Soundaryalahari -5 (A Digest of Kanchi Mahaswamigal.s Discourses)

Soundaryalahari  

(A Digest of Kanchi Mahaswamigal.s Discourses)

But why imagine refraction? One can also imagine it to be

reflection. Instead of taking that the light of the Sun falls on the cool

rays of the moon and in that flow of cool snow it becomes the

multicoloured rainbow, one can also imagine that there are several suns

whose lights are in various colours and they get reflected in the mirrorlike

crescent moon and produces the rainbow effect.

In fact the poet here implies that it is not just his imagination; this

is what anybody would say if he wants to describe the multicoloured

radiance from the gems of the golden crown on the head of the Goddess.

Another point which comes out here is the modesty of the Acharya in

underplaying himself and speaking so highly of others who might be in

his position of describing the devI.s glory. The modesty with which he

begins this very first shloka of the Soundarylahari part goes on till the

very end.

57

(Digest of pp.1107- 1114 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume, 4th imprn.)

tanotu kshhemaM naH tava vadana-soundarya-laharI

parIvAha-srotaH saraNiriva sImanta-saraNiH /

vahantI sindUraM prabala-kabarI-bhAra-timiradvishhAM

bRndaiH bandhIkRtam-iva navInArka-kiraNaM //44//

[Since the word-by-word meaning is

automatically coming out of

the Paramcharya.s explanations,

it is not given here separately.]

This shloka has an added significance since it has contributed to

the title of the stotra .soundarya-laharI..

.naH kshhemaM tanotu. : Let there devolve auspiciousness on all

of us. Thus begins the shloka auspiciously. What is supposed to devolve

the auspiciousness?

.sImanta-saraNiH. : The line of the parting of hair (on the head).

.SImanta. is the parting of hair. .saraNiH. means path, route, line, wave,

flow. The particular meaning will depend on the context. Here it is .line..

The word .SImanta-unnayanaM. denotes a special ritual that is done for

pregnant women for the benefit of the foetus. The ritual consists of

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drawing a line along the sImantaM of the woman with the chanting of

certain mantras. This is good for the foetus. The word sImantaMM is a

union of .sImA. and .antaM.. SImA means boundary, here, the boundary

that parts the two sides of the hair. Its .antam. is the end of that

boundary. Technically it should have been .sImAntaM. but the middle

long .a. has been shortened. This is actually an exception to the usual

grammatical rule. A similar exception, but in the opposite direction,

takes place in the name .VishvAmitra. where it should have been only

.Vishvamitra., thus meaning, friend of the world. On the other hand as

.VishvAmitra. (.Vishva. + .amitra.) it now means .the enemy of the world..

Again this is an unusual grammatical exception.

So .SImantaM. means .the end of the boundary or border.. Of what

is it the border or boundary? For a human body there are two

boundaries. One is the foot and the other is the head. In the boundary

that is the head, the line of parting of the hair goes up to the position of

.brahmarandra. and ends there. So it is called .the end of the boundary.

or .sImantaM..

Goddess Mahalakshmi permanently resides in five places. A lotus,

the frontal lobe of an elephant, the hind part of a cow, the spine on the

back of a bilwa leaf, and the sImantaM of a sumangali.

It is interesting to note that the Acharya has used .vadanasoundarya-

laharI. (waves of beauty of the face) in this shloka and this

has become the title of the whole stotra. We do not know who made it the

title, but what we may conclude is that it is quite apt. What is further

interesting is the fact that this beauty-wave occurs in the shloka where

the sImantaM of the devI is talked about. It is this flood of facial beauty

that should bring us the auspiciousness that we need. .tanotu kshhemaM

naH tava vadana-soundarya-laharI..

Now let us find out what is so special about the sImanta here.

.vahantI sindUraM. : It (the sImantaM : the parting in the hair) bears the

vermilion. The word .sindUraM. also means .red lead. which is used for

medicinal purposes in Siddha medicine. In North India almost all

Ganesha deities would be totally soaked in this sindUraM. And in the

same way they would do it for the Anjaneya deity also. Maybe the

indication is that the beginning and the end are the same!

In traditional books, kumkumaM is spoken of as sindUraM. The

Veda-mAtA (Mother Goddess representing Shruti) bows down in

obeisance to ambaa. It is the kumkumaM from the sImantaM of VedamAtA

that has sprinkled itself on the feet of ambaa. This idea occurs in

LalitA-sahasranAma. .SImanta-sindUri. is the expression there. It is in the

parting of the hair that kumkumaM is applied. On the forehead however,

that is, between the eyebrows where one applies the .tilakam. what is

applied is .kastUri-tilakam. -- this is what one gathers from the

sahasranAma. Recall the name: .mukha-chandra-kaLankAbha-mRganAbhi-

visheshhakA.. It says, just as there is a spot (kaLanka) on the disc

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of the moon, so also is the kastUri-dot on the face of ambaa. This name

occurs (in the sahasranAma) between the name that describes the

forehead (aLika-sthala) and the name that describes the eyebrows

(cillikA). Therefore it is clear that the name .mukha-chandrakaLankAbha-

.... describes the centre of the eyebrows. So kumkumaM at

the parting of the hair (SImanta-sindUri) as well as the kumkumaM at the

centre of the eyebrows . both are called .sindUraM. by the Acharya.

According to the shAstras, the place where sumangalis (women

with living husbands) have to adorn the kumkumaM is the parting of the

hair, at the place where it starts from the forehead. The practice of

adorning the centre of the eyebrows is only a cosmetic addition. It is at

the centre of the eyebrows where one concentrates the Supreme. It is in

that manner one wears the vibhUti or sandal-paste, etc. at that spot; so

also kumkumaM is also applied there. Whatever it be, the characteristic

of a sumangali is only the kumkumaM at the parting of the hair. Women

of olden days applied the kumkumaM first at the parting of the hair and

then only on the forehead between the eyebrows.

The location of the central parting of the hair is a kind of

residential address of the Goddess Bhagya-lakshmi of Prosperity.

Goddess ambaa has the kumkumaM along the entire parting of the hair.

That is what this shloka says. .SImanta-saraNI. means only that. In fact

as the shloka goes, it appears that there is a round spot of kumkumaM at

the point where this .saraNI. (the path) starts at the top of the forehead

and thereafter along the path of the parting, it goes as a streak of red.

There is no greater bliss than the pleasure of visualising ambaa with this

SImanta-sindhuram. In other words the place of residence of

mahAlakshmi has been decorated with kumkumaM. In fact there is

much more in this.

58

(Digest of pp.1115 -1119)

[Note : The delightful commentary in Tamil

of the Paramacharya on this shloka, #44,

has been really a difficult one for me

to present in English (in Sections . 57, 58 and 59).

The superb majesty of the discourse of His Holiness

should be enjoyed in the original]

In the Assembly of ambaa, on both sides of Her, Lakshmi and

Saraswati are said to be fanning Her. This is what the name .sa-cAmararamA-

vANI-savya-dakshhiNa-sevitA. says in the Lalita-sahasranAma.

Instead of having them as Her assistants, She has them both as Her

very eyes . this is what the name .kAmAkshhi. means. .kA. means

Saraswati and .mA. means Lakshmi. And .akshha. means .eye.. So

.kAmAkshhi. is the One who has .kA. and .mA. as Her eyes!

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Later, shloka #64 says that Saraswati dwells in Her tongue. In

fact, the grace of ambaa in bestowing power of expression to devotees is

well known. That is why Saraswati is spoken of as dwelling in Her own

tongue. And the poet in the Acharya plays gymnastics with the word japa

in that shloka, where it says: Your tongue defies the japa (hibiscus)

flowers in its redness because it is constantly engaged in the Japa

(mantra-repetition) that gives expression to the glories of Lord Shiva; the

redness of Her tongue is so intense that the Goddess of Speech,

Saraswati, who dwells therein, gets Her crystal-like white complexion

changed into the colour of a ruby (noted for its reddishness). We already

saw in Shloka #16 that poets have spoken of Her as .shRngAra-laharI. in

Her form as the .red. Saraswati (aruNa-saraswati).

Thus, of the two fanning divines, one of them, Saraswati, is

elevated to the position of residing in the divine tongue of ambaa. So, the

other of them, namely Lakshmi, is now elevated in this shloka (#44), to

even a higher position, namely, the top of the divine head itself. Lakshmi

resides in the sImanta of ambaa; and it is that Lakshmi who is decorated

with the kumkuma-ornamentation of redness.

So the parting of the hair goes like a white streak amidst the jet

black forest of hair (.cikura-nikurumbaM. of shloka #43) which looks like

waves of blue-black on either side of it. It is the whiteness of the

sImantaM (parting line) that is usual; but here ambaa.s sImantaM has

been made reddish by the sindUraM. So the blackness of the locks of hair

on either side and the redness of the parting line make the imagination

of the poet run riot. Many of us do not appreciate such poetic licence,

because of our preoccupation with the utilitarian value of everything we

see or experience. But a poet does not just see beauty; he invents original

analogies and that is what makes us enjoy both the poetry and the

devotional sentiment built into it.

.prabala-kabarI-bhAra-timira-dvishhAM bRndair-bandhIkRtaM iva

navInArka-kiraNaM. -- these are the words.

.arka. is the Sun. .arka-kiraNaM. means the Sun.s ray. .navIna. is

new. So .navIna-arka-kiraNaM. means the rays of the rising Sun.

Certainly it is reddish. Only when the Sun comes up higher and higher it

loses its redness of appearance and becomes pure white. But at the point

of rising it is red. The Acharya sees the sImanta-sindUraM on the divine

head as one of the red rays of the rising Sun. At the beginning of the

parting, namely at the top of the forehead, the sindUraM is a big dot (red)

and so is the Sun itself (rising) and the saraNi, namely the line of

parting, is the red ray emanating from that Sun.

.prabala-kabarI-bhAra-timira-dvishhAM bRndair-bandhIkRtaM..

Does this not sound like a cluttering chatter of teeth? Why this hard

construction ? The very words speak of a thunderous noise of battle.

Who is battling with whom? The talk is about the sImanta-saraNi. Then

who is warring with it?

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.kabarI-bhAra-timiraM. means the darkness shown by the jet black

dense hair. The adjective .prabala. prefixed to it, indicates a further

strength to that darkness. When something is .strong. it can be expected

to be aggressive also, in the worldly ways of thinking. So whom will this

darkness challenge or contest? Only Light. What is opposed to darkness

is light. It is the sun which dispels the darkness of the night and brings

the day. It is not even just the sun; it is the morning sun that night

considers as the harbinger of its doom. Because darkness never .sees.

the full Sun. As soon as the first ray of the morning sun appears,

darkness has to wind up and run.

And here, while darkness is in the form of ambaa.s hair, the

morning sun has appeared in the form of the sindUraM on the top of the

forehead. It is the crimson ray of the morning sun that is represented by

the sindUraM-coloured parting of the hair. And it is this parting that

prevents the darkness on either side to become one large mass of

darkness. Further, it is the darkness of the hair that has been pampered

by oil, shampoo, and flowers . as has been indicated by the words

.ghana-snigdha-shlakshhNaM. (luxuriant, soft and oily) in shloka #43.

Because it has been .pampered. it has become .prabala. (exceedingly

strong) now. And that gives it the courage to dare challenge the redness

of the sImantaM!

59

(Digest of pp.1122 -1128 )

Darkness of night is the dominating factor all night. But the

moment the rising sun with its crimson rays shows up, darkness has to

flee. It has always been the unfulfilled ambition of .darkness. to settle

this score with the young sun. And here is ambaa having all the world.s

darkness, as it were, collected in her hair. But She has also brought the

young sun in the form of the sindUra-spot right in the midst of this dark

forest of hair. It is a life-time opportunity for darkness. With gusto it

swallows all the rays emanating from that sun, for once. But still there is

one single ray of crimson which goes straight across the centre of all this

dark hair. It is that crimson which gives a decorating hue to the black

hair. And it is the jet black background which brings out the majesty of

the crimson parting of hair.

Thus we can see darkness having vanquished all but one ray of the

bright rising sun. Why did it not go all the way by its challenge and

overpower that one remaining ray also? But for that single ray remaining

in its place, how would it be established that darkness had vanquished

the bright sun and its rays? It is the one remaining ray of the sun that

tells us that the other rays have been vanquished.

[Note : Though the Paramacharya did not say this,

I can hear him saying: .Don.t you remember,

in the Sundara Kanda, every time Hanuman vanquishes

an entire army, he spares one person,

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so that he may go back to Ravana

and say what happened in the battle.!]

.dvishhAM bRndaiH. means .by the gangs of enemies.. It is from the root

.dvishh. that the word .dveshha., meaning .hate. is derived. .bRndaM.

means a crowd, a gang. The crowd of hair on ambaa.s head flows wave

after wave and so looks like armies of black ready for fight. .bandIkRtamiva

. means .as if imprisoned.. It is the rising sun in the form of the

sImanta-sindUraM that is imprisoned here by the armies of black

hair.The word .bandIkRtaM. is significant. Not only have all the crimson

rays of the rising sun been vanquished, but even that one remaining ray

has been imprisoned by the dark army surrounding it on either side so

densely that it cannot move this way or that way!

Incidentally, if one wants divine presence, the parting of the hair

has to be straight in the centre . not this side or that side . of the hair on

the head. And the sindUraM has to come from pure turmeric, not from

any other artificial source.

Among the many meanings of .bandhaM. one is .imprisonment..

The meaning of .bandIkRtaM. is .be imprisoned.. The difference is

between the active and the passive. So here .bandIkRtaM iva. means .as if

imprisoned..

Well, what has all this . fight between darkness and light -- to do

in the devotional stotra .soundarya-laharI.? In shloka #43, it was said

that Her black braid of luxuriant locks of hair itself will eradicate the

dense darkness of ignorance in us. In the same way he says in this

shloka that the sImantaM (parting of hair) which in a sense has been

imprisoned by the black forest of hair on either side, will grace us with

all prosperity. In fact the sImantaM is the residence of Lakshmi the

Goddess of Prosperity. Its .imprisonment. is only an imagination;

.bandIkRtam-iva. . as if imprisoned . is the word. Now we shall see the

other side of this sImantaM. We shall indeed see its greatness. I began

with what appeared to be its negative side because I wanted to end up

this shloka with the positive side. The Acharya of course begins this

shloka only with the positive.

Now look at the first two lines:

tanotu kshhemaM naH tava vadana-soundarya-laharI

parIvAha-srotaH saraNiH iva sImanta-saraNiH /

Great poets do not waste their words. So when our Acharya uses

.laharI., .parIvAhaM., .srotas. and .saraNI., which all convey more or less

the same meaning .flood., there should be something deeper in it. Yes,

there is a deeper point. There are shades of differences in the meaning.

.laharI. is the bubbling, wavy and noisy water-flow. .parIvAhaM. is the

real flood of water which simply marches forward. .srotas. could even be

a silent rivulet. .saraNI. is a straight flow of water, like that in an artificial

canal. What starts as a .laharI. , widens up into a .parIvAhaM. and then

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flows like a controlled river .srotas. between two banks and finally is

channelised into a canal .saraNI..

This is how ambaaL.s beauty starts from Her face as a laharI and

spreads like a pravAha. When it touches the top of the forehead it

becomes a srotas. The banks on either side of this srotas is the hair on

either side of the sImantaM. Actually the flood of beauty cannot be

dammed by the forest of hair. What is the greatness of ambaaL.s beauty

if one can dam it by holding it between two banks? .vaktra-lakshmIparIvAhaM

. (the flood of beautiful brilliance) says lalitA-sahasranAmaM.

The brilliance starts from the face and overflows as a flood into the locks

of hair on the head but is contained in the form of a .saraNi. . sImantasaraNi

. between the dense forest of hair on either side. It is this

brilliance (lAvaNya) of the Mother Goddess that bestows prosperity and

happiness to all Her devotees. And since it all starts from the face, he

calls it .vadana-soundarya-laharI.. And legitimately, the whole work has

been named . we do not know by whom . Soundarya-laharI.

This shloka .tanotu kshhemaM naH. properly meditated on, will

bring us divine help in controlling our mind and all its evil tendencies .

.dvishhAm bRndaiH. . by which we are all imprisoned . .bandIkRtaM..

60

(Digest of pp.1130 -1140 )

Here comes one shloka (#46) where the Acharya has done

delightful innovation with the simple idea of the .moon-like divine face..

lalATaM lAvaNya-dyuti-vimalaM AbhAti tava yat

dvitIyaM tan-manye makuTa-ghaTitaM candra-shakalaM /

viparyAsa-nyAsAd-ubhayam-api sambhUya ca mithaH

sudhA-lepa-syUtiH pariNamati rAkA-himakaraH // 46 //

.lalATaM. is the forehead. .lAvaNya-dyuti. is the beautiful Light.

.vimala. means faultless. .AbhAti., shines. So the first two lines mean:

The forehead that shines in the pure brilliance of its divine beauty may

be thought of (.manye. . I think) as the second form of the crescent moon

of your crown. .makuTa-ghaTitam candra-shakalaM. means the crescent

moon that ornaments the crown. In other words what is said is that

there is the cresecent moon on ambaa.s head.

Traditionally, we all know that both Ishvara and Ambaa have only

the third day moon on their head, not the half moon or ashhTamIcandra.

In all images of both these deities we could have noticed that the

third day moon (the figure of the moon on the third day of its

appearance) embedded in their head, would be showing the sharp

corners of the curves on both sides as two dots. If it is the ashhTamIcandra

(the half moon ) that is depicted, we would also see the diameter

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joining those end points. In a crescent moon this diameter would not

show nor would the remaining portions of the moon . though we can

imagine the full figure of the moon by mentally completing the crescent

into a full moon. It requires quite an imagination to visualise this. But

the key to this is the pair of sharp corners in which the crescent ends.

On the other hand the semi-circular forehead of Ambaa is actually

a half-moon. No portion of the half-moon is missing here. In the

sahasranAma also it is said of her forehead (aLika-sthala) : .ashTamIcandra-

vibhrAjad-aLika-sthala-shobitA..

Thus we have a cresent moon above, and also below it in the form

of the forehead the half moon. Now comes the fun in the third and fourth

lines:

.ubhayam api. . these two. The half moon in the crown and the half

moon in the forehead.

.mithaH. . mutually, with respect to each other.

.viparyAsa-nyAsAt. . joined in the reverse order. .viparyAsa. means .the

opposite order..

They have to be joined in the reverse order because, the half moon in the

crown is in the form of the lower half of a full moon and the half moon of

the forehead is of the form of the upper half of a full moon.

So we have to join them in the reverse order. .sambhUya. means

.attached.. What is the means of attaching them? It is the .sudhA-lepasyUtiH

. of the moon itself. .sudhA. means .nectar.. .lepa. is .paste. or

.gum.. .syUtiH. means stitching or sewing. In fact the English word .sew.

comes from .syUtiH. of Sanskrit. Thus if one attaches the half moon on

the head of ambaa and the half moon of her forehead, with the former as

the lower part and the latter as the upper part, and use the nectar which

oozes out of the moon for pasting them then the full moon itself shines!

.rAkA himakaraH pariNamati.!

The next shloka (#47) is more complicated. But it is the

complication and the poetic inventiveness that make us stay long at the

shloka and therefore longer in the thought of ambaa.

Bhruvau bhugne kimcit bhuvana-bhaya-bhanga-vyasanini

tvadIye netrAbhyAM madhukara-rucibhyAM dhRta-guNaM /

dhanur-manye savyetara-kara-gRhItaM ratipateH

prakoshhTe mushhTau ca sthagayati nigUDhAntaram-ume // 47 //

.bhruvau kimcit bhugne. : .frowning a little.. .bhruvau. means the

pair of eyebrows. When the eyebrows are contracted either in anger or in

thought, we are said to frown. Incidentally, the Sanskrit word .bhrU.

must have originated the English word .brow. and also the tamil word

.puruvaM., all meaning .eyebrow.! Here we are talking about the eyebrows

of ambaa. If the frowning is complete, the natural bend in the eyebrows

disappears and they align themselves in a straight line. Here ambaaL.s

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eyebrows are not contracted in anger, but they are more .bent. than

normal; that is why, the word .kimcit. is used. She is frowning in the

thought of encountering a fear for Her children, namely, us, the people

of the world.

The words .bhuvana-bhaya-bhanga-vyasanini. mean .sorrowed (by

compassion) with the worry of the need to destroy the fear (of samsara) of

all the world.. She is a flood of bliss, certainly . Ananda-laharI. But She

is constantly thinking about how to redeem this world from its endless

misery of ignorance and consequent suffering in samsara. It was Her

snap-of-the-finger decision once that created the five Cosmic

functionaries for the good of the world; cf. .kshhaNa-calitayoH bhrUlatikayoH

. - .by a movement of Thy creeper-like brows. - of shloka #24.

Of course it is not explicitly stated that Her frowning is because of

Her worry about the world. It could even be because of Her alertness at

the onset of a .bhaya., danger to Her beloved children of the world. If She

is intending to eradicate the fear from people even before the danger

occurred, then .bhuvana-bhaya-bhanga-vyasanini. does not fit here. Only

when the situation is confronted with a danger, and a consequent fear in

the people, only then the .bhanga. (destroying) of that .bhaya. makes

sense. We can go on analysing the verse-line in this manner endlessly.

That is the beauty of the poetry in this shloka!

But note, whether it is sorrow or anger that is the cause of the

frowning, it is not a thing for enjoyment; on the other hand, the Acharya

here seems to be enjoying the scene with all his heart. So the contracting

of the eyebrows is not the usual kind. It is more profound than that. And

that is the content of the other three lines of the shloka. In short, the

words .dhanur-manye. of the third line are the key to this puzzle. .I think

it is the bow., says he. That is, the two eyebrows are thought of as one

bow. But the wonder here is that both the eyebrows are considered not

as two bows but one single bow. .dhanur-manye. .in the singular. Then

what about the gap between the two eyebrows, where there is no growth

of hair? Actually there should not be; for, as a Tamil preoverb goes, if

the brows meet, it harbingers destruction of everything . .kUDina

puruvam kuDiyaik-keDukkuM..

So then how come, the two eyebrows are compared to a single

bow? Whose bow? Is it just a comparison? What is great about all this

except some poetic gymnastics? We shall see.

61

(Digest of pp.1141 - 1151 )

The Acharya does not see the two eyebrows of ambaa as two bows.

He conceives of both of them as one bow . not as one arc from bottom to

top, but as two arcs of the same bow. It appears as if a skilful archer is

at the point of stringing his arrow through the bow, everything is in

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tension, and one can see even the little vibration as a wave of the two

arcs. Thus the two eyebrows together constitute a single bow. But mark

it! At the centre, there is a gap. Between the eyebrows, just above where

the nose begins, there is a gap in what appears as the bow. Not only

there is this gap in the bow, but the bow string also has a gap; for in the

same shloka the Acharya is saying in the second line that the two

honey-beetle-like black eyes of ambaaL and their brilliance constitute

the bowstring. And this bowstring has a gap in the middle because there

is the nose-ridge that is dividing it. If both the bow and the bowstring

have gaps right in the middle, then where is the bow, where is the string?

Then the whole analogy will crumble.

So we have to probe a little more deeply. The bow is Manmatha.s

bow . .ratipateH dhanuH.. What is the authority or rationale for

thinking of it as Manmatha.s bow? The rationale is:

.tvaDIye netrAbhyAM madhukara-rucibhyAM dRta-guNaM..

dRta-guNaM: with the bow-string held

tvadIye netrAbhyAM: by Your eyes

madhukara-rucibhyAM : that shine and move about like honey bees

The two black honey-bee-like eyes of ambaaL are radiating a

brilliance, which is not static, but is superlatively dynamic; they are

moving this side and that side fast enough to cover all the beings in the

world so that the dRshhTi of ambaaL may shower grace and compassion

on them. This fast movement of the honey-bees (eyes) gives the visual

illusion of an infinite line of black sparkling dots and that is what makes

the bowstring! And remember, only Manmatha has such a bow-string

made up of honey-bees. And that is why .ratipateH dhanuH. is not

unreasonable in this context. And whom is he (manmatha) aiming at by

this bow and arrow? Obviously Lord Shiva. Any time He is prone to go

away and sit in isolation as Dakshinamurti. Then who will be there with

Mother Goddess to look after the world? It was She who put Him in this

seat of .One of the Triad., with a specific duty and also as Ishvara and

Sadashiva with duties of anugraha and tirodhAna.

We are still to untangle the problem of the bow and bowstring not

falling apart in the middle since they appear to have gaps in the middle.

The solution of the riddle is found in the words (fourth line and part of

the third line):

.savyetara-kara-gRhItaM prakoshhTe mushhTau ca sthagayati

nigUDhAntaraM ume.

.prakoshhTa. is wrist. .mushhTi. is clenched fist. .sthagayathi. means

.hides.. .nigUDHa. : .not visible.. .antara. : interspace. So far we have

arrived at the following meaning: .By the wrist and clenched fist is

hidden an interspace, that is (therefore) not visible.

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129

Let us now visualize the imagery which the poet is bringing before

us. An archer (here, it is Manmatha) is holding the bow. The hand

holding the bow will have its clenched fist in the middle of the bow and

thus it is the fist that is hiding the middle of the bow. Similarly the other

hand will have its wrist in front of the middle of the bowstring and thus

will hide that middle. Thus if we do not further think about it, both the

bow and the bowstring will have a vacant space in their middle. And a

little more observation will tell us that it is the wrist and the fist that are

filling up the corresponding hidden space and so neither the bow nor the

bowstring is in two pieces. This is how the pair of eyebrows of ambaaL

with the vacant (browless) middle and the two eyes with the nasal ridge

in the middle exhibit a bow and bowstring with their middle hidden by

the fist and the wrist respectively.

Now we have to further enquire which hand is doing what. The

words .savya-itara-gRhItaM. (meaning, held by the other-than-right

hand) tell that story. Even in the very next shloka which talks about the

right and left eyes of ambaa as the Sun and Moon respectively, .savya. is

used for .right. , though .savya. also means .left. in most other places.

Incidentally, there are some Sanskrit words which have valid

contradictory meanings for the same word. .chhAyA. stands for both

shadow and light. .nyAsa. means .abandonment. as well as .seizure..

.shiti. means both .black. and .white..

In this shloka it is important to understand which hand is holding

the bow and which hand is ready to shoot off the arrow. Recall also that

Manmatha is also capable of shooting arrows with left hand just as

Arjuna is. But if he is shooting the arrow with the left hand the bow will

be in his right hand. We are watching this, standing before ambaaL.

First understand that Manmatha has to be in a horizontal lying

posture a little below the level of the eyebrows of ambaal to shoot the

arrow upward; because the line of eyes (bowstring) is below and the

central stem of the bow (line of eyebrows) is above. Now if Manmatha is

holding the bow (of eyebrows) in his right hand and we are looking at it

from his left ( because on his right is ambaal.s face, so we cannot be

looking from that side), the two things that are in our view at the middle

portion of the whole system are: one, his right fist closing in on the

middle of the bow and two, his right forearm on the farther side from us.

What we see of the fist is only the fingers closing in on the middle of the

bow, but they cannot completely hide the bow as much as they would if

we were seeing from the other side. From the other side we would have

seen only the back portion of the palm and that would have completely

hidden what he is holding. Again, coming to the right forearm hiding the

middle of the bowstring, there is no chance at all for such hiding, for the

forearm is on the farther side.

On the other hand, if he were holding the bow by his left hand the

back portion of the clenched fist would be completely, really completely

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130

hiding the middle of the bow; not only that, the forearm (the prakoshhTa)

being between us (the viewer) and the bowstring, would be completely

hiding the middle of the bowstring. And this is exactly what is

happening. The interspace between the eyebrows of ambaal is hidden .

in the poet.s imagery, by manmatha.s prakoshhTa (forearm and wrist) -

and the nasal ridge causing the discontinuity in the line of the moving

eyes . in the poet.s imagery, this is hidden by the mushhTi (clenched fist).

This, I think, is what the shloka depicts in the last two lines of this fourline

verse! But don.t think that it is all only poetical gymnastics only.

There is a great significance for this shloka beyond the gymnastics of its

imagery.

- 62

(Digest of pp.1152 - 1158 )

Among the several great achievements of ambaaL is the fact that

She gave life to Manmatha who was earlier burnt to ashes by the Lord

Himself. She did it so that the play of Creation could go on. But then She

also was concerned about the welfare of the created world. The

waywardness and indiscipline of people of the world, did bother Her. As

the Mother of the Universe She wanted the Father also should join Her in

the activity of redeeming the millions of the world. Instead of helping Her

in this direction He, the Lord, had the propensity to retire into seclusion

for penance. She knitted her eyebrows at the thought of this.

That very frown of Hers became an encouraging factor for

Manmatha who was now alive by Her Grace. Making Her own knitted

eyebrows his bow, He came to Her help. He assured Her that he

(Manmatha) will keep the bow (of Her eyebrows) in readiness so that the

very moment Lord Shiva shows any propensity to retire into aloofness, he

can release his arrow and change His mind. During that earlier

occurrence when he tried this he was burnt to ashes by the Lord; this

happened because He was at that time trying it on his own, with a great

air of confidence built by his own ego. But now, in all humility, he says

that he will take refuge in Her own face and use Her own eyebrows and

eyes for his equipment of bow and bowstring. By the very fact that it is

now Her own divine act, it won.t result in failure as in the earlier case!

Thus it is the frown of the eyebrows that causes everything. It is at

the control of that frown that the entire Universe and its divine

functionaries are all functioning. No doubt therefore, that if we take

refuge in the same eyebrows by meditating on them, the bad influence of

manmatha will not be on us!

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

Now the Acharya comes, in the description of ambaaL from head to foot,

to Her eyes. In the previous shloka (#47) itself, there was a casual

mention of the black honey-bee-like eyes. But in that shloka the

dominant factor was the eyebrows. Now we come to the eyes proper. This

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal

131

shloka #48 talks about the three eyes of ambaal and the importance of

the third eye.

ahas-sUte savyaM tava nayanaM arkAtmakatayA

triyAmAM vAmaM te sRjati rajanI-nAyakatayA /

tRtIyA te dRshhTiH dara-dalita-hemAmbuja-ruciH

samAdhatte sandhyAM divasa-nicayor-antaracarIM //48 //

tava: Your

savyaM nayanaM: right eye

sUte: causes

ahaH: the day

arkAtmakatayA: it being of the form of the Sun, (or) possessing the

definitive characteristic of the Sun

rajanI-nAyakatayA: Being of the form of the Moon (the Lord of night)

te vAmaM (nayanaM): Your left eye

sRjati: creates

triyAmaM: the night.

te: Your

tRtIyA dRshhTiH: third eye

dara-dalita-hemAmbuja-ruciH: (which resembles) the red golden lotus

slightly in bloom

samAdhatte: beautifully generates

sandhyAM: the two sandhyAs, i.e. the two twilights

antaracarIM: which come in between

divasa-nishayoH: day and night.

The eye-balls of the right and left eyes of ambaaL are like black

honey-bees. The third eye however is different; it is crimson-red like

melted gold. This is the agni-netra of the Mother. The first two eyes are,

according to all shAstras and purANas . except of course the PurushhasUkta

. the Sun and the Moon. The central eye, usually referred to as

.lalATa-netra. is agni, Fire.

The first line says: Because your right eye is of the form of the Sun,

it generates the day-time. Note that the word .savyaM. is used here for

.right. as opposed to .vAmaM. for left (see the second line).

.hemAmbuja. is golden lotus. The Meenakshi temple in Madurai

has the sacred tank called the tank of the golden lotus. It is ambaal.s

third eye that is the golden lotus there.

It is interesting to note that while the two eyes denote the

progenitors of .day. and .night., the third eye . which is between the two

eyes .must generate the intervening time (sandhyA) between day and

night. And, incidentally, this shloka therefore establishes that ambaaL is

Time itself; .kAla-svarUpiNi..

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The Mother does not stop by just creating .day., .night. and the two

sandhyAs. The three Cosmic Functionaries who take care of the triple

acts of creation, protection and dissolution, are created by Her (shloka

#53). Without distinguishing between the colours of the three eyes, the

lines of red, white and black are depicted as rajas, satva and tamas and

these originate the three functionaries, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, who,

at Her bidding, do the acts of creation, protection and dissolution.

But Shloka #55 presents the Compassionate aspect of the Mother

and compensates for the possible impression of Her as the ultimate

progenitor of Destruction at the Dissolution time. .If You close Your eyes,

the world gets destroyed. And when You open them, the world is created

again. The presently created world should not be destroyed . that is what

Your Mother instinct feels. That is why perhaps, Oh Mother, You are not

winking Your eyes. says the Acharya in the 55th shloka . thus echoing

the general understanding in the Hindu world that the divines don.t wink

their eyes at all.

In another shloka #54, the three colours white, red and black

which stand for satva, rajas and tamas are presented from a different

perspective. The river Ganga is white. It comes from Shiva.s matted hair.

Yamuna river is black, because it has an inseparable relationship with

Krishna. The third one is Saraswati which is invisible but flows under

Ganga and Yamuna as an underground current. In stead of Saraswati,

the Acharya takes the Sone river, which is red. The meaning of SoNA is

red. If Ganga is taken as Shiva and Yamuna is taken as Vishnu, then the

SoNa river is to be taken as ambaaL. It is ambaal.s favourite son

Vighneshvara who presents Himself as the red Sona-bhadra stones that

are available in plenty in the Sone river-bed. The three lines, white, black

and red, in ambaal.s eyes represent the Triveni of Ganga, Yamuna and

SoNA. Therefore it is .anaghA. that is, sinless. The dRshhTi, glance that

emanates from that .sinless. confluence of the three great rivers will

eradicate all our sins. .Let it sanctify us., winds up the Acharya, as a

prayer that benefits, in his usual style, not only the one who says this

but all of us!

63

(Digest of pp.1159 - 1163 )

Here is a shloka which combines, by a poetic artifice of

metaphorical meanings, the divine glance of ambaaL with several

(actually, eight) meritorious locations (kshetras) in the land of Bharat.

vishAlA kalyANI spuTa-rucir-ayodhyA kuvalayaiH

kRpAdhArA.dhArA kimapi madhurA..bhogavatikA /

avantI dRshhTis-te bahu-nagara-vistAra-vijayA

dhruvaM tat-tan-nAma-vyavaharaNa-yogyA vijayate // 49 //

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te dRshhTiH : Your eye-glance

vijayate : excels in glory (with qualities of being ---)

vishAlA: broad,

kalyANI : auspicious,

ayodhyA kuvalayaiH : invincible (even) by the blue lilies

spuTa-ruciH : (in) brilliant clarity,

AdhArA kRpAdhArA :the basis for the flood of compassion,

kimapi madhurA: indescribably sweet,

bhogavatikA: pleasurable,

avantI : protective, and

bahunagara-vistAra-vijayA : with victories spread over several cities,

tat-tan-nAma-vyavaharaNa-yogyA : well befitting the names of cities

indicated by those qualities,

dhruvaM : certainly.

Of these, the four names .ayodhyA., .dhArA. (Bhoja.s capital),

.madhurA., .avantI. (Ujjain) are well known as the names of cities.

.VishAlA. (coming at the beginning of the verse) is also one such; it is the

other name of Badrinath. Recall the slogan-cry of devotees: .Jai bhadrivishAl

.! In the Valmiki Ramayana when Rama and Lakshmana are taken

by Vishvamitra to Mithila, on the way they pass through the city of

.VishAlA..

In the Kannada region, there is a .KalyANi. in the district of Bidar.

In the days of the Acharya that region was called .Kuntala., with its

capital at Kalyani. In later days when the Chalukya dynasty of Vatapi

came to an end, but again emerged as a powerful influence, it came to be

known as the .Kalyani Chalukya dynasty..

BhogavatI is another city. This is known as .kambath. in Gujarat.

The Englishmen called it Cambay. That is why the name of .Gulf of

Cambay. came up.

VijayA is another city. It is not the Vijayanagar of Hampi in Bellary

District of Karnataka. Nor is it the Vijayanagaram of Srikakulam District

of Andhra, where the famous Gajapati kings ruled. In order to

distinguish these two Vijayanagara.s, the Hampi Vijayanagara was called

.Vijaya. and the Andhra Vijayanagara was called .Viziya. by later English

Historians. It was the Hampi Vijayanagara that became the seat of the

famous Vijayanagara Empire in later days; because the city was named

.VidyA-nagara. by Bhukkaraya. But that was in the 14th century. Neither

this nor the Andhra Viziya was there at the time of the Acharya. So the

.Vijaya. that he has immortalised in this verse must be something else,

probably the Kurukshetra of the Mahabharata. The last shloka of the

Gita says: .Where there are Krishna and Arjuna, there rules Vijaya

also.!. It may be this Vijaya is referring to Kurukshetra. It is interesting

to note that Arjuna was himself also known as .Vijaya..

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134

These eight cities are not ordinary places. The relationship of

ambaaL to them all is because of the fact that Her eye-glance (dRshhTi)

while falling on the entire universe fell in addition with an extra force on

these eight places. And, to boot, the meanings embedded in the names of

these eight cities, also fit as a characteristic of the dRshhTi of ambaaL.

This is shown by the extra meaning imbedded in these words in addition

to them being simple proper names of cities.

The Commentators wax eloquent on the precise meanings of

.vishAlA dRshhTi., kalyANI dRshhTi. and so on for all the eight epithets

for the glance of ambaaL. I do not remember them all. But let me now tell

you generally what all this means.

At this point, Ra. Ganapathy, the writer of these records,

supplies the following footnote.

.Lakshmidhara.s bhashya on Soundaryalahari

describes these eight kinds of eye-glances thus.

.vishAlA dRshhTi. shows an inner satisfaction.

.kalyANI. shows the miraculous nature of the dRshhTi.

.ayodhyA. is the smile shown by the very eyeballs.

.dhArA. is that enchanting glance of the lover.

.madhurA. is what is shown by contracted eyes.

.bhogavatI. is the glance shown by friendly affection.

.avantI. is the innocent look.

.vijayA. is the side glance emanating from the position of

the eyeball moving to the extreme corner of the eye..

The breadth of coverage of the glance of ambaal is vast and so it is

vishAlA. It also generates auspiciousness for the whole world; so it is

kalyANI.

Now let us come to .ayodhyA.. This name could have come to the

capital of the state ruled by the Ikshvaku kings by one of two reasons.

Their headquarters must have been so well protected by moats and

fortresses that they were invincible. Or perhaps, they were considered so

invulnerable that nobody came to fight with them. On both contacts their

place is .ayodhyA.! But the point here is, in what way the name fits

ambaal.s eye-glance? First of all, dRshhTi itself is a word for .eyes..

Poetic liberty with .eyes. compares it with blue lilies. Going one step

higher, poetic licence even plays havoc with the roles of .upamAna.

(example) and .upameya. (that which is exemplified); thus they

interchange the roles of .upamAna. and .upameya.. In the current

context, it is not uncommon to say .the eyes which belittle the blue lilies..

And then one gets to be more aggressive and says . in the war of

comparison, the eyes are the winners over the blue lilies.. It is in this

strain the Acharya says .eyes which are invincible by the blue lilies.. And

this invincibility is what is built into the word .ayodhyA.!

It is ambaal.s eye-glance that bestows the rain of compassion, that

is, it is the basis (.AdhAra.) for the rain (.dhArA.) of compassion (.kRpA.).

Therefore it is .kRpA-dhArA AdhArA., thereby doubling the use of the

sound .dhArA. which is the name of the famous capital of Bhoja. And

does it not indicate also the generosity of King Bhoja whose awards

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal

135

always excelled in their profusion because they were always given with

both hands rather than a single hand, thus doubling the size of the

benefaction?

64

(Digest of pp.1164 -1174 )

Sweetness is the innate characteristic of ambaal.s form. So how sweet would be

her dRshhTi, in particular! Therefore it is .madhurA.. The corresponding city in North

India is Mathura. But here it is the .Madhura. of the Tamil region.

.Bhogavati. is said to be a place in Prayag (modern Allahabad). But the shloka

talks about .nagaras. only. So a part of Prayag cannot be what he is referring to. Also

Bhogavati is also the name of a city in the nether-world and also the name of Ganga

which flows in the three worlds. But the Acharya is talking here only about cities on

Earth, none of these would be the Bhogavati that he is referring to. So it must refer to

only Cumbath in Gujarat, which has however lost its good old name of Bhogavati!

Well, how does that name fit as a description of ambaal.s eye-glance? The word

means .deserving of experience.. If only ambaal.s glance can fall on us, what greater

experience can we think of, other than the bliss such a glance will bestow on us?

.avantI. means that which protects. It is ambaal.s eye-glance that is a great force

of protection for us. The city named Ujjain also has the name .avantI.. In fact the name

once belonged to both the city as well as the kingdom of which it was the capitol. Later,

in order to avoid confusion, the kingdom continued to be called .avantI. while the capitol

was named .Ujjain.. Later it appears that the capitol was also called .VishAlA..

A final observation. Ambaal.s dRshhTi certainly falls on the whole universe and

therefore on all the cities of the world. But these eight have been highlighted because the

divine glance has all the qualities indicated by the names of these cities; and that is what

makes the poet in the Acharya express his delight through this shloka.

The next shloka (#50) makes a direct connection between poetic talent and

ambaal.s eyes, by bringing in a comparison between Her third eye and the other two

eyes:

kavInAM sandarbha-stabaka-makarandaika-rasikaM

kaTAkshha-vyAkshhepa-bhramara-kalabhau karNa-yugalaM /

amuncantau dRshhTvA tava nava-rasAsvAda-taralau

asUyA samsargAd-alika-nayanaM kimcid-aruNaM // 50 //

dRshhTvA: Having seen

tava: Your

kaTAkshha-vyAkshhepa-bhramara-kalabhau : (side-glance . pretext . honeybees .

young) two eyes resembling the young of honey-bees,on the pretext of (casting) sideglances

amuncantau: not leaving

karNa-yugalaM : the two ears

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136

sandarbha-stabaka-makrand-aika-rasikaM : (poetry . bouquet . honey . exclusive .

tasting) which enjoy the exclusive taste of honey dripping from the bouquet of poetic

sentiments

kavInAM : of the poets

nava-rasa-AsvAda-taralau : and eager in tasting the nine rasas

alika-nayanaM : the third eye (on the forehead)

asUyA-samsargAt: out of jealous hostility

kimcid-aruNaM : (has become) slightly reddish.

The key word here is .asUyA-samsargAt. . Where came this hostility? Why? To

whom? These are the interesting subtleties of the Acharya.s composition in this shloka.

The redness of the third eye is usually attributed by poets to the traditional association of

agni (fire) with the third eye, just as the other two eyes are associated with the Sun and

the Moon. But the eye that goes with the Sun should then be associated with heat and the

other eye with the coolness of the Moon. That way there will be a distinction between the

two eyes. The Acharya naturally wanted to devIate from this stereotyped analogy of the

three eyes to the Sun, the Moon and agni. He assumes therefore that all three eyes were

naturally of the same colour originally, but now because of the feeling of jealousy on the

part of the third eye towards the other two eyes, it became red!

And, he gives a legitimate reason for this jealousy. The word .sandarbha. means

.opportunity. or .circumstance.. In the context of this shloka it means that kind of

exquisite poetry which coordinates characters, events, circumstances, words, flight of

imagination, metre, and everything connected with poetry. When poets make a bouquet

out of such excellent poetry, all the nine sentiments . rasas . flow out like honey. This is

the honey that is exclusively enjoyed by the ears of ambaaL. Her eyes are themselves

long and when the side glances are there, the ends of the eyes reach the ears! And that is

how the eyes partake of the poetic honey that has already been poured into those ears by

poets. Enjoying this taste of honey the eyes would not leave the ears (.amuncantau.).

Since the eyeballs are so fascinated by that enjoyment, they do not come off from the

ears; they are compared to the young ones of honey-bees which get stuck in the depths of

the honey-full stems of flowers!

But here, in the poet.s imagination, ambaaL is playing a trick with Her devotees.

She has a duty of pouring out compassion and grace on the people of the world. If She is

only enjoying the flattering stotras poured into Her ears to such an extent that even Her

eyes get stuck in extending their side-glances up to the ears, then She will be failing in

Her duty of compassion to the rest of the world. Hence the use of the words .kaTAkshhavyAkshhepa

.. On the pretext of a side-glance She is allowing Her eyeballs to move

sideways up to the ears. This side-glance pretext is for the world to be blessed with Her

infinite compassion. In other words She is achieving both by Her side-glance . one is

pouring out Her Grace on the world and two, the eyes themselves are sharing with the

ears the honey-taste of the poetic fancies that reach the ears.

What are these poetic fancies? They are all about the Lord. But this idea is not

there in this particular shloka. By sheer habit I just used the words .about the Lord.. But

it is not all mine. In shlokas 60 and 66, where Saraswati Herself is singing praises and

Mother Lalita is listening with enjoyment, it is said .vividham-apadAnaM pashupateH.,

meaning .the varied leelAs of Lord Shiva..

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal

137

Another shloka which talks about the fact that Mother Lalita is enjoyhing the

music of Sarasvati is shloka #60. There are two .lahari.s. in this shloka. .sarasvatyAssUktIH

amRta-laharI kaushalaharIH. are the beginning words. We have already seen

various .lahari.s.: Ananda-lahari; Soundarya-lahari; cidAnanda-lahari; shRngAralahari.

In this shloka (#60) though it looks like there are two .lahari.s., in actual fact

there is only one, namely, .amRta-lahari.. The other one, .kaushala-hari. is not a

.lahari.. It means that which captivates the .kaushala. (talent). The content of the first

line of shloka #60 is to say that the words (actually, prayers . sUktis) of Sarasvati capture

even the flooding flow of nectar (amRta-lahari). Earlier in shloka #50, it was said that the

ears store up the honey of praises from poets. Here the same ears are said to be the small

receptacles (chuLuka-pAtraM) of those prayers given out by no less than the Goddess of

Learning Herself. When the ears are so personified, the clang of the ear ornaments

(kuNDala-gaNaH) when Mother Lalita nods Her head in appreciation, is said to be the

cries of .hear hear. of those ears in appreciation of Sarasvati.s praises.

65

(Digest of pp.1174 -1179 )

After having described how the eyes enjoy the nine rasas poured

out by poets into the ears of the Mother, now the Acharya tells us how

the eyes themselves show the dance of the nine rasas:

Shive shRngArArdrA tad-itara-jane kutsana-parA

saroshhA gangAyAM girisha-carite vismayavatI /

harAhibhyo bhItA sarasiruha-soubhAgya-jananI

sakhIshhu smerA te mayi janani dRshhTis-sakaruNA // 51 //

It is the eyes that can show all the different rasas that reflect the

status of the mind. The ears are simply of no use for this task. The lips of

course can reflect anger (by twitching in a certain way) and sorrow (by

twitching in a different way). Sometimes they also show happiness by

showing a slight movement peculiar to a smile. But the one organ in the

body which shows out all the attitudes that exist internally is the eye.

Whether it is love, disgust, anger, wonder, fear, courage, comic mirth,

compassion, or serenity, for all these the eye is the indicator. In

dramatics the rasa of compassion is also shown by the sorrowful eye, but

the rasa of divine compassion (karuNA) is recognised in dance forms

only by the eye. The artist when bringing to life his picture or painting,

takes the greatest care on his depiction of the eyes for it is through them

that he brings out the state of mind of his subject. A slight alteration in

the presentation of the eyeballs will change the entire bhAva of the

painting. Equal care has to be taken of the eyes by the actor or actress in

a play. All this world is a play of the Mother. And She showers all the

rasas through Her eyes. And that is what is taken up in this shloka.

In what context is the shRngAra rasa (the sentiment of Love)

dominant? Naturally in Her relationship with the Lord. .Shive

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shRngArAdrA.: The eyes are wet by the rasa of Love towards Shiva. His

crystal whiteness is flooded by Her redness and thus draws Him into the

shRngAra rasa . as is talked about in shloka #92.

The expression of Love is something that attracts. The opposite of

this is not the fear or terror (raudra rasa) that is generated by anger.

Anger has always a reason. Love is blind. So Love has no reason or

rhyme. The opposite of it is the bhIbatsa rasa (the sentiment of disgust)

that also has no reason. We have many things in us that are disgusting

. both physically and mentally. But ambaa the Universal Mother takes

all of us in Her arms. How can She have any rasa of disgust? Yes, She

has . when some male other than Her Lord, comes to Her not as Her

child, but as an adult. Even Lord Shiva came to Her in disguise once,

with tales of blame on Shiva and that is the time when She exhibits the

bhIbatsa rasa as exquisitely described by Kalidasa. By just closing the

eyes also, She may exhibit the disgust.

.tad-itara-jane kutsana-parA.: .tad-itara. means .other than He

(Shiva).. .kutsana-parA. means .full of disgust.. .jane.: in the people.

.kutsana. is the same as .bhIbatsa..

When does She show Her .raudra. rasa . the rasa of extreme

anger? .saroshhA gangAyAM.. .rosha. and .roudra. are the same. When

the Lord is keeping another woman right on the top of His head . that is

what Shiva is doing with GangA . She is naturally angry. He gave Her

only half His body; whereas the other woman is sitting on his head! She

is not angry with Him; She is a pati-vratA. But She shows Her anger on

GangA! By a poetic ruse the Acharya here gives Her the feeling of an

ordinary human female!

.adbhuta. is another rasa. It is the wonder expressed at something

extra-ordinary. .girisha-carite vismaya-vatI.: .vismaya. is wonder.

.GirIsha. and .Girisha. are both names of Lord Shiva. .GirIsha. is .Giri-

Isha., that is, the Lord of the Kailas mountain. .Girisha. means the One

who resides in Kailas mountain. His history is full of wonders and

miracles. The destruction of Tripura, the burning of Manmatha, the

vanquishing of GajAsura, the silencing of Kala, the killing of the asura

.andhaka., the consumption of the HalAhala poison, the roaming about

as a mendicant (BikshhATanaM), the tANDava dance of Nataraja, and the

64 leelAs in the kshhetra of HalAsya (Madurai) . all these and many

more! That the Actionless (.nishh-kriyaH.) Ultimate got involved in all

these numerous actions was itself due to ambaa -- that is why the

Soundaryalahari started. She wonders at the leelA-actions of the Lord

and we wonder at Her miraculous prompting that made Him do all the

actions!

The next is .bhayAnakaM., the rasa that expresses fear. She as the

Universal Mother is .abhaya-vara-pradA., the dispenser of abhaya,

fearlessness and vara, boon. How can She have fear? Yes, She has. The

poet in the Acharya says She is .harAhibhyo bhItA. . afraid of the snakes

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on the person of the Lord! Actually the very snake depicted around a

Shiva-linga is Herself . in the form of the kunDalinI in every jIva. And

still She is .afraid. of Shiva.s snakes! This is another divine play!

The rasa of .vIra., that is, courage, is certainly visible in Her great

leelAs of the destruction of MahishhAsura and BaNDAsura, where She

could be seen as the very personification of .vIraM.. But the Acharya

could not possibly bring himself to link Her vIraM with such destructive

episodes. Instead he says .sarasIruha-soubhAgya-jananI. . the One who

generates the brilliance of the lotus. Lotus-brilliance is red. Redness

indicates the rasa of .vIraM.. In fact he could have said that She excels

the brilliance of the lotus. For he does not want even that slight hint of a

competition or battle implied in the word .excels.. So he says She

.generates. (.jananI.) the brilliant redness of the lotus.

One more observation about the word .jananI.. There is also an alternate

reading as .jayinI.. This means .the One who wins.. Her eye certainly

wins the brilliance of the lotus. In this reading, the concept of .winning. is

explicitly stated. Whether it is winning or generating, what is significant

here is that it is the very eyes of the Mother that do these actions

directly. So far the .rasas. that we have seen earlier . like anger, fear,

wonder, etc. . are all only shown as a reaction to something else by the

eyes. Whereas, this .vIra rasa. is not a reaction by the eyes, it is an action

performed by the very eyes!

.sakhIshhu smerA. -- humorous among Her friends. The

mischievous look that She would exhibit in Her humorous conversations

with friends is what is enjoyed by the Acharya here.

The remaining of the nine rasas are: .shoka. that is sorrow which is

also exhibited as .karuNA. (divine compassion) and .shAnta. that is

serenity.

66

(Digest of pp.1180 -1185 )

The next rasa is karuNa-rasa, that is, the rasa of pitiability and

miserability. This is also called shoka-rasa, the rasa of sorrow and

misery. But the Acharya does not want to depict ambaa in this rasa.

Earlier in shloka #47 also, when he used the words .bhuvana-bhayabhanga-

vyasanini., though She was shown to have had feelings of sorrow

(.vyasanini.) for the people of the world, it was more because of Her

karuNA (divine compassion) that She was sad, than because of the

.bhuvana-bhaya., the horror of samsAra of the people. She wanted to

help them rid of this .bhuvana-bhaya. and so She was intent on

.bhuvana-bhaya-bhanga., namely the destruction of the fear of the world;

and thus it was more an expression of karuNA (compassion) than karuNA

(=shoka, sorrow). In the same way here also it is the karuNA-rasa that

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exhibits itself; thus the shoka-rasa is only shown by implication from the

rasa of divine compassion, that comes out of the words .te mayi janani

dRshhTis-sakruNA. . meaning, Oh Mother, Your glances that show

different rasas, are full of compassion when falling on me.

Note the use of the word .mayi. (on me), here. All along the

Acharya was using the word .naH. (to us, on us), whenever he was

asking for the Grace or blessing to descend from the divine. But now the

matter is so personal that he makes himself the representative of the

entire world, and asks for the Grace to descend on him, and through him

to every reader of this shloka. All the other rasas can be objectified as

operating on a third person, but the KaruNA-rasa has to be received as a

divine blessing by each and every one.

The shloka is over. But we have covered only 8 rasas so far. Where

is the ninth rasa, shAntaM . that of peace and serenity? The rasa that is

a unification of all these eight rasas into one is the shAnta rasa. It is the

basic rasa from which all others emerge! It is the Shiva rasa. The first

word .shive. in this shloka denotes that. In the beginning of

Soundaryalahari, in the very first shloka, we were told that without

Shakti, ShivaM is nothing but shAntaM. This shloka begins with .shive.

and thereby indicates that it is that shAnta state that became dynamic

and evolved into the other eight rasas. The whole stotra of

Soundaryalahari depicts ambaaL as the .kArya-brahman.; so the shAnta

state of Hers where there is no action has been only subtly indicated

here.

Another interesting observation!. The stotra itself begins with

.Shiva.. This shloka, which is exactly in the middle of the whole stotra . it

is the beginning of the 51st shloka . begins with .shive.. Thus Shakti

occurs in the very centre of the whole stotra, just as the shiva mantra

occurs in the middle of the four vedas.

There is another tradition in the science of .alankAra. however on

the concept of shAnta-rasa. According to this tradition, there are only

eight rasas. ShAntaM is not a rasa at all. Experience, experiencer,

feeling, excitement . all these and their original sources together

constitute what is called a rasa. But in the state of shAnta, all these have

no place; for they are all dormant therein. Then how can we call it a

rasa? But there is quite an opposite tradition in the same .alankAra.

school of experts. They have detailed in their writings what originates the

shAnta rasa, what would be its background, what are the symptoms, and

what are the accessories for this rasa and so forth. They call shAnta rasa

the .rasa of all rasas.!

But the argument about there being only eight rasas doesn.t seem

to be acceptable to the Acharya; for he has used the words .navarasAsvAda-

taralau. (shloka 50), .nava-rasa-mahA-tANDava. (shloka 41).

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There is also a tradition where not only shAntaM is the ninth rasa

but there is one more rasa added to the list, namely .vAtsalya.. Acharya.s

words .mayi janani dRshhTis-sakaruNA. (May your glance, Oh Mother,

be on me!) remind us that She is the Mother Supreme and this manner

of the Acharya making himself a child of the Mother, is exactly what

brings the vAtsalya rasa also! Thus the Acharya has explicitly mentioned

eight rasas and implicitly brought in the other two rasas . all in

reference to that single organ, the eyes of the divine!

There is a lot of beauty implicit in Soundaryalahari. One of these is

the mention of .Meenakshi.. This also concerns the .eye.. .Meenakshi.

itself means the .fish-eyed.. Her very fame from ancient times has always

been centred upon the beauty of her eyes. Of such a great Devi,

apparently neither of the two great works on devI have spoken. These

two are Lalitasahasranama and Soundaryalahari. But this is only a first

impression. If we carefully look into these works, we would come to know

there is no necessity to default them for this.

For, though there is no explicit mention, Meenakshi is implicitly

mentioned in Lalitasahasranama. In fact it is this very implicitness that

adds a a greater importance to that. .vaktra-lakshmI-parIvAha-calanmInAbha-

locanA. is one of the names in the sahasranama. .vaktralakshmI

. means the brilliance of ambaal.s face. It is like a great flood

(parIvAha). When the dalliance of the face runs as a flood of water, there

ought to be fish in that flood! Where are the fishes? The long long eyes of

ambaa are the fishes. .locana. means .eye.. (.lokana. means .sight. or

.glance.. By the very fact that it is .seen., the world is called .loka.). The

.locana. that resembles .a fish. generates the word .mInAbha-locanaM..

Instead of saying .MinAkshhI. explicitly, it is mentioned as .MinAbhalocanA

.. Well, that takes care of one .default.!

In Soundaryalahari, where the shloka #49 talked about the

relationship of Her eyes to various cities, .madhura. occurs. So by giving

the name of the city of Minakshi, we may take it Minakshi has been

mentioned. In addition to this there is shloka #56.

67

(Digest of pp.1186 -1188 )

The first two lines of Shloka #56 are:

tavAparNe karNe japa-nayana-paishunya-chakitAH

nilIyante toye niyatam-animeshhAH shapharikAH /

tavAparNe has to be broken as tava aparNe. aparNA is the name of

ambaa. The name aparNA means .She who did not even eat the leaves..

In her manifestation as the daughter of the Mountain King, when She

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was doing penance in order to be wedded to Lord Shiva, She adopted

such a terrific self-discipline, wherein, She did not even have the fallen

leaves as Her food.

aparNe: Oh Goddess, who has the name aparNA,

niyataM : certainly,

shapharikAH: the female fishes

nilIyante : hide themselves

toye: in water

japa-nayana-paishunya-chakitAH: (talking . eyes . tell-tale . trembling)

trembling in fear that Your eyes (that extend up to the ear) are perhaps

carrying tales of slander (about them)

tava karNe: to Your ears.

Why do fish never swim in the upper regions of the ocean and

instead always stay in deep waters? The Acharya here imagines an

interesting reason. They see ambaal.s eyes which extend up to Her ears.

She is always rolling Her eyes on all sides in order that not a single being

in the universe misses Her blessed glance of protection. And so they now

and then reach the extremities of the eye and appear as if they are

touching the ears! And the fishes think that is when the eyes say

something secretive into the divine ears. They think defensively that the

devI.s eyes are perhaps telling tales about them (the fishes); because they

always think that the fish-eyed looks of the devI are only competing with

them as rivals in terms of fast movements. And naturally they are afraid

the devI might take it on them and therefore they stay in deep water!

They know that if they are really put to test they will lose in competition

with ambaal.s eyes both in the beauty as well as in fast movement.

In the Meenakshi temple at Madurai, there is the tank called .The

tank of the Golden Lotus.. There are no fishes in that tank. The folklore

is that they don.t come there because they know they cannot compete

with the beauty of the eyes of Goddess Meenakshi. Thus the Acharya in

making a comparison of ambaal.s eyes with fishes and in painting a

picture for us of the fishes not wanting to show up before Her, has

really subtly hinted to us of Goddess Meenakshi in this shloka!

This takes care of the other .default. . namely, that in

Soundaryalahari, where is the mention of Meenakshi?

One more observation on this shloka before we move on . This is

about the word .animeshhAH.. It means .without winking the eyes.. By

the way, the word .nimeshha. means a unit of time equal to about onefourth

of a second. The Tamil word .nimishhaM. meaning .a minute. must

have come from this .nimeshha.. That ambaal does not wink Her eyes

was effectively used by the Acharya in just the previous shloka (#55).

There he says that Creation and Dissolution take place just during the

winking of Her eyes. And so in order to prevent this universe (that has

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been created at the opening of Her eyelids) from dissolution She does not

wink Her eyes at all !. Here the general traditional belief that the divines

do not wink their eyes has been used by the Acharya as a remarkable

expression of Her protective feeling towards the whole universe. But we

can also look at it in another way. The fraction of a second during which

the winking takes place may deny the Compassionate Divine Glance to

Her children of the world; and maybe that is why She does not wink Her

eyes!

But how can the same non-winking of eyes apply to fish? Of course

there is the traditional belief that fishes by nature don.t sleep. But

again this belief has been elevated to a poetic imagination by the Acharya

visualising that the fish don.t wink because they, being afraid of the

effect of slander about them by Her eyes, want to be alert all the time

against any .attack. by Her even while they hide themselves in deep

water!

Next comes one of the most touching shlokas (#57) of

Soundaryalahari. Here we have to melt our hearts in prayer. Maybe this

particular shloka was done by the Acharya when He was overcome by

Her KaruNA in all its fullness. But the Acharya shows his humility even

here. Instead of saying .Your Grace has descended on me with all its

overflowing fullness., he says, in talking of Her Grace, .Would it not also

reach me?. Look at the humility of our Acharya in spite of his being at

the apex of Bhakti, JnAna, Spiritual Power and Poetic Excellence!

Indeed all the great nAyanmars, and Alwars, when they sing about

their love of God vie with each other in expressing the sentiment of

humility coupled with grief and self-pity. .Oh Lord, Would you not

condescend to shower your grace on this poor little devotee of Yours?. .

this is the running theme in many of their compositions. Our Acharya

also does this. My own opinion is this. These great giants of devotion do

not have to belittle themselves so much. They are all already realised

souls. But they sing in this strain because they want us ordinary folk to

be able to appeal to the Almighty in that strain. Ignorant as we are, we

lack that humility and we don.t even know how to pray. And that is why

they give us the very words to pray with that kind of humility. And here,

in this shloka #57, ambaal has prompted our Acharya to pray to her in

that style with superlative humility!

68

(Digest of pp.1190 - 1196 )

dRshA drAghIyasyA dara-dalita-nIlotpala-ruchA

davIyAmsaM dInaM snapaya kRpayA mAm-api shive /

anena-ayaM dhanyo bhavati na ca te hAnir-iyatA

vane vA harmye vA samakara-nipAto himakaraH //57 //

.dRshA. denotes .by the eye. as also .by the glance..

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144

.drAghIyasyA. means .longer than anything.. The comparison is

with any thing else in the world. Therefore the expression .dRshA

drAghIyasyA. connotes the eye-glance that can outreach any distance.

In other words ambaal.s glance falls on those even in the farthest corners

of the universe. And naturally it does not distinguish among them; it

falls on all of them equally.

.dara-dalita-nIlotpala-ruchA. : Usually .ruchi. is taken to mean the

taste that the tongue feels. But the feeling of .light. that is associated with

the eye-sense is also called .ruchi.. In shloka #48 earlier, the Acharya

used .dara-dalita-hemAmbuja-ruchiH. . the .ruchi. corresponding to the

golden lotus slightly in bloom . for ambaal.s third eye. Thus the light of

fire that comes from the third eye is the golden lotus and the other two

eyes are blue water-lilies (.nIlotpala.). The two sounds of .la. in .nIlotpala.

give the soft gentle touch of sweetness to the description. It befits the

deity whose name itself . .lalitA. . contains the same two soft sounds of

.la.. Just as an expert jewel-maker chooses the right colour and nature of

the gem-stones to be studded in his jewels so as to maximise the

attractiveness and majesty of the jewel that he makes, the poet in the

Acharya chooses his words meticulously to fit the subject and produce

the delightful sound effect!

The nIlotpala radiates cool beauty. The coolness compares to the

compassion that radiates from the graceful eye-glance of ambaal. And it

permeates the whole universe. This radiation is not the eye-blinding

brilliance of the golden lotus (hemAmbuja) . which belongs to the third

eye. The Lord.s opening of the third eye is known to radiate terror. We

have no instance of ambaal.s opening of Her third eye. So what is prayed

for here is the nilotpala-glance of the right and left eyes.

Then there is the qualification .dara-dalita. for the nIlotpala. When

the waterlily is fully closed but ready to blossom, the cool shine of the

moon falls on it and it starts to open up. .dalita. indicates the justopened

state of the petals of the lily. .dara. . meaning, .a little. --

indicates that the blossoming is not full but very little. If the lily opens

out fully, it won.t give the eye-shape. Nor is it totally a bud. Only a

closed eye would look like a lily-bud. And we know that ambaal never

closes her eyelids! She has to cast Her glance on all the world all the

time!

Nor can we say Her eyes are fully open. Actually such a fully open

look from the eyes would not radiate compassion; only in anger the eyes

will radiate such a full stare. In a compassionate look, the eyelids are

half closed and half-open. In complete shAnta (Peace) state the eyes will

be almost closed though a little of it is visible. So when ambaal casts

Her graceful compassionate glance, the eyes have the half-blossomed

state of the nIlotpala. It is in this state that the flower also has a subtle

attraction, for what is inside is not visible, but what is inside is also

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145

showing a little! A poet also enjoys and revels in such a state where he

dares not say something explicitly but still is not totally implicit.

When you look at a nIlotpala petal, it shows up as blue in the

outer fringes but as you look more and more inside and follow it up to its

base, the blue colour fades and brightens up into white. This happens

even in the petals of a red lotus. Thus when a nIlotpala flower shows up

as a silken blue with a polished oily surface, with no other colour

spoiling the blueness, then it must be only in its half-blossomed state.

When it has fully blossomed, the white colour at the bottom will begin to

show up. Hence the words .dalita. ( just blossomed) and .dara. (only a

little). What an accurate matching of words!

Now let us go to the second line of the shloka:

.davIyAmsaM dInaM snapaya kRpayA mAm-api shive.

Note that the first line had a number of words sounding with .da..

.dRshA., .draghIyasyA., .dara., and .dalita.. And the same flooding of

words with .da. continues even in the second line: .davIyAmsaM. and

.dInaM.. And again the sound effects of .drAghIyasyA. and .davIyAmsaM.

are the same. All this is of course gymnastics of words. That is only the

tip of the iceberg. The gymnastics of the contents of the words is

thousand times more superb.

.davIyAmsaM. is also a word denoting a degree of comparison just

as .drAghIyasyA. was in the first line. .davIyAmsaM. denotes .farther

than anything.. So it indicates the person who is praying is farthest

removed from Her. .dInaM. indicates lowliness, pitiability,

worthlessness,and a state of total fright. All these meanings are together

applicable here. The Acharya has put in this word so as to have all its

meanings relevant here.

Such a lowly person is to be bathed (snapaya) in the rain of

compassion from the Mother Goddess. But where is the rain of

compassion supposed to come from? It is not .from.; it is .by.. By Her

glance. By Her .kaTAkshha. . glance of grace.

But if you look at the first line there doesn.t seem to be any need

for such a prayer. For .drAghIyasyA. is the nature of Her eye-glance; that

means it is far-reaching and covers the entire world. Not only it covers

universally every one, but it does not also make any distinction from

person to person. So there is no reason to assume that somebody has

been left out.

Why then is this prayer .snapaya kRpayA. . meaning, please deign

to bathe (this devotee) in Your compassion?

69

(Digest of pp.1197 -1205 )

.snapaya kRpaya mAm-api shive. . .Bathe even me by Your grace,

Oh Mother. : Why this prayer, when the first line of the shloka has

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already assured us that ambaal.s compassionate glance is .drAghIyasyA.

, that is, it reaches the farthest corners and extends to every one without

any distinction? That is because this .lowly one. (dInaM) is davIyAmsaM

(far removed even from the ordinary range of people . in that sense, the

lowliest). And the Acharya.s stamp of humility comes out not only in

these two words, but in the additional word .mAM api. . meaning, .even

me.. He asks for ambaal.s grace .even on this poor me..

The whole thing implies .My Mother! You have probably kept me so

far removed from you, because I do not deserve the universal

kaTAkshhaM (divine glance of grace) that you bestow on all. I am

probably of such poor spiritual merit. But now I pray to you. Would you

not deign to cast your glance even on me?.! .Please do not just glance,

but really bathe me by a downpour of your grace. (snapaya kRpayA).

Why this poor self-estimation? Obviously, the Acharya is praying

for all of us. We usually do not deign to rise to this pedestal of humility

when we pray to God. Because our ego prevents us from becoming so

humble. But the Acharya is teaching us how to pray. It is said that Jesus

took all our sins on himself and got himself crucified on the Cross. Here

the Acharya is speaking for us and taking on himself all our faults as if

they are his and pleads for Divine Mother.s Grace to descend on him (for

us) in the fullest sense!

The Acharya usually prays for all of us; he uses the word .naH. (cf.

Shlokas 7 and 44). But in shloka #51, where he was referring to the nine

rasas oozing forth from Her eyes, he used .mayi. (on me), which was a

little puzzling to us. But the explanation for that comes here. The

Compassionate Glance mentioned there happens to be the subject of

this shloka #57. By itself Her divine glance is .dRAghIyas., that is,

reaches the farthest. Therefore nobody need pray to Her for that Glance.

But here the speaker (the Acharya) considers himself the lowliest of all;

so he has to pray for that divine benefit of Her Glance. And that is why in

shloka #s 51, 57 he uses .mayi. !

[Note : In shlokas 22 and 51 also,

the Acharya uses the word .mayi..

But the Paramacharya.s explanation

fits there also !]

The followers of the tradition of ShrI Krishna Chaitanya, who follow

the dvaita-bhAva bhakti, are well known for their attitude of extreme

humility in their prayers to God. But in that kind of modesty our

Acharya excels them here!

.Well ! You have yourself accepted that you have been banished

from My Grace and that too deservingly, by your own admission. Then

why do you still pray to Me?. . ambaaL might ask. And the Acharya, as if

anticipating this possible rejoinder from ambaal, puts in the third and

fourth line of this shloka:

anena ayaM dhanyo bhavati na ca te hAnir-iyatA

vane vA harmye vA sama-kara-nipAto hima-karaH //

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147

Though I am undeserving according to shAstraic rules and

regulations, where comes a rule or restraint when pure love is the

principal matter? There are things which have an equanimous

relationship with everything else irrespective of norms and regulations.

In fact this kind of equanimous view is what the Gita raises to the sky.

There have been people of that kind; and there are things of that kind.

Take for instance the moon. It is always .hima-karaH. . that which makes

everything cool. The moon does not make any distinction as to which

place on earth should receive its cool moonlight. Does he make any

discrimination between a high tower and a low pit? Whether it is a forest

(.vane vA.) or a mansion (.harmye vA.) he pours his moonlight equally.

Neither does he pour more of it in the quadrangle of the king.s palace nor

does he pour less of it in the shrubs of the thorny forest. He is

.samakara-nipAtaH. . that is, one who falls equally everywhere. In the

same way, can you not Oh Mother, dispense your cool Grace on me, even

though I am covered by the rough and tough dirt of worldly sins!

In other words, all this argument is to say that the Mother

Goddess should not take into account my quality; She should have

.sama-dRshhTi.!

But then it appears the ambaal raises another question. .Suppose

the weight of your sins boomerangs back on my .kaTAkshha. (divine

Graceful Glance) itself? And the Acharya replies: .na ca te hAnir-iyatA..

.iyatA.: by this. .te.: for you. .hAniH na.: there is no loss. The additional

word .ca. makes the .te. as .te ca., meaning, for you too.

Your dRshhTi, glance, will not be affected by the object on which it

falls. Just like the moon. Its light falls on all and sundry; but the moon

itself is not affected by any such object on which its light falls. When the

moon itself is not affected by the object that benefits by it, what to speak

of Your compassionate Glance. On whomsoever it may fall, even though

it be a faulty object such as me, how can it affect Your dRshhTi? .na ca te

hAnir-iyatA. . By this you are not affected either.

When it is said that .for you too. there is no loss, then there should

be something else mentioned which has necessitated that word .too.. Just

as .you too. there has to be a .me. on the other hand. The answer is in

the expression .anena ayaM dhanyo bhavati. . This person (namely, I)

also becomes blessed.

The moment Your compassionate Glance falls on someone, that

someone is blessed with infinite bliss. You also do not lose anything. I get

everything. That very undeservingness which removed me farthest from

you has now been more than compensated by the beatific of Your

dRshhTi.

The Acharya has composed this shloka only for us to get that

treasure of beatification of Her Grace. We all live in this world seeking to

decorate ourselves with fame, honour, position, power and what not. But

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all this .alankAra. (=decoration) is nothing before what that .alankAra. of

Her benign Grace that can bring in the ultimate jnAna to us in no time.

The shloka ends with .samakara-nipAto himakaraH.. By this he

pleads with ambaal for her equanimous view of all. It is this very samadarshana

. that is the view which sees everything as brahman along

advaitic lines . that the poet MUka praises in Shloka #48 of his .AryAshatakaM

.. Just as this Soundaryalahari shloka talks of moonlight falling

equally on the forest as well as the mansion, MUka kavi compares

.vipinaM. (forest) and .bhavanaM. (House) and says that one who has

ambaal.s graceful glance will consider both of these equanimously. Three

things bother man. Lust, Anger and Fear. Fear disappears by ambaal.s

Grace; even the forest becomes a home for him. Friend and Foe become

equal to him. In other words the anger in the enemy disappears. And

thirdly even an inert stone is not any lower in esteem than the sweet lips

of an young girl; in other words, lust flies away from him. The bathing in

Her Grace drives away all these three and gives one the treasure of

advaita. The dhanya (blessedness) that this shloka talks about is the

one who has obtained the dhana (treasure) of that advaita.

Oh What a beautiful shloka! Deserves to be meditated on over and

over again!

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)