Truth is the path, the goal and the experience!
The whole effort of Vedanta is to draw us away from our fascination with the outer world and turn our awareness to the changeless witnessing Consciousness within.
Continuously perceiving the outer world as 'unreal' and the amtan (inner consciousness) as real is a technique that is widely employed by Vedanta to this end.
Since the world certainly doesn't appear unreal in our experience, Vedanta has been called impractical and out of touch with reality. This is because the words 'unreal' and 'real' as used in Vedanta have not been correctly understood.
When the world is called 'unreal', it does not mean that it has no existence! The world definitely has existence and a certain reality on its own plane – but it is not the ultimate reality.
Just as the dream world has reality on its own plane (i.e. to the dreamer), the waking world also appears real to us - but only till we 'awaken' to the realization that it is nothing but pure Consciousness playing in diverse forms. The grace of the realized guru is of supreme importance in this awakening. Just as a man who is trapped in a swamp can be rescued only by one who is himself standing on safe ground, only a guru who is already living in the space of enlightened consciousness can guide a seeker surely to the goal.
Dakshinamurti stotram is a hymn addressed to Sri Dakshinamurti, the great enlightened master who is said to be the first-ever guru of the world. Believed to be a manifestation of Lord Shiva himself, Dakshinamurti is depicted as a radiant youth who sits under a banyan tree and reveals, through eloquent silence, the truth of non-dual Consciousness.
Dakshinamurti stotram is a gem of Vedantic wisdom, equivalent in scope and insight to an Upanishad.
Written by Sri Sankaracharya, the great enlightened master of the 8th century, it flawlessly blends the various spiritual disciplines of gnana (wisdom), bhakti (devotion) and dhyana (meditation).
Shaastra are the intellectual treatises (gnana) that help us understand the Truth; stotra are the devotional hymns (bhakti) that express the experience of the Truth; sutra are the techniques (dhyana) that show us how to go from the understanding to the experience.
Dakshinamurti stotram is at one a shaastra, a stotra and a sutra.
For the discerning intellectual, it can trigger a psychological revolution in the comprehension of Reality, for the devotee, it is a revelation of the incomparable play of the Divine in the world, and for the meditator, every line is a powerful technique that can open the door to Truth.
Although the hymn has ten verses, plus an invocatory and a concluding verse, each verse can be contemplated independently.
In fact, each phrase can be an independent technique! The best way to enter into this hymn is to meditate on one verse, or even one line at a time, for as many days as you feel necessary.