Nirvana means ‘formless’. The Nirvana Shatakam is towards this – you don’t want to be either this or that. If you don’t want to be this nor that, then what do you want to be? Your mind cannot understand this because your mind always wants to be something. If I say, “I don’t want to be this; I don’t want to be that,” you would think, “Oh something super!” Not super. “Oh, so emptiness?” Not emptiness. “Nothingness?” Not nothingness.

That’s what is being conveyed through this chant.

Composed by Adi Shankaracharya over a thousand years ago, Nirvana Shatakam is one of the most well-known Sanskrit chants. Legend goes that Adi Shankaracharya recited this on being asked, “Who are you?” ‘Nirvana’ means formless and ‘shatakam’ refers to the 6 verses of the composition, expressing how the true Self is beyond all definitions; it is ‘neither this nor that’. Through this course, one can learn and reap the immense benefits of chanting this powerful mantra.