Dakshina-Mukhi / Dashina-Murti Shiva
Iconographically, this form of Dakshin Murti Shiva has other names also besides
‘Dakshina-Murti’, such as ‘Dakshina-Mukhi’ and ‘Dakshinaa Murti’.
The word ‘Murti’ means a ‘form or image’, the word ‘Mukhi’ means ‘facing’, the
word ‘Dakshinaa’ means ‘giving away liberally as charity or donation’, the word
‘Dakshin’ has three connotations here—viz. ‘south’, ‘right’ and ‘knowledge and
wisdom’, and the word ‘Shiva’ of course means ‘someone who is a personification of
such glorious virtues as auspiciousness, beauty, truth, knowledge, enlightenment,
wisdom, renunciation, dispassion and detachment from all things material and false,
meditative and contemplative, self-realised and Brahm-realised etc.’
So we have a comprehensive picture of what this Upanishad aims to worship—it
does not aim to worship Lord Shiva as the God of death and destruction but as the most
enlightened and wise teacher of the philosophy of Brahm whom he personifies. Since
Lord Shiva faced ‘south’ when he taught the ancient sages and seers who had approached
him in some earlier time to gain divine wisdom and metaphysical knowledge which only
he could impart to them, he was known as ‘the Lord facing south’. Since the knowledge
imparted by him was astoundingly unique and the most ‘right or correct and precise
knowledge’ of metaphysics which granted ‘a divine wisdom as well as vision’ to its followers, it was called ‘Dakshin’. Since he was liberal in giving it to the sincere spiritual
aspirant, he was called ‘Dakshina-Murti’ or the ‘one who is an icon of charity and
donation, one who is very generous in giving away what is asked for without holding
anything away from the alms seeker’.
What did he give away? He gave away ‘knowledge and divine wisdom’, and only
one who has something can give it to others, therefore he is deemed to be a ‘Murti’, or an
image, a personified form of such knowledge and divine wisdom. The word ‘Dakshinaa’
means ‘giving charity and making donation’, while ‘Mukha’ means ‘mouth’. In other
words, Lord Shiva has been extremely liberal and magnanimous in giving away whatever
he has, and in this particular case he has given away knowledge and wisdom pertaining to
the non-dual reality of the ‘self’ as a personification of Brahm. Since teaching is done by
the ‘mouth’, hence this donation and charity that he made was through the mouth,
entitling him to be called ‘Dakshinaa Mukhi’.
In other words, the Dakshin Murti is the form of Shiva as a wise teacher and
preacher of divine knowledge which is meant to make the disciple aware of the actual
principles and the truth in this world that exists behind the arcade of falsehood that is so
typical of it. This knowledge enables him to attain a state of eternity and blessedness
marked by eternal peace, happiness, beatitude and felicity. It’s the correct and auspicious
path to self and Brahm realisation.
There is an Upanishad called Dakshina-Murti belonging to the Krishna Yajur
Veda tradition which is exclusively dedicated to this form of Lord Shiva. It describes five
forms of Shiva in its verse nos. 7-8 which describe the first form and its worship, verse
nos. 9-10 which describe the second form and its worship, verse nos. 11-13 which
describe the third form and its worship, verse nos. 14-15 which describe the fourth form
and its worship, and verse nos. 16-17 which describe the first form and its worship.
