heart and mind.

The Second Mantra.

Ganga jāta dhārā gaurī              manohara
Ganga jaata dhaaraa      gaurii             manohara
sacred belonging steady beautiful attractive
river to current

pārthi            puri                param            eshwara
paarthi          puri                param            eshwara
prince of rivers powerful        purity

“That flows like the current of the holy river Ganges, steady, beautiful and attractive. It is powerful, and a prince of rivers.   It brings purity.”

Before modern overcrowding and pollution, the mighty river Ganges, cradle of civilisation and cultivation, was indeed beautiful and fair. It would wash away the impurities. Ceremonial bathing in the Ganges is an ancient custom there, continued to modern times.

Notes on Pronunciation.

If this second mantra is pronounced the way it is spelled, it has three different pronunciations of a related sound and spelling.

ā   as in jāta (jaata) This is the long “aa”, as in our English word “father.” With no sound of “r” after the “aa”. This sound is unusual in English.

a as in jāta (jaata).   This is the short “a”, as in “sofa”, with no sound of “r” after the “a”. In English, this sound is usually spelled with a u, as in duck, hut, cut, luck.

ār as in pārthi (paarti)   This is the long “aa”, that does continue into the sound “r”. This is a the correct way of pronouncing dark, heart, cart, lark.

There are two Sanskrit words that are foundational to the Dharma :

kāma (kaama), with the long “aa”, with no “r” sound after the “aa”, and
karma, with a short “a” that does continues into the “r” sound.

kāma (kaama) means “desire or motivation”,
karma (universally mispronounced as kaama) means “action” that has inevitable effect.

I allocate a chapter to each of karma and kāma in my treatise on Spiritual Practice, published on this website.

To access other webpages, such as
Discharge of Distress, Karma or Desire, under Spiritual Practice,
click onto the ‘more’ button or the + button next to it,
at the page heading. Then click onto more + buttons.

My introductory webpages “Mantras Translated A - C”
discuss how to gain the full benefit of these mantra writeups.