The Story and Meaning Behind “Eight Verses to Dissolve All Fears”
How MOONPHONIC’s "Eight Verses to Dissolve All Fears," a rendition of the Chandrashekhara Ashtakam, came to be — and the meaning of its Sanskrit words.
On this issue, read about:
1. Homage
2. Cover Art
3. Found in Translation
4. Maha Shiva Raatri
1. Homage
From MOONPHONIC’s lineup of twelve songs for release in 2025 and 2026, I decided to share first “Eight Verses to Dissolve All Fears,” a rendition of the ancient Shaiva hymn Chandrashekhara Ashtakam. I did this because I believe my ability to make music today is inextricably intertwined with this hymn.
In 2018, when I was still in good health, my beloved meditation teacher instructed me to learn the Chandrashekhara Ashtakam — and I did. The hymn had a special significance for me as it was like a bond between us. That’s because, three decades earlier, when I was a teenager, she named me after Chandrashekhara, the One crowned with the Moon.
Two years later, in 2020, I found myself bedridden and isolated from the world in the small woodland hut where I was spending the lockdowns. I couldn’t walk or think clearly, and I didn’t know why. I was struggling with insomnia and a weakening heart. The parade of seemingly random but worsening symptoms I’d experienced over the past year seemed to be culminating in this: lying in bed, unable to move, as the silence between each heartbeat grew longer, thinking I would not survive the night. Then I remembered the Chandrashekhara Ashtakam. Slowly, silently, I recited the hymn, and as I did, I drifted off to sleep, feeling as if warm sparks were glittering inside me.
The next morning, I woke up feeling rested. My mind was clearer. I felt empowered to find an explanation for what was happening to me, and after just a few minutes of reflection, a lightbulb went on in my head and I saw the answer plainly. I now knew what to do: I wrote to a dear friend who is a doctor and told him, “I think I know what’s afflicting me.” My friend prescribed an emergency round of antibiotics and sent me on my way to get tested, which confirmed my self-diagnosis. Unbeknownst to us, our prompt action saved my life. Later, we’d learn that without the antibiotics, an infection that had reached my heart could have taken my life in a matter of days. But I was spared, and thus I began my long journey toward recovering my health.
Ever since, I’ve wanted to record a personal rendition of the Chandrashekhara Ashtakam in honor of those days when a blessed sliver of light led me back to life and toward health. Now, in 2025, after five years in recovery and two years of intermittent production — finally, here it is! I offer it to you all!
Listen now:
2. Cover Art
The cover art of “Eight Verses to Dissolve All Fears” features a Shiva linga (śivaliṅga), which in Hinduism is worshipped as a form of the Formless.
The author of the Chandrashekhara Ashtakam, the sage Markandeya, describes in the hymn how, once, while praying in a Shiva temple, he suddenly was overcome with fear of his untimely death. But by worshipping the śivaliṅga, his fear was transmuted into a sense of fearlessness and auspiciousness. Thus, in honor of this experience, he composed the eight-verse hymn.
3. Found in Translation
I first learned the Chandrashekhara Ashtakam (“Candraśekhara Aṣṭakam,” in proper IAST alphabet) was seventeen. Yet, as with many things we hold dear early in life, with the passing of time, many of the words were relegated to my subconscious, until it became impossible for me to recite the hymn anymore. But in 2018, when I was invited to relearn it, I took it to heart. I studied not only the phonetics but also the meaning of each word, and what each word could mean for me. However, there’s just so much one can learn by one’s own study.
On the MOONPHONIC website, you can find the lyrics of “Eight Verses to Dissolve All Fears.” (See the lyrics here.) I decided to provide them for listeners who wish to read or recite the hymn alongside the recording. (Reciting the Sanskrit words themselves is a powerful experience.) Yet, unsurprisingly, more than the lyrics, my listeners request a translation. As much as I’d like to provide one, I’ve decided against it.
The reason is straightforward: the Candraśekhara Aṣṭakam is an ancient, poetic composition, shrouded in mythological and mystical allegories that are not necessarily accessible to the average listener. Hindus will be more attuned to the hymn’s religious references. But, as with any piece of ancient religious poetry, apprehending its meaning requires delving deep into its cultural, iconographic, and philosophical background — an endeavor that exceeds the purpose of the present recitation.
Having said all that, many sources online offer translations of the Candraśekhara Aṣṭakam, and you are most welcome to explore them. You may still find in them inspiring poesy that touches your soul.
Still, if you wish to learn more about what the Candraśekhara Aṣṭakam means to me, please carry on.
Triguṇātmakaṁ
Each of the hymn’s ancient words has multiple connotations, and as you unravel them, they offer deeper and deeper layers of meaning and an immense reservoir of spiritual wisdom. For instance, one of the terms used in the hymn in praise of the Almighty is triguṇātmakaṁ, which literally means, “to the One of three qualities.” What could those be? For Christians, this could well mean the Trinity.
In the context of Vedic culture, which derives many of its concepts from the observation of the sky, the triguṇa, the three qualities, are known as sattva, tamas, and rajas. The word sattva is translated as “that which is,” “essence,” the ontological “being,” but it can also be translated as vital breath, spirit, consciousness, or mind. All these concepts can be served by one metaphor: the light of day. Then, tamas refers to the obscuration of celestial objects, such as eclipses and the shortened days when the sun moves to the south, during winter. So one may say that tamas is anything that conveys the idea of darkness, such as being deprived of sight, mental darkness, ignorance, illusion, error. Finally, rajas means “colored space” or “the whole expanse of heaven,” particularly referring to the dim, ethereal sky that intermediates at dawn and at dusk. Anything that can be said to darken or lighten is of rajasic nature. So there we have our three metaphors in this celestial trinity: light of day, darkness, and the in-between. In the new age of yoga, one will hear these three described as purity or harmony, inertia or ignorance, and action or agitation, as well as gold, iron, and silver qualities.
But how to understand the Almighty as the bearer of the three qualities? One could say, poetically, He who encompasses everything under the sun, the dawn and dusk, and the night. Or philosophically, That which simultaneously is, is not, and is beyond being and not being. For the spiritual seeker, triguṇātmakaṁ may mean: He who is present, in spite of one’s knowledge, ignorance, or striving for enlightenment (from darkness to light). Or a simpler definition: the One who upholds all spheres of life, spiritual, material, and mental or emotional.
Triguṇātmakaṁ is just one out of fifty-four ways in which Candraśekhara is described in the hymn. So how to translate the hymn, and in a simple way that makes the most sense for you? All I can do is to share my own concept of the meaning of the hymn’s lyrics.
My Concept of the Candraśekhara Aṣṭakam
The Moon symbolizes the mind: it can harness the light of the Sun (spiritual Truth), shaping it in beautiful ways that shed light even in deepest night (such as sorrow). But the Moon, the mind, is not constant: it waxes and wanes between light and darkness. That’s the mind’s sport. But for one aspiring to rise above the darkness of illusion or sorrow, the mind must be reined in. And what better place to station the Moon but there where it shows its most beautiful, slenderest crescent phase, embellishing the dawn? It’s the Beloved who entices us to fixate our minds on His magnanimous light, and by “wearing the crescent Moon as a crown,” He quiets the confusion of our waning and waxing thoughts and emotions, bringing us into the deepest experience of stillness and communion with Him.
The remaining fifty-four names in the hymn celebrate this reality with allegorical abundance, inspiring reverence and love. Some of the truly untranslatable appellations could be described as: Whom the heavens extol at dawn, noon, and dusk; Embellisher of the five senses; Destroyer of Sorrow; Source of the river of wisdom; He who deposes the proud; Seat of the earth’s fragrance; Bearer of supreme discernment and tamer of passions; He who reins in the bull (the bull’s horns represent the crescent Moon); Whose praises are sung by the celestial poet; Universal support; Slayer of ignorance and wickedness; Medicine that heals the pain of worldliness; Abductor of misfortunes; Master of the three qualities; imperishable Treasure.
So, “What can the lord of death do to me if I seek refuge in Thee?”
That says it all.
4. Maha Shiva Raatri
Each month, on the night when the Moon is in its last waning phase — when a thin crescent precedes the rising Sun — devotees in India and around the world celebrate śivarātri (Shiva raatri), or the “night of Shiva,” in honor the One crowned with the Moon. Devotees chant throughout the night and worship a śivaliṅga, as they await for the rising Moon and the break of day.
Once a year, one such monthly śivarātri celebrations is consider to be specially great, a mahaśivarātri (Maha Shiva raatri). This year, 2025, mahaśivarātri fell on the night of February 26–27. This is why “Eight Verses to Dissolve All Fears” was prereleased on this day. The production team worked all night to make that possible! It was a great mahaśivarātri!
Thank you for joining us by listening!
Moon,
February 26, 2025
