Soundarya Lahari - Part 152

(Continued...)

The bow and the arrows in the forehands has also another significance.  What we have to surrender to Her feet, namely our mind and the senses, She draws by Her own initiative to Herself; the bow draws the mind and the arrows the senses, to Herself. It is as if a loving mother says to her child: ‘Dear child, why do you have to fall at my feet; I will take you onto my lap’!

This whole shloka is a fit one for meditation. It reminds us that the bow and arrows  that turned the Ishwara Himself - the Supreme who is nothing but a bundle of Knowledge, cit - into a creation-mode through the artifice of making Him  fall in love with Ishwari, who thereby became Shiva-kAma-sundari; that same bow and arrows now draw the medley of minds and senses of the  jIvas and keep them under its control, thus protecting them (spiritually). 

In fact the bottom line is that even this action of ‘drawing’ and ‘protecting’ is not done by the bow and arrows but by just Her feet.     

(Continued...)

Soundarya Lahari - Part 151

(Continued...)

 

That the four hands add to the beauty of this beauty Queen is to say it naively. But remember She is the Queen of the Universe. The majesty of that status is shown by the bow and arrow in the two forehands. But 

She is also the Benefactor of the bliss of  Mokshha; therefore She is the Queen of the Empire of Enlightenment (jnAna-sAmrAjyaM). RAga  (Attachment) and dveshha (hatred, enmity) are  two arch-villains that constitute the obstacle to  mokshha. 

These two are killed by the noose and the goad in Her other two hands, thus establishing that She is the Queen of ‘jnAna-sAmrAjyaM’.

(Continued...)

Soundarya Lahari - Part 150

(Continued...)

But one may question:

Why can’t these controls be also a Grace from Her feet? That is why it has been said that the mind and the five senses should merge in the lotus of Her feet as a bee gets lost inside the flower. The noose and the goad in the other two hands would then be not necessary at all to quell the Desire and Anger in the human mind.

But then, the question arises: Why four hands, instead of just two?  

(Continued...)

 

Soundarya Lahari - Part 149

(Continued...)

The important thing to note here is what has not been said. It is not said that the mind and the five senses should submit themselves to the bow and arrows of ambaal. It is only said that they should dissolve themselves into the divine feet. Recall from shloka #4 that ‘She need not give abhaya and vara by Her hands; 

Her feet themselves are capable of doing that’. In this shloka #7, instead of the vara and abhaya mudrAs in the two hands, the bow and arrows are mentioned. They have been said to give the mind-control and the sense-control.    

(Continued...)

Soundarya Lahari - Part 148

(Continued...)

Mind and the five senses are together counted as six instruments for the human being. Instruments are called ‘karaNas’ in Sanskrit. The six ‘karaNas’ of man are like the ‘caraNas’ (feet) of a bee. So the jIva itself is nothing but a six-footed bee with six instruments of action. The analogy becomes apt when we think of the bee merging into the depths of a flower with all its (six) feet stuck in that depth. For, the  jIva has to work its way to stick its six instruments out into the lotus of the divine feet of the Mother.

This is the idea which our Acharya himself later builds into Sloka 90 of Soundaryalahari: ‘nimajjan majjIvaH karaNa-caraNaH shhaT-caraNatAm’, meaning, ‘plunging (into Your lotus feet), may this  jIva of mine with its six instruments as the feet (become) the six-legged bee’.

(Continued...)

Soundarya Lahari - Part 147

(Continued...)

 

In short, the flower-arrows  in  ambaal’s hands grace us with the needed  sense-control and the sugar-cane bow in Her hands bestows on us  control of our mind. 

Nothing else is needed for Enlightenment ! As Muka-kavi says in Pancha-shati, ‘Mother! 

Whereas You sparked desire in Shiva Himself who had burnt the Lord of Desire to ashes,  the same You, in our case, eradicate desires in the desire-filled Jivas’.

(Continued...)

Soundarya Lahari - Part 146

(Continued...)

Thus when we see that a change of place transforms the worst into the best, we may learn a lesson. Why not transfer all the beautifications and dressing-up that we do for ourselves into ornamentations and dresses for ambaal, thereby transforming their effect? 

When we decorate ourselves it BRINGS IN the Ego. When we decorate Her, it BRINGS DOWN our Ego. Decoration in Sanskrit is ‘alankAraM’; and ego is ‘ahamkAraM’. If we do the ‘alankAraM’ to Her, our ‘ahamkAraM’ is gone !   

(Continued...)