Sunday, November 25, 2012

Soundaryalahari -7 (A Digest of Kanchi Mahaswamigal.s Discourses)































Soundaryalahari  
(A Digest of Kanchi Mahaswamigal.s Discourses)




 








(Digest of pp.1265-1283 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume, 4th imprn.)
The shloka # 91 also is in the same trend of praise of Devi.s feet.
Usually poets describe the gait of their heroic women as .hamsa-gati.,
the gait of swans. But in #91, the Acharya reverses this analogy. He says
that it is the swans that learn their gait from the beauty of ambaal.s gait!
In compassion with the swans Her divine feet actually .demonstrate. how
to produce that graceful gait, but in the act of this demonstration they
(the feet) indeed .teach. the swans the theory of this gait! .teshhAM
shikshhAM AcakshhANaM., says the shloka.
And how is this .teaching. done? She is having anklets on Her feet,
studded with precious gems. .subhaga-maNi-manjIrac-chalAt. . the
auspicious jingling of the gem-studded anklet, is the pretext of teaching!
The jingling of the gems is poetically extolled as the words of the
teaching. Earlier in Shloka #60, it was said that the clang of her ear
ornaments, as She shakes Her head in appreciation of Sarasvati.s
speech, seem to be appreciative words spoken by Her. Thus the jingling
of the ear ornaments of ambaa was the appreciation of Sarasvati in #60
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and here in #91, the jingling of the gems of Her anklet turns out to be the
teaching of the swans, which are the vAhanas of Sarasvati!
Having described and praised in his inimitable poetry all the
different parts of the divine body and thus having immersed us in the
waves (lahari) of beauty (soundarya) of ambaaL, the Acharya finally
comes to the seat on which that Fullness of Form is seated. This is
shloka #92. Therein he also mentions the crimson glory (.rAgaaruNatayA
.) which the entire body emanates. In Lalita sahasranama,
the description of the devI begins with .udyat-bhAnu-sahasrAbhA. . the
effulgence of thousand rising suns .and then goes on to describe the
form from head to foot. Here for a change, the Acharya first describes the
form from head to foot and finally ends up with the composite Glory of
the whole Form. The crimson redness of ambaal makes even the
assumed whiteness of Lord Shiva appear as the .red. KAmeshvara. The
redness indicates creation just as the rising sun is the harbinger of
activity. The Mother-Father role for the whole universe has to be taken
up and that is why KAmeshvara becomes overpowered by .redness. and
becomes, as it were, the embodiment of erotic sentiment. (.sharIrI
shRngAro rasa iva.).
But once the world is created it needs all the infinite compassion of
the Mother. In fact the very purpose of creation seems to be to manifest
that Compassion. The brahman, without a second, cannot show any
compassion or love because there is no second. When it manifested as
Shiva-Shakti, as partners in a sati-pati relationship, the love that arose is
called .shRngAra.. When the same love directs itself to the created world,
it is called .karuNA. (Compassion). So the shRngAra rasa of shloka #92
becomes the karuNA-rasa of shloka #93. And this is proclaimed with a
poetic gymnastics of words:
.jagat trAtuM shambhor-jayati- kAcid-aruNA.
jagat trAtuM : For the purpose of protecting the universe,
karuNA : the Compassion
shambhoH: of Shivam, the Immutably white
kAcid-aruNA : as the indescribable redness, that is, ambaaL
jayati : shines gloriously.
Thus the Shiva-Shakti advaitam is established.
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The Acharya has a motherly affection towards all humanity in the
sense that they should never succumb to the lower instincts of man.
Having talked about the shRngAra (Love) of the divine couple, the
Acharya wants to issue a warning to posterity, lest mankind may slip
into an error. This error could be of two kinds. One might take liberties
with the worship of the divine through yantras and mantras, emphasized
in the Ananda-lahari part; and, because, the divine has been said to be
by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal
169
the Mother and Father of the universe, one might construe it as a licence
to take liberties with that Universal Parent-couple.
Yes, you can treat them as your Mother and Father and worship
them as you like, pouring forth all your love. But in that case there
should be no yantras, nor should you bring in any mantras for invoking
them. Mantras and Yantras have to be used only with the proper
ritualistic sanction and discipline. When these latter are absent, just go
about your worship by doing Soundaryalahari as a devotional recitation
and no more. In fact I know many of you do only that. There is nothing
wrong in it. And I am constrained to say .many of you. and not .All of
you.. For there are people who get into such spiritually advanced
scriptures for curiosity, for academic research, or for enjoyment of
literature, without observing the need to control their sensual
distractions. Such failure to follow ethical and religious discipline is the
second potential error, of the two errors that I talked about.
Obviously the Acharya does not want his beautiful poem on the
beauty of the divine to end with the whimper of a mundane rude warning
to the public not to be swept into the profane. He issues the warning,
however, in the subtlest terms. Instead of saying: .Whatever you do
with this stotra, do it with great discipline of mind and control of the
senses., he indicates, in shloka #95, what awaits those who approach
Her without the necessary self-discipline and regulatory mind. In
modern times I see some people write without any sense of shame at the
fact that they are only fanning the fumes of basal instincts of man. Not
only that, they seem to justify such writing and use alibis like .Realism..
When one provokes another to fall down in ethical and moral standards,
the provocateur accrues more sinful discredit to himself than the one
who has been provoked into sin. And that is why, as an author, the
Acharya takes great care to see that his readers do not fall into any trap
of sin. So in shloka #95 he paints what happens if you fail to follow
discipline.
purArAter-antaHpuram-asi tatas-tvac-caraNayoH
saparyA-maryAdA tarala-karaNAnAm-asulabhA /
tathA hyete nItAH shata-makha-mukhAH siddhim-atulAM
tava dvAropaAnta-sthitibhir-aNimAdyAbhir-amarAH // 95 //
asi: You are
antaHpuraM : in the inner apartments, (as Consort)
pura-arAteH : of the Destroyer of the cities (that is, of Lord Shiva)
tataH : and therefore
saparyA-maryAdA : the proper regimen and privilege of worship
tava caraNayoH : of Your feet
asulabhA : (is) difficult to attain
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tarala-karaNAnAM : for those with fickle senses, or of unregenerate
mind.
tathA : Thereby
ete shata-makha-mukhAH amarAH : these deities headed by Indra
nItAH hi: are led, indeed, (only up to)
atulAM siddhiM : an unparalleled achievement
aNimAdyAbhiH : by the psychic powers like aNimA, etc.
dvAropAnta-sthitibhiH : who are stationed in proximity to the gates
(which are only peripheral to Your mansion ).
This shloka employs a negative compliment to those of fickle
senses, who are said to reach .atulAm siddhiM. (matchless siddhi). But
Who is giving them this achievement? Only those who stand at the Gates
of the Royal mansion, far removed from the sanctum sanctorum of
ambaa.s inner apartments. These are the attendants of ambaal
stationed in the outermost rounds (AvaraNas) of Her navAvaraNa
mansion (the nine . round Shrichakra). In fact they stand even outside
the outermost round. They are the ten devatas, eight of them
representing the eight siddhis (the psychic powers) aNimA, mahimA, etc.
So the deities who propitiate them have to stand only at the same outer
rounds of the Devi.s mansion and naturally get only what these
attendant devatas can give them. And the Acharya satirically calls,
almost in contempt, what they bestow to the seeker, as .atulAm
siddhiM. (matchless psychic power). Thus indirectly the Acharya is
saying that we should aspire to reach not these siddhis, which are given
by the .dvAropAnta-sthitAH. . those who guard the gates -- but we
should aim far beyond.
Shiva-Shakti couple, in their inner apartments, have to be
understood in the esoteric sense. The right understanding will not come
to those who are still imprisoned by their minds. Even the poetic
descriptions in the stotra should not draw us to the state in which the
very celestials like Indra find themselves only just at the gates of the
mansion and not inside! Only those who honour and welcome the mental
discipline and the strict regimen required for a valid entry into the Royal
Mansion, beyond what the fickle-minded celestials can reach, should
ever attempt to do the Shri Chakra worship. Once that welcoming desire
is planted in the mind, naturally ambaal will lead us to the
understanding and following of all the rules of the rituals that
constitute the Shri Chakra Puja. This is the message of this shloka. What
a beauty that the Acharya has driven it all so nicely and softly into us,
without a single harsh word about the consequences of unregulated and
indisciplined worship!
- 79 -
(Digest of pp.1287-1295 )
by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal
171
girAm Ahur-devIM druhiNa-gRhiNIM Agamavido
hareH patnIM padmAM hara-saha-carIM adri-tanayAM /
turIyA kApi tvaM duradhigama-nissIma-mahimA
mahAmAyA vishvaM bhramayasi para-brahma-mahishhI //97//
Agama-vidaH : Those who know the scriptures
AhuH : declare (You)
girAM devIM : as the Goddess of Speech,
druhiNa-gRhiNIM : the wife of Brahma the Creator
padmAM : (as well) as Lakshmi,
hareH patnIM : the wife of Lord Vishnu
adri-tanayAM : (and as well) as Parvati, the daughter of Mountain-King,
hara-saha-carIM : the Consort of Lord Shiva.
tvaM : (But) You, (on the other hand),
turIyA : are the fourth (higher than the other three),
kA api : not to be delimited as This or That,
duradhigama-nissIma-mahimA: of unique glory that is both unfathomable
and limitless,
para-brahma-mahishhI : (in fact) the Queen-Consort of the Absolute
brahman
mahA-mAyA : (being) the great Cosmic mAyA
bhramayasi : revolving and compering
vishvaM : the entire universe.
The distinctive keyword in this shloka (#97) is the unusual
expression .para-brahma-mahishhI.. All along, the Soundaryalahari has
been saying that the parA-Shakti is the highest with sovereign power. In
order to show to the world their Father and Mother, that Shakti brought
in a KAmeshvara and gave him the status of a husband to Her. That was
our understanding. Here the words .Queen-Consort of the Absolute
brahman. have significant connotations. It means that the parabrahman
is the sovereign and ambaal is next to him, as his wife. The
word .mahishhI. means Queen-Consort. One who herself rules is not
called a .mahishhI.; she would be called .mahA-rAjnI. or .cakra-vartinI..
.rAjA. and .rAjnI. have the same connotations, except one is male and the
other is female. So also .chakravarti. and .cakravartinI.. But there is no
pair of words .mahishha. and .mahishhI.; the King is not called
.mahishha.. Actually .mahishha. is an asura who was in the form of a
buffalo! .Mahishhi. is a unique word used for the Queen-consort, the
second in command, of a King. Corresponding to that meaning of
.mahishhI. there is no male word .mahishha.!
The stotra began with saying that it is She who makes Him move.
And at several places we have been told that it is She who is the Agent-
Provocateur for every action in the world. She is the One who takes care
of Him even at the time of dissolution. After all this, when he comes to
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172
the end of the stotra the Acharya winds up with Her as the dutiful .patni.
of Him who is the all-in-all. In fact She Herself would like it only this
way. Is She not the One who is writing all this poetry through the pen of
the Acharya?
Now let us go to the rest of the shloka. Though the last word is
.para-brahma-mahishhI., earlier he mentions Sarasvati, Lakshmi and
Parvati . the Consorts of the Trinity of Divines .and then only brings in
the ParAshakti that is KAmeshvari, the .consort. of the turIyaM that is
brahman. Just in the previous shloka (#96), he had said: .There are
those who have courted and attained Sarasvati though She is the wife of
Brahma. There are all the rich who are called .ShrimAn., because ShrI,
that is Lakshmi, resides with them, though She belongs to Lord Vishnu.
But nobody can fault You as having deserted your husband. Therefore
You are the greatest in chastity!. There is an implied let-down here of
Sarasvati and Lakshmi. The Acharya clears himself of this let-down, in
the present shloka #97. The Teacher of advaita that he is, he cannot
afford to make distinctions between deities. He is the one who gave all
importance to the name of Sarasvati, by creating ShAradA Pitham and
Sringeri where all the worship is for ShAradambAl. The dasha-nAmi
classification of renunciates has two of the categories named as
.Sarasvati. and .BhArati.; note that no other deity gets into the names of
the dashanAmi.s. In the same way, he was the one who composed the
famous .kanaka-dhAra-stavaM. on Lakshmi. In fact it was his first
composition!
So the very first thought of the shloka is to clear any distinction
between deities. It is to ambaa he says .You are the One who is known
as Sarasvati the Goddess of Speech, and You are the One who is also
known as Mother Lakshmi.. This is not a casual statement from him,
says he. The knowers of the Vedas themselves say so (.AgamavidaH
AhuH.), he adds humbly. And then it is You who is also Parvati, the wife
of Rudra. All are parAshakti. And this is nothing but advaita. And this
advaita prompts him to mention the turIyaM, the Fourth.
According to ShAkta philosophy and also according to Shaivam,
there are Divinities for the Five Cosmic Functions. The Absolute Truth is
beyond. Not like this in advaita. Vedic authentication of advaita comes
from Mandukya Upanishad. The dream state of every jIva is Creation, the
waking state is Sthiti (Sustenation) and the sleeping state is Dissolution;
and that which is still awake even in that sleep state is the Fourth, that
is brahman. In the same strain, in this shloka, the Acharya goes to the
.turIyaM. after mentioning the three Shaktis of the Trinity; he does not go
to the other two of the cosmic functions.
The .Shakti of brahman. is not specially talked about by him in
advaita. Nor can we say it is never talked about. Right in the
commentary of the very first sUtra, in Brahma-sutra-bhAshhya, The
Acharya, detailing the .lakshaNa. of brahman in the words .nityaby
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shuddha-buddha-mukta-svabhAvaM. , he adds .sarvajnaM.; by this
addition it is therefore accepted that this .One. (ekaM) also admits of
.sarvaM. ( a multiplicity) and all that is .known. by This. Later, more
explicitly, he adds another lakshaNa: .sarva-shakti-samanvitaM.
(possessing all powers). Further in the commentary on II-1-30,
.sarvopetA ca tad-darshanAt., the duality status is recognised and he
says brahman has a varied shakti-yoga. Here .shakti-yoga. means that
which coeexists with Shakti. This is what becomes the .para-brahmamahishhI
. in the language of ShAktaM, as in this shloka of
Soundaryalahari.
One direct disciple of the Acharya was SarvajnAtman. He was the
last disciple. He is one of the leading exponents of advaita. Listen to him
in .Samkshhepa-ShArIrakaM. III-228, 229. .In Shuddha-advaita there is
nothing like Shakti, leelaa or creation. However, even for those with such
faith, there is a place for karma and upAsanA. Seen from that vyavahAra
perspective, the cit (Brahman, Consciousness) takes a role of Shakti and
with its inert mAya-avidyA power, creates the universe.. Yet, in the
advaita works of the Acharya the aim is not to direct attention to this
dance of Shakti. Without giving any importance to Brahma-Shakti, he
always discards creation as the work of mAyA and calls on us to think of
the turiya-brahman beyond. Mostly he does not even refer to the Shakti
or energy that is beyond a gender specification. When that is so, what to
talk of Her as the .patni. of brahman!
But the same Acharya, the teacher of brahma-vidyA, now talks as
the teacher of ShrI VidyA and shows the way to those who have a taste in
this direction. And the way is KAmeshvari, the .para-brahma-mahishhI..
The Shri VidyA tantra also has the same aim as advaita-sAyujyaM. Thus
he combines the turIya at the goal of the jnAna path of advaita and the
Shiva-Shakti concept in the Bhakti path.
Incidentally when he says .turIyA. in the feminine, not only does
that mean the parAshakti beyond the three of Sarasvati, Lakshmi and
Parvati, it also means that .turIyA. is the patni of the .turIyaM. that is
brahman.
Notice that there is a unification of advaita Vedanta with ShAktam
here. The parAshakti of the ShAkta philosophy is identified with the
mAyA of advaita Vedanta. When it is spoken of as .duradhigama-nissImamahimA
. (of unfathomable and boundless glory) the language is of
ShAktam. For in advaita mAyA is considered to be .tuchhaM. and
therefore to be discarded as an incomprehensible anirvacanIyaM. But
here it is the glorious parAshakti!
Our Acharya is matchless when it comes to his role as a spiritual
teacher. In Soundaryalahari he has talked both advaita and Shri VidyA
and has made a beautiful symbiosis of the two philosophies so as to be
palatable, enjoyable and adaptible to both the Vedantins and the Shri
VidyA followers. And this has been possible because, as I have told you
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in the beginning, ShrI VidyA is nearest to advaita, among all schools of
thought.
In the beginning he talked about the capability of Shakti making
the first prompting that makes Him move. And now at the end he makes
the same Shakti as the prime mover of everything in the universe:
.vishvam bhramayasi.. Naturally this compering and revolving includes
all the motion of the universe. Krishna in the Gita talked only of the
movement of the living when He said: .bhrAmayan sarva-bhUtAni.. By
that He meant only the movement of the minds of living beings. But here
the Acharya has included the movement of not only the living (cetana)
but also of the non-living (acetana), by the use of the word .vishvaM..
This mAyA or parAShakti that makes both the living and the nonliving
dance to Her tunes, is the same one who as Mother Goddess
graces all of us not only with everything mundane but finally the very
Bliss of brahman (. parAnanda-rasaM.). This is the content of Shloka
#99.
80
(Digest of pp.1295 -1306 )
sarasvatyA lakshhmyA vidhi-hari-sapatno viharate
rateH pAtivratyaM shithilayati ramyeNa vapushhA/
ciraM jIvan-neva kshhapita-pashu-pAsha-vyatikaraH
parAnandAbhikhyaM rasayati rasaM tvad-bhajanavAn // 99//
The modesty of our Acharya is well-known. It is going to exhibit
itself again in the next shloka #100 where he says, in winding up the
stotra, that nothing is his, it is all ambaal.s work. So he does not give
any phala-shruti (a list of what one achieves by reading this stotra;
.phala. means fruit, consequence, reward) as is usual with all devotional
compositions. Instead, he gives, in this shloka #99, a different form of
phala-shruti, wherein he says what an upAsana of ambaal would give a
devotee (tvad-bhajanaVAn, meaning, one who propitiates You), and thus
indirectly hinting to us something like a phala-shruti. The first part of
this stotra is the form of Her in mantra and tantra. The second part is the
form of Her physical beauty. Thereby the whole stotra becomes Her
very Self. So the recitation of this stotra is itself an upAsanA. The reciter
is the .bhajanavAn..
What does the .bhajanavAn. get? The only answer could be: What
will he not get? Whether it is of this world (.iha.) or of the other world
(.para.), he will get everything. One might say, from a Vedantic point of
view, that .iha-phala. is no .phala. at all. But who has that kind of
maturity that does not want mundane rewards of this world? One has to
start from the tastes of this world and move on to discard them only
gradually. The movement from the .iha. (meaning .here., .now.) to the
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.para. (meaning .distant., .subsequent.) has to go from stage to stage in
the natural course of one.s evolution. It is in this context that this shloka
details both the .iha-phala. and the .para-phala. as rewards for the
upAsaka. Both the kinds of rewards may be put together under four
heads: Knowledge, Wealth, Beauty, Life. Of these the first one goes along
with both .iha. and .para..
Knowledge is obtained by Learning. The Goddess of Learning is
Sarasvati. But ambaal Herself gives all that is given by Sarasvati . to
such an extent that even Brahma, the Creator, is envious of such a
devotee who has got all the learning that Sarasvati can bestow. Brahma
the Creator, the consort of Sarasvati, was all along thinking that he was
the sole beneficiary of Sarasvati.s favours. Remember that Brahma with
his four faces always chanting the four vedas is the repository of all
knowledge. Still he feels that the devotee who is favoured by ambaal with
all that Sarasvati has ever given Him, is a kind of competitor to Him
vis-a-vis Sarasvati. .How come, this human devotee of ambaaL has more
favours of the Sarasvati-type than what I myself have!. is the Creator.s
feeling. This is part of the first line of the shloka. .SarasvatyA vidhisapatno
viharate..
The other part of the first line . .lakshhmyA hari-sapatno viharate.
says the same thing of Vishnu, whose consort is Lakshmi. Again ,
ambaal.s Grace gives Her upAsaka, all favours of the Lakshmi type .
meaning, wealth and prosperity -- that Vishnu Himself is envious!
The Acharya mentions Sarasvati before Lakshmi. In other words,
he talks of Knowledge before Wealth. If the choice is given to us we
might want to put Wealth before Knowledge. I am sure that if God were
to suddenly appear before us and ask us what we want, most of us .
nay, almost all of us . would ask for wealth, as our first priority. Wealth
is the one thing that never satiates the human mind.
Certainly, Knowledge, Wealth, and Beauty are all desired by every
one. But it is Wealth that gets the first seat in this. There is an
interesting irony here. As far as wisdom and knowledge are concerned,
none of us would call oneself unwise or unknowing. Even if we do not
know we usually like to pose as one who knows! We don.t take
extraordinary efforts to make an improvement to our real knowledge. The
same story with Beauty. None of us would like to be told that there is no
beauty in us. And we would not like others also to think of us otherwise.
In the case of Knowledge we may be slack in making efforts to improve.
But in the case of Beauty every one of us takes elaborate pains to
improve our presentation and appearance. This is the story with
Knowledge and Beauty.
On the other hand, in the case of wealth, we all behave differently,
almost contrarily. We may have wealth but we would not like other
people to know about it. Always we make a plea for our need to have
more and we go about taking that posture. In the case of Knowledge and
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Beauty, we pose as if we have them even if we do not have them. In the
case of Wealth it is the opposite! This is the irony, which clearly
establishes that, among the three, Wealth is our first preference.
But our Acharya mentions Knowledge first and then only Wealth.
This only shows his infinite concern for us. However much he may know
our minds and their predeliction for wealth in preference to knowledge,
he wants to do good to us by influencing us in favour of the one thing
that he knows will only do good to us. Because if wealth is accrued
before the wisdom to use that wealth properly, there is every chance that
such wealth will be lost in no time. His thinking goes along with
Taittiriyopanishad where, the prayer is for .medhA. (Right knowledge)
(1.4.1) and then it says .Thereafter (.tataH.) give me wealth. (1.4.2). His
own Bhaja Govindam also emphasizes this in .artham-anartham
bhAvaya nityaM..
In an earlier shloka (#97) he said .You are Sarasvati, You are
Lakshmi, Parvati also; and You are the source of them all, because You
are the Queen-Consort of the Absolute Brahman. He did not call
Sarasvati or Lakshmi as the Goddess of Learning or the Goddess of
Wealth. Instead He made them the Shaktis corresponding to the .sRshhTi.
function and the .sthiti. function. In apposition to the fact that they were
the Shaktis corresponding to Cosmic functions, ambaal was placed as
the Universal Shakti integrated into the parabrahman itself. And thereby
She becomes the source of all other Shaktis. So the Learning and Wealth
which are the domains of Sarasvati and Lakshmi, have their original
source in ambaal. Naturally, by propitiating ambaal, the other two also
are obtained.
And thirdly, ambaal is the original source of Power for the God of
Love, namely .KAma.. In fact Her own name is KAmeshvari, KAmAkshhI
and KAmakoTi. It is that KAma who was reinstated by her by being given
a new life. It is he who reigns over the third fundamental desire of man,
namely, Beauty. That is why when somebody possesses all the beauty
that we can think of, we say the person is a Manmatha in physical form.
The stotra that talks predominantly of the .soundarya. (beauty) of
ambaal, is now said to give the beauty that man desires. In the case of
Sarasvati and Lakshmi, they were feminine; so it was said (in the first
line) that a devotee of ambaal gets knowledge (Sarasvati.s gift) and wealth
(Lakshmi.s gift) in such abundance that their own husbands were
envious of the recipient. Now Manmatha is male and so when his bounty
of beauty is bestowed on the devotee due to ambaal.s Grace, his own wife
Rati, becomes suspicious of the identity of the recipient .whether he is
Manmatha himself! This is the content of the second line of the shloka.
Well, Knowledge, Wealth and Beauty . all three have been
obtained. Are these enough? What if the recipient does not live long?
Then that itself will negate everything else! That is why all our scriptures
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include in their benedictions, .dIrghAyuH. as the first blessing. Without
long life and the implied good health, everything else is of no value.
And this is what is promised in the third line of the shloka. This is
the most (materially) significant benefit to the upAsaka. .ciraM jIvanneva.
says the shloka. But as one goes on in one.s life, living long, in due time
he gets into the thought process: .All these days I have obtained
everything of value in this world (.iha.) in terms of knoledge, wealth and
beauty, - all by ambaal.s Grace. Let me hereafter work through the same
upAsanA of ambaal, for betterment of my after-life.. And then, what
happens, is said in the third and fourth line of the shloka:
.ciraM jIvanneva kshhapita-pashu-pAsha-vyatikaraH
parAnandA-bhikhyaM rasayati rasaM tvad-bhajanavAn.
He who propitiates You, namely Your upAsaka, lives long, is able
to discard the pashu-pAsha knot and enjoys the infinite bliss of
BrahmAnanada.
So long as a JIva revolves in the quagmire of the senses and their
natural attractions, the JIva is nothing but an animal (pashu). That is
when the bond of .karma. anchors him to the concept of .janma. (birth
and death). It is that bond that is called .pAshaM.. It makes him revolve
again and again in the samsAra cycle. It is the sword of jnAna that cuts
it asunder. And then he is no more a pashu. He becomes Shiva, the
pashu-pati (the Lord of the pashu). The parAnandaM . supreme bliss of
advaita . is then the essence (rasa) of his experience. Note that the
Acharya uses his words very carefully. He does not say he .experiences.
that .rasa.. If he wanted to say so he would have used the words .pibati.
(drinks, consumes) or .AsvAdayati. (tastes). But he has put in the word
.rasayati. meaning, he becomes the rasa (essence) himself and it is that
becoming that is termed as .rasayati.. In other words there is no duality
of the experiencer and the experienced. There is only one .rasa.. It is
advaitam!
The great teacher of advaita uses two concepts of what is going to
develop in future as the great Shaiva siddhanta. This shows his
universality of outlook. Also, all along he has been propagating
Soundaryalahari according to the ShAkta schools of thought. Accordingly
Shakti was placed in the dominant position. But when he ends the stotra
he raises Shiva to dominance and effortlessly throws in two important
concepts -- namely .pashu. and .pAsha. -- of the Shaiva canon.
-------------------------------
The flood of beauty of Mother Goddess is now terminating. All
floods have to terminate in a sea or ocean. This flood (lahari) of words
has now to merge in the ocean of shabda-brahman. The Acharya uses
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the word .salila-nidhi. which is the same as .jala-nidhi. that means
.ocean..
pradIpa-jvAlAbhir-divasakara-nIrAjana-vidhiH
sudhA-sUtesh-candropala-jala-lavair-arghya-racanA /
svakIyair-ambhobhiH salila-nidhi-sauhitya-karaNaM
tvadIyAbhir-vAgbhis-tava janani vAcAM stutir-iyaM // 100 //
vAcAM janani: Oh Mother who generated Speech,
divasakara-nIrAjana-vidhiH : (just as one does) the light-waving ritual to
the Sun-God
pradIpa-jvAlAbhiH : by the flames of a lamp,
arghya-racanA : (just as) the offering of the arghya ritual
sudhA-sUteH : to the moon
candropala-jala-lavaiH : by the water drops that ooze out of the
moonstone in contact with moonlight,
salila-nidhi-sauhitya-karaNaM : (just as) offering ritual bathing to the
ocean
svakIyaiH ambhobhiH : by its own water,
tava iyaM stutiH : (so also is) this stotra on You
tvadIyAbhiH vAgbhiH : composed of Thine own words.
An elaborate explanation is needed for this final shloka.
81
(Digest of pp.1307 - 1321 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume, 4th imprn.)
The great Acharya always does something different from other
poets. Usually they all end their work with a phala-shruti . a listing of all
the good things that will accrue by the reading, recitation and repetition
of the stotra just finished. Here our author is himself a unique
combination of the deity of the stotra and Her own Lord. So we would
expect the last shloka of the stotra to be a magnificent phala-shruti that
soars far higher than the ordinary. But what do we find?
Instead of trying to soar higher, he actually makes himself the
humblest of the humble. .Why talk of phala-shruti for such an apology of
a stotra, that has just been done by Her Grace? What accrues to
whomsoever that worships Her has already been told in shloka #99. Let
me stop there. Whatever happens in the world, whether highly
commendable or not, all that is founded on Her Will. If everything turns
out to be commendable then that may not contribute to the variety that
is the spice of Her leelA. That is why perhaps She encourages and
prompts some low-level achievements also, for the very purpose of
highlighting really higher ones! This stotra is one of such promptings of
Hers. She is the Source of everything and so this is also Her child. And I
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179
am placing Her child at Her own feet.. This is the spirit of the final
shloka #100. In shloka #27 the Acharya laid himself at Her feet . that
was his Atma-samarpaNaM. Now he is placing this child of Hers at Her
own divine feet.
Thus he does not show it off as something worthy of being
submitted to Her as an offering. He thinks that it is absurd to make such
a submission. This absurdity reminds him of three other absurdities that
are current in the world. And this is what makes the final shloka.
The word .divasa-kara. means one who produces the day
(.divasa.), therefore, the Sun. When a deity in the form of an idol of
worship is located in the innermost sanctity of a garbha-griha in a temple
then a waving of camphor flame makes sense because it really lights up
the dark sanctum sanctorum and brightens up the deity with all its
decorations. But what can a poor camphor flame do to brilliant sunlight?
In fact it is the other way. The brilliance of sunlight actually dampens
any light that may be emanating from the camphor flame! .The devI is
the fullest Effulgence of the Shakti that is Speech (.Vak.). Before that
Light, what can this poor stotra of mine do in terms of lighting up
anything?. This is the attitude in which the Acharya is submitting his
work at Her feet and compares his action to the absurd action of lighting
up camphor and showing it as an offering to the Sun-God!
Every time he talks of the .hot. Sun he immediately refers to the
.cold. moon! Here also the second example of absurdity (2nd line of the
shloka) is about the moon. Worship is being done to the Moon-God. In
any ritual worship, there are usually three offerings by means of water.
One is .pAdyaM. (that which is offered for washing the feet). The second
is .arghyaM. (that which is offered in the hands). The third is
.AcamanIyaM. (that which is offered to be taken in by the mouth).
Technically, .arghyaM. means .that which is valued most.. Therefore that
formality has a special value. Now in one such pUjA that the Acharya
might have witnessed, probably something like the following took place.
There are two gem-stones talked about in ancient literature. They
are Moon-stone and Sun-stone. Probably these were there in ancient
times and are now extinct. The sunstone draws into itself the rays of the
Sun and radiates heat. Almost like a concentration through a lens. The
moonstone is just the opposite. It absorbs moonlight into itself and pours
out cool water! Now what some one did in the worship of the Moon was
to take that water poured out by the moonstone and offer it to the Moon-
God as an .arghyaM.! .candra-upala. is moonstone. .upala. is stone. And
the moon itself is called .sudhAsUti. because moon is said to pour out
nectar by its light. .sudhA. is nectar.
There is a gradation of absurdities in the two absurdities cited.
Camphor has an independent existence outside of the Sun. The only
dependence of camphor on the Sun may be that camphor may not light
up if it is continuously exposed to an absence of any light or heat. On the
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180
other hand, the case of the moonstone pouring out water is totally
dependent on the moon, because it is the moonlight that makes it give
out water. Thus the absurdity of using the water from the moonstone to
offer arghyaM to the Moon is a greater absurdity than the camphor flame
being shown to the Sun!.
The third absurdity (from the third line of the shloka) is still more
absurd. And the Acharya must have witnessed it many a time because
he has travelled from coast to coast in the entire country. For example he
must have seen it in Rameshvaram where people dip in the Ocean and
offer worship to the Ocean-God Varuna. Any ritual worship has, as one
of its sixteen formalities, a ritual bathing, called .abhishhekaM.. How
does one do .abhishhekaM. to the ocean? Is it not funny? .Abhishhekam.
to the Ocean! But they all do it. The Acharya himself must have done it
when he went to Rameshvaram. What do they do? They take some drops
of water from the ocean itself and sprinkle it on the ocean with the
mantra beginning with : .Apo-hishhTA mayo bhuvaH. (Oh Water! You are
conferring bliss) ...... .If millions of people over the centuries have done
this kind of worship of Varuna during their bath in the ocean, then why
can.t I., says the Acharya, .take a few words from that ocean of Vak
(Speech) and offer it to Herself, the Goddess of all Speech?..
The word .sauhityaM. in the third line of the shloka, is generally
taken to mean the ritual act of .tarpanaM. (offering a little palmful of
water) but the word actually means .that which is most beneficial or
pleasant.. In our country which is generally hot, the most pleasant thing
is to give a bath. So I extended its meaning to .abhishekam. or bath, in
the pUjA to the Ocean. Anyway it increases the intensity of the absurdity
still further and so suits the context well!
Look at the gradation among the three examples. The Sun and
Camphor are two distinct entities. The water oozing out of the
moonstone gem, though caused by moonlight, still is different from the
moon. But in the case of water being taken out of the sea and being
offered to that sea of water itself, there is no medium involved; the water
is the same. So the third example brings you to the peak of absurdity.
And this quite naturally fits with the attitude of the Acharya when he
thinks that what he has composed is nothing but the words of ambaal
Herself. She is addressed as .vAcAm janani. -- meaning, the origin, the
source, of everything that has anything to do with Speech -- in the
fourth line. .What has been done is what You Yourself have composed in
Your own words. It is all Yours. There is nothing of mine there.. This is
how the Acharya makes a complete surrender. He does not even use the
words .samarpaNaM. or .arpaNaM. meaning dedication. But it is clear
that he has offered his entire self to the Goddess. The jIvAtmA has totally
negated itself and there is only the paramAtmA thereafter. By means of
the bhakti stotra of Soundaryalahari the Acharya has shown us what it
is to reach the Self-Realisation of Oneness with the Ultimate.
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181
And, most of all, he shows to us the peak of modesty. .vidyAvinaya-
sampanna. say our ShAstras. Here is the colossal example of
vidyA (Learning) and vinaya (Modesty). If nothing else, we should learn
this from the Acharya. His advaita lesson may not penetrate into our
head. But this lesson in modesty that he teaches us should. Any time
we feel heavy in our head, the thought must come: .Whatever I think I
am is Her Grace.. And that thought will help us lighten the burden of Iness
in the head. Even the inhaling breath is given by Her; it is Hers. If
only it had been ours we would never die!
If we thus start living as an instrument in the hands of ambaal, it
will lead us to an advaita state of merging in Her. This lesson of being
nothing but an instrument in Her hands and negating oneself as the doer
is what this shloka tells us as the final teaching of all brahma-vidyA.
Because it is this lesson and the consequent living of it (.abhyAsa.) that
takes us on to an advaita-anubhava (experience of non-duality). This is
the phala-shruti that is unsaid here by the Acharya. It is the phala
(reward, fruit) that asks for no phala! Only when there is a .doer. there is
a .phala for the doer.. When the .doer. himself has been negated, there is
no question of .phala..
How does one negate and dissolve oneself and be only Her
instrument ? Only by thinking of Her. We do not even know what the
Universal parAshakti is like? So thinking of that parA-shakti is an
impossibility. But here in this Soundaryalahari our Acharya has brought
Her to us in a beautiful form from head to foot. Her form itself is nothing
but Beauty and he has added beauty to it by his beautiful play of words.
Looking at, and thinking about, that beauty from head to foot, in all the
details that the Acharya has brought to us, is the only antidote for the
ego in which we are all steeped in. She has blessed us all with our
intellects and with the facility to use our speech and mind. Use all this
in Her favour as a decoration. What She gave us, give it back to Her.
That will kill our ego. Not only speech, but any art or science that we are
capable of -- make it as an ornament for Her. In that attitude of humility
every activity of ours will take us up the spiritual ladder. Whatever we
then do will become a sAdhanA to reach Her.
When one thus merges in the flood of Her beauty through these
delightful stanzas of Soundaryalahari, maybe he will himself accrue all
those qualities of beauty. Maybe not. But one thing is certain. In the eyes
of the world he will appear to have become so endowed with all the
beauties of the Mother Herself. For he has taken the nectar of Wisdom
and the Milk of Love that flows from Her and so he should naturally be
bubbling with that divine bliss that She has given him.
He might have a bald head. But the world will be attracted to him
as if he has the .kirITaM te haimaM. (cf. #42) quality! His face may have
all kinds of distortions. But others would gather round him to see his
.vadana-soundarya-laharI. (cf. #44). Maybe he has squint eyes; but it
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182
would be .dara-dalita-nIlotpalaM. (cf. #57) for the others. His uncouth
mouth will appear to surpass the beauty of .vidruma-latA. or .bimba. (cf.
# 62). Even when his body is disproportionate and unattractive, because
of the bhakti and Divine Love with which he is full he would shine so well
as to be said: .jayati karuNA kAcid-aruNA. (cf. #93). Every movement of
his would benefit the rest of the world as to say there is nothing better
than this .lakshmI-caraNa-tala-lAkshhA-rasaM. or .nava-nalina-rAgaM.
(cf. #71). Every step that he takes would make us melt in respect; and
that is the .karaNa-caraNa-shhaT-caraNaM.-type (cf. #90) of jIva which
merges in that lotus feet of Hers. Thus one who dips into the stotra that
is Soundaryalahari, would become ultimately a veritable Soundaryalahari
(flood of beauty)! There is no doubt that, with the blessings of our
Acharya, The Mother of the Universe to whom we bow in prostration, by
means of these Soundaryalahri shlokas, will gradually, but steadily, lead
our Atman to become, ultimately, one with that Ocean of Bliss.!
Concluded.
Thus spake the Paramacharya
Aum Shri Matre namaH / tvadIyAbhir-Angila-vAgbhiH janani idam
guror-bhAshhaNAkhyaM gadya-vyAkhyanam gurvanugrahAt
samkshhiptaM samAptam ca / lokAs-samastAs-sukhino bhavantu // Aum
tat sat //
Salutations to The Auspicious Mother. Oh Mother! By the Grace of
the Guru (The Paramacharya), this prose commentary named
.Discourses of the Guru. has now been summarised and also finished,
in words of English which are Your own. May all the Universes turn out
to be happy. Aum tat sat.











Om Tat Sat




(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)

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