Sūrya Stavarāja – The King of all Sūrya Stotras …

Just like any other Stotra out there which will have a name, this Stotra too has a name; and is called ‘Stavarāja’. But what it means?? WHAT DOES STAVARĀJA MEAN ?

        It’s a two-word combination. ‘Stava‘ + ‘Rāja‘, where ‘Stava in sanskrit means stuti or praise, and ‘Rāja’ means king, which everybody knows. So, this is called ‘King of All the Stotras‘…

wait, what? ‘King of all the stotras’?? Yes, among all the Sūrya Stotras, this Stotra is considered to be the BEST. This fact is mentioned in sāmba purāna that is very famous for Sūrya deva. There, Lord Sūrya himself says that this stotra, which has a set of just twenty-one names of Sun God, which are very special and very dear to him. And in fact, it is a great ‘Maha Mantra’ and even superior to Sūrya Sahasranama. And also said “स्तवराज इति ख्यातस्त्रिषुलोकेषु विश्रुतः …”, that means – “It is famous in all the three worlds and specially called as ‘Stava-‘RĀJA’ – ‘King of all Surya Stotras’…

But, if you just google for “stavaraja”, you will get many stavarajas; and if you see closely, those stavarājas will be for different gods, like Gaṇgā Stavarāja, Venkatēsha Stavarāja, etc; This is because, since there are many stotras available for many gods, in most case, each of them will have their own, special, ‘King of All Stotras’ – Stavarāja’. So, that’s the basic idea about stavarāja.

And now, we’ll see the complete stotra, i.e., the actual 21 names – ‘stavarāja stotram’, together with Pūrva-Bhāga and the Phala-Shruti. As we have mentioned in the video, just reciting the 21 names, i.e., the core stotra itself is more than enough; But still there is this ‘traditional way of reciting any stotra’ which is what we are going to cover now. This will help the devotees of Lord Sūrya to cultivate more ‘faith‘ and ‘discipline‘ in their worship. This is very important and we ‘ll see why in the below section.

Traditional Way to recite any Stotra

Though many among us who have faith, belief in Gods, and even more faith in our prayers, sometimes get this doubt, like, why are my prayers doesn’t work all the time? A Straight answer would be, ” it’s always directly proportional to how strong one’s faith and devotion is”. The stronger your involvement is, i.e., if you are very much devoted to the work, and at the same time, you also have a very strong faith in the result of your action, then you are surely bound to get that result. So, the key is – Strong “Faith”, Unflinching, … not just another feeble belief. Loosing hopes very soon for small hurdles will not help to build strong faith.

Relating to this Bhagavān Śrī Krishna says in ‘Bhagavad Geeta, Ch-7, Ver 21 & 22‘. That is, if you have strong faith (even under testing time), then the Lord will strengthen that faith of yours even more and make it unshakable. And for that unshakable faith, He then provides whatever you desire and pray for.

Bhagavān Said:

यो यो यां यां तनुं भक्तः श्रद्धयार्चितुमिच्छति। तस्य तस्याचलां श्रद्धां तामेव विदधाम्यहम् ॥ २१
स तया श्रद्धया युक्तस्तस्याराधनमीहते। लभते च ततः कामान्मयैवविहितान्हि तान् ॥ २२

Any devotee who wishes to worship whichever form (of Gods) with faith,
that faith I make them steady for him towards that very form. And becoming
possessed of that (strong) faith, he worships that form (God) and gets
(from that deity) the desired objects of his which are (actually) dispensed by me alone.

Now, the main problem is, many-a-times we don’t have that sort of strong faith… and also, don’t have that needed involvement or devotion in whatever things we do. And this slip is not just with our religious prayers alone… we can see this pattern in our other ordinary works too, starting from gym workouts, to attempting to clear IAS exams. Our application is not consistent which is again backed up by our inconsistent faith. All these are because of ‘our past tendencies, GUNA, karma…’, Bhagavān Śrī Krishna says this in Ch-17, Vers. 3 “सत्त्वानुरूपा सर्वस्य श्रद्धा भवति भारत ।“… Which means, – “Everybody’s faith is built in accordance with his nature, (Guna, or one’s mind)”… And we are now here to change that nature into the positive one… But HOW???

i.e., How to change our unsteady faith to steady faith in first place? Or, How to change one’s innate nature, tendencies that is being dragging from many past births?… The Answer is: This can be changed only by knowing and acting upon things rightly… “Only by knowing and by applying oneself rightly, … Faith builds to Strong Faith“… One doesn’t get belief or faith on anything or anybody without knowing much about them, right? For example: If you don’t know much about how Ayurveda works, one will not get faith in the medicine system at all… or, if you haven’t tried (that is acted upon) any medicine of that system, you will not know the effectiveness of ayurvedic medicine, and without which you will not get faith in it. So, basically, either you should know, or you should act upon those areas where you wish to have faith… This is where the ‘Traditional way of stotra recitation” comes to our help.

That’s the main reason why, traditionally, all the stotras are recited with “Purva-Bhagam‘, followed by the Actual stotra, and then the Phala-Shruti‘. Because, just reciting few names of the lord without much involvement, what much we can expect. But this Sampradāya or Traditional way will surely bring that involvement and faith in us by letting us know what it is and brings in involvement to act… accordingly. Let us see how it is done.

That is, the “Purva-Bhaga” will let you know the drama or story part where some great rishis or deity would reveal that mystical Stotra on a particular instance. Now, just by knowing this much itself will give you some motivation, like when you hear Lord Brahma himself gave this secret stotra to these rishis, or in this stavarāja case, Lord Sūrya bhagavān himself revealed this stotra to sāmba, the son of lord krishna. By knowing just this much, one’s interest and faith grows and feels more compelling to recite and says to himself that ‘I should also recite that great stotra like sāmba, because it is secretly revealed to sāmba etc,.

Moreover, if you also get to know the “Phala-shruti“, it brings even more interest. Because ‘Phala-Shruti’ is nothing but a list of results that one gets for reciting that particular stotra. The results or benefits will be like, he will get rid of all the disease, attain great wealth and fame etc., which induces even more faith and interest. As we have already said, only by knowing and by acting alone, one can build strong faith.

Now, the more your mind, body and speech is employed in a particular act, it eventually brings in devotion, focus, faith etc. If the action is unbroken recitation, that will again bring much faith in the God and prayer. With that much strong faith, one is sure to get the same result.

The Complete Stavarāja with Pūrva-Bhaga & Phala-Shruti

So, for all to recite this stotra with much faith and to do this at ease, we are providing the complete stavarāja stotra, with Purva-bhaga and Phala-Shruti in 6 laguages of your choice. Additionally, the audio version with splits in-between verses for easy understanding with proper pronounciation for all to follow compfortably. Hope it will be helpful to all. May all attain the best of your prayers by Lord sūrya’s grace.