Soundaryalahari -1 (A Digest of Kanchi Mahaswamigal.s Discourses)

Soundaryalahari

(A Digest of Kanchi Mahaswamigal.s Discourses)

 

Soundaryalahari :

A Digest of Kanchi Mahaswamigal.s Discourses

Introduction

For the benefit of those who do not know about the Mahaswamigal here is a

brief biographical note:

Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal (1894 - 1994), also once

known as the Mahaswamigal, was the sage of Kanchi in Tamilnadu, India, who was

so simple, humble, profound, enlightened, compassionate, scholarly and full of Grace

that he naturally and effortlessly touched the hearts of men and women, prince and

pauper, around the world. Ascending to the Headship of the Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt at

the age of thirteen as the 68th pontiff in the line of succession from Adi Shankara, he

ministered to the needs of the afflicted and the distressed and spread the message of

compassion and of a return to the most treasured ancient values. After a mission like

this full of action for almost half a century which included a 30-year walking pilgrimage

of the entire subcontinent of India, he laid down his headship and devoted his time, for

the next forty years, to severe penance for universal welfare. Not one of those thousands

who had his darshan  every day missed to feel the soul-stirring presence of ’the Living

God’ in their veins.

A small note on the limited objective of this digest.

The name .Digest. itself is too much of a claim by this writer, who has just

studied the discourses in Tamil (on Soundaryalahari . a 100-shloka piece, in

Sanskrit) of the Mahaswamigal, in .Deivathin Kural. . meaning, .The Voice of God. . in

Tamil, in the sixth volume of the seven-volume series of that name, recorded by and,

rewritten in, the inimitable style of, Ra. Ganapathi. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,

Mumbai, has published an English translation of this. Without reading that I have

attempted here in this digest to test myself whether I had understood at least a part

of the Mahaswamigal.s thoughts. The best way of testing oneself is to try to

communicate to others. There are a number of readers interested in the subject. Some

of them know Tamil and probably would have read Ra Ganapathi.s book in the

original. Some others may have read the English version. The purpose of this digest is

TO BRING THE ADVAITA PART (and the relevant questions that arise usually in the

discussions that are very common in the discussions on advaita) TO THE FOCUS

AND ACQUAINT OURSELVES WITH THE MAHASWAMIGAL.S VIEWS, WONDERFUL

ELABORATIONS AND COMMENTS ON THE SUBJECT. As a consequence of this

objective, I have not covered all the shlokas even out of the 42, the only ones which

the Mahaswamigal himself has covered in full (he has covered another 37 in part,

another 10 just in passing, and has not touched at all the remaining 11, which are

shloka Nos.19, 32, 68, 72, 76 to 81, 85). Even within the exposition of a particular

shloka, large portions have been omitted by me. In spite of all this the .Digest. .

contrary to the meaning of the word - is rather long. It is broken into 81 Sections.

Each section happened to be a post on the web in some leading groups who had an

interest in advaita as well as in Mother Goddess. Note that the original extends to

744 pages (pp.577 to 1321 of the sixth volume, 4th impression). The attempt has been

made, therefore, to be as brief as possible. But, wherever it is found that the

Mahaswamigal.s already lucidly forceful and simple explanations cannot be .digested

A Digest of Discourses 2 on Soundaryalahari

through a further precis or summary., I have resorted to almost a close (or free !)

translation of his words as reported by Ra. Ganapathi. And also it may be noted that

I, as the digest writer, have not dwelt on those portions of the discourses that were

not reasonably clear to me. The postings on the Yahoo lists (advaitin; advaita-L,

ambaa, and sadhana_Shakti) took place from August 2003 to April 2004. The whole

venture has actually been a swAdhyAya-yajna, that is, a yajna of study. I pray to

the Mahaswamigal himself as well as my own Guru and father, (late) Sri R.

Visvanatha Sastri, that what has finally turned out does not misrepresent either the

Mahaswamigal or the Soundaryalahari !

On the organization of this .Digest.

The entire exposition is by the Mahaswamigal. So the first person pronoun,

wherever it occurs, is his. The .I. of advaita-vedanta is always within

quotes. Additional explanations given by Ra. Ganapathi are so

acknowledged. And note that the Mahaswamigal most often refers to Adi

Sankaracharya as .Our Acharya..

V. Krishnamurthy

-1-

(Digest of pp.581-583)

.How could Adi Shankara, who preached the jnAna mArga, have

promoted this work (Soundaryalahari) of bhakti? It cannot be his,. say

some who profess .Philosophy.. But our Acharya was not a professor

who isolated philosophy as a separate discipline. Having written very

profoundly on advaita and its deepest implications in his several

commentaries and the other works of his, he promoted the spiritual

pursuit of the common man by writing and talking about the need to

follow one.s swadharma by Karma and Bhakti. His intent was to raise

the common man from his own level. For this purpose he went from

one pilgrim centre to another all his life and composed hymns after

hymns and also established yantras in temples.

The philosophers argue: JnAni says everything is One. But Bhakti

can happen only when there is the duality of the devotee and the deity.

Therefore, they say, the jnAni can never be a bhakta. These

philosophers cannot themselves claim to have the Enlightenment of

advaita ! But there have been those who could have so claimed, like the

sage Suka, Madhusudana Saraswati or Sadasiva-brahmam. If we

carefully study their lives we will know that they had been devotees of

God in the fullest sense of the word and have themselves written works

of Bhakti. Even in our own times Ramakrishna Paramahamsa has been

a great devotee of Mother Goddess. Ramana Maharishi has done works

of devotion on God Arunachalesvara. Again, on the other side, great

devotees like Manikka-vasagar, Nammazhvar, Arunagiri-nathar,

Tayumanavar, etc. have themselves been convinced advaitins, and this

is reflected in innumerable flashes in their compositions.

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 3

If a jnAni should not do a Bhakti composition, then I would say

that he should not also do a work of jnAna. Why am I saying this? Let

us go back to the definition of a jnAni. . The world is all mAyA; the

thinking of people as if they were separate separate jIvAtmAs is nothing

but Ignorance. - with such a conviction through personal experience,

they have thrown away that Ignorance as well as its basic locus, the

mind, and they live in the non-dualistic state of . .I. am everything. .

such should be the status of the jnAni; shouldn.t it be so? Such a

person preaching, or writing a book, even if it be about the subject of

jnAna . is it not a contradiction? Unless such a person thinks there is a

world outside of him and there are jIvAtmAs outside, how can he think

of .teaching.? Teaching whom? And when we look at it this way, all

those great teachers of jnAna should really not be jnAnis ! What power

will there be for such a teaching about jnAna from teachers who are not

jnAnis themselves?

-2-

(Digest of pp.584-587)

On the other hand what do we observe in our experience? Whether

it is the teaching about jnAna in the Gita, or the Viveka Chudamani of

our Acharya, or the Avadhuta Gita of Sri Dattatreya or the teaching in

the Yoga-vASiShTa, or a song of Tayumanavar . even as we just read

these we feel we are being taken beyond the curtain created by mAyA to

some distant peaceful state of Calm. Just by reading, in one.s spiritually

ripe stage, such teachings, there have been people who have renounced

the world and reached the state of Bliss-in-one-Self! If these teachings

had not been written from that spiritual apex of Experiential Excellence,

how could such things have ever happened?

Therefore, however much by our intellectual logic, we may argue

whether a jnAni can get bhakti, how the jnAni can do any preaching

and so such possibilities cannot exist and so on, these are certainly

happening, by the Will of the Lord which is beyond the Possible and the

Impossible.

It is only the Play of the Lord that, the jnAni, who is non-dualistic

internally, appears to do things in the dualistic world. His mind may

have vanished, mAyA might have been transcended by him; but that

does not mean the outside world of jIvAtmAs has disintegrated. What do

we gather from this? There is a Super-Mind which does all this and in

some mysterious way is compering and directing the entire universe. And

it also means it is the same Supra-Mind that is making the minds of

men revolve in the illusion of mAyA. It is that Power which is known in

advaita scriptures as saguNa-brahman or Ishvara. In the scriptures

devoted to Shakti or Shiva , whenever they call the Actionless nirguNa-

Brahman as .ShivaM. they call this saguNa-brahman as .Shakti., .parAshakti

. or .ambAL.. Just as that nirguNa-Brahman exhibits itself and acts

A Digest of Discourses 4 on Soundaryalahari

as the saguNa-brahman, so also, it must be presumed, that the

enlightened jnAni also does his external actions and that again, is the

work of the saguNa-brahman!

What is the path of jnAna? It is the effort through self-enquiry and

meditation for the eradication of the mind and vanquishing of mAyA.

But the other path is to dedicate oneself and all one.s thoughts and

actions to that very parA-shakti (who produced this mAyA on us) with an

attitude of devotion. It is like giving the house-key to the thief himself !

However much the parA-shakti may play with you and toss you and your

mind hither and thither, Her infinite compassion cannot be negated.

Only when we separate and rejoin, we realise the value of that union. To

pray to Her for that reunion and for Her to get us back to Her in answer

to our prayers . this is the great LeelA of Duality wherein She exhibits

Her Infinite Compassion ! So when one prays with Bhakti for such

release She releases Him by giving Him that Wisdom of Enlightenment.

It is wrong to think that the goal of Bhakti lies in the dualistic

attitude of being separate from God. It is by this wrong assumption that

people ask the question: How can a jnAni exhibit Bhakti? In the very path

of Bhakti wherein it appears there is an embedded duality, the same

Bhakti would lead the practitioner to the stage where he will ask: Oh

God! May I be one with You! This is the subtle point which the

questioning people miss. When that stage comes to the devotee, the very

parA-shakti known as kArya-brahman or saguNa-brahman will bless him

with that jnAna that takes him to the non-dual kAraNa-brahman or

nirguNa-brahman.

Not everybody can practise the path of jnAna that brings the

realisation of the mahA-vAkyas by sravaNa (hearing), manana (thinking

and recalling) and nididhyAsana (contemplating). Only when the mind

vanishes one can realise the Self as the Absolute Brahman. If that is so,

the real question is: How to kill the truant mind, which refuses to be

subdued, much less vanquished ? The very effort of vanquishing the

mind has to be done by the mind only. How can it kill itself ? The palm

can slap another; but it cannot slap itself. Though we are thus brought

to a dilemma, there is a supreme power which has created all these

minds. So instead of self-effort to kill our minds, we should leave it to the

parA-shakti and surrender to Her. Instead of falling at the feet of the

witness for the prosecution we fall at the feet of the prosecutor himself !

Then She will help us quell the mind; She will grace us with the

necessary jnAna.

-3-

(Digest of pp.587 - 590 )

Either She might totally eradicate your mind and give you the

peaceful state of .I am shiva. (shivoham) or She might tell you from

within:

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 5

.Look, after all, all this is My Play. The Play appears real to you

because of mAyA. I shall totally erase that mAyA-view for you. Then you

can also be like me, with that calm non-dual bliss inside and having on

the outside a mind which is untouched by mAyA. Thereby you can also

be a witness to all this worldly Dance. You will thus see yourself in Me

and see Me in all the worldly multiplicities. In other words instead of

making the mind non-existent, your mind will then be full of Me.

And She might make you just exactly that way. But I know your

worry. You constantly worry about the impossibility of transcending

mAyA, of eradicationg this worldly vision and of vanquishing the mind.

You keep worrying to the extent of almost weeping over it. To such a

weiling seeker She replies:

.Why do you worry and weep like this? You are worrying that you

cannot discard the world from your view. But you forget that the world

was not your making. This Sun and Moon, mountains, trees, oceans,

animal kingdom, and the millions of living beings and categories . all this

was not created by you.

.When that is so, you are worrying about the little .you. that you

are, and you forget that this little .you. also was not your creation.

Instead of thinking all this is not only one but one with Me, your mAyAclouded

view makes you think they are all different and distinct. And

even that mAyA-view that clouds you, again was not your making!

.My dear child, you are caught up in the web of the world, a mind

and a MAyA-cloud -- all this is My making. Did I not make Krishna say

to you: mama mAyA duratyayA ? (My mAyA is intranscendable). I have

also told you there that it is .daivI. (made by the Power of God). If you

had made it all, then you could have overcome them. But it was all made

by Me in the fullness of Power.

.You jIvas have only little fragments of that Power. So if you cannot

eradicate the world, the mind and the MAyA that I have made, you don.t

have to cry over it. It is not in your Power. It has to take place only by My

Grace. Come nearer to Me through Devotion ! I shall do the eradication

in proper doses for you.

.That somebody is able to control his mind and is able to walk on

the path of jnAna . that again is My own Grace. It is I who have granted

that privilege to him. What appears as many and different must be seen

as one. To crave for that view is what is called .advaita-vAsanA.. One gets

it only by My Grace..

(Now the Mahaswamigal, who has been talking in the words of the

Mother Goddess, continues on his own).

There is another novelty here. Even the jnAni who has had the

non-dual Enlightenment, still enjoys the play of mAyA. He sees the

different things; but knows they are all one. Just as a spectator of a play

who is not playing any role in it, the jnAni enjoys the playful novelties of

mAyA and revels in his devotion to that parA-Sakthi who is the author of

it all. To be keeping such jnAnis in this dual-non-dual state is also the

A Digest of Discourses 6 on Soundaryalahari

work of Mother Goddess. Mark it. It is not that the jnAni is showing

Devotion just for the sake of others only. No, By himself he is indeed

thinking

( I think the Mahaswamigal is here

letting out an autobiographical tip !)

.What a pleasure to witness this dualistic play of the non-dualistic

One ! What a multiplicity of beauty, panoramic variety and continuity of

Love !. . Thus revelling in that blissful vision, he continues to pour out

his own love (bhakti) to that Transcendental Power from the bottom of his

heart. This tribute to the jnAni has been given by the great Teacher Suka

himself.

(Cf. Bhagavatam 1-7-10:

AtmArAmAshca munayaH nirgranthA apy-urukrame;

kurvanty-ahaitukIm bhaktim itham-bhUta-guNo hariH. . meaning,

Those who revel in the Self, even though rid of all attachments,

show a causeless bhakti towards the Lord, just naturally.)

On the one hand the devotee who has yet to get the

Enlightenment enjoys the devotional state for the very reason of getting

the Enlightenment; on the other hand, the one who is already

enlightened and is a jIvan-mukta shows his bhakti for the sake of

enjoyment of that bhakti and not for any other reward or purpose.

-4-

(Digest of pp.590-592, 608-613 )

(The Mahaswamigal continues to speak the words, as if, of the

Goddess):

.Thus I am the One who gives this new Bhakti in the state of

jnAna. And I will be the One who will give you that jnAna to you, my

devotee, when the time is ripe. Don.t you worry. You have come to Me as

your Mother. I will take care of you. The bondage in which I threw you

shall be removed from you by Myself. You need not have to keep on

crying for .Release.. Once you know I am the only One there is, hold on to

that steadfastly; there is no question of .Release. thereafter. .Release.

from what?

.Let jnAnis think that they will get the Ultimate Peace only when

the duality-awareness goes away from them and let them go their own

way of Enquiry of the Self. When you feel you don.t have the interest or

the stamina to go that way, don.t feel bad or incomplete. Come through

the path of Love. See the multiplicities. But instead of seeing them as

different and separate, try not to forget that the basis of all of them is the

single Me. Love Me from your heart and view everything through Love.

Encompass everything in Love. I shall raise you to the Ultimate

Enlightenment by My Love and Grace..

Thus arises the godly experience that is blessed by the Mother

Goddess. By Mother Goddess I also mean the Lord-God, the paramAtmA,

and also the individual favourite deity of each of us. It is the same

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 7

supreme Power that engulfs you into the mAyA, that graces you as

saguNa-brahman and also takes you to that blissful state of jnAna.

Finally let me also say this. By the very fact that the jnAni writes a

book on jnAna, it must follow that he should also write on Bhakti. For,

writing a book means communicating with others. So that means he has

accepted the presence of a world of duality in which he has to

communicate and educate. The jnAni as he is, must have already

.descended. to this world of duality and decided to raise the commonfolk

to his level. He who knows that the source of all this duality is that

Infinite Compassionate God.principle, would ipso facto have no

compunctions for making a hymn of praise for that Ultimate in Its

saguNa form. And he also knows that it is that very same Power that

prods him on to make this hymn. So where is the contradiction here?

But if you contend that he is writing jnAna works for the benefit of

the world . .loka-sangrahArtham. without any .kartRtva-buddhi. -- the

awareness of doership . then with the same non-awareness of doership

he can write both jnAna works and bhakti works. What and where is the

difference? The World-welfare (loka-kalyANam) is the purpose. It is the

Lord who is effecting the welfare through the hands and mouth of these

chosen jnAnis. And the most efficient way for the jnAni, the Lord knows,

to reach the masses, is to propagate hymns of praise of the divine,

pilgrimage to holy centers, installation of mystic yantras, and all the way

down to ritual worship.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are three superlative hymns of praise on Mother Goddess in

the form of Lalita. Chronologically they are: .AryA-dvishati. (also called

.lalitA-stava-ratnam.) a 200-shloka piece by Sage Durvasa; .Soundaryalahari

. which is actually made up of two parts . .Ananda-lahari. , a 41-

shloka piece brought from Kailas by Adi Shankara and .Soundarya-lahari.

the 59-shloka piece composed by Adi Shankara himself, the two pieces

together going by the popular name of Soundaryalahari by Adi Shankara;

and .Panca-shati. (a 500-shloka piece) by the poet Muka.

Durvasa.s AryA-dvishati gives us a spiritual experience of the

presence of the Almighty-Goddess in the very words of AryA-dvishati. In

this he describes the complicated structure of the ShrI-chakra . The

Goddess.s Grace descends on those who read and recite such hymns of

praise composed by great devotees who have already merited the descent

of Her Grace on them. Durvasa, Adi Shankara and Muka are three such.

Such Grace exhibits itself first in the eloquence of these hymns. And the

result is, the devotee who revels in the recitation and repetition of these

hymns, himself gets that eloquence and flow of language and of speech.

The Goddess gave such an eloquence to Muka. .MUka. means

.dumb.. We do not know what name he had before. But from the moment

he composed the five hundred shlokas in Her praise, we have known him

A Digest of Discourses 8 on Soundaryalahari

as the poet Muka !. Both the AryA-dvishati and the MUka-pancashati

bring to our vision the majestic splendour of the form of Mother Goddess

like an expert painter.s masterly painting. The third one, the Soundaryalahari

is the crowning glory of all three and of all hymns of praise of the

Mother Supreme.

-5-

(Digest of pp.614 -622, 645-654 )

Of Soundaryalahari it may be said that there never was one like it,

nor ever will be. It has a perennial charm that does not satiate. And its

majestic eloquence is unbeatable. In his bhaja-govindam our Acharya

uses very elementary words because it happens to be the alphabet of

Vedanta. But here he is describing the undescribable. So he uses words

very precisely. Consequently the vocabulary turns out to be difficult.

But the words chosen only add to the lilting charm of the poetry that he

weaves. The metre used is .shikariNI., meaning .that which is at the

apex.. It has 17 syllables for each of the four lines.

Through the descriptions of the Goddess.s form that make up the

latter 59 shlokas, he brings ambaal right before our mental eyes in all

Her majesty, grace and splendour and overwhelms us by the bliss which

the very words and metaphors pour on us. Just as a master-sculptor

dedicates each movement of his chisel to the object of his sculpture, he

transforms each word, as it were, by his own spiritual experience of the

Goddess and thus in turn we readers feel the words themselves

constitute the Goddess.

It is not only blissful poetry, but blessed poetry. Such blessedness

arises not because of any flowery language, but by the fact the Acharya

is himself blessed ! .Mother, this hymn is nothing but a composition of

yours in your own words. (.tvadIyAbhir-vAgbhiH tava janani vAcAm stutiriyam

. . shloka #100), says he in the concluding line. Inspirations of

great saints and sages, not only benefit mankind by their inspired poetry,

but bring to successive generations, an inspired contact with the great

men, even long after they have passed away. Thus our Acharya in

enabling us to have a .darshan. of the Goddess herself, gives us, in

addition, a .darshan. of himself !

The concept of .intense. devotion does not care for the language

used, or for the manner of worship. It is the intensity of devotion and

depth of feeling that matter. But getting that intensity and depth is the

most difficult thing. That is exactly what eludes us. Now that is where

the beauty of such blessed poetry like Soundaryalahari excels. Whether

you understand it or not, whether you pronounce the words correctly or

not, the very attempt itself of reciting it produces in you the needed

bhakti! This is the word-power of the words of such blessed poetry. The

vibrations of the words give us all the material and spiritual success.

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 9

We have only to keep the objective of bhakti steadfast in our minds.

Everything else just follows.

Of all the stotras that our Acharya has done, it is the

Soundaryalahari that is the topmost. The aShTottara-nAmAvaLi of the

Acharya has the nAmA .soundarya-laharI-mukhya-bahu-stotravidhAyakAya

namaH. meaning: .prostrations to the one who composed

many stotras with soundaryalaharI as the prime one.. Of the BhAshyas

that he wrote, .brahma-sUtra-bhAshya. towers supreme; of his expository

works, .viveka-chUDAmaNi. is prime and of all his works of bhakti, the

SoundaryalaharI tops the list.

-------------------------------------------------------

SundarI, the beautiful, is Her name. MahA-tripura-sundarI or just,

tripura-sundarI , both derived from the root name, SundarI, is the

Goddess propitiated by the great mantra called .Shri-vidyA.. Of the many

names of ambaal, such as PArvatI, durgA, KALI, BAlA, BhuvaneshvarI,

etc., it is the SundarI name that goes with .RAja-rAjesvari., the Queenname

of all the scriptures that talk of and dwell on the Mother Goddess.

Sage Ramakrishna has said: I have seen many forms of Gods and

Goddesses; but I have never seen one more charming than .tripurasundarI

. ! The word .soundaryam. pertains to SundarI and means .The

Beauty..

But the beauty of it all is, that the name .tripura-sundarI. or any of

the other (synonymous) names of the same form, namely, .LalitA., .RAjarAjeshvarI

., .KAmAkshI. or .KaAmeshvarI. do not occur anywhere in the

text, including its title ! Even the other descriptive names of the Goddess

like .hima-giri-sutA. (daughter of Himalaya mountain), or simply, giri-sutA,

shivA, bhavAnI, umA, satI, pArvatI, chanDI . occur only at one or two

places. General attributed names, like .jananI., .mAtA., .ambA., .devI.

meaning either .mother. or .goddess., -- which commonly go with all

feminine deities -- occur at a few more places, but even they are few.

While he begins with .shivaH-shaktyA., the most potent name of

ambaal, namely .Shakti., gets mentioned. .Shakti. means .power.. It is the

absolute Brahman.s power or energy that ambaal personifies. So this

name tells everything about the Goddess. And it comes in the very

beginning, but never after.

(In shloka #32, the word .Shakti. appears

but there it is a code-word for a syllable in ambaal.s mantra).

Finally, one more point regarding occurrence of names. The role of

a woman has three stages: as daughter, as wife, as mother. The last two

roles certainly do get mentioned very often in stotras pertaining to a

feminine deity. But the Soundaryalahari uses the daughter-reference

such as .himagiri-sute., .tuhina-giri-kanye., more often. And again, when

the first part of 41 shlokas ends, he ends by referring to .janaka-jananI. ,

the mother-father role of both Ishvara and IshvarI of the whole universe.

A Digest of Discourses 10 on Soundaryalahari

-6-

(Digest of pp.675-686)

(This part is entitled: .The title: .Ananda-lahari. . advaitam and ShAktam.. The matter is

rather terse. But the Maha-Swamigal himself concludes by saying: .What is finally to be

understood as the essence is the following: ... This summary is translated here as

closely as possible.)

The shAkta philosophy (ShAktaM) talks of .ShivaM. in place of the

actionless substratum .Brahman.. Even if it is actionless, it is Cit,

knowledge, says advaita. In place of this Cit, ShAktaM talks of Cit-Shakti

or simply, Shakti. The Brahman of advaita peacefully rests in itself. In

ShAktaM, on the other hand, the peaceful ShivaM has the Shakti, power

or energy, that manifests as knowledge potential (Cit-Shakti) and this

manifestation is its play as the multiplicity of the universe. In advaita

there is no second. What appears as the universe is only an appearance

created by MAyA. MAyA has no relationship with Brahman. What it is,

and how it came . all this is inexplainable. That research is not

necessary. What is needed is how to get out of it and obtain the personal

realisation of the basic Brahman behind. And hence the path of jnAna.

In ShAktaM, it is claimed that the play of duality starts by the Will of

ShivaM coupled with Shakti. Even here there is a role of MAyA-Shakti.

But we shall dwell on it later.

It is Brahman that appears as jIva, through the effect of MAyA. If

one follows the path of jnAna and transcends MAyA, then jIva realises

itself as Brahman, says advaita. In ShAktaM also it says that the jIva and

ShivaM are basically the same and actually become the same in the state

of mokshha; particularly in the ShrI-vidyA scriptures it is specifically

accepted so. Dvaitam, VishishhTAdvaitam, SiddhAnta-shaivam (Shaivasiddhantam),

ShrIkaNTa-shaivam (ShivAdvaitam), Kashmiri Saivism . in

this order, the philosophies start from a concept totally distinct from

advaita, gradually nearing and ultimately becoming very near to advaita.

And in ShrI-vidyA the identity of jiva with Brahman is clearly

stipulated. The two philosophies differ only in the concept of creation. In

advaita, duality is said to be only an imagination and so is to be totally

negated. In shAkta philosophies, duality is said to be created by parAShakti,

the energy of Brahman. It is also the parA-Shakti that grants the

mokshha, which is the identity of Brahman and jIva in eternal peaceful

bliss. This bliss is called shivAnandam and/or shAntAnandam in the

shaivite schools, and cidAnandam in the shAkta schools.

There is no difference in the concept of mokshha as the realisation

of the one-ness of jIva and Brahman, between advaita schools and the

ShrI-vidyA tantra of the shAkta schools. The philosophy of advaita takes

creation as a .vivarta. (a false appearance, manifestation, of reality)

whereas the ShrI-vidyA school takes it as .AbhAsa. (an effulgence of a

.reflection.). That the sun appears as a reflection in water is .AbhAsa.. In

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 11

the same way the universal Cit-Shakti reflects itself with a limitation and

becomes the jIva as well as the universe -- this is the shAkta concept of

creation. But without the original object called the Sun there could be no

reflection. So in basics it comes back to the advaita concept. But the

shAkta holds that to the extent there is an object with its reflection, there

is a phenomenal reality for jIva and the universe. It does not hold that it

is .mithyA. which is the advaitin.s contention.

It is the latter part of Soundaryalahari that dwells on the beauty

(saundaryam) of ambaal.s form.The former part dwells on Her Shakti. It

is called Ananda-lahari. The identity between Shakti and Cit is referred to

in the word .cidAnandalaharI. in verse #8 of Anandalahari. .bhajanti

tvAm dhanyAH katicana cidAnanda-laharIm., meaning, .Only the most

fortunate few (recognize you and) worship you as the flood of knowledgebliss

(cidAnanda).. Note here that while for every reader of the

Soundaryalahari portion the whole beauty of Mother Goddess is fully

experiential, in the Anandalahari portion the people who can experience

the bliss of the Shakti-lahari, that is, the cidAnanda-lahari, are only the

few fortunate (katicana dhanyAH) !

The close correlation between advaita and the various shAkta

schools, particularly the ShrI-vidyA tantra school, has been used by our

Acharya who is aware that many cannot follow the abstract path of

jnAna. And that is why perhaps he chalks out a path whereby one starts

from the .leelA. of creation of duality and goes forward along the path of

ShrI-vidyA and finally ends up in advaita itself. In accordance with this,

even when he composed many stotras on Shiva and VishNu, he never

goes deep into the shivAgama or vaishNava-Agama nuances but dwells

mainly on the bhakti and consequent emotions only. On the other hand

when he worked on Soundaryalahari, the first part, Ananda-lahari, .

even though it is said that he only .brought. it (from Kailas) and not

composed it . is totally a shAkta scripture. The sum and substance of

the twin work of Ananda-lahari and Soundaryalahari seems to be:

.advaita is The path; if not, the next (alternative) is ShrI-vidyA. !

In fact, ShrI-vidyA is the connecting cord between advaita and all

that is dvaita. It unifies the ShAntaM-ShivaM-advaitam with Shakti, the

creator of duality, and therefore, of the universe. In LalitA-sahasranAma

also, the last name is lalitAmbikA and the last but one is shiva-shaktyaikya-

rUpiNI. And this takes us to the very beginning shloka of

Soundaryalahari !

-7-

(Digest of pp.687 - 699 )

Shivas-ShaktyA yukto yadi bhavati shaktaH prabhavituM

na ced-evaM devo na khalu kushalaH spanditum-api /

atas-tvAm-ArAdhyAM hari-hara-virinchAdibhir-api

praNantuM stotuM vA katham-akRtapuNyaH prabhavati // 1 //

A Digest of Discourses 12 on Soundaryalahari

ShaktyA yuktaH bhavati yadi . Only if yoked with Shakti

ShivaH devaH . (even) Lord shiva

shaktaH . has the ability

prabhavituM . to create the world;

evaM na cet -- if not so (yoked),

kushalaH na . (He) is not capable

spandituM api . even to make a move.

khalu . Isn.t it so?

ataH . Therefore,

kathaM prabhavati . how is it possible

akRta-puNyaH . (for) one who has not accrued any (spiritual) merits

praNantuM . to do prostrations to

stotuM vA -- or to praise (by hymns)

tvAM . You

hari-hara-virinchAdibhir-api ArAdhyAm .

who are worshipped even by Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma and the like?

(To get the total meaning, please read the English portions above in the

order in which they are presented above. The Maha-Swamigal does the

same thing, but presents it in the order in which it will make sense in

the Tamil language. He usually does not give the total meaning in one go.

We shall follow the same pattern in all the succeeding shlokas.)

Here is embedded the most important shAkta doctrine that the

parA-shakti is higher than the Triad of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. It is

only by Her will and action that even the actionless nirguNa-ShivaM gets

into action through the Triad and the cosmic process of presentation of

Duality starts. .Everything in the universe moves because of You, Oh

parA-shakti; when that is so, even the prostration to you or praise of you

by a devotee does not happen by itself.. And then by implication our

Acharya brings out the point that when ambaal grants the power to

somebody of praising Her, She does not give it to all and sundry but only

to those who have spiritual merits.

And again then, by one more implication, one can take it to mean

that the one who is doing the stotra now, namely, the Acharya himself,

must, ipso facto, be of great spiritual merit. Is that what he means? Is

he so devoid of humility that he praises himself by implication? # Later

in shloka #57 he is going to say: .snapaya kRpayA mAm-api. ( that is,

pour your glance of compassion, EVEN on poor me) and again in shloka

#84, .mamApi shirasi dayayA dehi caraNau. (EVEN on my head please

place your feet). So the only way we should interpret the present shloka

is: .You can move even the immutable ShivaM into action. It is You

therefore who have given even me, who does not have any spiritual merit,

the capability that you usually grant only to the meritorious ! It is You

who have moved my senses of speech into the action of hymnising You !.

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 13

Prostration is by the body (kAyaM). Praising through a hymn is by

speech (vAk). By implication the mind (manas) is also mentioned. Thus

in the very first shloka the dedication to Her by manas, vAk and kAyaM

has been done. And naturally, the completeion of this dedication in the

form of .Atma-samarpaNaM. . dedication of one.s self in fullness . comes

in the very last shloka (#100).

There is a parallel observation in the very first shloka of VivekachUDAmaNi.

.muktir-no-shata-koTi-janma-sukRtaiH puNyair-vinA

labhyate., meaning, .Unless one has earned spiritual merit in 100 crores

of births, one cannot go the jnAna mArga and obtain mokshha.. But

note: our Acharya does not say explicitly, in this major work of bhakti,

that only by spiritual merit you can go along the path of Bhakti or jnAna

or for that matter any noble path. Whereas, in the Viveka-chUDAmaNi,

which is a work on the path of jnAna, -- mistakenly appropriated by

people who think that that is the way to avoid the traditional worship of

deities !-- right in the 3rd shloka, he says that .Seeking a proper guru and

starting on the path of jnAna occurs only by the Grace of God. .

.deivAnugraha-hetukam.!

The bottom line of this shloka is that Shiva earns His place and

prestige only when He is united with Shakti. But the words Shiva and

Shakti have been placed in the shloka in that order, with Shiva first. This

indicates that the dependence is mutual; neither of them is to be lower in

hierarchy or glory. THERE IS NO HIGHER OR LOWER BETWEEN THIS

ORIGINAL DIVINE COUPLE. They have an equality, .samaM. in Sanskrit

and this is the origin for the word .samaya. to get the meaning of

.religion. or .tradition. in Hindu culture. In the shAkta and Shaiva

scriptures the word .samayAcAra. is used to denote the path of worship,

that is done mentally through the noblest attitude of devotion arising

from the bottom of the heart. The reason for the word .samaya. therein is

that there are five categories in which Shiva and Shakti are considered

.equal. in that regimen of worship.

One: In their names. Shiva and ShivA; hamsa and hamsI; bhairava and

bhairavI; even, samaya and samayA.

Two: In their forms: KAmeshwara and KAmeshwari are both maroon in

colour, each has four hands, three eyes, the half-moon adorning their heads, the

same four weapons . bow, arrow, pAsha (noose) and ankusha (goad) -- in the

four hands.

Three: In their location: the same peak of Meru; the center of the Ocean

of nectar in MaNi-dvIpa; the same central bindu of ShrI-chakra.

Four: In their function: It is the same five-fold function . called panchakRtya

. namely, Creation, Protection, Dissolution, tirodhAna or MAyA, Grace or

anugraha leading to mokshha.

Five: In their benediction to the world.

-8-

(Digest of part of pp.699 . 737 )

A Digest of Discourses 14 on Soundaryalahari

But, though the work begins with the name of Shiva, the shAkta

school will still find in the very name of Shiva itself, the dominance of the

feminine Shakti ! In the very word .Shiva. there is the vowel .i. along with

the consonant .sh.. The vowels .I. (as in .feel.) and .i. (as in .fit.) are

themselves names of ambaal. All consonants are letters pertaining to

Shiva and all vowels pertain to Shakti. This is a general rule. In addition

the letters .I. and .i. are supposed to be the very forms of ambaal. Just as

the actionless immutable Brahman has a symbolic praNava or .Om., so

also the Brahman coupled with Shakti, the kArya-brahman, has a

symbolic seed letter called the praNava of Shiva-Shakti. And in that

praNava, the letter corresponding to Shakti is .I..

There is Vedic authority for this. Also in the ShrI sUkta the form of

ambaal as Lakshmi who resides in the heart-lotus is mentioned as

manifesting in the vowel .I. and the surrender is made to that

manifestation. Note that one of the many sanctities of the word .ShrI. is

derived from this.

Thus the first word of of the first shloka, though it begins with

Shiva is actually a propitiation to the feminine Shakti. For, from the word

.Shiva. if we remove the vowel .i. and bring the consonant .sh. to its first

position .sha., the word becomes .shava. meaning .a dead body. ! Thus

the word .shiva. gets its life from the vowel .i. , which is the seed letter for

Shakti. Also note that the popular word for .saguNa-brahman. in Vedanta

is .Ishwara., which begins with the sound .I.. This is quite in accordance

with its role as the dynamic active Lord who takes care of the creation

and propels the entire universe.

(For those who know the Tamil language

here are two more interesting observations: )

In Tamil the consonants and vowels are known as .body-letters. (mey-ezhuttu)

and .life-letters. (uyir-ezhuttu) respectively . So in the praNava of Shiva-Shakti,

the Lord corresponds to the .body-letter. and the Goddess corresponds to the

.life-letter.. And this coordinates with the thought that Shiva is the body and

Shakti is the soul.

Secondly, in Tamil parlance it is common to say: .If you have the power

(Shakti) to do this, do it; otherwise stay quiet as .shiva. (.shivane-enRu iru.) ! This

again coordinates with the thought that Shiva is the actionless substratum and

Shakti is the switch that switches everything into action!

Throughout his bhAshyas and all his minor works, our Acharya is

never tired of repeating: All worldly activities are MAyA; one should

aspire to realise and become the changeless and actionless nirguNa

Brahman. Thus the immutable ShivaM is the object of all his writing and

advice. What produces movement out of that Brahman was called MAyA

by him and he spared no pains to paint that MAyA in uncomplimentary

colors and warn us strongly against getting into her clutches.

But the very same Acharya, now, in the first shloka of

Soundaryalahari, exclaims with great admiration of Shakti (that very

same MAyA): Oh, Goddess, without you even Shiva cannot move!

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 15

How can the same person talk in two contradictory ways like this?

Which is true? If one of them is not true, can the Acharya tarnish his

name by speaking an untruth?

If you look at these things only by logic, you will not get anywhere.

The definition of Truth does not come by logic. WHATEVER WILL DO

GOOD TO WHOMSOEVER IT IS INTENDED, THAT SHOULD BE STATED

LOVINGLY; THAT IS TRUTH (SATYAM). For those who can tread the path

of jnAna, he recommended retirement from the world. For those who

have yet to evolve to that stage of spiritual maturity, he recommended

the path of Bhakti and Karma; this will make them reach the kArya-

Brahman through worldly actions of work and worship. When one does

not have an evolved attitude to a certain path, it is counterproductive to

advise him go that path. So it is not a question of being logical; it is a

question of seeing the psycho-logical (!) perspective. The ancients called it

.adhikAri-bheda., that is, difference in prerequisite qualifications.

Secondly, it is not just that he understood the psychology of

different types of seekers of spirituality and preached accordingly. It is

more. Both the advices he gave, though seemingly opposite, are .true.,

each at a particular stage of evolution. In the phenomenal world, creation

and the universe and the activator of all of them, namely, Ishwara, are all

.real. certainly. But when we enquire into the root cause of all this, we

find that the more basic Reality is the Existent Self-in-itself that is

actionless but through a miraculous magic wand of MAyA brings about

all this moving world.

Thus, when an Acharya or the scripture compares two paths or

two objects of worship and speaks of one as the better or greater of the

two, it does not always mean that the other thing, that had a lower

estimate, is worthless. That which our Acharya talked about as the thing

to be discarded, namely, perception of duality, in all his works . that

very same thing he now praises to the sky, saying that this is what you

have to hold steadfastly in the bhakti path. In one case it is duality, in

the other case it is .sva-svarUpa-anu-sandhAnaM. (remaining steadfast in

one.s own Self).

-9-

(Digest of more parts of pp.699-737)

There are two statements. One says: Even Shiva, only when

united with you, Oh Shakti, is able to monitor the whole world. And the

other statement says: The Triad formed of Hari, Hara and BrahmA

worship Shakti. Both these statements are contained in the 1st shloka.

Are Shiva and Hara different? Are they not the two names of the same

deity? Why two names, and two actions? Is one the Prime Mover

(corresponding to the word .spandituM.) and the other the one who

worships (corresponding to the word .ArAdhyAM.)? Are they not both the

same?

A Digest of Discourses 16 on Soundaryalahari

Of course, advaita says all are the same One. But the very origin of

this stotra is not to stay at the level of advaita. Everything may be the

same One ultimately, but on the surface, they are seen to be different. So

Hara is one, Shiva is another. The Shiva who is said to be .moved. is the

ShivaM enunciated as the first principle in the scriptures of the shAkta

and Shaiva schools. Hara is the .Rudra. who is in charge of the function

of dissolution among the five functions of the Almighty. .Hara. comes

from the root verb .har. to destroy, to eradicate, to nullify.

(At this point, the Maha-Swamigal begins to explain at length

the technicalities about the .five cosmic functions..

What follows is a much-condensed digest. )

It is the same paramAtmA who became the three members of the

Triad for the discharge of the three functions of Creation, Sustenance

and Dissolution. For all the three functions the power source is ambaaL,

the parA- Shakti. It is the explicitly expressed power of Brahman. So we

may call it para-brahma-Sakti. It is not only the power for the Triad but it

is the power source for the entire universe of the animate and the

inanimate. By calling it para-brahma-Shakti, let us not think it is

different from para-Brahman itself. For, when the Shakti of an entity is

separated from it, whatever it be, the very fact of its being that entity is

lost. To give a mundane example, a ten-horsepower motor loses the very

fact of motorship if the horsepower is taken away from it. Therefore the

para-brahma-Shakti is para-Brahman itself. But the para-Brahman can

also remain in itself without .exhibiting. or .exploiting. or .manifesting. its

power. When the paraBrahman so rests in itself by itself as itself, it is

known in shAkta parlance as .ShivaM..

It is from that calm nirvikAra (changeless) state of the First

Principle that we have all come to this jIva state with a mind and all its

runaway associates called the senses. Only when we merge in that

ShAnti (Peace) back again it may be said that we have reached our true

state and transcended the MAyA effect, the bondage of samsAra. That

blissful state of mokshha is so calm and peaceful because it is now the

same as being Brahman, which naturally, is calm and actionless without

exhibiting its latent Shakti. In our daily life we may observe that if

somebody is totally inactive, unresponsive and unaffected by anything,

we refer to him jocularly (at least in the Tamil world) as .para-brahmam. !

Thus we are constrained to view Shiva as .para-brahman. and

ambaaL as .para-brahma-shakti.. Though neither of them exists without

the other, we may allow ourselves the privilege of speaking of them AS IF

they are different. Without para-brahma-Shakti, the world would not be

there. Now we have to consider two more cosmic functions in addition to

the three well-known to all of us. We were nothing but the calm ShivasvarUpa

once; from that state somehow the real nature has been

forgotten and we have arrived at this ignorant state of a jIva and we find

ourselves in a revolving cycle of samsAra without the knowledge of our

true state. The power which has done this to us must also be the same

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 17

para-brahma-Shakti. And by the example of several sages and saints

who, though thrown into the vortex of samsAra like ourselves, have

obtained the Enlightenment which took them back to that mokshha

state, beyond the MAyA enchantment, it is clear that this function of

gracing the spiritually merited ones with mokshha is also done by the

para-brahma-Shakti.

These two functions are called .tirodhAna. and .anugraha.

respectively. The meaning of the root verb .tiras. is to be secretive or to

hide. It is from the verb .tiras. that the Tamil word .tirai. (meaning,

.curtain.) has come. It is MAyA that blinds the real thing from us by a

.tirai. (curtain). Just as the three functions of creation, sustenance and

dissolution have been assigned (by the para-brahma-shakti) to BrahmA,

Vishnu and Rudra (Hara), so also Her assignee for the tirodhAna function

is called .Ishvara. (also .maheshvara.) and that for the anugraha function

is called .SadAshiva.. The first three functions are subject to MAyA. This

mayic activity is in the control of Ishvara. Release from MAyA is granted

by SadAshiva.

These are the five cosmic functions. Together they are called the

five-fold activity (pancha-kRtyaM) of the Lord. This concept of panchakRtyaM

is also mentioned by the Shaiva schools. The very word panchakRtyaM

means and involves activity. And as we know, no activity is

possible without the kArya-brahman (para-brahma-shakti) coming in. So

we can take it that the original source is parA-shakti. She does it

through the five agents of Hers, namely the five forms of divinity

mentioned above. The shAnta (calm) ShivaM in its nascent state cannot

act. When action takes place it takes place through parA-shakti in the

form of the five-fold functions. ShivaM by itself does not produce the

action. But it is in ShivaM, the paraBrahman, that the first vibration for

action sprouts, by its own Shakti. But even before the action there must

have been a will. This will is called the icchA-Shakti. On the basis of this

icchA -- the first wish, as it may be called, and the Upanishad also says:

.akAmayata. .the kriyA-shakti (the power of Action) begins the panchakRtya-

leelA. Thus, what was the paraBrahman by itself in itself, willed to

.become.. It is for this divine will that the Upanishad uses the word

.kAma., meaning desire. This .desire. is not to be taken in any derogatory

sense. It is pure Divine Will from Being to Becoming. Thus the first

evolute from Brahman is this divine kAma. So the Shakti that is the

origin of this is called KAmeshvari and the ShivaM in which this kAma

sprouted is therefore called KAmeshwara.

-10-

(Digest of pp.699-737 contd.)

The first evolute from Brahman is the .desire. (kAmaM) that the

leelA of the manifestation of the universe should take place. So the

A Digest of Discourses 18 on Soundaryalahari

.KAmeshvara-KAmeshvari. evolute is the first couple. She (KAmeshvari)

might later be called .LalitAmbaal. or .RAja-RAjeshvari. but He

(KAmeshvara) is never called .Laliteshvara. or .RAja-RAjeshvara.. Again

She is .tripura-sundari. . which name is the origin for the titling of this

composition as .Soundaryalahari. , but there is no .tripurasundara. .

All these latter names of Shakti have come because She is the

Creator, Monitor and Queen of this entire universe. That is why, as soon

as the lalitA-sahasranAma begins with the name .ShrI-mAta., the next

two names are .Shri-mahArAjnI., and .ShrImat-simhAsaneshvarI.. For

these two names there is no masculine counterpart of the name.

When Brahman .chose. to become saguNa-Brahman, the initial

spark was that .desire. to become. So the KAmeshvari-KAmeshvara

couple arose and is rightly named so. The panchakRtya is for the world

to arise and go on from there. Thus the desire to produce multiplicity out

of Herself is the kAmaM. But along with this desire is also the act (in the

form of MAyA) of .separating. the created multiplicity from the reality of

the Creator. Is this not then a cruel desire? # The ultimate aim is to bring

back everything into the source. Then why do it at all? That is the

Cosmic Play. The very .desire. to exhibit into a multiplicity is based on

the joy of bringing back everything together into the one and only source.

The para-brahma-Shakti exhibits itself into five functions. Thus we

have a five-fold aspect of brahma-Shakti, created by itself from itself. So

these five aspects are represented in a peculiar form where KAmeshvari

is sitting on the left lap of KAmeshvara. The seat on which they are

sitting facing the East, has four legs, namely Brahma (Creation), Vishnu

(Sustenance), Shiva (Dissolution), and Ishvara (mAyic curtain); the seat

itself is SadAshiva (mokshha-anugraha). These five are called the five

.Brahman-s. . And this explains the name .panca-brahma-Asana-sthitA.

for the Goddess.

There is also another name .panca-preta-Asana-Aseena. meaning

.She who is seated on the seat of five .preta-s. . preta, meaning .dead

body. --. The .Brahman-s. of the earlier name are here called .preta-s,

because, if the five functions had not been assigned to them, they are

nothing, - like the motor without the horsepower ! Even for KAmeshvara,

she is the life-giving Shakti and therefore the name .KAmeshvara-prANanADI

. which occurs both in Lalita-sahasranama and in Trishati.

Now let us come to the word .spandituM.. The hara-rudra has been

assigned the duty of samhAra, this is a .full duty., so to say. On the other

hand, the Shiva that is the absolute Brahman has just been .moved. .

moved from within! This movement is the .spandanaM.. The ShivaM was

like a calm, ripple-less, vibration-less peaceful lake; and in that lake, the

first ripple, the first vibration, the first movement took place in the form

of .kAmaM.. The agent for this was the cit-Shakti of Brahman itself. She,

the cit-Shakti, not only became two, namely the willing power (icchAby

Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 19

Shakti), and the acting power (kriyA-Shakti), but made the icchA rise in

Brahman itself and this .making. was itself Her first act of creation!

Let us analyze this still further. Before someone .desires. he should

first recognize that he .is.. When we are in deep sleep we don.t desire. So

the event of .desire. rising in Brahman, must be preceded by the

awareness of self-existence. Brahman was just existing in itself, but was

it .aware. that it was existing as such? The very event of cognition . by

Brahman, as it were - that .I am Brahman. is itself an act of the

.spandana.-effect of Shakti.

This .experience. of Brahman of the act of recognizing itself has a

technical name in Vedanta. It is .parAhantA.. .ahantA. is the thought .I

am.. When we wrongly think that our real .I. is body-mind-intellect, it is

called .ahantA. . the word derived from .ahaM.. When the supreme

Absolute, which is the origin of all the .aham.s in the world, thinks of

itself as .I. it is supreme .ahantA., that is, para-ahantA. In devotional

literature, it is customary to call parAShakti the parAhantA form of

ShivaM and thus arises the name .parAhantA-svarUpiNI. for ambaal.

Indeed the .feeling of I-ness. that arises in the immutable

Brahman, is the spandana caused by Shakti and that is what personifies

her. Our Acharya brings this effectively by using the word .AhopurushhikA

. in Sloka #7. The word means that She is the personification

of the thought .I am Brahman. of Brahman !

The shAkta school conception of Shiva and Shakti sometimes

appears to involve a duality there. Thus they contend that it is Shakti

that caused the movement. Acharya.s shloka also seems to say so. But

the Acharya, while appearing to be talking .dvaita. he has built his

advaita into it by using the word spandanaM. In what was Knowledge-

Absolute, the thought of .I. arose from within. This internal pulsation is

the spandanaM. The word is very precisely placed here. Because

.spandanaM. by its very meaning negates anything external. It is

internally caused. Something like what you say in modern science about

the central nucleus bursting of its own accord.

But even the shAkta schools cannot place Shiva and Shakti as two

separate things. Because Shiva and Shakti are like the lamp and its light,

the flower and its fragrance, honey and its sweetness, milk and its

whiteness, word and its meaning. Thus they cannot be separated from

each other. Even though the credit for the spandanaM is given to Shakti,

it is not as if She and He are separate. This mutual dependence of the

two should be kept in our mind always.

-11-

(Digest of pp.737-743)

The mutuality of Shiva and Shakti should be in our minds all the

time. When hard core ideas from philosophy are made into poetic

A Digest of Discourses 20 on Soundaryalahari

extravaganzas, both for the poetic excellence and for the liberties taken

with a view to making the devotees revel in their devotion, it is natural to

exaggerate or make out-of-the-way comparisons. Thus at one time it may

be said that Shiva is greater than Shakti and at another time quite the

opposite. In every one of these presentations one should not forget the

equality, nay, the identity of the two. Keeping this clearly in his mind,

our Acharya, though he built into the first shloka the idea that it was

Shakti who made Shiva move, he takes care to see that the prodding for

the .movement. does not come from outside. She is inside Him and

therefore the word .spandanaM..

In Kashmir Saivism this internal spandanaM is emphasized very

well. Though we call it Kashmir Shaivism, the propagators of that

philosophy did not give it that name. .Trika-shaivam. is its name. For it

focusses on three principles; pashu, pati and pAshaM. .pratyabijnAshAstra

. is also another name for the same. To know the fact that Shiva

principle is Atman is pratyabijnA. The literal meaning of .pratyabijnA. is

.to know a thing truly as it is.. Another name for this school of philosophy

is .spanda-shAstra. !

According to that shAstra, Shiva and Shakti together form the

paraBrahman. All the universe is a reflection of that paraBrahman. By

saying this it does not mean that the reflection is outside of Brahman.

Nor does it think of a .kevala-shivam. ( ShivaM and ShivaM alone) that

has no connection with the universe. Since the paraBrahman, according

to this school, is shiva as well as Shakti, the reflection (AbhAsa) is due to

the presence of Shakti. And even then, it is not like light and its

reflection, wherein we think of the reflection outside of the light. # There

can be nothing outside of Shakti. Siva-Shakti is one. Within that one

there comes an internal spandanaM and the duality is presented. Again

the presentation is not outside of Brahman. Just as a reflection shows

itself in the mirror, there is nothing outside of the mirror. The word

.spanda. is exploited in Kashmir Shaivism to establish two things. One is

that the universe is not outside of Brahman and two, Shakti itself is not

an external action on Brahman. Shakti is abhinnam . non-separate .

from ShivaM.

Among the various shaiva darshanas, what comes nearest to our

Acharya.s advaita is this spanda-shAstra. On mokshha both say the

same thing. But instead of saying that the universe is mithyA, created by

MAyA, this school includes not only MAyA as well as the Ishvara of

advaita vedanta in their Shakti. According to them there are 36

fundamentals. Of these ShivaM is the first and Shakti is the next. But

immediately they say that the ShivaM which is .sat. (Existence) has

always the .cit-shakti. within it. Therefore ShivaM is sat-cit. The Ananda

appears when the play of reflection, producing the universe, starts as a

sport.

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 21

In order to accommodate those who cannot take the strenuous

jnAna-path of advaita, our Acharya has adopted in this work of bhakti,

the concepts of spandanaM and those of pashu, pati and pAshaM from

the shaiva shAstras. In shloka #99 he says: He who worships ambaal,

throws off the attachment (pAshaM) to the animal self (pashu) and enjoys

the nectar of the bliss of param-Ananda. Obviously when composing the

SoundaryalaharI. he must have had in mind several objectives, such as:

This hymn to Ambal should raise Her to the skies so that in the

devotees it should generate bhakti towards Her exclusively (ananyabhakti);

it should reach the pinnacle of poetical excellences and respect

all poetic traditions; it should also be concordant with the religious

traditions of Shri-vidyA-tantra; even though it may not stress the advaita

point of view exclusively, since anyway ShRI-vidyA and advaita are not

discordant, it should be able to touch upon advaita though tangentially.

Instead of saying that the Acharya had these objectives we might say

that ambaal had already predetermined his objectives for him.

Even though these are the basic purposes which we see have all

been fulfilled in the hymn, it should be said to the credit of our Acharya

that, because of his steadfast holding to advaita, and of his great respect

for Shri-vidyA, and of his natural poetic talent, he did not regiment

himself as to be circumscribed by preconceived limitations. It is our

good fortune that he allowed his talent and imagination to express itself

freely and soar as high as it liked. Such a freedom has resulted in one of

the most excellent hymns which excels in poetry, in mysticism, in

devotion, in spirituality and in religious tradition. And in this process,

the flood of ideas that gushed forth from him includes without bias some

of the philosophical concepts and thoughts that came to the forefront,

long after his time, like those of Saiva-siddhanta, Kashmir Shaivism,

visishTAdvaita, and dvaita.

The schools that I just mentioned of course took their present form

only after the time of our Acharya. But the original ideas from which

these schools sprang were there from earliest times. In fact advaita also

had its origin long before our Acharya. But it was he who streamlined it

and presented it as a siddhAnta. In the same way the Acharyas of the

other schools who came only later to our Acharya, pulled out the ideas

which were already there and established their siddhantas. It is the

greatness of Adi Shankara that he was able to see the other points of

view also by his erudition and farsight even before they had been

established as a popular school.

-12-

(Digest of pp.743-760)

I was saying that our Acharya, had included ideas from the nonadvaita

schools also. These ideas as well as those of advaita had their

A Digest of Discourses 22 on Soundaryalahari

origin long before their chief proponents propagated them formally as a

siddhanta. So Soundarya lahari being a work of bhakti leaning a little on

the side of the Shakta schools, has these ideas also in it. It talks about

the .spandanaM. of brahma-Shakti and praises, in superlative terms,

the Shakti that caused it. But there is no such idea of .spandanaM. in the

advaita shAstra of Adi Shankara.

The Brahman of advaita is motionless, and changeless. This

immutable Brahman was, according to advaita, neither moved from

outside nor perturbed from the inside. The multiple presentations that

resulted through the Creation process was just due to MAyA, which, with

the base (adhAra) of Brahman, somehow initiated it. It is only an

appearance according to advaita and that is why MAyA is criticised and

recommended to be negated. Our Atman is nothing but that very nirguNa

Brahman. If we do not know it, it is because MAyA has done its work of

hiding the Reality from us.

But it is that very same MAyA that the Soundaryalahari now has

taken to the skies and praised as Shakti, as a power greater than even

the Triad of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Though it does not use the

word .MAyA. here, it uses the word .Shakti. and from the very fact that

Shakti is the root cause for creation of the universe, it is clear it must be

the same as the MAyA of advaita.

In advaita the nirguNa Brahman is unrelated to the saguNa

Brahman which produces and monitors the whole universe by MAyA

Shakti. For, nirguNa Brahman just is; it can never be related to or

predicated with anything. The miraculous way in which MAyA exhibits

that Brahman, as Brahman with name and form and all the associated

multiplicity, is analogous to the way we see in a dimly lit twilight the

appearance of a snake in a rope. Clearly there is no relationship between

the appearing snake and the rope which is the support for the

appearance.

However, the ShAktaM that the Acharya projects to us has a MAyA

Shakti which is not unrelated to Brahman. There is no brahma-Shakti

talked about in advaita. Here in ShAktaM, it is brahma-Shakti that is

important. That is the ambaal. One of her aspects is the magic wand of

MAyA. Not only that. She is Herself the jnAna-Shakti (the power of

cognitive self-recognition) which is diametrically opposite to MAyA; and

further it is the icchA Shakti (the power of wilful self-emanation) and

kriyA Shakti (the power of creative act) also. She stands inseparable

from the ShivaM which is the nirguNa Brahman of ShAktaM which,

however, is a shade different from the nirguNa Brahman of advaita.

The identity of Shiva-Shakti is important here. Identity does not

mean just a union. It is a total oneness. It is identity in the sense there is

only one. Being one and only one is what is called .AikyaM. or identity.

In Lalita Sahasranama, after calling Her Shivaa, the next name is Shiva-

Shaktyaikya-rUpiNI. This Shiva is only a close fit to the Brahman of

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 23

advaita. So, unionizing with Him, and relating with Him, .moving. Him,

She has done as a couple, all the Creation of the Universe and the

monitoring of it. Whenever there is a Shakti , there must be a locus

standi (AshrayaM, Base) for it. The concept of, say, a Shakti of ten

pounds of weight does not arise unless there is something to which the

weight can be related or referenced. A fragrance or a colour is certainly

an abstract Shakti, but it has to have an Ashrayam for it to exist as a

fragrance or a colour. Thus for every Shakti there is an Ashrayam. The

Shakti that is the origin for all the known Shaktis has itself an Ashrayam

and that is the ShivaM-Brahman. It is the Shakti of that Brahman. So it

cannot be separated from its Ashrayam. You cannot separate the

whiteness from milk, or the taste of milk from milk. So by the expansion

of Shakti whatever happens there is ShivaM also in that expansion. In

all actions of Shakti, ShivaM has to be present.

When Shakti, the ambaal, grants mokshha to the jIva, the jIva

attains the changeless nirguNa state, say the Shakta works like the ShrividyA.

Even then that nirguNa state has also the Shakti in it!. It is said

that Shakti itself revels in enjoyment of bliss in its own creation of the

universe of duality. But it is not even right to say that the play of

creation is for enjoyment. Because if you accept this, it would mean

that when there is no creation, Shakti is without that bliss! So instead of

saying that She indulges in Creation for enjoyment of bliss, we should

rather say that it is the very Bliss that is part of Her that exhibits itself

as the creation.

Let me now explain the subtle difference between the MAyA of

advaita and the different Shaktis of the Shaiva and shAkta schools.

Starting from the ShivaM-Brahman, they talk of 36 principles.According

to the Shaiva-siddhanta school, the first five are called pure .MAyA. and

the latter 31 belong to the category of impure .MAyA.

ShivaM is the first. Next there come three different Shaktis,

namely, cit-shakti, jnAna-shakti, vidyA-shakti. These correspond to three

different dimensions of cit. When it pertains to the non-dual shiva-

Shakti, it is cit. When it pertains to the seed-knowledge of duality for the

purpose of creation it is called jnAna. In the next stage it is aware both of

its non-dual state and its potential for the sprouting out into multiplicity,

and then it is called (pure) vidyA. After these three, come the next, now

the fifth in order, namely the kriyA Shakti which is the executing part.

Only thereafter, starting from the sixth principle, it is MAyA and all its

evolutes.

All this importance given to Shakti in the Shaiva and Shakta

schools is avoided in advaita, with all the evoluted appearances from

Brahman being branded as the effect of MAyA and we being asked to

discredit them.

But even in the way the Shaiva and Shakta schools go, the

question can be asked; Somehow or other, it is the hierarchy of these

A Digest of Discourses 24 on Soundaryalahari

Shaktis that bind us to this samsAra. Why then praise that Shakti and

worship it with hymns like Soundaryalahari?

This is the key question. The answer is, MAyA Shakti even in the

Shakta schools does not end there. It is also the jnAna Shakti as we saw

above. And the bottomline of it all is that this same Shakti as jnAna

Shakti graces us with Knowledge and Enlightenment in the end. And in

the meantime She shows Infinite Love towards us in order to take us

back into her fold. That is the greatest anugraha that She does for us.

And that is why we worship Her and pray to Her for Release.

-13-

(Digest of pp.760 -766)

(The Maha-Swamigal devotes one more discourse now on mAyA;

now dwelling on the status of mAyA in advaita,

vis-à-vis, the path to Enlightenment )

All the ShAkta schools, adopt an interesting strategy with respect

to MAyA. Whatever bondage is created by MAyA, they make it all related

to the divine. Though jnAna and MAyA are at opposite ends, the very

world, mind and senses created by MAyA are channelised into Love and

the pure Beauty of the Mother Goddess, so that one is blissfully involved

in the worship and prayers aimed at Her. Once the mind is unified in

this noble direction, it is then not difficult to get involved into enquiry

about the Self.

Thus our Acharya also has adopted the same strategy of going

towards jnAna by resorting to the very objects created by that which is

opposite to jnAna. In other words, the thought of God, worship, listening

to stories about His glory, temple worship, getting emotionally

enraptured in stotra recitation, raising the tempo of spiritual involvement

by continuous japa leading to the correct mood for meditation . these

constitute the means by which one follows the bhakti path thus

preparing oneself for the path of jnAna that is the ultimate. And hence

the Saundaryalahari.

The mAyic effect cannot be easily discarded. A tremendous amount

of discretion (viveka) and dispassion (vairAgya) might be needed. In the

absence of these the distractions of the sensory world will be constantly

pulling us away. And when such pulls are very strong, one should not

despair of the hopelessness in making progress in spirituality. It is for

this reason that the Acharya, without asking us to discard the mayic

effects totally, as he would do to a more spiritually mature seeker, asks

us to get involved in bhakti, puja, worship, devotional recitation and

music. If everything of the world is made to relate to the divine in this

way, the MAyA-created world can be gradually won over. It is like using a

certain type of gloves when working with high voltage electricity. The

shock of the system will not be there and at the same time one has a

control over it.

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 25

What I am going to tell you now may surprise you in that it comes

from me. I was talking about the mAyic creations. They provide the

background for the spiritual sAdhanA. There is a sAdhanA, a sAdhaka,

and the karma of sAdhanA. This triplet is certainly all MAyA. So what we

do is to use MAyA itself to fight MAyA. This is indeed a strategy to reach

advaita-bhAva. The very fact of a guru teaching you is nothing but

Duality. But that itself can lead to advaita-siddhi. Like a lion roaring in

the dream and waking you up, so also the mayic dream in which we are

all in can be wiped off by a guru.s words doled out in the world of

duality.

Granting that the very act of .sAdhanA. implies duality, the

Acharya, does not hesitate to bring in, into his stotras, the many

sAdhanAs that have goals even contradictory to advaita. When every

propitiation of the divine is certainly a dvaita act, why shy at the rituals

of the non-advaita schools? So without reservation he allows his

imagination to go the path of other siddhAntas also. That is why, we

hear in Soundaryalahari, ideas from dvaita, visishTAdvaita, shaivam and

ShAktaM.

Another important point has to be mentioned. Since all creation is

MAyA, according to advaita, it is not to be thought that advaita avoids all

talk about Shakti. In Chandogya Upanishad, at one point, it says: The

paramAtmA is full of all karmas, all desires, all fragrance and all tastes.

It desired . .akAmayata. .and that is how the One became the Many as

said in Taittiriyopanishad. Not finding any satisfaction in being alone, it

wanted a partner and this desire resulted in it becoming two as pati and

patni . so says Brihad-Aranyakopanishad (I -4- 3 ). Those two were the

father and mother of the entire human race, according to the same

Upanishad.

The BrahmasUtra (II-1-30) also says: .sarvopetA ca tad-darshanAt.

. The Upanishads say that the paramAtman is thus endowed with all

Shakti.

Our Acharya does not just gloss over such statements. Just

because they talk about MAyA he does not overlook their mention. In his

bhAshya he emphatically says: .shakti-yuktA parA devatA.. Since he

himself has defined MAyA as anirvacanIya (that which is inexpressible

or unexplainable), he is not afraid of questions like: .Where did the Shakti

come from.. In the matter of Brahman one cannot ask questions like

.How is it possible?. in the same manner as one would ask when being

presented with material matter and worldly concepts. The profound and

majestic truths about Brahman cannot be learnt by logical quibbling, but

only by what the Vedas have declared. (Brahma-sUtra-bhAshya: II . 1 .

31).

Therein he says: The talk of creation arises only when, instead of

being in that samAdhi state as Brahman, we begin to think and talk

about Brahman. When the nirguna Brahman which is nothing but pure

A Digest of Discourses 26 on Soundaryalahari

cit, is talked about in relation to Creation which is just avidya-kalpitam

(imagined by ignorance), it is said to have .sarva-Shakti-yogam. says the

Acharya. .Shivas-ShaktyA yuktah. is just this !

Following this the Brahma sutra says: .lokavattu leelA kaivalyam.

(II.1-33). The world creation is just leelA. The Acharya concludes his

bhAshhya on this with the words: .When the vedas talk about srishTi, it

is not about the nirguNa absolute Brahman. It is only a view, name-andform

view, of Duality imagined by ignorance ; it is only a phenomenal

reality.. But though he goes in this strain, he also admires the leelA of

the Lord. .It may appear as a great achievement from our angle . this

Creation . but for Him it is only just a play. !

-14-

(Digest of pp.766-774)

There is also the Upanishad authority for saying that the non-dual

Brahman sprouts out the world of duality by sheer internal vibration.

This is in Katopanishad. All this world arises from the life force called

prANa and moves thereon. The word for .moves. that is used is .Ejati..

EjanaM and KampanaM both mean movement, but not by any external

force. We may also interpret it as vibration from the inside. Brahma sUtra

also uses the word .kampanAt.. When the Acharya writes the bhAshhya

for this he writes: This prANa which causes the vibration is not simple

air. It is the very Brahman itself !

(It is to be noted that in this portion of the bhAshya,

Adi Sankara has used the very words .spandam. and .pratyabhijnA.,

which are the words for Kashmir Shaivism,

without anywhere hinting that the words come from there.)

We can get many more such authorities to confirm that as far as

the phenomenal reality is concerned, there is a creation with MAyA as

the cause. Whenever these passages occur, they also concur with many

of the thoughts of the shAkta scriptures.

Let us not think that the Acharya.s outpourings in the

Soundaryalahari is just a mixture of several viewpoints! We should keep

an open mind and let ourselves go along with the flood of poetry that

comes and simply concentrate in the ambaal with faith and humility.

Then we can get the maximum joy out of it.

(Now follows a general, but remarkable, advice of the Maha-Swamigal on

.How to approach the Soundaryalahari. . )

When the scriptures or shAstras talk about deep philosophical

principles which have themselves a divine character, they present certain

descriptions allegorically. We should not misunderstand these allegories.

In fact the word .allegory. itself is not the right word here. When esoteric

principles are deliberately personified, that is .allegory.. The profound

ideas of the purANas or the shAstras are not just mental creations of the

author. It is parAShakti Herself who opens out those principles in those

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 27

forms to great rishis or persons who have reached the siddhi in the

mantras.

If this world is taken to be real, then more real are the principles

and stories that help us throw off our shackles and reach our True State.

Even today if we can do the japas and dhyAnas in the proper manner,

and melt our hearts in intense devotion, those forms can be seen as we

see each other in the outside world. And when such divine sights occur

our ordinary views of each other would pale into insignificance. The Love

and Bliss that such sights generate will take us to the realisation of the

Ultimate. Therefore it is not right to say that everything is an allegory.

To get back to what I was saying earlier, these divine forms which

personify esoteric fundamentals, might contradict what we consider to

be normal, right, decent, and beautiful in the ordinary mundane world.

Just because of that it is not correct to conclude that the original reality

itself is not right, decent and beautiful.

Similar things can be said of the poetic traditions and the culture

of classic literature. Or even of sculpture, painting or architecture.

In all these, our norms cannot be the standards of ordinary

worldly life. Works like Soundarylahari, which are simultaneously

devotionally divine hymns and poetic excellences, have to be approached

in the right manner in order to obtain the fullest benefit from them. Our

minds have to be open and clean. The Shri-vidyA shAstras describe in

esoterically romantic terms how Shiva, who is nothing but the Absolute

Brahman, coupled with KAmeshvari, the personification of the icchA

(Will) of Shiva, cause creation to happen. Such matters occur in

Soundaryalahari also.

All these years the upAsakAs (intense devotees) without any

prejudice followed the path of ShrI-vidyA and have been able to discard

all the faults like desire and the like. And Muka-kavi puts this with

poetic emphasis in his Pancha-Shati: .Mother, you caused .desire. to rise

even in Shiva who burnt to ashes the very desire personified in the form

of Manmatha; that is why You are able to eradicate the internal faults

like desire in jIvas and give them Enlightenment..

The punchline here is the fact that our people of ancient times had

the right approach to such works of art, poetry and devotion. The Gurushishhya-

paramparA took care to see that such works were handed over

only to those who could be expected to have the right approach.

Whether the work was religious or poetical, mystical or secular, they

would, when communicating with the public, only touch such delicate

works and not elaborate upon them in detail. Accordingly, when the

common man meets with any situation wherein there is an idea,

concept, story or character, apparently repugnant to him, he does not

get distracted, because his main aim always was to take only those

things which suited his taste and which were recommended to him by

elders.

A Digest of Discourses 28 on Soundaryalahari

Thousands of years have passed like this. And our people have

followed the traditional paths without ever giving place to indecent

imaginations or wrong interpretations. The common man knew that

there must be some sense in those deep and profound things because

great men say so and he would not unnecessarily probe into them. Not

that he was not rational-minded; it only means that he had an

unshaking faith in tradition and also he was aware of his own

limitations.

But then the printing press arrived; and times changed. ..

-15-

(Digest of pp.774-793)

The printing press came as a revolution. And it became the order of

the day for anybody to write on anything, publish and put it in the hands

of anybody. One of the earliest effects was that profound ideas got

mundane interpretations in the hands of the uninitiated. As independent

human beings each one felt that whatever strikes his mind is right and

each one made his own interpretations. Neither the authors of books had

the strength of practice behind them; nor the readers had any intention

to try and experience what they read. Several readers were just curious

and nothing more. Or they were interested in a so-called .academic

research. mostly for purposes of self-glorification and recognition in the

material world. How can any spiritual benefit arise from these?

Thus arose two major setbacks in the culture. The first one is that

those who were traditionally equipped to do the upAsanAs and were also

fit to do them, preferred the glamour of modern days to break off from

their traditions. And the second one is that all and sundry took to these

difficult upAsanAs without proper guru or training. It is not clear, I must

confess, which is the major disaster.

I know that I may be criticised and commented that I have a

.vested interest. in saying all this. But having started to talk on

Soundaryalahari publicly, I cannot but give you this warning. Let me

conclude by saying that there is nothing wrong in approaching shAstras

like Soundaryalahari as an aid to get Mother Goddess.s Grace and

thereby to go upward in the spiritual ladder. It is enough you know that

it is great. Just with that approach if you recite it, ambaal will give you

the necessary mental strength and maturity to reach higher levels of

spirituality. Automatically the ultimate object of realisation would also be

obtained by Her Grace.

The mantras and their esoteric meanings have to be safeguarded

like nuclear secrets. If you really want to get them, approach the proper

guru and if he thinks you have the requisite qualifications he will tell

you. In this connection I will tell you an important matter. I am touching

it, so that you may not .touch. it ! The name KunDalini and all the

associated cakras are being talked about by every one now, especially

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 29

ever since Sir John Woodroffe wrote about .The Serpent Power.. I am not

finding fault with him. I only thank him for bringing to light the fact that

our ancients had great things to tell the world in spite of modern

advances in science. My only warning to you is that without a proper

initiation no mantra or japam will help anybody. It is like having costly

electrical and electronic equipment in your house without a power

connection. The same thing with these mantras and KunDalini yoga.

Without the guru power they will not work.

That is not the only thing. There is more in it. The power that

comes through these electrical words of the mantras, can also give you a

shock because you may not be properly insulated. Only when it comes

from the guru, it gets properly secreted within bounds; if it exceeds the

bounds, that is if the insulation is not there, it will only burn you ! My

own suggestion to book-writers is that when they publish such things,

let there be a popular edition which avoids the profound matters of

mantra secret. And let there be a limited circulation book which does get

into those secrets, but such .classified. books must be made available

only with the authorization of the proper guru. I think, from my platform,

it is my duty to say this.

Finally what is wanted is a rapport with the author. A devotee, a

poet and a vidhushaka (the Royal Fool or Clown in the King.s Court) .

these three have a great licence to do or write what they want. Of these

our Acharya was both a devotee and a poet. So there is a bhakti-bhAva in

everything he writes and there is also a poetic licence exhibited in pieces

like the Soundaryalahari. In classical literature, there is always a

respectable status for this freedom which a poetic or devotional piece

enjoys. Of the many such licences we can refer here to nindA stuti (where

you actually criticise the deity you are supposed to praise), praise one of

the divine couple to the extent of bringing down the other of the pair and

so on. If we look at these with a humility and an open mind for poetic

exaggeration, we may also enjoy them. Now come to the first shloka.

Shiva is the husband and ambaal is the wife. It is only by Her

power that even He moves . this is the content of the first shloka. One

might ask: Just to boost up the glory of Mother Goddess does one have

to descend to such a level as to bring God Himself to the level of saying

that He is simply a nonentity? The esoteric principle here is that the

immutable Brahman expresses itself only by the unfolding of the cit-

Shakti. The poetic principle involved here is that the beloved, being the

fair sex, is always to be given the credit and so .He moves only when She

moves Him. is also acceptable. Thus on both counts, the presentation is

enjoyable.

A Digest of Discourses 30 on Soundaryalahari

-16-

(Digest of pp.794 . 802)

Now let us come to modern Science and see whether there is any

correlation with the set of ideas relating to ShivaM and Shakti. Matter is

inert and its nature is inertia. But we know that inert matter undergoes

internal changes and in due course evolves into more complicated matter

and finally the universe itself. What is the power which made inert

matter non-inert?

(These talks of the Maha-Swamigal

probably date back to the thirties or the forties

of the 20th century ! )

In atomic science they talk about the interconvertibility of matter

and energy. This energy is our Shakti. This is what makes inert matter

non-inert. So ShivaM, the immutable Brahman, has to be compared to

the .inert matter. of science; but the comparison is not right since,

Brahman is consciousness so not jaDam (that which has no

consciousness), whereas inert matter of science is jaDam. Further, in

the convertibility of matter into energy there is a difference for, when

matter becomes energy, the matter that has become energy is now not

there as matter. But in our philosophies, when energy shoots forth from

ShivaM, the ShivaM still remains the same ShivaM.

After the Relativity theory of Einstein, science has come nearer to

advaita vedanta and the ShAkta schools. Time and Space are relative

concepts, as far as I have understood these scientific theories. Brahman

is the only absolute. Everything else is relative, says vedanta. Anything

that appears as real, does so because it is resting on the Brahmancanvas.

This appearance as reality, is the relativity of science and the

MAyA of advaita Vedanta. Science which talks of the relativeness, does

not say what is the absolute. The only absolute is Brahman , according to

our religious scriptures as well as philosophical schools. Though western

knowledge makes a distinction between religion and philosophy,

SanAtana dharma does not make any distinction between the two. In it

the two are inseparable like Shiva and Shakti ! And that Absolute has

been experienced as Atman by our great sages. That is the soul of all

souls.

But this fact has evaded science. Even if the scientists one day

accept it in theory, they will have to say .its .proof. is not within our

jurisdiction; go to the shAstra of Spirituality to know it.. Science can

explain, through its laws, only certain .movements. of the grand cosmic

dance of parAShakti; whereas it is incapable of showing a path for

becoming the Absolute by quelling the live Mind that vibrates in an

integrated way together with all the vibrations of the universe. Nor is it

the goal of Science. Only religious scriptures can show you the way. But

even then, the final gates will be opened only by ambaal. Who else,

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 31

except the One who originally separated us from the Absolute, can

reunite us with that Absolute?

It is unfair on our part to find fault with science for what is beyond

science. In the same way protagonists of science must realise that there

is a limit to their scientific quest. They have no right to say that what

transcends their science is wrong or false. That the two are

complementary must be felt by both sides. It will be fascinating to

discover that several scientific truths have been enunciated, though in a

different way, by some of our scriptural findings.

Why not think of the proton with a positive charge in the centre of

the nucleus, as Shiva and the electron with the negative charge that goes

round, as ambaal?

There is a .still center. for everything which is its peaceful center.

Even though it has no vibration it is not the emptiness nor it is of zero

potential. The equilibrium which we aim at when we weigh a weight, is

this still center. Every object has a center of gravity. Even in a dreadful

storm, there is a .storm center.. Always the energy radiates from such a

center and that is why movement and action are produced. It is that

center which may be called ShivaM and the energy that radiates from it

and revolves about it is ambaal.

When something is positive and the other is negative, it does not

appear to be equivalent. So to arrive at equivalence there is another way

of looking at it. Instead of saying that one is in the center and the other

revolves around it, think of each as half and half. That is the ardhanArIshvara

form. The right side is Shiva (positive), and the left side,

ambaal (negative). This may be justified by the fact that the heart is on

the left side and supplies the .life. for the entire body. If it does not work

properly, the right side also cannot work: na khalu kushalaH spanditum

api, as the shloka 1 says.

(The Mahaswamigal goes on like this irrepressibly !

It must be enjoyed in the original of Ra Ganapathy.s volumes. )

Another observation about .left. and .right.. What is .right. in the

original is shown as .left. in the reflection. And what is .left., becomes the

.right.. The non-dual nirguNa-brahman-Consciousness when it gets

reflected in the mirror of MAyA, becomes the saguNa brahman that

creates and monitors the dualities of the universe. This is an accepted

principle of the advaita school. In other words IT IS SHIVA THAT GETS

REFLECTED IN MAYA AND BECOMES THE AMBAAL!

(Emphasis mine . VK)

-17-

Om Tat Sat

(Continued)

(My humble salutations to  the lotus feet of Sri Sankaracharya  and  Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi  Mahaswami ji and  Humble gratefulness to great Devotees   for the collection)