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Shivarahasya Purana (Sanskrit: शिव रहस्य पुराण; IAST: śiva rahasya purāṇa) is one of the 'Shaiva Upapuranas' or ancillary Purana regarding Shiva and Shaivite worship and is also considered 'Indian epic poetry' (Sanskrit: Itihāsa).
Contents
Its origins are acclaimed to be over 7000 years old.
The book is dedicated to detailed explanation of Shaivite thoughts, rituals and religious myths. The manuscripts are found in various ancient literature. But, there has been no critical study of the same. It is one of the first few works of the acclaimed Saint Ribhu, who was taught by Shiva himself.
The book consists of twelve parts and has about one hundred thousand verses.
The Kannada translation of the book was published in 30 volumes in 1950.
Ribhu Gita
The Ribhu Gita (Sanskrit: ऋभुगीता; IAST: ṛbhugītā) is an acclaimed advaita, monist and/or nondual song at the heart of this Purana. The Ribhu Gita forms the sixth part of Siva Rahasya Purana. It details in about two thousand verses the dialogue on the Self and Brahman between Sage Ribhu and Sage Nidagha on the slopes of the Mount Kedara in the Himalayas.
The dialogues between Ribhu and Nidagha on the Supreme Brahman also appear in Tejobindu Upanishad of Krishna Yajurveda, Mahopanishad of Sama Veda, Annapoornopanisha of Atharva Veda and Varahopanish of Krishna Yajurveda.
The Ribhu Gita detail about
Tamil Translation
The Brahmin Vedic scholar Bikshu Sastrigal translated the work under the name of Ulaganatha Swamigal. The Tamil version is a free translation of the original Sanskrit text and consists of 1,964 verses. This Tamil translation is published by Sri Ramanashramam, Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India.
English Translation
In 1984, "The Essence of Ribhu Gita", the English abridgement of the work by Professor N.R. Krishnamoorthi Aiyer, including selected passages made familiar by Sri Ramana, was published by Sri Ramanasramam. Professor N.R. Krishnamoorthi Aiyer, was encouraged by Sri Ramana to study the Ribhu Gita as his sadhana. The book consists of 122 verses from the original Tamil work conveying the essence of the original, and not as a word for word translation.
In 1994, "The Ribhu Gita" was published by the Society of Abidance in Truth. It is a complete English translation of the entire text. The translation was done Dr. H. Ramamoorthy and assisted by Master Nome. This book takes the approach to convey the profound spiritual teaching while maintaining the translation as literal as possible.
Recommendation by the great Seers
Great masters including Ramana Maharshi and Sri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati held the Ribhu Gita in esteem. Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi recommended its recital as a strong support for spiritual sadhana and that the recital itself leads to spontaneous abidance in the Self.