Soundarya Lahari - Part 159

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This experience of the ‘rasa’ (flavour) of advaita is actually the experience of the taste of nectar, says the next shloka (#10). When advaita is ‘experienced’ there cannot be two things: one, ‘the taste’ And two, the One that gives that taste, namely ambAL; and much less another thing called a jIva. 

So the word ‘experience’ is just a ‘formality’(‘upacAraM’ in Sanskrit) for saying what cannot be said formally. However, just before that ‘experience’ and after it, there is something like a sentiment similar to an ‘experience’, the benefactor of that experience and the recipient of that experience  - in fact, a triad or

‘tripuTI’.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 158

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When KunDalini is taken up via this nADI through all these chakras and finally is unionised with the shiva-tattva in the thousandpetalled lotus at the top of the head, that is when She causes the realisation of the bliss of advaita. What is in the micro is also in the macro. 

When ambaaL is in her virAT (universal expansion) state, the five elemental principles and their origin, the mahat principle, are all in the experience of a yogi who sees them in the KunDalini chakras. And that very mahat, which is the Cosmic Mind, merges itself in the Brahman, namely, the ShivaM in the sahasrAra (thousand-petalled) chakra, thus causing the advaita-siddhi.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 157

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And right there, She is seated, as an inundation  of Bliss  that is  of pure Cit, Knowledge. This is what one has to visualize in one’s meditation.

After this shloka come two shlokas, #s. 9 and 10, wherein we are told how to propitiate  ambaal through the  KunDalini Yoga and mantra yoga. Sloka #9 describes how one achieves the bliss of advaita by moving the KunDalini Shakti through the six chakras (also called lotuses). From bottom up, in these chakras, the KunDalini Shakti is in the form of the five elemental principles - earth, water, fire, air, and space and then in the sixth, as the mind principle. The nADI (nerve, approximately) which has all these chakras is called the sushhumnA nADI.  

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 156

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The next  shloka  (#8) of Soundaryalahari  describes her location, her own world in the Cosmic Geography. Just as Shiva has Kailas, VishNu has Vaikuntham, She has Her own, but there are  actually two locations for Her. One is the central peak, called the peak of Meru. The other is called the City of  ShrI (ShrI-puraM or  ShriI-nagaraM) in the  Ocean of Nectar (amRta-sAgaraM). But the descriptions of the residence of  ambaal in either of them is the same. 

This  shloka (#8) – ‘sudhA-sindhor-madhye …’ gives the description of the  ShrI-nagaraM. Right in the centre of the Ocean of Nectar; surrounded by the forest of five kinds of divine trees; in the island  called maNi-dvIpaM; therein in the Garden of kadamba trees; in the palace of gems called  cintAmaNi. right on the seat of the five brahmAs;  

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 155

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There is a Tamil stotra called abhirAmi-antAdi. This is a stotra by a great devotee  abhirAmi-bhattar  on the Goddess known by the name of abhirAmi in TirukkaDavUr. The form of abhirAmi has four hands with

vara and  abhaya in the two forehands and lotus and bead-necklace (aksha-mAlA) in the other two hands. 

The stotra has 100 verses. Right in the second verse the author describes how the Goddess gave darshan to him, as having in Her four hands, the bow, the arrows, the noose and the goad. In the last verse of his poem he gives the same description of the Goddess.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 154

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Having described Her four arms and what She held in them, having portrayed Her general physical features including the autumnal full moon of the divine face, the  shloka #7 ends with the svarUpa-lakshaNa (Inherent Definition) of ambaal. This is the core of the core. She is the personification of the ‘I-ness’ of the Absolute  Brahman. I have talked about it earlier.  In other words She is the cit-Shakti Itself. She is  jnAna in form.  She is jnAna-ambaaL. 

‘purastAd AstAm naH’ - May She appear before us. May She become cognizable for us. Note the use of the word ‘us’ (‘naH’) here. Our Acharya is praying for us all. It is not ‘me’, but ‘us’. The purpose of the graphic description in this shloka is for us to keep Her before our mental vision.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 153

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Indeed weapons in the hands of Gods and Goddesses are powerful not because they are weapons but because they are given that Power by the supreme  Shakti, that is,  ambaaL. What She is said to do by Her weapons and other instruments is all just Her Will. She wills it and it is done. What a mysterious play! Just catch hold of Her feet. That is enough. 

She wills to shower Her Grace and there is a downpour of abhaya (fearlessness), vara (boon),  control of the five senses,  control of the mind, and what-have-you!. As a cosmic play, She may use Her weapons, or She may not;  She may show mudrAs or She may not.

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