Soundaryalahari -2 (A Digest of Kanchi Mahaswamigal.s Discourses)

Soundaryalahari  

(A Digest of Kanchi Mahaswamigal.s Discourses)

 

(Digest of pp.802 - 820)

I was saying: It is Shiva Himslf who gets reflected in the mirror of

MAyA and becomes ambaal. If you ask the advaitin, .What is this MAyA.,

he will reply: .It is not possible to say what it is. You know it is called

A Digest of Discourses 32 on Soundaryalahari

MAyA, magical ! So it will not allow us to understand it.. The ShAkta

school will say: .Even MAyA is only a part of ambaal... I already told you

that MAyA occurs only at the stage where ShivaM becomes the jIva,

according to ShAktaM. That the jIva does not know that it is itself

ShivaM, is MAyA. It is the work of MAyAShakti that makes it

incomprehensible for jIva to know the Permanent Eternal One and

mistake the ephemeral things as permanently existing.

It is at this point that the object and its reflected image analogy

leads to the positive and negative. What we said earlier pertained to

electricity. But now we shall take the positive-negative phenomenon of

photography. In the positive, light is light and dark is dark. In the

negative on the other hand, light is dark and dark is light. That is the

Ignorance which shows what exists as not existing and non-existence as

existence. This is the handiwork of MAyA ! We are all submerged in this

MAyA and since ambaal is responsible for this, we call Her, MAyA.

But to top it all, we should not forget that, the very ambaal who

does all this play of MAyA, is Herself the Most Compassionate One, and

those of us who can surrender to Her as the Only Refuge, will be graced

by Her and made to cross the MAyA-curtain !

Now we can make the meaning of the first shloka more

meaningful.The very fact that the Acharya says that it was ambaal who

activated the first movement in ShivaM gives a clear hint to us, that the

reverse movement of the universe going back to that immutable ShivaM

has again to be triggered only by Her Grace.

All the movements which resulted in the jIvas and the universe

coming up are together called (cosmic) evolution. This is not Darwin.s

evolution. In his case it is something where lower level beings transform

in due time to higher levels. In Vedanta, the Brahman at the apex

expands into the universe and living beings. This outward expansion of

subtle principles into gross matter is called evolution. The principles are

taken to be 36 by some and 24 by some. Having become the jIvas, our

goal should now be to go back to the source. That going back is

mokshha.

All the things in the expanded mode have to get back into the

internal mode and merge in Brahman. That is ascent (ArohaNam). The

descent of jIvas and the universe from Brahman is avarohaNam. The

terms .expansion. and .merging. seem to be better. Expansion of Brahman

is Evolution and the merging into Brahman is .Involution.. All of us have

evolved from Brahman; not by ourselves but by the Will and Action of

ambaal. We cannot involve into Brahman except by Her Will and Grace.

Even though, in her cosmic Play, She seems to have given us a role for

ourselves, we can never complete the .Involution. without Her Grace. The

electrical switch makes the fan rotate. Only the same switch can stop it

from rotating. Thus the same Cause which made us evolve has to work

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 33

again to make us involute into Brahman. So we have to pray to Her. This

is where bhakti, jnAna and yoga come in.

What is incomprehensibly divine would be made comprehensible

by the divine itself if we cultivate intense love for that divine. This intense

love is bhakti. If we have that, the divinity then would descend to make

itself comprehensible to us. It is this bhakti-rasa coupled with the poetic

rasa that our Acharya gives us in the form of Soundaryalahari.

So with all this introduction based on Sloka 1, we may now go

forward. Sloka 2 elaborates the words .hari-hara-virincAdhibihir-api

ArAdhyAM. (you who are worshipped even by Vishnu, Shiva and BrahmA

and others) of Sloka 1. Here it says that only by Her Grace these three

great divinities discharge their functions of Creation, Sustenance and

Dissolution. And this they do just by the power of the dust of the holy

feet of the Mother Goddess! This praise of the divine dust is carried over

into Sloka 3 also. It (the divine dust) is the .rising sun for the darkness of

the Ignorant, the flower-bunch giving out the honey of wisdom for the

Dull-witted, and the wish-fulfilling godly gem for the Poor..

Sloka 4 continues to dwell on the glory of the Divine Feet but does

it very subtly.

tvad-anyaH pANibhyAM abhaya-varado daivata-gaNaH

tvam-ekA naivAsi prakaTita-varAbhIty-abhinayA /

bhayAt trAtuM dAtuM phalam-api ca vAnchhA-samadhikaM

sharaNye lokAnAM tava hi charaNAveva nipuNau // 4 //

daivata-gaNaH: The multitude of gods

tvad-anyaH : other than You

abhaya-varado: grant abhaya (=fearlessness) and boons

pANibhyAM: by the hands

tvam-ekA asi: You are the only one

na-eva: not at all

prakaTita-vara-abhIti-abhinayA: exhibiting . boon (giver) .

fearlessness (giver) . by your .mudrAs..

sharaNye: Oh Refuge

lokAnAM : for all the worlds

hi: indeed

tava: Your

charaNau-eva: feet alone

nipuNau: (are) expertly efficient

trAtuM : to protect

bhayAt : from fear

dAtuM api ca: and also to give

phalam: the fruit, the result

vAnchhA-samadhikaM: more than what one wishes.

A Digest of Discourses 34 on Soundaryalahari

-18-

(Digest of pp.820-824 )

.Other than You, all divines are seen with their mudrAs of abhaya

(fearlessness) and vara (Boon). In other words they show by their hands

that they give abhaya and vara.. This is the meaning of the first half of

the shloka. But it does not mean that ambaaL would not grant .abhaya.

and .vara.. In fact in the Mayavaram temple She is known as .abhayaambikA

.. One of Her other names is .vara-pradAyini., .the benefactor of

boons..

In fact the Acharya only means that She doesn.t have to give

.abhaya. and .vara. by Her hands. Her divine feet alone are capable of

granting what other deities do by their hands. The very word .kAryaM. in

Sanskrit (which means, .the act. or .action.) goes back to the word .kara.

meaning .hand.. So the other divines have to take effort to do the action

of giving .vara. and .abhaya.. You, Oh Goddess, can do anything by the

very .sankalpa. (determination). Even the fivefold cosmic actions

beginning with creation are done by You just by .wiggling the eyebrows.

(kshaNa-calitayoH brU-latikayoH . shloka 24 . meaning: by the

movement, for a moment, of the eyebrows). Whether it is to protect

devotees from fear, or it is to give them more than what they want

through their wishes, She does it by just being there. By taking refuge at

Her feet, the devotee achieves his wishes. She is the refuge of the entire

universe.

Note the expert use of the words .sharaNye. and .charaNau.. The

first comes from the word .sharaNa. meaning refuge. She is the Ultimate

Refuge for the whole world. The second word comes from .charaNa.

meaning .foot.. Her feet are the Refuge; because the feet themselves are

capable of granting our wishes, by just being there. Just as flowers,

without .doing. any action, radiate fragrance.

When one asks for the removal of fear, that is, fearlessness

(abhaya), the positive response from the deity could only be the removal

of fear; there is nothing more to be given. On the other hand, whatever

other wish one asks for fulfillment, there can always be something more

than that wish and thus She . nay, just the grace of Her divine feet -

gives the devotee more than what he wants.

A question may arise. Why is .fearlessness. sought separately? Can

it not be given as one of the many wishes, by the Goddess? Why is it

separated from the general category of .boons.?

(The following paragraphs are so exquisite in the original

that it was decided to translate them literally word by word ! )

Fearlessness (abhaya) is not a commodity that is given and taken.

It is actually another name for advaita. .Only when there is duality there

is fear. says the Brihad-AraNyakopanishad (1.4.2). If there is only one

thing there is, from what can fear arise? Only when there is a second

entity fear arises in relation to it. .If one thinks even of the tiniest

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 35

distinction in Brahman, then fear arises. Even wise men, if they think of

Brahman as another distinct object, are ceased of fear., so says

Taittiriya-upanishad (II . 7).

The moment we think of Brahman as different from us and as a

God with qualities, we get into the mood of .bhakti out of fear.. Even the

westerners talk about the .God-fearing. nature as man.s noblest quality.

When will that fear go? It will go only when the non-duality conviction

arises that there is no jIvAtman distinct from Ishvara. In that state of the

Existence of One without a second, where is the scope for a boon-giver

and a boon-receiver . two entities? The symbolic exhibition of the

.abhaya-mudrA. in the deity.s hand is in fact a formless (esoteric)

principle only. There is no giving, no taking, there. It is a supreme state

and the mudrA is only a symbol for it. The Lord may be eradicating fears

from the smallest fears, through those of birth and death, to the largest

fear, namely that of duality, that of separation from Him; but the actual

state of fearlessness is only the non-dual state. And that is why, it does

not form part of the category of boons.

To the same question the scholars of the other (dvaita) schools cite

the .bhava-bhIti. that is, the fear of the cycle of births and deaths, as the

major fear to be removed by Divine Grace and that is why, they say,

.abhaya. is kept separate from the other boons; and they stop there.

The .abhaya mudrA. is shown by the upward extended palm of the

right hand. Other schools of philosophy say that this right hand points to

the Divine worlds like Vaikunta and Kailasa in the upper worlds. But we

advaitins say that it indicates the non-dual state which is vast and

boundless like the wide space (AkAsha) up above.

(The translation-mode ends here. )

The hand which shows the boon-giving status is the left hand but

with the palm facing us and extending downwards. .I want this and I

want that. is itself indicative of a lower state. Just as the actionless

advaita state of .abhaya. belongs to the Shiva side, namely the right side,

the hand which shows the boon-giving Grace legitimately belongs to the

action-packed Shakti side of the divine form. The left palm is extending

downwards; what does it point to? It points to the divine feet, which is

the last Refuge. Hold on to My Feet, says the Goddess, .That is the

greatest boon for you..

The show of .mudrA. is technically called .abhinaya.. To exhibit

whatever mood there is internally, by the expression in the face, or by a

symbolic gesture of the hands or feet is called .abhinaya.. Particularly,

that shown by the fingers of the hands is called a .mudrA.. It is the

science of tantra that prescribes the .mudrAs.. The science and art of

dancing has adapted only these .mudrAs..

The bottomline of this shloka is to say that all this business of

hand mudrAs belongs only to the other deities. Ambaal does not show

A Digest of Discourses 36 on Soundaryalahari

any of these mudrAs. Obviously one is thinking here of the Goddess

Lalita-tripura-sundari only.

- 19 -

(Digest of pp.824-831 )

The Goddess LalitA-Tripurasundari, as affirmed in this shloka.

does not have the .vara-abhaya. hands, (vara = boon; abhaya =

fearlessness). She has the sugarcane-bow and the arrow of flowers in

those two hands. Note however, the Acharya himself says in Sloka 70

that She has all Her four hands indicative of abhaya and vara.

Let us not make the mistake of thinking that this shloka means

that all other deity-forms have the .vara-abhaya. hands. There are

several without these hands. Think of Vighneshvara (Lord Ganesha, the

elephant-headed deity) whom we see at every nook and corner (in India).

What about the figure of the dancing Nataraja? He has only the .abhaya.

hand but no boon-giving hand. Minakshi of Madurai does not have these

two hands.

The Vishnu deity (of almost all temples) Himself, though He has

four hands . with conch, disc, mace and lotus --, has no .vara-abhaya.

hands. Varada-rAja . the name meaning .the king of boon-giving deities. -

- in Kanchipuram, inspite of His name, does not have the .vara. hand;

He has the mace in that hand ! Maha-lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth,

almost invariably, has the vara-abhaya hands. But the Goddess of

Learning, Sarasvati, does not have either.

Durga, most of the times, has an .abhaya. by the right hand, while

the corresponding left hand is on the thigh . this situation being called

.Uru-hastam. . Some of the SuBrahmanya deity-forms have the same

configuration. Balaji of Tirupati has the vara-mudrA in the right hand,

while His left hand is an .Uru-hastam.. Thus the statement of this shloka

.Other than You, all other deities show the .vara-abhaya. mudrA by their

hands. is to be considered a poetic exaggeration only.

(At this point the Maha-Swamigal begins

an elaborate introduction to slokas 5 and 6,

thereby dwelling on the topic:

.Is it legitimate for God to bless one .to desire. ?´ )

So far in the first three shlokas the stotra does not say specifically

which deity is being praised. Even in the fourth shloka there is just a

clue that the deity is without the .vara-abhaya. hands. How many hands

there are, or what are in those hands? . these questions are left open. In

the next two shlokas, the clue is given (shloka #5) that it is that deity

that prodded a desire in mahA-vishNu to take the form of .mohini. and

create sensual impulses even in Lord Shiva and it is also the same deity

(shloka 6) which gave even to the God of Love (Manmatha) the power to

disturb even the minds of great sages and saints. And thus we get the

idea that the deity of this stotra could be the KAmeshvari that we spoke

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 37

of, in the beginning when we discussed the original .Desire. that sprouted

out in Brahman itself .to express Itself..

(See Sections -9 and 10. )

The major purpose of bhakti is to quell all desires and get attracted

to that Infinite source of Bliss. While that is so, how is it legitimate for a

bhakti-stotra to praise that very deity as One who encouraged and

manouvred the powers that be, to fall in Love? In spite of our reverence

to the Acharya, we have to raise this question sometimes. The worldview

has to disappear in order for Divine Enlightenment to appear; but

here the deity is praised for having engineered the creation of that world !

Knowledge arises only after all .kAma. (Desire) has been eradicated; but

here She is glorified as having been that very Power who gave the power

to the God of .Desire. for generating Desire. Does it mean, then, that

.Desire. itself is Divine Grace?

It all means that opposite forces have to exist. We have to contend

with both. If there were no enemy, internally, to struggle against, life

could be totally without any challenges and therefore uninteresting. If

everything was going smoothly, then we would not even recognize .good.

as .good.. The cross-currents of conflicting powers exist for the purpose of

proving to us that .good. will survive and surface at the end. The .desire.

in Brahman resulted in the creation of the universe. The .desire. in the

living results in the world of the living growing up.

Note another interesting marvel. What we consider as .good. has

something .bad. in it and vice versa. To understand this subtlety of

Creation and carry on our struggle in this drama of the world is the art of

living in fullness. Desire (kAma) and Anger (krodha) are wrong; but this

is only a generalised statement. Looked into deeply, even they have

.good. in them. There should be a .desire. for .good. and .anger. against

.bad.. In fact it is not only not wrong, but essential. In the same way,

what appears to be .good. will have .bad. hidden in it.

On top of this all there are two important things to note. One is

the Lord.s shower of Grace; and the other is our surrender to Him. Both

are products of Creation; without the existence of evil and the necessity

to fight it, Grace and Surrender have no meaning. On His side, the

highest He does is .Grace. or Anugraha. On our side, the highest we can

do is .Surrender.. TO ACCEPT THAT WE CANNOT DO ANYTHING

EXCEPT TO SURRENDER TO HIM IS THE APEX OF ALL THAT WE CAN

DO ! You will know it when you do it !

(Note: Emphasis mine . VK)

- 20 -

(Digest of pp. 831-836 )

Even if millions of people do not go the right way what is of

significance is that one of them will see the difference between good and

A Digest of Discourses 38 on Soundaryalahari

bad and make the total surrender to Her and get Her shower of Grace for

him to see that he (the jIva) and the Ultimate are one. Not all the seeds of

the fruits of a tree grow into a full tree. In the whole world of living beings

even if one in a million achieves that Infinite fullness of Man the purpose

of Creation is fulfilled. That probably is ambaal.s idea of Creation.

But again, those who do not so achieve the Fullness are not to be

considered wasted or damned. There is no eternal damnation in our

scriptures. Acharya Madhva propagated that idea. Maybe he thought

that at least the dread and fear of eternal damnation would motivate

people into reforming themselves to be good. Even an extremely sinful

person has a way of ultimate redemption -- that is the creed of our

religion.

Once there was a king. An ordinary commoner was told by him,

on an important mission, to come and see him in his camp. But the

commoner entreated the king to give him some kind of an

authentification, like a ring or something, which would gain him the

entry to the king.s presence when he presented himself at the camp. The

king gave him such a ring; but the ring did not have his (the king.s) seal.

It had the seal of the enemy king. The commoner was perplexed. Why is

this king giving him a ring which would only be identified as the

enemy.s? The king himself removed his doubt by saying: .There are so

many of my own couriers and courtiers who have obtained from me my

authentified ring so that they can meet me any time they like. The line of

such people would be so large at any time, that you would not get

anywhere near me when you come to meet me. But if they see the seal of

the enemy king in your hands they would take you to be a spy and would

present you before me in no time !.

This perhaps is the strategy of ambaal ! Desire, Anger and the

whole gang of bad things are Her own Grace to us in the form of

authentified .rings., so that we may go to Her soon. Once Kunti, the

mother of the Pandavas, asked Krishna to keep giving her difficulties and

miseries all the time so that she will never forget the Lord ! In other

words, in the mystery of creation, unhappiness itself is a divine blessing

in disguise.

Again, the opportunity of showering Grace on an individual does

not stop with that person. It continues to pour on all the offsprings of

that person in the same way. At this point one is tempted to say that, in

spite of the general Hindu prayer that there should be no more births,

the very fact that there are offsprings is itself a shower of Her Grace.

How else can the balance of karma of jIvas be exhausted? If there was no

.kAma. in the world those who die with a large balance of karma would

have to go unredeemed. Thus it is ambaal.s grace that there is .kAma. as

one of the four objectives or purposes of life.

And the scriptures come to our help by earmarking four stages of

life in which one of the stages, namely, gRhastAshrama (the householderby

Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 39

stage) is set apart for giving vent to our legitimate desires. Just as there

are exceptions to every rule, for this general rule of creation also there

are certain exceptions in the form of a few, - very few -, who take to the

fourth ashrama (sannyasa) without having to go through the second

ashrama of a householder.

Another final point. Whoever has the power and the means to

create should have also the power and the means to bring the end to

creation and the created. The ambaal has the power to create and spark

the desire in us; and therefore She has also the power to free us from

that creation and release us from the desire that overpowered us. The

obverse of a coin has always a reverse. So the same (obverse) power

which originates .kAma. in human beings, has also the (reverse) power to

say, in respect of certain blessed individuals, to that .kAma., .Don.t go

near such and such persons. !

So Manmatha, the God of all sensualities, who overpowers us by

the power which he got from ambaal, has however to obey Her when She

says: .Thus far and no further.. The shlokas 5 and 6 which talk of the

power of Manmatha has this implication for the devotees of ambaal,

though the shlokas do not say so; they only talk of the obverse of the

coin, not its reverse ! And that, the unsaid reverse, is the significance of

those two shlokas, especially for those of us who can surrender to Her

through recitation of these shlokas. Her leelA is: From advaita through

.desire. to dvaita; and then, ultimately, to advaita through Her Grace and

Compassion!

Now we shall go over to shloka #7. Here comes, for the first time, a

graphic description of the form of KAmeshvari (Raja-rajeshvari, LalitAtripura-

sundari), the deity of praise in Soundaryalahari. Even here, no

name is mentioned; in fact, throughout the hymn, the name does not

occur.

21

(Digest of pp. 856-860)

kvaNat-kAnchI-dAmA kari-kalabha-kumbha-stana-natA

parikshhINA madhye pariNata-sharac-candra-vadanA /

dhanur-bANAn pAshaM sRNimapi dadhAnA karatalaiH

purastAd-AstAM naH puramathitu-rAho-purushhikA // 7 //

kAnchI-dAmA: (She who is) wearing the girdle with jewelled bells

kvaNat: tinkling and jingling (of jewels)

kari-kalabha-kumbha-stana-natA: (She who is made to) lean forward by

the breasts that resemble the forehead of an young elephant

parikshhINA madhye : (She who is) slender in the middle (of the body)

pariNata-sharac-candra-vadanA: (She whose) face is like the autumnal

full moon

dadhAnA karatalaiH : (She who is) wearing in Her hands

A Digest of Discourses 40 on Soundaryalahari

dhanur-bANAn: the bow and arrows

pAshaM: the noose

sRNim-api : (and) also the goad

Aho-purushhikA : (She who is) the .I..ness ( =Ego, in the positive sense)

pura-mathithuH: of the destyroyer of (the demon named) pura . i.e. of

Lord Shiva

AstAM : may She appear

purastAt : before

naH : us.

(See Section 10

for an explanation of .Aho-purushhikA. )

A girdle is called .mekhalA.. If there are tingling bells in it it is

called .kAnchI.. The name .raNat-kiNkiNi-mekhalA. that occurs in the

LalitA-sahasranAma is just this .kvaNat-kAnchI-dhAmA., namely, the

jingling girdle with bells. The string of bells is also called .maNi.. So

.kAnchI. is also known as .mani-mekhalA.

In Tamil literature .Mani-mekhalai. is one of the five great epics.

The heroine of that epic is Manimekhalai. At the end of the story she

finally comes to the town of Kanchi where she feeds the poor from her

inexhaustible vessel (akshaya-pAtram). This work .Manimekhalai. is

slanted towards Buddhistic religion. Accordingly the heroine reaches

salvation after getting the initiation from a Buddhistic Guru. But the

incident of feeding the poor from an .akshaya-pAtram. is a traditional

story of the Goddess Kamakshi of Kanchi from age-old times. Even in the

Sangam Age (of Tamil) there was a woman by name .KAmak-kaNNi.

which is nothing but the Sanskrit .KamAkshi.. Well, all this is a

digression from my thought that .Mani-mekhalai. finally comes to the

town (Kanchi) which has the same name as hers!

By the mention of .KanchI. the author has hinted at the deity of his

devotion. There are scores of feminine deities in this country from

Kashmir to Kanyakumari. KshIra-bhavAni (in Kashmir), BhagavatI (in

Kerala), ChamunDeshvarI and ShAradAmbA (in Karnataka), JnAnAmbA,

BhramarAmbA and Kanaka-durgA (in Andhra), TulajA BhavAni (in

Maharashtra), ambAji (in Gujarat), Vindhya-vAsinI and anna-pUrNeshvarI

(in Uttarpradesh), KALI (in Bengal), KamAkhyA (in Assam), VaishNavI (in

Jammu) and finally, MeenAkshI, akhilANDeshvarI, dharmasamvarddhanI,

KamalambAL, BalAmbAL, and Shiva-kAma-sundarI (in

Tamilnadu).

(Note: The Maha-Swamigal does not seem to have

mentioned the names of the regions in the above list.

These names have been supplied by Ra. Ganapathi in a footnote.

The Maha-Swamigal seems to have

just reeled off the names of the deities only.)

Thus there are several several deity-forms of ambAL. But, there is only

one deity which conforms to the form of LalitA-tripura-sundari as

delineated in the ShrIvidyA tantra with certain characteristic physical

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 41

features and arms and weapons and that is the deity .KamAkshi. of

Kanchipuram. The author of Soundaryalahari who does not mention the

name of the deity of his devotion throughout the text, has perhaps hinted

it here, by using the word .KanchI-dAmA. !

The word .dAmaM. means .twisted rope or string.. It was because

YashodA bound child Krishna with a .dAmaM. around his waist, He is

called .dAmodara. (udara means stomach). .KanchI-dAma. is so named

because the jewel-belled girdle is made up of twisted golden strings.

When ambaaL gracefully walks over, not only the ornaments round her

ankles but the jewels of the girdle also jingle !

The whole earth is personified as BhUmA-devI. When one visualises

that form, the geographical location of the navel for that form on the

earth is said to be Kanchipuram. When the girdle with bells is also

imagined at its location on the waist, the facade of that girdle comes at

the position of that navel; and that is why the kshetra (place) also gets

the name of Kanchi !

A girdle which circles the globe must be really big. When that is

supposed to be the ornament around the waist of ambaaL, then that

waist also should be big. But that is not so, says the description:

.parikShINA madhye.. .kShINa. means .lean. . The preposition .pari.

indicates that the leanness is extra-ordinary. Thus .parikShINA madhye.

means She is really very slender in Her middle. The miracle is that this

.slender. waist covers the whole universe. .The macro within the micro. !

Let it be. But what about the face? The face is the .mukhya. (=

important, significant) part. It is from the word .mukhya. the word

.mukha. (face) arose. How is ambaaL.s face? She is .pariNata sharat

chandra-vadaNA.. Her face is like the moon, with all the coolness and the

whiteness of the autumnal full moon. Later, (in the 63rd shloka), the

Acharya puts this thought in more poetic terms: .smita-jyotsnA-jAlaM

tava vadana-chandrasya . . which, in effect, means .your moon-like face

radiates miraculous moonlight through its smile..

Another point. The second line of the shloka has two words both

beginning with .pari. : .parikShINA. and .pariNata.. When you read the

whole line the sound of the alliteration creates a pleasant feeling. Such

beauties are the specialities of great poets.

Note : At this point this author checked all the slokas of Soundarya-lahari.

Almost all of them have in their second and fourth lines

such alliterations or similar-sounding words which create the lilting effect

which the Maha-Swamigal mentioned even earlier.

Just a few examples:

Shloka #1: Na cedevam devam devo; praNantum stotum;

# 7: parikShINA . pariNata.;

purastAd AstAm, . puramathithuH ;

#17: saha janani sanchintayati;

Vacobhir-vAgdevI-vadana;

# 97: patnIm, padmAm; hareH, hara-sahacarIm;

Bhramayasi, parabrahma-mahiShI.

A Digest of Discourses 42 on Soundaryalahari

-22 .

(Digest of pp.861-866)

The third line of the seventh shloka is:

.dhanur-bANAn pAshaM sRNimapi dadhAnA karatalaiH..

.Holding by the hands the bow, the arrows, the noose and the

goad. is the meaning. .sRNi. means .ankusha., the goad. These four are

the specifics that determine now the deity of dedication in this stotra.

And so we may be certain now that the deity that is being praised is the

deity of the ShrIvidyA mantra, namely lalitA-tripura-sundari or

Kameshwari. If we are not very .technical. about it, it is also the same as

Raja-Rajeshwari. When ambaaL is in this form, She has four hands, with

the noose and goad in the two upper hands and the bow and arrows in

the two lower hands. Manmatha, the God of Love has the same bow of

sugarcane and the same arrows of flowers.

There are two things: rAga (attachment and liking); and dvesha

(hate and dislike). The former gives rise to kAma (desire) and the latter

gives rise to krodha (anger). Desire and anger have to be kept in control.

Of course all these are born out of the great divine mAyic play of

ambaaL. And by the same leelA of ambAL, they disappear by Her Grace

(anugraha). The very thought that they will so disappear by Her Grace

will help us fight against them.

.rAga-swarUpa-pAshADhyA. , meaning, She who holds the noose,

which is .rAga. in physical form -- is one of Her many names in the

lalitA-sahasranAma. Similarly, another name is .krodhA-karAnkushojjvalA

., meaning, She who shines by the goad, which is .krodha. in

physical form.

Of the twin of Desire and Anger, desire has the form of ambaaL.s

noose (pAshaM). When you talk of .yama-pAshaM. it is the noose. When

you talk of mother.s pAshaM (tAip-pAshaM, in Tamil) it is her attachment

and affection and therefore her concern, her desire (AshA). It is the desire

that binds us. It binds us like a rope.

Anger has the form of ambaaL.s goad. Anger pierces you like a

goad. But it does not pierce the other man on whom you are angry. He

may go away just like that, indifferently. Our anger pierces only

ourselves. The pierce of the goad will be felt by us only. And we hurt

ourselves. Modern science tells us how energy is wasted during anger

and how much. What is more interesting is the further scientific fact .

with which our scriptures agree . that whereas we exhibit anger

(krodhaM) at something we don.t like and thus waste energy, the energy

loss is more while we like something, desire it and happily indulge in

that desire (kAmaM). In fact, Desire is the .hita-shatru. . enemy in the

disguise of a friend.

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 43

The words .pAshaM. and .ankushaM. both ring a bell and bring the

.elephant. to our minds. The elephant is always tethered by a heavy chain

to an anchor. The chain is actually a .rope of attachment. (pAshakkayiru,

in Tamil) for the elephant. The twins .kAma. and .krodha. are

elephant-like in their strength; so they have to be controlled with effort

in the same way an elephant is controlled by a .pAshaM. (rope) and

.ankusham. (goad). The man who rides and monitors the elphant uses the

goad to control it. The elephant-like evils of Desire and Anger are both

in the mind. So it is the mind that has to be controlled. In fact in

Sivanandalahari (shloka #96) our Acharya compares the human mind to

a .madhepa., meaning, a mad elephant.

Our ambaaL is always shown with a pAshaM (noose) and

ankushaM (goad). This itself is Her leelA. They are Her important

accessories. This is one way of looking at it.

Another way is this. She shows pAshaM (affection, attachment) to

us; so with the .pAshaM. in her hand she binds us and pulls us away

from all our worldly .pAshaMs. (attachments) and makes us come back to

Her with the cry .Oh Mother!.. And that gives us the attachment to the

attachmentless Divine. .PatratrAn patru. (in the language of Valluvar, in

Tamil)! Again, when we fall into the Anger mode, She brings her

.ankusham

M. (goad) on us and subdues our anger, by that very ankusham

which stands in her hand as the personification of Anger (krodham) !

When Desire is unfulfilled it turns into Anger. The same Desire and

Anger, in Her hands, in the form of the noose and the goad, become the

cure for the two evils in human minds.

Though our shloka in the Soundaryalahari mentions .bow. and

.arrow. first and then mentions the .noose. and .goad., it is the .noose and

goad. that are special to ambAL. Manmatha the God of Love has the

same bow and arrows both of which he uses to get mankind downward

into sensuality. His bow draws man.s mind into sensuousness and his

five arrows affect the five organs of cognition.

But the same bow and five arrows in the hands of ambaaL work in

a positive way as is vindicated by two names (that appear just

immediately after the two names about rAga and krodha I mentioned a

little while ago) in lalitA-sahasranAma, namely, .mano-rupekshhukodanDA

. and .pancha-tanmAtra-sAyakA..

The former means: .(She who has) the bow of sugarcane, the

sugarcane being the figuration of the mind.. The latter name means:

.(She who has) the five arrows that are the figurations of the five

tanmAtras (= subtle principles behind the senses)..

The same sugarcane bow, which in Manmatha.s hands, draws man

downward into sensuality, in Her hands, leads us upward by producing

the .desire. for mokshha. The same five arrows of flowers, which in

A Digest of Discourses 44 on Soundaryalahari

Manmatha.s hands, lead man.s five senses outward toward sense

objects, in ambaal.s hands, makes us desire, to see Her divine form, to

hear the melody of music in devotion to Her, to taste the sweetness of

the nectar flowing from Her Grace, to smell the fragrance of the flowers

that adorned Her, and to feel the touch of Her lotus feet.

- 23 .

(Digest of pp.866-869)

Just a change of place of the weapons changes their purpose and

effects! The same bow and arrows, that, in the hands of the God of Love,

were the cause of man.s downfall into the sensual world, become, in the

hands of the Mother Divine, the switches for turning our mind and

senses towards the Eternal Bliss of Her Presence. It is something like the

knife in the hands of the thief; if the same knife were in our hands, he

runs away! When we submit to that magical switch of Hers, we overflow

with bhakti; and this together with the outpouring of Her Grace drenches

us in the flood of that spiritual Bliss, and we forget ourselves as separate

entities. When we delude ourselves as separate it is MAyA ; this is the

worst state of existence. When we forget ourselves as separate it is

Knowledge; it is the best state.

Thus when we see that a change of place transforms the worst into

the best, we may learn a lesson. Why not transfer all the beautifications

and dressing-up that we do for ourselves into ornamentations and

dresses for ambaal, thereby transforming their effect? When we decorate

ourselves it BRINGS IN the Ego. When we decorate Her, it BRINGS

DOWN our Ego. Decoration in Sanskrit is .alankAraM.; and ego is

.ahamkAraM.. If we do the .alankAraM. to Her, our .ahamkAraM. is gone !

In short, the flower-arrows in ambaal.s hands grace us with the

needed sense-control and the sugar-cane bow in Her hands bestows on

us control of our mind. Nothing else is needed for Enlightenment ! As

Muka-kavi says in Pancha-shati, .Mother! Whereas You sparked desire in

Shiva Himself who had burnt the Lord of Desire to ashes, the same You,

in our case, eradicate desires in the desire-filled Jivas..

Mind and the five senses are together counted as six instruments

for the human being. Instruments are called .karaNas. in Sanskrit. The

six .karaNas. of man are like the .caraNas. (feet) of a bee. So the jIva itself

is nothing but a six-footed bee with six instruments of action. The

analogy becomes apt when we think of the bee merging into the depths of

a flower with all its (six) feet stuck in that depth. For, the jIva has to

work its way to stick its six instruments out into the lotus of the divine

feet of the Mother. This is the idea which our Acharya himself later

builds into Sloka 90 of Soundaryalahari: .nimajjan majjIvaH karaNacaraNaH

shhaT-caraNatAm., meaning, .plunging (into Your lotus feet),

may this jIva of mine with its six instruments as the feet (become) the

six-legged bee. .

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 45

The important thing to note here is what has not been said. It is

not said that the mind and the five senses should submit themselves to

the bow and arrows of ambaal. It is only said that they should dissolve

themselves into the divine feet. Recall from shloka #4 that .She need not

give abhaya and vara by Her hands; Her feet themselves are capable of

doing that.. In this shloka #7, instead of the vara and abhaya mudrAs in

the two hands, the bow and arrows are mentioned. They have been said

to give the mind-control and the sense-control. But one may question:

Why can.t these controls be also a Grace from Her feet? That is why it

has been said that the mind and the five senses should merge in the

lotus of Her feet as a bee gets lost inside the flower. The noose and the

goad in the other two hands would then be not necessary at all to quell

the Desire and Anger in the human mind.

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

(These things are not amenable to logic,

said the Maha-Swamigal earlier.

But here he does not repeat himself. )

That the four hands add to the beauty of this beauty Queen is to

say it naively. But remember She is the Queen of the Universe. The

majesty of that status is shown by the bow and arrow in the two

forehands. But She is also the Benefactor of the bliss of Mokshha;

therefore She is the Queen of the Empire of Enlightenment (jnAnasAmrAjyaM).

RAga (Attachment) and dveshha (hatred, enmity) are two

arch-villains that constitute the obstacle to mokshha. These two are

killed by the noose and the goad in Her other two hands, thus

establishing that She is the Queen of .jnAna-sAmrAjyaM..

The bow and the arrows in the forehands has also another

significance. What we have to surrender to Her feet, namely our mind

and the senses, She draws by Her own initiative to Herself; the bow

draws the mind and the arrows the senses, to Herself. It is as if a loving

mother says to her child: .Dear child, why do you have to fall at my feet; I

will take you onto my lap.!

This whole shloka is a fit one for meditation. It reminds us that the

bow and arrows that turned the Ishwara Himself . the Supreme who is

nothing but a bundle of Knowledge, cit . into a creation-mode through

the artifice of making Him fall in love with Ishwari, who thereby became

Shiva-kAma-sundari; that same bow and arrows now draw the medley of

minds and senses of the jIvas and keep them under its control, thus

protecting them (spiritually). In fact the bottom line is that even this

action of .drawing. and .protecting. is not done by the bow and arrows but

by just Her feet.

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

A Digest of Discourses 46 on Soundaryalahari

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.

- 24 .

(Digest of pp.869-883)

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 svarUpalakshaNa

(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.

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.

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) . .sudhAsindhor-

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;

(Re: the five brahmAs, see Section 10. )

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.

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 47

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.

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.

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..

I talked of lotuses earlier. They are not lotus flowers of our familiar

village pond. The lotus flower of a pond blooms only in sunlight. In

moonlight they close up. On contact of the heat of fire they disintegrate.

On the other hand, in these KunDalini lotuses, whether it is agnikhaNDam,

sUrya-khaNDam, or candra-khaNDam, the lotuses

corresponding to the khaNDam blossoms, when the KunDalini reaches

there. And in the end, the full moon itself blooms the thousand petalled

lotus at the top of the head. And the nectar of moonlight flows from the

moon.

That is the .rasa., the flavour, the juice, the essence. Who is giving

that .rasa.? It is the ambaal. Her divine feet is there in the reflection of

the moon as the Guru.s Grace. That is where indeed the nectar flows

from. That it flows from the moon is only a way of saying. The one who

receives and realises the flow of that nectar-rasa is the jIva. But the

advaita bhAvanA (attitude) that She is Herself the .rasa. and She is also

the .rasAsvAda., the taster of the .rasa. . this feeling will also be there.

A Digest of Discourses 48 on Soundaryalahari

Maybe you are all thinking : .(The Speaker) is neither going into the

subject of KunDalini, nor is allowing us to go near it. How, in the world,

can we ever have such profound experiences? At least he (the speaker)

could have gone on without mentioning these!.

Well, it is not necessary to have them as the KunDalini yoga. .

-25-

(Digest of pp.883-887 )

[Note: This is a difficult part. So what is given is almost

a close translation rather than a .Digest..]

It is not necessary to go the KunDalini way. Whatever path you

take, whatever method of upAsanA (spiritual worship) you follow, without

having to go through the regimen of the KunDalini yoga, if you sincerely

follow any one path with an one-pointed faith, you will, when you reach

a certain advanced stage, get those breathing-in and breathing-out

experiences exactly as you would, in a yoga sAdhanA, all by itself. You

may not even feel it. It will get transformed by itself. In a still more

advanced stage, when we are in one-ness with the object of our upAsanA,

the breathing may even be stationary in the kumbhaka state.

In ordinary mundane activities of ours we usually exhale by the left

nostril. On the other hand, the same exhaling, if you carefully observe it,

will come by the right nostril, when you have just had a noble elevating

experience of peace like the darshan of a deity or of a saintly sage. At a

higher stage, the exhaling will be equal in both nostrils, to the extent

that, it will then be only one step short of staying in the kumbhaka

state, but at the same time, without any tendency to suffocate, the

whole system being light and comfortable . all these changes in the

breathing will certainly occur.

And thus, at the end, one may even reach the penultimate state to

advaita-siddhi, namely, the movement of breath reaches the top, touches

the divine feet of ambaal and the nectar starts flowing! Even in our

ordinary day-to-day life, if we have an extraordinary experiencee of

happiness, we sometimes suffocate and swoon; that is actually a

reflection of the taste of kumbhakaM. That also is a fragment of a

fragment of the experience of the sprouting of the nectar at the top of the

head !

I am telling you all this just to point out that even in the path of

bhakti such superlative experiences do occur.

Just have a look at the great devotional songs and poems of

confirmed devotees of God, like the shaiva saints of Tamilnadu, the

vaishnava Alvars, the devotees from Maharashtra, Bengal, North India,

Sufi saints, and also of Christianity. All these songs will only flash the

many yogic experiences and spiritual experiences of enlightenment.

It is not just yoga and jnAna. We should also mention the

experience of Love, premA. When we talked of fundamentals like ichAby

Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 49

Shakti, Kameshvara and Kameshvari, it is all very subtle and pure Love.

The word .kAmaM. brings to our mind various connotations. It may be

thought that the fact of a sannyasi talking about it strikes a discordant

note. But in reality, in terms of an esoteric context there is no fault there.

It only indicates by symbols that Shakti intertwined with the substratum

of Peace is what creates .Creation.. There is nothing wrong here. That is

why ambaal brings the experience of premA (Love) along with those of

yoga and of jnAna, to many great people, at the very end of their

sAdhanA.

In the evolution of the Origin into multiplicity, the very first thing

that happens is the icchA (Wish, Desire) and the Love-pair. So also, at

the very end of the sAdhanA for the involution of the jIva into the

Source, the nADI goes through the nAyikA stage just before the last

stage of the Union with the Supreme. That is the stage of identity with

Shakti. That is when there is an anguish for union with the nAyaka, that

is, ShivaM. It is in that anguish one surrenders totally with the attitude:

.I am incapable of doing anything. It is all Your Wish..

Then even that desire to merge in Shiva disappears and there

remains only the Will of the Lord. In other words, the involution that the

jIva made with deliberate effort merges in that first evolution of Shiva. At

that point, as far as that jIva is concerned, Shiva Himself, without

expanding in evolution, involutes within Himself and receives the jIva

into Him. Think of a flood of flowing water. Put some object into it. The

waves will toss it back and forth and push it over to the bank. This is

natural. But when there is a great vortex in the current, it takes the

object into itself and consumes it. This is what happens here also.

(In the above paragraph Ra Ganapathi in his Tamil version

does not use any Tamil or Indian language word

for .Involution. and .Evolution..

Obviously, the Maha-Swamigal himself must have used

these english words only. )

The first .wish. of Shiva, and the last .wish. of the jIva together

coalesce into a symbolic Love here! We can get confirmations for this

from the songs of great devotees across the world and acoss religions.

The songs of Manickavasagar and Mirabhai have excellent parallels in

the songs of Sufi Saints and Christian mystics. It is all an experience of

Yoga, jnAna and PremA.

Though we have said that it is the .wish of Shiva. and .wish of jIva. ,

it is all only the cit-movement of ambaal only. Only when the complete

merger has taken place it is ShivaM. So when we say that He takes

something into Him, that action itself is Hers only.

I just talked about the highest yoga-experiences that occur in the

path of bhakti. Without going into yogic sAdhanA or tAntric sAdhanA, if

one follows the bhakti path with the attitude: .All this is beyond me, Oh

Mother, You are my Refuge., then even the self-pride that .I am doing a

A Digest of Discourses 50 on Soundaryalahari

great sAdhanA. will not arise. The Mother Herself will lift up even the

lowliest and grant him the highest experience.

One might feel let down that he cannot get that flow of nectar from

the full moonlight-glow that occurs when the prANa-Shakti reaches the

thousand-petalled lotus called sahasrAra. One need not regret the

absence of this experience. .pariNata-candra-vadanA. says the shloka #7.

That full-moon-face is easy to be kept in mind. Stick to it. Think of the

nectar flowing from the graceful glance from those eyes and the nectar of

the blissful smile of that face . She gives you what you thought about

and grants you the internal light of the moon and an internal flow of

nectar.

-26-

(Digest of pp.887-892)

Let those who have the capacity to go through the path of

KuNDalinI yoga go that way. For us,the easier bhakti path which holds

doggedly to The Mother is enough. What they can get, She will give the

same to us. Maybe She will take us also to that path, after a certain

stage and give us those experiences. Maybe She will also tell some of

them who have gone through that difficult terrain, .Enough of this. and

bring them back to stay quiet in a total attitude of surrender.

Right in the shloka (#10) where it talks about the flow of amRta in

the nADIs, let us see how the shloka winds up. It does not wind up with

the idea that the eternal flow of nectar at the point where the prANa

Shakti reaches the head, brings the non-dual union of the jIva with the

Absolute; but it ends up by saying: .the KuNDalinI in the form of that

prANa Shakti descends through Chakra after Chakra and winds itself up

in the mUlAdhAra Chakra, where it again goes to sleep..

It is the winding and whirling up that gave it the name of

.KuNDalinI.. When a snake sleeps it winds and whirls up. In fact all

animals do it. They don.t stretch their limbs and sleep. Some winding up

will be there. But it is the snake that winds up totally in the form of a

kunDala (ear ornament).The parAShakti whose power is infinite, exhibits

Herself in each of us only a fragment of a fragment. All the remaining

power of the parAShakti is the sleeping KuNDalinI.

Well. Instead of continuing the talk of the flow of amRta and the

blissful sensation of it, I have now come down to the talk of the sleeping

state of ambaal in us commonfolk. What is the meaning of this kind of

ending such a profound discussion? Yes, there is a meaning. So long as

the thought that .I have done a great yoga-sAdhanA. is there, even great

yogis will have to tumble down to the normal ground-level state. And so,

mark it, even if one goes high up to the kuNDalinI yoga stage, the only

key that will unlock the door is the attitude of surrender which says: .It

is not me; It is You, Oh Mother.!

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 51

In the next shloka (# 11), the ShrI Chakram (also called the Shri

YantraM) is described. The very mention of .ShrI VidyA pUjA. implies the

pUjA of ShrI Chakram. Every deity has a YantraM exclusively associated

with it. But those who do Shiva pUjA and or VishNu pUjA do not usually

keep the corresponding YantraMs in the pUjA. Maybe in temples under

the various altars of the deities the corresponding YantraMs would have

been formally installed. But in households where Shiva or VishNu pUja

is done only the BANa lingam or the SalagrAmam is kept, but not the

YantraM. In the panchAyatana pUjA which includes worship of ambaaL

one keeps the stone called .svarNa-rekhA-ShilA.. But when you worship

ambaal alone, you don.t keep that .ShilA.. Only ShrI Chakram is kept. In

some places along with the Chakram, an image with hands and feet may

also be kept.

The regimen of worship for any deity has both .mantra. and

.Yantra. associated with it. A certain sequence of sounds, repeated often

and often gets the beatification of the presence of that devatA (divinity)

prescribed by it. Just as each devatA has a physical form with limbs, so

also each devatA has a form in a stringed sequence of sounds. It is called

the sound-form, just as the recitation of mantras aims at the mantraform.

In addition there is the Yantra-form for each devatA. The form has

lines, triangles, enclosures, circular or otherwise; these are not just

geometrical figures. Each of them has a meaning and significance. They

have extraordinary power. Each YantraM is set to absorb and bring into

focus the paramAtmA in the form of that devatA. In addition to the

repeated mental recitation of the mantra, one does pUja to the YantraM

also. Within the triangles of the Yantras and other enclosures, the seedsyllables

(bIja-aksharas) corresponding to the mantra pertaining to the

devata would be inscribed. The very devatA that is the life of an idol with

arms and feet is also considered to be brought alive in the corresponding

YantraM, In fact the YantraM is even more comprehensive; for it includes

the native residence of the devatA and all its accessory deities within

itself.

The Mother Goddess, whom we call ambaal, has many forms like

MeenAkshI, durgA, Bhuvaneshvari, ShAradAmbikA etc. Each of these has

its own YantraM. But it is very common that even the worshippers of

these forms do only the Shri Chakra pUjA, rather than the pUjA of the

particular mUrti (form). This is so not only in houses, but in temples also.

Famous durgA temples have only Shri Chakra installed therein. Sringeri

has ShAradAmbAl as the main mUrti; however the Yantra pUjA is for ShrI

Chakram. All this goes to show the importance of the Shri Chakram.

Lines, circles, squares, figures formed by these . all these

configured into a Chakra along with a centre point (madhya-bindu), is

called a YantraM. Only such a design has the power to bring into focus

the power of the particular devatA . in fact it is an infinite power .and so

A Digest of Discourses 52 on Soundaryalahari

may be called (with a smile) a .Divine Design.. (This is Mahaswamigal.s

own word). These designs collect and absorb divine energy and have the

power to radiate that energy.

In the Shri Chakra, the central portion is circular. There are nine

triangles there. They criss cross one another, thus producing forty-three

triangles. The central dot is also considered to be one triangle. Together

the triangles number forty-four. These forty-four triangles are classified

into six AvaraNas. The straightforward meaning of this word .AvaraNa. is

.what hides.. Here it should be taken to mean track, corridor, row, or

prAkAra in Sanskrit. If several people crowd around one individual, the

latter is naturally .hidden.. So they form an AvaraNam around him. The

central dot is also taken as one AvaraNam just as it is taken also as a

triangle. In fact around it the other forty-three triangles constitute five

AvaraNas. Together with it we talk of six AvaraNas. Outside of these six

AvaraNas annd forty-four triangles, there are three rounds or corridors.

They constitute three more AvaraNas and thus we have nine AvaraNas

in all. You would have heard of Dikshidar.s .nava-AvaraNa. compositions

in music. The ShAstras describe and enunciate who lives in what

AvaraNa, what is the principle involved, who is the adhi-devatA, what

kind of anugraha (Grace) they can bestow, what mudrA is to be shown to

them and so on. The compositions of Dikshidar go through all this in

brief.

Out of the outermost three AvaraNas (rounds) of the total nine, the

two inner are made up of lotus petals arranged in two circles. The ninth

AvaraNa is a design looking like three compound walls; but now it is

not a circular structure but of square design. The whole thing is a

unique design with an infinite divine potential.

But beware. One has to be careful.

-27-

(Digest of pages 892-898)

A Yantra means that every bit of it whether a line or a circle or an

angle, has to be of the right size and proportioin as prescribed. It cannot

err even a little this way or that way. Just as a mantra, with a wrong

incantation, produces contrary effects, so also a small mistake in the

design of the Yantra can cause havoc. In the Shri yantra again, if the

apex of the central triangle faces west instead of east, as it should,

results can just be the opposite. So when you sit opposite to it for the

worship, the apex should be on the side nearer to you and not on the

farther side. One has to be really more careful with the pUja of a YantraM

than that of an idol (vigraha), in terms of the ritualistic do.s and don.ts.

In modern times many have turned over to Shri Cakra pUjA in their

homes, a few merely for the pride of it, another few because it is the

fashion, and yet another few out of ignorance. But the injunctions are

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 53

not being followed properly. Consequently, loss of peace is on the

increase.

It is not enough to just wish for great observances. We should be

able to observe the shastraic injunctions correctly. We should be able to

perform exactly as was demonstrated to us and passed on to us by our

elders. Only then we will reap the right benefits. Certainly Shri Chakra

has been eulogised in the Shastras to the sky. But the very same

AvaraNa have also prescribed a certain regimen for such pUjA. By taking

the attitude .I will do my personalized pUjA in my own way. not only will

you miss the promised or expected results, but actually it will turn out to

be counter-productive.

A Yantra is not just the residing seat of a devatA; it is the devatA

itself. It is not just a representation, or a copy. It is not a substitute for

the devatA. It is the devatA itself. It is the presentation of the devatA and

not a re-presentation. More so in the case of ambaal. For, Her Divine

Presence is very special in Her Yantra. It is because of this that ambaalpUjA

is mostly done to Her Yantra than to Her most beautiful physical

form.

[At this point, Ra Ganapathi, (the Boswell of Mahaswamigal),

adds the following note:

Usually we talk greatly of the .name. and .form. of devatAs.

But generally, in the case of feminine deities,

the .name. takes a lesser role. And in the case of ShrI Vidya mantras,

the name is not there at all. Only the seed syllables are dominant.

Again, though the devatA of Shri Vidya, namely Tripurasundari,

is as shown by her name itself of very beautiful form,

instead of the worship of her form

This question was asked of the Mahaswamigal .

He expressed concurrence with the above statement

and joined in expressing his own astonishment that this is so.

But he did not choose to give any explanation. ]

In addition to the two natural locations for Her, namely, the Ocean

of Nectar and the Meru peak, one should add Her YantraM as another

place of Her permanent residence. No, no, I just committed two errors.

The ShrI Chakra is not just Her residence. The ShrI Chakra is Herself !

This was the first error. The second one is that the ShrI Chakra is not

like the Ocean of Nectar or the Meru peak where She is said to reside.

Even in those two places, She resides only in the ShrI Chakra, though

now magnified million times.

When She is in the Meru peak, the AvaraNas are piled up peak

upon peak in a three-dimensional manner. It will be in the form of an

upright cone. Such a three dimensional configuration of ShrI Chakra is

called .Meru-prastAram.. People call it just .Meru. colloquially. When the

Chakra is two dimensional it is said to be .bhU-prastAram.. A mixture of

the two, where the beginning AvaraNas rise higher and higher, but later

the latter AvaraNas are all in the same plane, is called .ardha-Meru.

(ardha means .semi.). A pUrNa-Meru is that which has all the AvaraNas

in the Meru-prastara style. In our Mutt at Kanchipuram and in

A Digest of Discourses 54 on Soundaryalahari

Tiruvidaimarudur MukAmbal sannadhi, what you find is pUrNa-Meru. In

Mangadu it is ardha-meru. In the Kamakoshtam at Kanchipuram it is

bhU-prastAram.

The ShrI Chakra, ShrI VidyA, ShrI MatA, ShrI puram all pertain to

the devI, the Mother Goddess, LalitA-tripurasundari. The prefix ShrI is

the prefix usually given for respect and has no extra connotation of

Lakshmi, the Goddess of Prosperity and Wealth. The Chakras and the

mantras associated with other devatAs are distinguished by by their

name itself carrying the name of the devatA . as in, Shiva-Chakram,

Sudarshana-YantraM, ShhaDakshhara-Chakram, etc. Only in the case of

LalitA-tripurasundari, the Chakram, the YantraM are known as The

Chakram, The YantraM, The Mantram.

The ShrI Chakram depicts the advaitic identity of Shiva and

Shakti. That is why the two kinds of Chakras of Shiva and Shakti are

intertwined. The (four) triangles with the apex upward are known as

Shiva cakras and the (five) triangles with apex downward are known as

Shakti Chakras. The angles at which these interesect, the lotus petals on

the outer corridors, the circular lines, the square design at the

outermost, all have specific prescriptions; these are given in shloka 11.

All this is not to be read or studied like reading fiction or for

acadmeic interest. They have to be seriously learnt straight from a Guru.

They have to be preserved as such. I did not want to omit them

completely and therefore I just touched upon these. But don.t take them

lightly.

-28-

(Digest of pp.898-903)

Shloka #12 talks about the extraordinary beauty and charm of the

Devi. With a poetic excellence it says: .Much has been said in detail and

with precision about Your Yantra . the lines, the planes, the circles and

the squares. But to describe You and Your physical feature excellences,

it doesn.t seem to be possible. No poet has ever succeeded in that task!..

BrahmA is the Adi-kavi, the most ancient poet. The Bhagavatam

refers to him in this fashion in the very first shloka. The Goddess of

Learning, Sarasvati, is his Shakti. Who can therefore be a greater poet?

He has composed stotras on every devatA you can imagine. All the

divines usually go to him for redress of their grievances. He takes them

to the concerned God, either Shiva, or Vishnu or Devi, etc. Every time he

sings praise of the particular God whom they are approaching for help.

His stotra on ambaal in the work called sapta-shati is famous. But even

he could not describe the beauty of ambaal as it is. The first half of

shloka 12 goes as follows:

tvadIyam soundaryam tuhina-giri-kanye tulayitum

kavIndrAH kalpante kathamapi virinchi-prabhRtayaH /

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 55

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

tulayitum: to weigh (or assess)

tvadIyam: Your

soundaryam: beauty

kavIndrAH: great poets

virinchi-prabhRtayaH: (like) Brahma and others

kalpante: (only) imagine

kathamapi: somehow (in feeble ways).

Virinchi means BrahmA. prabHRtayaH: and the others of the kind.

They tried to describe Your beauty .tvadIyam soundaryam.. The word

.tulA. stands for a pair of weighing scales. In one pan of the scales we put

the object to be weighed and in the other pan we place the .weight. whose

weight we know. In other words when we don.t know the weight of

something we calculate it by comparing it with something whose weight

we know. So when you don.t know how to describe the beauty of

ambaal, what we do is to look for something whose beauty we know.

Such a .weight. we know is known by the name of .analogy. or .example..

The face is like the moon, the eyes are like lotuses, the hair on the head

is like a beehive . all these are examples and analogies, which help us to

comprehend the .weight. of the beauty of ambaal, in terms of known

.weights..

So what the poets do is to imagine newer and newer examples

with great effort. This effort of imagination by the poet is denoted by the

word .kalpante. in the shloka. .kalpanA. is imagination. They only

imagine an example. They are not able to arrive at the real thing, is what

the shloka says. The fact they are not able to do it, is gracefully hinted at

by the shloka in the words .kathamapi kalpante..

The Yantra-form of the Goddess has been outlined with precision.

But Her physical form eludes imagination. Attempts by even the great

Brahma and others to find suitable examples have only failed.

To describe the form, somebody should have seen it in full. Has

anybody seen it? # Of course it is not right to say that She has never

been seen at all. Because we have several poet-devotees who have had a

flash of Her and in the wake of that flash have composed wonderful

devotional poetry. Even in the case of the greatest of devotees, to whom

She might have given darshan, maybe one got to see Her lotus feet,

another the Graceful eyes, and another the bewitching smile in the face.

Like that some part of Her may have caught the eyes of even these

devotees; but never the full form!

Then who has seen Her full beauty? Only the Lord, Her

husband, Lord Shiva. Indeed She took this very beautiful form in order

that He may be involved in the leelA of Creation. And thus She became

Tripura-sundari, the beautiful. So Her physical form has been totally

A Digest of Discourses 56 on Soundaryalahari

dedicated to Him. Though Her full beauty is not visible for our perception

Her fullest Grace and Compassion are available for every one of us.

That Her full beauty is perceptible only to Her Lord is not said in

so many blunt words. It is nicely couched in a subtle poetic extravaganza

which comes in the next two lines of the same shloka. (shloka #12):

Yad-AlokautsukyAd-amara-lalanA yAnti manasA

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

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

half).

amara-lalanAH : the divine damsels

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

look

yAnti : reach

manasA : mentally

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

dushhprApAm : that is inaccessible

tapobhir-api : even by great penances.

The divine damsels who are particularly thought of here are the

famous quadret: RambhA, Urvashi, tilottamA and MenakA. They are

supposed to be superlatively beautiful. Even they, having seen a little of

the beauty of ambaaL, have considered themselves insignificant, in

relation to ambaal.s beauty. They are naturally curious to get a look at

the complete beauty of Mother Goddess. But they also know they cannot

have that complete picture, because the Goddess is totally dedicated to

the Lord and Her complete beauty is not perceptible to any one else. So

what do they do? Only the Lord knows Her fullest beauty. So they want

to be one with Him, the Lord Shiva. This is the Shiva-sAyujya-padavI.

Then and only then, they can have an idea of the complete beauty of

ambaaL.

But that Shiva-sAyujya status is not so easy to obtain. And what

exactly is this sAyujya?

-29-

(Digest of pp.903 - 909 )

To reach the world of the ishhTa-devatA (Chosen favourite deity)

and live in that world is called sAlokya-padavI. The next stage is the

sAmIpya stage. This is the stage where one lives in the beatific presence

of that God. The next stage which is sArUpyam is the process of

becoming that very form by continuously meditating on the form. The

ultimate is the sAyujya-padavI where one becomes in essence the object

of one.s adoration. This is an identity status, both in form and essence.

There are devotees of Shiva who seek that sAyujya padavI in their

unquenchable thirst for becoming one with the Lord. In their case the

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 57

sAyujyam is an end in itself. On the other hand, the divine damsels (go

back to shloka #12) who are seeking that sAyujya status with Lord Shiva

do not seek it as an end, but as a means to be able to see the beauty of

the Supreme Goddess. It is an irony that in the hands of these damsels

even the greatest goal (sAdhyam) of shiva-sAyujya status has become a

sAdhanA (means) for the sadhyam (that is, that which is sought, and

therefore, a further goal), the darshan of the fullest beauty of ambaal!

Well, just because these damsels have sought that status is it

going to be within their reach? It is something which is inaccessible even

for the hardest penance. These damsels know only to disturb and destroy

the penances of the rishis. The sense-control needed for the hard

penance is beyond their reach. So what do they do? They only try to

achieve it mentally. But that status indeed is not reachable even by the

mind. .yan manasA na manute. says the Upanishad, meaning, .What

cannot be thought of even by the mind.. The bottomline therefore is, even

they cannot ultimately know the beauty of ambaal!

It is to be noted that this shloka, which elevates the beauty

(soundaryam) of ambaal to its apex, is actually in the midst of the first

part, that is Ananda-lahari.

Another shloka (#14) describes ambaal as the personification of

Time (kAlam).There are six seasons in a year. These 360 days of the year

are the 360 rays of light emanating from the infinite Light of Shakti. Each

of the Chakras represents one of these seasons and there are as many

rays there as there are days in the corresponding season.For instance, in

the mUlAdhAra Chakra, there are fifty-six rays, corresponding to the fifty

six days of vasanta-ritu (the spring season). She thus contracts Herself

as a ritu in Time and stays as such in that Chakra. In reality She

transcends Time; She is kAlAtItA. It is in that transcendent state, She

manifests as the divine Feet in the thousand-petalled Chakra, beyond the

six Chakras. The pair of Her lotus feet . .tava padAmbuja-yugam. -- is

there in that sahasrAra Chakram.

Amidst the Anandalahari shlokas I will now pick up one shloka

(#15) which depicts Her, not in Her lalitA form, but in another form

consistent with the ShrI VidyA tantra.

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

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

sakRn-na tvA natvA katham-iva satAM sannidadhate

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

satAM: For (those) noble ones,

sakRt : just once

natva: having prostrated

tva : to You

A Digest of Discourses 58 on Soundaryalahari

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

autumnal moonlight

shashi-yuta-jaTA-jUTA-makuTAM: who has the crown of matted

hair that includes the moon, and

vara-trAsa-trANa-sphaTika-ghuTikA-pustaka-karAM: who holds in

the (four) hands, the boon mudrA, the fear-protection mudrA, the

crystal bead necklace, and the book

Katham-iva : why (would)

paNitayaH : the speech capabilities

madhu-kshhIra-drAkshhA-madhurima-dhurINAH: which are

pregnant with the sweetness of honey, milk and grapes

na sannidadhate: not accrue?

Here the Goddess depicted is the the Goddess of Speech, (vAg-devi

or Sarasvati), but without Her usual VINA in Her hand.

The word .sharad. becomes very apt when one refers to Goddess

Sarasvati. It is in sharad-ritu (the autumnal season) that we do pUjA to

Sarasvati. She is called ShAradA because of that. Our Acharya had a

special affinity to the ShAradA name. Sarasvati is very important to him

because we know he reached the peak of excellence in scholarship.

ShAradA is one of the more important names of Sarasvati. It

indicates simultaneously the perfect purity of whiteness and the cool

Grace that combines pleasantness and goodness. Very often .sha. and

.sa. get interchanged in tradition. In north India there is the custom of

referring to ShAradA as SAradA. The latter word means, SAra-dA, the

One who graces you with the essence (sAram) of Knowledge.This may be

another reason why the Acharya had an affinity toward the name. The

name of the deity he installed in Sringeri is ShAradAmbAL. In spite of the

fact that he had a liking towards this name, just as he never mentioned

either lalitA or Tripura-sundari in this stotra, he did not also mention

ShAradA. Still, by the words .Sharad-jyotsnA. in the beginning of this

shloka, he reminds us of ShAradAmbAl.

The second line of the shloka talks about the four hands. Two of

the hands show the vara (boon) and abhaya (fearlessness) mudrAs.

Earlier it was said in shloka #4 that all others other thanLalitAmbAL

show the vara-abhaya mudrAs. So in this shloka he presents Saraswati

with the vara-abhaya mudrAs. The dual word .trAsa-trANa. indicates the

.abhaya.. For .trAsa. means .fear. and .trANa. means protection.

Protection from fear is just .abhaya., fearlessness.

SphaTika-ghuTikA is the crystal bead necklace. In Sanskrit it is

called .aksha-mAlA.. This is the same as .akshara-mAlA.. The akshharas

are the alphabets. The 51 letters of the Sanskrit alphabet from .a. to

.kshha. correspond each by each to the beads in the necklace; that is

why it is called .akshara-mAlA., also called .aksha-mAlA.. Here I have to

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal 59

tell you a very important component of the ShAkta tradition and

scriptures.

-30-

(Digest of pp.909 - 915 )

The aksharas, alphabets, are very important for ShAktam. Each

letter has a basic sound principle associated with it. The very creation is

by the vibration of sound waves. The elemental principle of .AkAsha.

produces, through vibration, subtle sounds, and from these sounds

creation starts, from that the mantras, and the vedas that are full of

mantras. The subtle principle underlying AkAsha, that is, the tanmAtra

associated with AkAsha, is .sound. . The key concept in ShAktam is the

cycle of evolution and involution and so, the sound principle runs as its

life-line. On one side Shaktam has the artha-prapancham, the universe of

matter, where the fundamental principles are Shiva-tattvam, Shaktitattvam,

sadAshiva-tattvam, Ishvara-tattvam and shuddha-vidyA tattvam

. which take you through the evolutionary stage from the para-Brahman

to the universe of matter and being. On the other side there is the sabdaprapancham,

the unvierse of sound. It starts from the most subtle one

called .parA.. Including this there are five .sound. (shabda) principles.

After .parA. there is .pashyantI., then .madhyamA..

The subtle sound .parA. cannot be heard by human ear and

cannot be vocalised by human voice. It is in fact the root source, the

substratum, of all sounds. When that gets a little focussed . just a little

. and materialised, it becomes .pashyantI.. In other words, what was

.without purpose. and was just plain and simple sound-root, namely,

.parA. , became inclined towards being heard and being spoken and so in

that direction .solidified. slightly and thus .pashyantI. arose. So

.pashyantI. has a purpose!. The very word itself means .seeing., .looking

forward.. .parA. had no purpose; but when the .purpose. arises, it

becomes .pashyantI..

Next comes the actual subtle sound, called .madhyamA.. This is

not produced by any human voice. It arises by itself. This is therefore

midway between the subtle sound of .pashyantI. and the actual sound of

the human voice, which is physical. Hence the name .madhyamA., which

means .what is in the middle.. This is a self-generated sound. It is

therefore also called .anAhata.. .Ahata. means .what is forced or

externally generated.. That which is not forced or not generated

externally, is the .anAhata. sound.

All that is externally generated is .Ahata.. In this category come all

sounds, that human voice produces, by the vibration of air through the

larynx, and all instrumental noises produced by the blow of air or by

beat of drum or by the friction of matter with matter, metal with metal.

A Digest of Discourses 60 on Soundaryalahari

After parA, pashyantI, and .madhyamA. comes the speech that

man produces with effort. This is called .vaikharI.. This is classified into

two: just mere noise is called .dhvani. --- when a child cries, or when we

just laugh loudly or weep aloud; that which is recognisable as .such and

such a sound. is called .varNa.. This .varNa. is the akshhara or the

alphabet. There are 51 specified akshharas.

The five principles of the artha-prapancham are usually equated

with the five sound principles. In fact the latter are more important,

because it is by the vibration of these sounds that the artha-universe

began.

Now let us come to the five elemental principles in which ambaal

manifests Herself in the kuNDalinI cakras. Starting from mulAdhAra,

upwards to the vishuddhi Chakra, the tattvas of earth, water, fire, air

and AkAsha are proceeding from the concrete to the subtle ones. This is

the artha-prapancham. The five elemental sound principles are also

manifested in the kuNDalinI Chakras, but in the reverse order. It is in the

mulAdhAra Chakra that the most fundamental sound energy .parA. is

present. So from the mulAdhAra to vishuddhi, they go from the subtle to

the concrete, thus ending up with the most concrete one of the human

voice, namely, the .varNa. category of vaikharI.

The 51 sounds of the alphabet are called .mAtRkAs.. The word

.mAtRkA. means .mother.. An young mother who moves and mingles with

us in our own childish world is called .mAtRkA.. A royal mother with a

higher status is called .mAtA.. She is the .mahA-rAjnI. of LalitAsahsranAma.

But She is also the .mAtRkA-varna-rUpiNI., meaning She is

in the form of the varnas (=aksharas) or the mAtRkAs. In ShAkta

scriptures the aksha-mAlA and the book are indicative of the shabdaprapancham.

That is why ambaal is holding them in the other two hands.

The ShrI vidyA mantras are made up of pure aksharas only. It is

the Mother Goddess Herself who takes the forms of these sounds. Those

who do the mantra-japa are being blessed by Her through these sounds.

Her Grace makes even the kuNDalinI yoga achievable by the vibrations of

the nADIs at the japa of the mantras. We, in addition, get many of our

other desires fulfilled. Not only this. By repeating these sound vibrations

we get even the darshan of Her physical form.Thus Her entire leelA takes

place in this universe of sounds and sound vibrations. All that I said now

is about the akshharas only.

When we combine these akshharas in various combinations we get

the various words and nAmas and also the stotras. In fact even the Vedas

arose like this.

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)