Prata Smarana Stotram

Translated by S. N. Sastri

Introduction:
In these three verses of Sri Sankara Bhagavatpada the essence of Advaita Vedanta has been brought out.

1. I meditate in the morning on the Self which shines in the heart, which is existence-consciousness-bliss, which is the goal to be attained by Paramahamsa sannyasis, which is called the fourth because it is beyond the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep, and which always witnesses the states of waking, dream and deep sleep. I am that Brahman which is indivisible and not the aggregate of the five elements, ether, air, fire, water and earth.

2. I worship in the morning that supremely effulgent Being who is spoken of (in the Vedas) as unborn, changeless, and the highest, who is inaccessible to the mind and whom words cannot directly describe, but by whose blessing the faculty of speech functions, and who is described in the Upanishads by the words 'not this, not this'.

3. I bow down in the morning to the infinite, eternal Being who is known as the supreme Purusha, who is beyond the darkness of ignorance, who is resplendent like the sun, who is everything and on whom this entire universe appears, just as a rope appears as a snake.

4. One who reads every morning this sacred triad of verses which is an ornament for all the three worlds will attain to the supreme state of liberation.