Soundarya Lahari - Part 214

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Next comes the actual subtle sound, called .madhyamA.. This is not produced by any human voice. It arises by itself. This is therefore midway between the subtle sound of ‘pashyantI’ and the actual sound of the human voice, which is physical. Hence the name ‘madhyamA’, which means ‘what is in the middle’. 

This is a self-generated sound. It is therefore also called ‘anAhata’. ‘Ahata’ means ‘what is forced or externally generated’. That which is not forced or not generated externally, is the ‘anAhata’ sound.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 213

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The subtle sound ‘parA’ cannot be heard by human ear and cannot be vocalised by human voice. It is in fact the root source, the substratum, of all sounds. When that gets a little focussed  - just a little - and materialised, it becomes ‘pashyantI’. 

In other words, what was ‘without purpose’ and was just plain and simple sound-root, namely, ‘parA’ , became inclined towards being heard and being spoken and so in that direction ‘solidified’ slightly and thus ‘pashyantI’ arose. So ‘pashyantI’ has a purpose!. The very word itself means ‘seeing’, ‘looking forward’. ‘parA’ had no purpose; but when the ‘purpose’ arises, it becomes ‘pashyantI’.

 

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 212

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The key concept in ShAktam is the cycle of evolution and involution and so, the sound principle runs as its life-line. On one side Shaktam has the artha-prapancham, the universe of matter, where the fundamental principles are Shiva-tattvam, Shaktitattvam, sadAshiva-tattvam, Ishvara-tattvam and shuddha-vidyA tattvam - which take you through the evolutionary stage from the para-Brahman to the universe of matter and being. 

On the other side there is the sabdaprapancham, the unvierse of sound. It starts from the most subtle one called ‘parA’. Including this there are five ‘sound’ (shabda) principles. After ‘parA’ there is ‘pashyantI’, then ‘madhyamA’.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 211

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The aksharas, alphabets, are very important for ShAktam. Each letter has a basic sound principle associated with it. The very creation is by the vibration of sound waves. 

The elemental principle of ‘AkAsha’ produces, through vibration, subtle sounds, and from these sounds creation starts, from that the mantras, and the vedas that are full of mantras. 

The subtle principle underlying AkAsha, that is, the tanmAtra associated with AkAsha, is ‘sound’.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 210

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SphaTika-ghuTikA is the crystal bead necklace. In Sanskrit it is called ’aksha-mAlA’. This is the same as ‘akshara-mAlA’. 

The akshharas are the alphabets. The 51 letters of the Sanskrit alphabet from ‘a’ to ‘kshha’ correspond each by each to the beads in the necklace; that is why it is called ‘akshara-mAlA’, also called ‘aksha-mAlA’. 

Here I have to tell you a very important component of the ShAkta tradition and scriptures.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 209

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The second line of the shloka talks about the four hands. Two of the hands show the vara (boon) and abhaya (fearlessness) mudrAs. Earlier it was said in shloka #4 that all others other thanLalitAmbAL show the vara-abhaya mudrAs. 

So in this shloka he presents Saraswati with the vara-abhaya mudrAs. The dual word ‘trAsa-trANa’ indicates the ‘abhaya’. For ‘trAsa’ means ‘fear’ and ‘trANa’ means protection. Protection from fear is just ‘abhaya’, fearlessness.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 208

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ShAradA is one of the more important names of Sarasvati. It indicates simultaneously the perfect purity of whiteness and the cool Grace that combines pleasantness and goodness. Very often ‘sha’ and ‘sa’ get interchanged in tradition. In north India there is the custom of referring to ShAradA as SAradA. The latter word means, SAra-dA, the One who graces you with the essence (sAram) of Knowledge. 

This may be another reason why the Acharya had an affinity toward the name. The name of the deity he installed in Sringeri is ShAradAmbAL. In spite of the fact that he had a liking towards this name, just as he never mentioned either lalitA or Tripura-sundari in this stotra, he did not also mention ShAradA. Still, by the words ‘Sharad-jyotsnA’ in the beginning of this shloka, he reminds us of ShAradAmbAl.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 207

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Here the Goddess depicted is the the Goddess of Speech, (vAg-devi or Sarasvati), but without Her usual VINA in Her hand.

The word ‘sharad’ becomes very apt when one refers to Goddess Sarasvati. It is in sharad-ritu (the autumnal season) that we do pUjA to Sarasvati. She is called ShAradA because of that. Our Acharya had a special affinity to the ShAradA name. Sarasvati is very important to him because we know he reached the peak of excellence in scholarship. 

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 206

Amidst the Anandalahari shlokas I will now pick up one shloka (#15) which depicts Her, not in Her lalitA form, but in another form consistent with the ShrI VidyA tantra.

Sharat-jyotsnA shuddhAM shashi-yuta-jaTA-jUTA-makuTAM

vara-trAsa-trANa-sphaTika-ghuTikA-pustaka-karAM /

sakRn-na tvA natvA katham-iva satAM sannidadhate

madhu-kshhIra-drAkshhA-madhurima-dhurINAH paNitayaH//

satAM: For (those) noble ones,

sakRt : just once

natva: having prostrated

tva : to You

Sharat-jyotsnA-shuddhAM : who is as pure and white as the autumnal moonlight

shashi-yuta-jaTA-jUTA-makuTAM: who has the crown of matted hair that includes the moon, and

vara-trAsa-trANa-sphaTika-ghuTikA-pustaka-karAM: who holds in the (four) hands, the boon mudrA, the fear-protection mudrA, the crystal bead necklace, and the book

Katham-iva : why (would)

paNitayaH : the speech capabilities

madhu-kshhIra-drAkshhA-madhurima-dhurINAH: which are pregnant with the sweetness of honey, milk and grapes na sannidadhate: not accrue?

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 205

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She thus contracts Herself as a ritu in Time and stays as such in that Chakra. In reality She transcends Time; She is kAlAtItA. 

It is in that transcendent state, 

She manifests as the divine Feet in the thousand-petalled Chakra, beyond the six Chakras. The pair of Her lotus feet  - ‘tava padAmbuja-yugam’ – is there in that sahasrAra Chakram.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 204

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It is to be noted that this shloka, which elevates the beauty (soundaryam) of ambaal to its apex, is actually in the midst of the first part, that is Ananda-lahari. Another shloka (#14) describes ambaal as the personification of Time (kAlam).There are six seasons in a year. These 360 days of the year are the 360 rays of light emanating from the infinite Light of Shakti. Each of the Chakras represents one of these seasons and there are as many rays there as there are days in the corresponding season. 

For instance, in the mUlAdhAra Chakra, there are fifty-six rays, corresponding to the fifty six days of vasanta-ritu (the spring season).

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 203

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Well, just because these damsels have sought that status is it going to be within their reach? It is something which is inaccessible even for the hardest penance. These damsels know only to disturb and destroy the penances of the rishis. 

The sense-control needed for the hard penance is beyond their reach. So what do they do? They only try to achieve it mentally. But that status indeed is not reachable even by the mind – ‘yan manasA na manute’ says the Upanishad, meaning, ‘What cannot be thought of even by the mind.’ The bottomline therefore is, even they cannot ultimately know the beauty of ambaal!

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 202

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There are devotees of Shiva who seek that sAyujya padavI in their unquenchable thirst for becoming one with the Lord. In their case the sAyujyam is an end in itself. On the other hand, the divine damsels (go back to shloka #12) who are seeking that sAyujya status with Lord Shiva do not seek it as an end, but as a means to be able to see the beauty of the Supreme Goddess. 

It is an irony that in the hands of these damsels even the greatest goal (sAdhyam) of shiva-sAyujya status has become a sAdhanA (means) for the sadhyam (that is, that which is sought, and therefore, a further goal), the darshan of the fullest beauty of ambaal!

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 201

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But that Shiva-sAyujya status is not so easy to obtain. And what exactly is this sAyujya? To reach the world of the ishhTa-devatA (Chosen favourite deity) and live in that world is called sAlokya-padavI. The next stage is the sAmIpya stage. 

This is the stage where one lives in the beatific presence of that God. The next stage which is sArUpyam is the process of becoming that very form by continuously meditating on the form. The ultimate is the sAyujya-padavI where one becomes in essence the object of one’s adoration. This is an identity status, both in form and essence.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 200

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The divine damsels who are particularly thought of here are the famous quadret: RambhA, Urvashi, tilottamA and MenakA. They are supposed to be superlatively beautiful. Even they, having seen a little of the beauty of ambaaL, have considered themselves insignificant, in relation to ambaal.s beauty. They are naturally curious to get a look at the complete beauty of Mother Goddess. 

But they also know they cannot have that complete picture, because the Goddess is totally dedicated to the Lord and Her complete beauty is not perceptible to any one else. So what do they do? Only the Lord knows Her fullest beauty. So they want to be one with Him, the Lord Shiva. This is the Shiva-sAyujya-padavI. Then and only then, they can have an idea of the complete beauty of ambaaL.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 199

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That Her full beauty is perceptible only to Her Lord is not said in so many blunt words. It is nicely couched in a subtle poetic extravaganza which comes in the next two lines of the same shloka. (shloka #12):

Yad-AlokautsukyAd-amara-lalanA yAnti manasA

tapobhir-dushhprApAm-api girisha-sAyujya-padavIm //12 //

yat : (of) which (beauty) (This goes with .Your beauty. in the first half).

amara-lalanAH : the divine damsels

Aloka-autsukyAt : because of their curiosity to have a complete look

yAnti : reach

manasA : mentally

girisha-sAyujya-padavIm : the unity status with Lord Shiva

dushhprApAm : that is inaccessible

tapobhir-api : even by great penances.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 198

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Then who has seen Her full beauty? Only the Lord, Her husband, Lord Shiva. Indeed She took this very beautiful form in order that He may be involved in the leelA of Creation. And thus She became Tripura-sundari, the beautiful. 

So Her physical form has been totally dedicated to Him. Though Her full beauty is not visible for our perception Her fullest Grace and Compassion are available for every one of us.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 197

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To describe the form, somebody should have seen it in full. Has anybody seen it? # Of course it is not right to say that She has never been seen at all. Because we have several poet-devotees who have had a flash of Her and in the wake of that flash have composed wonderful devotional poetry. 

Even in the case of the greatest of devotees, to whom She might have given darshan, maybe one got to see Her lotus feet, another the Graceful eyes, and another the bewitching smile in the face. Like that some part of Her may have caught the eyes of even these devotees; but never the full form!

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 196

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So what the poets do is to imagine newer and newer examples with great effort. This effort of imagination by the poet is denoted by the word ‘kalpante’ in the shloka. ‘kalpanA’ is imagination. They only imagine an example. They are not able to arrive at the real thing, is what the shloka says. The fact they are not able to do it, is gracefully hinted at by the shloka in the words ‘kathamapi kalpant’.

The Yantra-form of the Goddess has been outlined with precision. But Her physical form eludes imagination. Attempts by even the great Brahma and others to find suitable examples have only failed.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 195

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Virinchi means BrahmA. prabHRtayaH: and the others of the kind. They tried to describe Your beauty ‘tvadIyam soundaryam’. The word ‘tulA’ stands for a pair of weighing scales. In one pan of the scales we put the object to be weighed and in the other pan we place the ‘weight’ whose weight we know. In other words when we don’t know the weight of something we calculate it by comparing it with something whose weight we know. 

So when you don’t know how to describe the beauty of ambaal, what we do is to look for something whose beauty we know. Such a ‘weight’ we know is known by the name of ‘analogy’ or ‘example’. The face is like the moon, the eyes are like lotuses, the hair on the head is like a beehive  -  all these are examples and analogies, which help us to comprehend the ‘weight’ of the beauty of ambaal, in terms of known ‘weights’.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 194

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BrahmA is the Adi-kavi, the most ancient poet. The Bhagavatam refers to him in this fashion in the very first shloka. The Goddess of Learning, Sarasvati, is his Shakti. Who can therefore be a greater poet? He has composed stotras on every devatA you can imagine. All the divines usually go to him for redress of their grievances. He takes them to the concerned God, either Shiva, or Vishnu or Devi, etc. Every time he

sings praise of the particular God whom they are approaching for help. His stotra on ambaal in the work called sapta-shati is famous. But even he could not describe the beauty of ambaal as it is. The first half of shloka 12 goes as follows:

tvadIyam soundaryam tuhina-giri-kanye tulayitum

kavIndrAH kalpante kathamapi virinchi-prabhRtayaH /

tuhina-giri-kanye: Oh Goddess, Daughter of the Himalayas

tulayitum: to weigh (or assess)

tvadIyam: Your

soundaryam: beauty

kavIndrAH: great poets

virinchi-prabhRtayaH: (like) Brahma and others

kalpante: (only) imagine

kathamapi: somehow (in feeble ways).

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 193

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All this is not to be read or studied like reading fiction or for acadmic interest. They have to be seriously learnt straight from a Guru. They have to be preserved as such. I did not want to omit them completely and therefore I just touched upon these. But don’t take them lightly. Shloka #12 talks about the extraordinary beauty and charm of the Devi. 

With a poetic excellence it says: ‘Much has been said in detail and with precision about Your Yantra - the lines, the planes, the circles and the squares. But to describe You and Your physical feature excellences, it doesn’t seem to be possible. No poet has ever succeeded in that task!’.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 192

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The ShrI Chakram depicts the advaitic identity of Shiva and Shakti. That is why the two kinds of Chakras of Shiva and Shakti are intertwined. The (four) triangles with the apex upward are known as Shiva cakras and the (five) triangles with apex downward are known as Shakti Chakras. 

The angles at which these interesect, the lotus petals on the outer corridors, the circular lines, the square design at the outermost, all have specific prescriptions; these are given in shloka 11.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 191

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The ShrI Chakra, ShrI VidyA, ShrI MatA, ShrI puram all pertain to the devI, the Mother Goddess, LalitA-tripurasundari. The prefix ShrI is the prefix usually given for respect and has no extra connotation of Lakshmi, the Goddess of Prosperity and Wealth. 

The Chakras and the mantras associated with other devatAs are distinguished by their name itself carrying the name of the devatA . as in, Shiva-Chakram, Sudarshana-YantraM, ShhaDakshhara-Chakram, etc. Only in the case of LalitA-tripurasundari, the Chakram, the YantraM are known as The Chakram, The YantraM, The Mantram.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 190

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When She is in the Meru peak, the AvaraNas are piled up peak upon peak in a three-dimensional manner. It will be in the form of an upright cone. Such a three dimensional configuration of ShrI Chakra is called ‘Meru-prastAram’. People call it just ‘Meru’ colloquially. When the Chakra is two dimensional it is said to be ‘bhU-prastAram’. 

A mixture of the two, where the beginning AvaraNas rise higher and higher, but later the latter AvaraNas are all in the same plane, is called ‘ardha-Meru’ (ardha means ‘semi’). A pUrNa-Meru is that which has all the AvaraNas in the Meru-prastara style. In our Mutt at Kanchipuram and in Tiruvidaimarudur MukAmbal sannadhi, what you find is pUrNa-Meru. In Mangadu it is ardha-meru. In the Kamakoshtam at Kanchipuram it is bhU-prastAram.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 189

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In addition to the two natural locations for Her, namely, the Ocean of Nectar and the Meru peak, one should add Her YantraM as another place of Her permanent residence. No, no, I just committed two errors. The ShrI Chakra is not just Her residence. 

The ShrI Chakra is Herself ! This was the first error. The second one is that the ShrI Chakra is not like the Ocean of Nectar or the Meru peak where She is said to reside. Even in those two places, She resides only in the ShrI Chakra, though now magnified million times.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 188

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A Yantra is not just the residing seat of a devatA; it is the devatA itself. It is not just a representation, or a copy. It is not a substitute for the devatA. It is the devatA itself. It is the presentation of the devatA and

not a re-presentation. More so in the case of ambaal. 

For, Her Divine Presence is very special in Her Yantra. It is because of this that ambaalpUjA is mostly done to Her Yantra than to Her most beautiful physical form.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 187

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It is not enough to just wish for great observances. We should be able to observe the shastraic injunctions correctly. We should be able to perform exactly as was demonstrated to us and passed on to us by our elders. Only then we will reap the right benefits. 

Certainly Shri Chakra has been eulogised in the Shastras to the sky. But the very same AvaraNa have also prescribed a certain regimen for such pUjA. By taking the attitude .I will do my personalized pUjA in my own way. not only will you miss the promised or expected results, but actually it will turn out to be counter-productive.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 186

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So when you sit opposite to it for the worship, the apex should be on the side nearer to you and not on the farther side. One has to be really more careful with the pUja of a YantraM than that of an idol (vigraha), in terms of the ritualistic do’s and don’ts. In modern times many have turned over to Shri Cakra pUjA in their homes, a few merely for the pride of it, another few because it is the fashion, and yet another few out of ignorance.

But the injunctions are not being followed properly. Consequently, loss of peace is on the increase.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 185

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A Yantra means that every bit of it whether a line or a circle or an angle, has to be of the right size and proportioin as prescribed. It cannot err even a little this way or that way.

Just as a mantra, with a wrong incantation, produces contrary effects, so also a small mistake in the design of the Yantra can cause havoc. 

In the Shri yantra again, if the apex of the central triangle faces west instead of east, as it should, results can just be the opposite.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 184

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Out of the outermost three AvaraNas (rounds) of the total nine, the two inner are made up of lotus petals arranged in two circles. 

The ninth AvaraNa is a design looking like three compound walls; but now it is not a circular structure but of square design. 

The whole thing is a unique design with an infinite divine potential. But beware. One has to be careful.

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