Salutation to Shiva! whose glory 

Is immeasurable, who resembles sky

In clearness, to whom are attributed 

The phenomena of all creation, 

The preservation and dissolution 

Of the universe! May the devotion, 

The burning devotion of this my life 

Attach itself to Him, to Shiva, who, 

While being Lord of all, transcends Himself. 

In whom Lordship is ever established, 

Who causes annihilation of delusion, 

Whose most surpassing love, made manifest, 

Has crowned Him with a name above all names, 

The name of "Mahadeva", the Great God! 

Whose warm embrace, of Love personified, 

Displays, within man's heart, that all power 

Is but a semblance and a passing show. 

In which the tempest of the whole past blows, 

Past Samskaras, stirring the energies 

With violence, like water lashed to waves; 

In which the dual consciousness of "I" and "Thou" 

Plays on: I salute that mind unstable, 

Centred in Shiva, the abode of calm! 

Where the ideas of parent and produced, 

Purified thoughts and endless varied forms, 

Merge in the Real one; where the existence ends 

Of such conceptions as "within", "without"-- 

The wind of modification being stilled-- 

That Hara I worship, the suppression 

Of movements of the mind. Shiva I hail! 

From whom all gloom and darkness have dispersed; 

That radiant Light, white, beautiful 

As bloom of lotus white is beautiful; 

Whose laughter loud sheds knowledge luminous; 

Who, by undivided meditation, 

Is realised in the self-controlled heart: 

May that Lordly Swan of the limpid lake 

Of my mind, guard me, prostrate before Him! 

Him, the Master-remover of evil, 

Who wipes the dark stain of this Iron Age; 

Whom Daksha's Daughter gave Her coveted hand; 

Who, like the charming water-lily white, 

Is beautiful; who is ready ever 

To part with life for others' good, whose gaze 

Is on the humble fixed; whose neck is blue 

With the poison swallowed: 

Him, we salute!

~ Swami Vivekananda, A Hymn to Lord Shiva ~