Monday, May 28, 2012

Soundarya Lahari - Part 119


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The Vishnu deity (of almost all temples) Himself, though He has four hands - with conch, disc, mace and lotus --, has no ‘vara-abhaya’  hands. Varada-rAja - the name meaning ‘the king of boon-giving deities’ -
-  in Kanchipuram, inspite of His name, does not have the ‘vara’ hand; He has the mace in that hand !

Maha-lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, almost invariably, has the  vara-abhaya hands.  But the Goddess of Learning, Sarasvati, does not have either. 

Durga, most of the times, has an ‘abhaya’ by the right hand, while the corresponding left hand is on the thigh - this situation being  called ‘Uru-hastam’ . Some of the SuBrahmanya deity-forms have the same
configuration.  Balaji of Tirupati has the vara-mudrA in the right hand, while His left hand is an ‘Uru-hastam’. Thus the statement of this shloka ‘Other than You, all other deities show the ‘vara-abhaya’ mudrA by their hands’ is to be considered a poetic exaggeration only.

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