Soundaryalahari -6 (A Digest of Kanchi Mahaswamigal.s Discourses)

Soundaryalahari  

(A Digest of Kanchi Mahaswamigal.s Discourses)

There is a subtle matter of yoga-shAstra in shloka #61. In the order

of description of the divine form from head to foot, the next, after the

eyes, is the nose.

asau nAsAvamshaH tuhinagiri-vamsha-dhvaja-paTi

tvadIyo nedIyaH phalatu phalam-asmAkam-ucitaM /

vahaty-antar-muktAH shishira-kara-nishvAsa-galitaM /

samRddhyA yat-tAsAM bahir-api ca muktAmaNi-dharaH // 61 //

tuhina-giri-vamsha-dhvaja-paTi : (Snow-mountain - lineage . flag ) Oh

Flag of the House of the Mountain of Snow,

asau tvadIyaH nedIyaH nAsAvamshaH : this nose of Yours, which is

more like the hollow bamboo staff of that flag --

phalatu : May it bestow

asmAkaM : on us

ucitaM phalaM : the appropriate fruit.

vahati : (it -- that is, the staff-like nose --) contains

antaH : in its inside,

muktAH : pearls.

yat tAsAM samRddhyA : for it is out of their abundance

bahir-api ca : that even on the outside

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal

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muktAmaNi-dharaH : (there appears) a nasal pendant, in the form of one

pearl,

shishira-kara-nishvAsa-galitaM : (moon-cooled . outgoing breath .

pushed out) pushed out, as it were, by the moon-cooled breath of the

left nostril.

It is natural for the bamboo to be hollow. Ambaal.s smooth nose

has also the hollows of the nostril. And it is natural for ambaal to have

nasal pendants. Here we are talking of pearl pendants . cf. muktAmaNidharaH.

In Madurai and Kanyakumari, the diamond nasal pendant of

the Goddess is famous. .tArA-kAnti tiraskAri nAsAbharaNa-bhAsurA. is

one of the names in Lalita Sahasranama. It means She excels even the

lustrous light of the stars by means of the dalliance of Her nasal

ornaments. A star radiates light of all colours. The light of the star is also

of the diamond-type. So the ornament that is spoken of here in the

Lalitasahasranama must also be a diamond nasal ornament. A pearl

never radiates several colours. The tradition of .pearl nasal pendant.

(muthu-mookuthi . in Tamil) always associated with ambaaL shows that

perhaps at one time it was the pearl pendant that must have been

dominantly in vogue.

The fullness of both masculine and feminine beauty is usually

talked about in respect of Lord Krishna. So the deities of Krishna always

show a nasal pendant. There is a famous shloka starting with the words

.kasturi-tilakaM ..... praising Krishna, in which you get the words

.nAsAgre nava-mouktikaM. . .brand new pearl ornament at the tip of the

nose..

Here the Acharya.s citing of pearl pendant as the nasal ornament

for ambaaL contributes well to the metaphor of the bamboo flag-staff.

When a bamboo is of an excellent variety, there is an ancient tradition

(handled as such by poets respectfully) that such a bamboo contains

pearls inside it. A similar belief is there with respect to the frontal globe

(mastakaM) of an elephant and also with respect to sugarcane. Indeed in

shloka 74 of Soundaryalahari the Acharya tells us that ambaal.s chest is

adorned with a necklace made of pearls got from the frontal globe of

Gajasura, slain by the Lord. In the present shloka, ambaal.s nose which

is, as it were, the hollow bamboo staff, is visualised to contain pearls as

per the tradition about the bamboo.

But wait! Tradition says there are pearls within the bamboo, not

outside it! Here the nasal pendant of ambaal is outside the nose. Isn.t it a

flaw in the analogy?

The Acharya takes care of this beautifully. It is through the hollow

of the nose (bamboo) that ambaal is exhaling her breath. When air

passes through the hollow of a bamboo there results the music of the

flute. Here the nasal breath exhales the pearls that are inside and

pushes them out as a nasal pendant! It is the breath of the Almighty that

A Digest of Discourses on Soundaryalahari

150

is said to constitute the Vedas. The ultimate content of the Vedas is

Mukti, the final Release. .Mukti. and .mukta. (pearl) are handled by poets

for purposes of rhyme. Here the Acharya says that it is the mukti that is

exhaled by ambaal in the form of the mukta!

There is a further play of words in the use of .vamsha.. This word

means .bamboo.. Recall the shloka beginning with the words .vamshIvibhUshhita-

karAt. in praise of Krishna. It means that His hand is

adorned by the flute of the bamboo. The same .vamsha. also means

.lineage.. So ambaal is addressed as the flag of the lineage of the

Mountain King . .tuhina-giri-vamsha-dvaja-paTi..

Now let us take up the Yoga matter, hidden in this shloka. The

breath that comes out of ambaal.s nose and that brings the pearls

outside is spoken of as coming out of the .left nostril.. But there is no

word in the shloka which directly means .left nostril.. The only words are

.shishira-kara-nishvAsa-galitaM..

.nishvAsa. is exhalation;

.uchvAsa. is inhalation;

.galita. means .expelled (out)..

.shishira-kara. is what indicates the left nostril, though its direct

meaning is just .the moon.. Note that .shishira. and .hima. mean the same

thing, namely, .cold.. Whenever the Acharya talks of the moon in relation

to ambAl, he uses .hima-kara. or .shishira-kara. meaning that which gives

a soothing of cold. Thus .shishira-kara-nishvAsa-galitaM. means that

which is exhaled by the .moon-exhalation.. How this becomes the .leftnostril-

exhalation. is the hidden secret of Yoga in this shloka.

According to yoga-shAstra, when the mind is drawn towards desire

or anger or the like, the inhalation is by the left nostril and exhalation by

the right. On the other hand, when the mind stays deep in noble

thoughts, the inhalation is by the right nostril and exhalation by the left.

When there is no thought passing through the mind the breath stays as

kumbhaka without exhalation or inhalation. Ambaal is always engrossed

in the most noble thought of compassion. So She inhales by the right

nostril and exhales by the left!

Now the chandra-nishvAsa (moon-exhalation) of ambaal is

explainable from Yoga. There are three nADis in the human body through

which the spiritual current passes. On the right of the spinal column

there is the .pingala., on the left there is the .iDA. and the central one is

.sushhumnA.. Since there is identity between JIvAtmA and ParamAtmA,

the names .moon. for the left eye, .sun. for the right eye and .agni. for the

third eye translate into the names .moon channel. for .iDA. on the left,

and .sun channel. for .pingala. on the right. Hence the meaning of

.shishikara-nishvAsa. is exhalation by the left nostril!

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal

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71

(Digest of pp.1211 -1217 )

Smita-jyotsnA-jAlaM tava vadana-candrasya pibatAM

cakorANAm-AsId-ati-rasatayA canchu-jaDimA /

atas-te shItAmshor-amRta-laharIm-Amla-rucayaH

pibanti svac-chandaM nishi nishi bhRshaM kAncika-dhiyA // 63 //

This is another shloka of poetic charm, now dealing with the

charm that flows from ambaal.s smile. Earlier in shloka 42 She was said

to have the moon in Her crown. Now Her face (vadanaM) itself is the

moon (vadana-candra). VadanaM also means .mouth.. The root word

.vad. is .to speak.. .Satyam vada. . Speak the truth. Therefore one can say

that the primary meaning of .vadana. is .mouth.. But here it is .vadanacandra

. . the moon-like face. There is no expression like .moon.like

mouth.!

Moonshine flows from the moon.like face. The moon in the sky

displays a dark spot on it. But ambaal.s face-moon (vadana-candra) has,

in its centre, arrays of sparkling teeth.

tava: Your

Vadana-candrasya : moon-like face

Smita-jyotsnA-jAlaM : (smile . moonlight . luminous sweep) luminous

sweep of the moonshine of your smile

In other words, it is the smile that illuminates as moonlight from

your face. Now what happens to this moonlight? The cakora bird drinks

it. There is a tradition in Sanskrit literature that the cakora bird feeds on

the nectar flowing from moonlight rays.

pibatAm cakorANAM : of the cakora birds which drank

Here the cakora birds have drunk the moonlight flowing from

ambaal.s face. What then happened to the cakora birds? They became

insensitized by saturation of the sweetness of the drink.

ati-rasatayA: by the extreme sweetness

canchu: the peaks

cakorANAM : of the cakora birds

jaTimA AsIt : became numb (were numbed).

Now how to correct this? The cakora birds were intelligent enough

to make the correction themselves.

ataH: Therefore (i.e., because of the numbness of their peak)

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te : these cakoras

Amla-rucayaH: (seeking to have) a taste of the sour

bhRshaM : heavily

pibanti : drink

nishi nishi : night after night

amRta-laharIM : the wave of nectar (i.e., the moonlight)

shItAmshoH: of the cool-rayed moon,

svacchandaM : to their heart.s content

kAncika-dhiyA : taking it to be the sour antidote (for the satiation of

sweetness).

Usually it is the privilege of Sanskrit poets to take great pride in

fancying that the cakora birds drink the nectar flowing from moonlight

for their very sustenance. This certainly makes the category of cakora

birds unique among all birds or beings, because they are the only ones

which live on just moonlight. But our Acharya soars higher, in his poetic

fancy, over all other poets. He makes the cakora birds even higher on the

scale by saying that they drink the grandest nectar that flows from

ambaal.s smile. That makes the ordinary moonlight nectar pale into

insignificance because it is, as depicted here, a sour drink when pitted

against the divine drink of moonlight flowing from the smile of ambaal.s

moonshine-face.

In the first part, Anandalahari, it was said that Lord Shiva is the

only one who survives even the pralaya whereas these divines who

partook of the nectar would all be consumed by that pralaya. And the

reason was said to be that ambaal Herself is the Nectar of

Consciousness, far superior to the material nectar and it is the eternal

association with Her that protects Him. Now we know that, even

superior to that material nectar churned out of the milk ocean, there is

the Nectar of the smile from Her moonshine face. So higher than the

Nectar of Consciousness (chaitanya-amritam) is the nectar of Her

Beauty (saundarya-amRtam), which is Her form, nay, Her face; not even

that, it is Her smile from that face.

All this the poet in the Acharya could have said simply that Her

smile is more fascinating in beauty than moonlight. On the other hand

he brought in the cakora bird, made moonlight the tasteful food for the

cakora and pronounced ambaal.s smile sweeter than that taste. Putting

together all these ideas, we see that it is the wave of Consciousness

(chaitanya-laharI) that becomes a tasty food for the eyes by becoming the

wave of ambaal.s beauty (Soundarya-laharI) and becomes also a tastierthan-

nectar object for the tongue. Thus Chaitanya (Consciousness),

Soundarya (Beauty) and Madhurya (Tasteful excellence) . all of these are

in essence Her shower of Love. It is that moonlight shower of Love that

we should be consuming, in the form of cakoras, deliciously relishing

the moon light-food!

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Maybe we are not able to .eat. moonlight like the cakora. But we

take delight in eating our own food under moonlight, especially on a full

moon night. The moon then cools the very atmosphere that surrounds

us and makes it very pleasant to us. The full moon is certainly very

pleasant to all of us. But the Sun of Wisdom is not so pleasant.

Ignorance is darkness; wisdom is light. Though the wisdom is given by

jnAna-sUrya (the Sun of Wisdom), it may also be unpleasantly hot,

because it is the Sun that is giving it. On the other hand the moon gives

both light (of wisdom) and pleasant experience. The Goddess of jnAna

(JnAna-ambaal) removes our Ignorance while at the same time being

pleasant. In the Purushha sUkta we are told that mind arose from the

moon. So the mind should be both cool and pleasant. That is why

ambaal who is most pleasant to us is always associated with the moon.

She Herself resides in the region of the moon. .Chandra-maNDalamadhyagA

. says the sahasranAma. And that is again the reason why the

Pournami (full moon) day is important for ambaal and we do special pUjA

for ambaal on that day.

She wears the Moon on Her head. In the head of the Yogi She

descends as the full moon and pours out the nectar. For us laymen also,

our Acharya has brought to us the moonshine of Her smile.May we

cherish and remember it for ever. May we become the little cakoras

drinking to our heart.s content the nectar-shower of Her Grace!

72

(Digest of pp.1218 -1221)

raNe jitvA daityAn-apahRta-shirastraiH kavacibhiH

nivRttaish-caNDAmsha-tripura-hara-nirmAlya-vimukhaiH /

vishAkh-endro-pendraiH shashi-vishada-karpUra-shakalA

vilIyante mAtas-tava vadana-tAmbUla-kabalAH //65 //

caNDAmsha-tripura-hara-nirmAlya-vimukhaiH: (Chanda.s share - Shiva .

leavings .looking away) : Rejecting the offering-remnants of Shiva as the

share of the devotee Chanda,

vishAkh-endro-pendraiH : the celestials KumAra, Indra and Vishnu

jitvA : after having conquered

daityAn : the asuras

raNe : in battle,

nivRttaiH : return to you

mAtaH : Oh Mother,

apahRta-shirastraiH : with their head-dresses (helmets, etc.) removed

kavacibhiH : but with their armour-jackets on,

tava vadana-tAmbUla-kabalAH : (eager to receive) as Your gracious gift

(Prasada) the betal rolls used by You

vilIyante : and chew them

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shashi-vishada-karpUra-shakalAH : (until) they dissolve along with the

moon-white pieces of refined camphor contained in them.

Just in the previous shloka (#64) the Acharya has said that

Goddess Saraswati who dwells on the tip of Her tongue, gets Her crystallike

white complexion changed into the colour of a red ruby because of

the ruddiness of the tongue that defies the japa (habiscus) flowers in its

redness. I have already told you about this.

(Note : See Section 58)

Here this shloka talks about the symphony of red and white that

the betal-chewing gives to ambaal.s tongue. You may ask wherefrom

comes this whiteness. Betal-chewing only produces a reddish tinge.

I take resort to the words .shashi-vishada-karpUra-shakalAH..

Maybe the Acharya thought : .We only talked about the white Saraswati

at the tip of ambaal.s tongue becoming red. But while writing bhashyas,

and while composing stotras we have been propitiating only ShAradA the

white Goddess. Then why not bring Her whiteness into ambaal.s tongue

that dwells on the betal rolls?.!

That the mouth is full of betal rolls is a characteristic attribute

that we use in all our descriptions of a sumangali. Even the

Sahasranama says of Her: .tAmbUla-pUrita-mukhI., meaning, .The One

whose mouth is full of chewing betal.. Ambaal, who is Auspiciousness

personified should always be visualised by us only this way.

There is nothing that can excel the leavings of her .tAmbUla. (betal

roll). It is called .tAmbUla-ucchishhTaM. (betal-leavings). Only we humans

have to consider another human.s food-leavings as something

demeaning. That of ambaal is sacred. Our body is nothing but meat. But

the divine body is akshhara. It encompasses all from .a. to .kshha.. That

is why it is called .akshhara., which also means .immutable.. The divine

body is nothing but all the mantras personified; because no mantra goes

outside of .a. to .kshha.. Over and above all that, it is Love personified.

And hence it is that Her betal leavings are most sacred.

And who is receiving it? Not just a devotee, a poet or a rishi. Her

own son, KumAra; Her own devotee, Indra, who received Brahma-vidyA

from Her (refer Kenopanishad); and Her own masculine form in the form

of Vishnu. The Acharya has woven a really marvelous dramatic scene in

which these three receive Her betal leavings.

.senAnInAM aham skandaH., says Krishna in the Gita. .I am

KumAra among the warriors of the world.. His trident (.Vel., in Tamil) is

victorious, wherever it appears. Its very name is Shakti. It is nothing but

parA-Shakti Herself. And it was this KumAra who went as the chief of all

the divine forces to wage war with the enmies of the divines. Naturally

the King of the divines, Indra, goes along with Him. Vishnu has another

name Upendra . because He was born as a son (VAmana) to the same

parents that bore Indra. Thus these three, VishAka (KumAra), Indra,

and Upendra (Vishnu) are returning to Mother Goddess after their victory

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155

over the asuras. The first thing that they look for is the gift of ambaal.s

betal leavings.

Earlier to the brith of KumAra, once the divines did win over all

the asuras. That was when they were all puffed up with pride. They

thought it was their own Power (Shakti) that brought them the victory.

The parA-shakti made them realise how incomplete their Power was, in

each one of them. She put before them a piece of straw which stood like

a rock before all their might. This story of their becoming just a speck of

dust in the presence of the supreme Shakti is told very graphically in

Kenopanishad. It was only after this that Indra, among them all,

immediately became very humble and he was taught the Brahma VidyA

by ambaaL.

KumAra, Indra and Vishnu very modestly want to offer their

victory over the asuras, at the feet of ambaal and partake as prasad, of

Her betal leavings. Ambaal usually revels in feeding others rather than

enjoying the food Herself. Different varieties of sweet dishes are usually

accepted by Her as offerings, not for Her own sake, but for the sake of

Her devotees. For Herself She is content with the betal rolls!. But then,

who eats all that food in Her house? It is the Lord!.so that He may not

go .begging. for food in His style as a .BikshhATana. (the roaming

mendicant). When the three divines return from their victorious war, it

was just the time when the Lord had finished His dinner. But they (the

celestials) did not care for the Prasad of Lord Shiva . because they were

heading towards ambaal for Her betal leavings!

And the Acharya excels here, by ascribing a reason to this action of

the three celestials.

73

(Digest of pp.1221 . 1226)

The three celestials . KumAra, Indra and Vishnu . did not care for

Shiva.s prasAdaM, because they were heading towards Ambaal.s betal

leavings. The Acharya excels here by ascribing an enjoyable reason for

this action of theirs. .chaNDAmsha-tripura-hara-nirmAlya-vimukhaiH. .

not having their mind on Shiva.s prasAdaM .because it is the share of

ChanDa.!. (.tripura-hara. is Shiva). The first prasAdaM of food left over

by Shiva belongs rightfully to ChanDa (ChanDikeshvara). This is the

rule. All the world considers this offering of Shiva.s prasAdaM first to

Chandikeshvara as our foremost obligation and privilege. It is

remarkable that ChanDa was born in this human world just like us all,

but rose later to become the fifth deity after the primal four, namely,

Shiva, Parvati, Vighneshvara and Subrahmanya. In all Shiva temple

festivals these five deities are the ones that are taken out in procession.

To receive Shiva.s prasAdaM after it has been offered first to this saintly

devotee, ChanDa, is truly a great blessing to all of us.

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But to KumAra, the very offspring of Shiva Himself, to Vishnu who

shares half the form of Shiva in the manifestation as Shankara-Narayana

and to Indra the king of all the divine world, it must be demeaning to

receive Shiva.s prasAdaM after it has been offered to a human, ChanDa,

however saintly he may be. All this is built into the expression

.chaNDAmsha-tripura-hara-nirmAlya-vimukhaiH.. Here .vimukha. can also

be interpreted to mean .turning their faces away from..

Next comes their dress while presenting themselves before ambaal.

The head dress worn on the field or when they are on duty, by the

soldiers in the army, are usually taken off when they want to show

respect. Here the three celestials take off their head dress before they

enter the presence of ambaal.

But the question arises: Why did the Acharya say in shloka #25

that the crowns of Brahma, Vishnu and Indra are doing the neerajana

ceremony to Her divine feet at which they were prostrating.? Why again

did he say in shloka #29 that when She started in haste to walk over to

welcome the homecoming Lord, She ran the risk of tumbling over the

crowns of Brahma, Vishnu and Indra, who were then prostrating at Her

feet? The situation in both cases is clear that they were prostrating with

the crowns still on their heads.

Well, the only explanation could be that in their intense mood of

devotion that overwhelmed them at those times, they just forgot (!) the

formality of the obligation to remove their crowns from their heads in the

august presence of ambaal.

Let us now come to the .tAmbUla-ucchishhTaM. . the betal

leavings. It has only been said that these three celestials consumed or

swallowed the betal prasAdaM of ambaal. There is no mention, however,

of the fruit of such an action, or about what fruits will accrue to the

chewing of the betal leavings. Of course we can infer that, to these warlords

who have come back victorious after a war with the asuras, more

victories are bound to accrue in the future by the blessing of ambaal.

On the other hand, that the fruit of taking the .tAmbUla

ucchishhTaM. of ambaal gives extraordinary poetic talent, is borne out by

the fact that three great poets . Kalidasa, Kalamegar, and Mukar --

became great poets only by the power of the .tAmbUla-prasAdam. from

ambaal. It was the mahAkAli of Ujjain, AkhilAnDeshvari of

Jambukesvaram and KamAkshhi of Kanchi, respectively, who blessed

these three. Our Acharya himself has composed a stotra called

.ambAshhTakaM. ,

[I am not able to locate this stotra. - VK]

wherein he says that ambal.s betal leavings will endow one with poetic

talent that will ride higher than the stately gaits of a high-class racehorse.

The very style of that shloka, such as:

.kavitva-paripATI .... koTI-kulA-dadhika-tATImudharamukhavITI-

rasena tanutAM.

mimics the beat of the hoofs of the racing horse!

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Whereas according to Soundaryalahari, what bestows the poetic

talent is (in shloka #75) Her breast milk, or (in shloka #98) the water that

has washed Her feet. Nowhere is it mentioned that the .tAmbUlaucchishhTaM

. of ambaal would bestow poetic talent. In shloka #98 it is

said that the poetic talent that is usually granted by the .tAmbUlaucchishhTaM

. of Saraswati is already bestowed by the .charana-tIrtha.,

the water that has washed the feet of ambaal. In that sense the

.charaNa-tIrtha. is placed higher in the ladder of spiritual benefaction.

The red paint on the feet makes the water that washes it reddish as the

betal juice. .kalita-alaktaka-rasam. : the water that gets mixed up with

the deep red of lac. .alaktaka. is lac. .lAkshhaa. is also lac. Both sanskrit

words could very well be the source of the English .lac.. And again

.alaktaka. is what becomes .arakku. in Tamil.

.As a student when will I have the opportunity to drink that

charaNa-tIrtha?. , wails our Acharya in that shloka. The words .prakRtyA

mUkAnAm-api. (meaning, even for those who are dumb by nature)

indicate that even the dumb (mUka) ones can become great poets by that

.charaNa-tIrtha.. The Acharya here is perhaps seeing into the future,

when one day there would exactly be such a mUka-kavi!

74

(Digest of pp.1226 -1236 )

vipanchyA gAyantI vividham-apadAnaM pashupateH

tvayArabdhe vaktuM calita-shirasA sAdhu vacane /

tadIyair-mAdhuryair-apalapita-tantrI-kala-ravAM

nijAM vINAM vANI nichulayati cholena nibhRtaM // 66 //

There is a whole dramatic scene here. It takes place in the very

presence of ambaal. Ambaal is sitting totally relaxed and listening to a

music performance. Whose music? That of Saraswati Herself! The word

.VANI. meaning, Saraswati, occurs in the fourth line of the shloka. She is

playing on the Veena. Simultaneously She is also singing. The very

Goddess of Arts, Music and all Knowledge is performing. One can only

imagine the infinite grandeur of the sweet richness of such a

performance.

.VipanchI. means Veena. .ParIvAdinI. also means Veena. The

Veenas belonging to particular celestials have particular names. Narada.s

Veena is called .mahatI.. That of Tumburu is .KalAvatI.. Saraswati.s is

.KacchapI.. The word .kacchapa. means tortoise. The drum of Saraswati.s

Veena is in the shape of a tortoise. Hence it is called .kacchapI..

Prof.Sambamurti (of Madras University) says that even today we can see

it in the Phillipines, where they call it .katjapI.. In Lalita Sahasranamam

we have the name: .nija-sallApa-mAdhurya-vinirbhatsita-kacchapI.. It

means .One whose speech is more melodious than kacchapI, the Veena of

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Saraswati.. It is the idea contained in this single line that has been

elaborated by our Acharya in a full shloka (#66) of Soundaryalahari and

transformed into a fascinating dramatic scene!

VipanchyA gAyantI: playing on the Veena.

But I translate it as .playing on the Veena and vocally

accompanying it also.. Why do I make this rendering? Because of the

words:

Vividham-apadAnaM pashupateH : Variegated anecdotes

pertaining to Lord Shiva.

How can these anecdotes be also performed by Saraswati without

being vocalised? The surest way to please ambaal is to sing the praise of

Her Lord. And the Glory of the Lord is endless. Saraswati is singing and

praising the infinite glories of Lord Shiva. Naturally ambaal is enjoying

both the music of the Veena and the singing of the Lord.s glories.

Now let us come to the second line of the shloka.

Calita-shirasA : by the nodding head. Now and then She nods Her

head in approval and appreciation. A nodding of the head (.shirahkampaM)

can show more delicacy of appreciation than by an applause of

the hand (karaH-kampaM). Whether it is in music, or in writing, or in

studies or in sports, one requires appreciation. And reciprocally, it is the

appreciation of the audience or the respondent that provides further

inspiration to the musician, writer, student or sportsman. The same

thing is happening here. Ambaal is enjoying in appreciation and

Saraswati is going on playing on the Veena and singing.

tvayA-Arabdhe vaktum sAdhu vacane : When you started speaking

appreciative words.

It appears ambaal suddenly, instead of silently nodding Her head,

also began to applaud orally by saying a few appreciative words: .sAdhu,

sAdhu.. These words mean .Good, Good.. They are the Sanskrit

equivalent of the English usage: .hear, hear.. But as soon as these words

were spoken by ambaal something dramatic happened. This is the

punchline of the story. It is in the third and fourth lines of the shloka.

tadIyair-mAdhuryair-apalapita-tantrI-kala-ravAM : (By their .

sweetness . degraded . strings .music) Before the sweetness and melody

of those words the sweet sound of the Veena paled into insignificance.

Just one or two words only must have come from ambaal. .tvayA

Arabdhe. means .just when you began to speak.. In our own way of

thinking there could be nothing sweeter and more melodious than the

music of Saraswati.s Veena; for She is the Goddess of Music. If there

could be something more pleasant it must be Her own voice. But now

the few words that stemmed forth from ambaal, have transformed all

that into nothing. Saraswati stopped her singing when She realised the

overpowering sweetness of ambaal.s voice. Not only that. Her Veenamusic

also has been over-powered. What did She do to Her Veena?

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal

159

nijAM vINAM vANI niculayati cholena nibhRtaM :

vANI : Saraswati

niculayati : hides

nijAM vINAM : Her own Veena

cholena : by (its) cover, (in its case)

nibhRtaM : so that it will not show up.

Saraswati draws the cover on Her Veena and hides it! In other

words She accepts that Her Veena is nothing before the sweet voice of

ambaal and stops it then and there.

Ambaal, though She had all the musical sweetness in Her own

voice, intended to honour Saraswati by nodding Her head all along and

also saying the appreciative words .SAdhu.. But instead of encouraging

the performer to perform more, it resulted in the performer bowing down

and stopping the performance. This incident brings into focus the

greatness of both Saraswati and ambaal.Saraswati hung down Her head

in shame and stopped singing. But what does the Veena do? Even after

being stopped, the music of the Veena has a characteristic reverberation

(anuraNanam, in Sanskrit; rIngAram in Tamil), due to the resonating

vibrations of the strings. So Saraswati quickly silences it by hiding it

under its own cover (.cholena nibhRtaM.).

We can go on thus enjoying the scene by visualising it in various

ways, scene after scene in this drama.

Maybe it was different. Maybe ambaal was not appreciating the

music but was nodding Her head to the .vividham-apadAnaM

pashupateH. -- the different stories of the glories of Lord Shiva -- maybe

that was what was being enjoyed by Her in appreciation. Suddenly

Saraswati might have realised this, at the time when ambaal opened Her

mouth to say .SAdhu..

There could be no end to such speculations of ours on the scene.

On the whole the shloka brings out the melodious sweetness of Her

voice, in addition to all the beauty of form that the other shlokas have

been revealing all along. There can be no doubt that by meditating on

this shloka one gains excellence both in music and the composition of it.

75

(Digest of pp.1236 -1243)

gale rekhAs-tisro gati-gamaka-gItaika-nipuNe

vivAha-vyAnaddha-praguNa-guNa-sankhyA-pratibhuvaH /

virAjante nAnAvidha-madhura-rAgAkara-bhuvAM

trayANAM grAmANAM sthiti-niyama-sImAna iva te // 69 //

The intensive knowledge in music and musical technicalities of the

Acharya is manifest in this shloka. The words .gati., .gamakaM., .gItaM.

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160

and .grAmaM. are technical words understood well only by musicologists.

One should actually refer to the latter part of Bharata.s .nATya-shAstra.,

.SangIta-ratnAkaraM. of Sarangadeva and .caturdaNDi-prakAshika. of

Venkata-makhi. I have only an incomplete knowledge of these.

.Gati. is procedure or path. It denotes one of two kinds: .deshi. and

.mArgaM.. The former is more regimented like a train on its rails. The

latter keeps changing with the times and caters to latest tastes.

.GamakaM. is undulation. It has five subtly different varieties in it.

.GItaM. of course is song. But it is not just the text (sAhitya) of the

song; it also includes the svaras.

.Eka-nipuNa. is unequalled excellence. So ambaa is the .Gatigamaka-

gItaika-nipuNA. that is, unequalled Mistress of the musical

technicalities of .gati., .gamakaM. and .gItaM..

.GrAmaM. .the word occurs in the fourth line of the shloka . means

the three-fold classification of rAgas, according to the shadja, madhyama

and gAndhAra svaras. As music arises in the voice box of the body and

as the voice box is situated in the neck, the Acharya is saying that these

three .grAmas. are manifesting themselves as the three lines in the neck

of ambaal. Of course all women would have these three lines or folds in

their neck. But that is because originally ambaal is having these three

lines in Her neck! Men have .Adam.s apple. in their neck, which is absent

in women. The western story is that the original man ate the Eden

Garden apple and that started his involvement in the samsAra of the

world. The Indian story is that the Lord swallowed the KAlakuTa poison

which was, according to ambaal.s request, stifled at the position of the

throat of the Lord and that is why the bulge is showing in all male

human necks. Both the stories only go to show that we all have the same

origin and we are all brothers born of the same Father, irrespective of the

religion we may profess. In one case the very nutritious apple that .keeps

the doctor away. becomes the original source of this dreadful samsAra. In

the other case the dreadful poison sits there in the throat of the Lord

without harming anyone. Both are cosmic mysteries.

All forms of men are nothing but the Lord and all forms of women

are just ambaal. This is what the Adam.s apple of the male neck and the

three lines in the female neck tell us.

The great saint Appar has sung a song beginning with the words

.mAdar piRaikkaNNiyAn. in the kshetra of Tiruvaiyaru. He saw the male

and female forms of the elephant, chicken, peacock, swan and parrot and

had the spiritual experience of visualising all of them as the divine

couple, Shiva-Shakti. .kaNDen-avar tiruppAdam, kaNDaRiyAdana

kaNDen., says he . .His divine feet did I see; things that had never been

visualised, did I witness.. If we care to use our intelligence and look for

the Divine around us with intense Bhakti we can also have this darshan

of Shiva-Shakti always and everywhere.

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal

161

Shiva is white; Shakti is red . that is the way we have explained

how the changeless White Shivam (Cause) sprouted out as the Red

Kameshvari (Effect). Just like this Shiva-Shakti, the white-red

coexistence can be seen in many of our worldly matters. In fact once we

begin to recognize this spectacle in all matters of this world as well as of

the other world, we would be amazed as if we have had the very darshan

of Shiva-Shakti. Particularly, what pertains to the male is white and

what pertains to the female is red . this principle will help us get into the

spiritual sAdhanA of witnessing Shiva-Shakti all around us.

The .tejas. of man is called .shuklaM. (white) and that of woman is

called .shoNitaM. (red). What he wears on his forehead is white .vibhUti.

and what she wears is red .kunkumamM.. In the .nAmaM. of the

Vaishnavas, it is the white part that belongs to the Lord, whereas the red

part is that of the Mother Goddess. In fact that is why it is called .ShrichUrNaM

. . the powder of the Goddess. What man dons is white .veshti.

and what she does is the saree, which is .kusumbA. (red). The word

.kusumbA. means saffron. That is the ideal colour for the wedding saree

(kUraip-puDavai). .aruNaruNa-kausumbaM., where ambaal.s saree is

described as the reddest of the red.

Again, in this interplay of red and white, we have our own blood

which has both red cells and white cells. Just as in ambaal.s red, the

white of Shivam is merged, so also the red corpuscles of the blood

dominate the whiteness of the white corpuscles and show the colour of

blood as red!

In the ordinary decorative drawings (kolam, in Tamil) in front of the

house or the deity, though the kolam is in white, it is usually bordered by

red. For the same reason the markings on the outside walls of temples

are in red and white. Even though the inside deity may be a Vishnu deity

(whose colour is blue), the outside walls are striped only with white and

red.

If it is an abhishekaM of the deities, we have milk and honey. If it

is the fragrance we have .pachaik-karpuram. (which is green) and saffron.

If it is offering of flowers through an archana, we have jasmine (white)

and .arali. (red). If it is food that is offered, we have curd rice (called

dadhyannam) and .sarkaraip-pongal.. Even with the ordinary white idli,

we combine the red chili powder or sambar!

Here the idli is bland and peacefully white; whereas the chili

powder that goes with it is fearfully red! White is Peace and Red is Power

and Action. So when we want to stop a war we show the white flag. A

revolutionary activity is manifested by a red flag. Thus Shiva-Shakti is all

around us in the forms of Peace and Rajas (activity). But again, nor

should we separate Shiva and Shakti as two different entities; and that is

what exactly is shown by the symbiosis of red and white corpuscles in

the blood. The white corpuscles fight with the invasion of disease and the

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162

red ones nurture us with oxygen. When there is bloodshed in a battle, it

is the red cross that brings relief and cure!

Even in the ordinary colour spectrum, it is red that shows up first

on the side of white. The opposite colour that is violet is on the other

extreme. It is this violet (linked with blue) that is the direct opposite of

the peaceful Shivam, that goes with Vishnu who denotes Vishnu-mAyA

sharing the colour with Vishnu-DurgA and MahA-kALi. It is the ShivakAmeshvari

that has contact with both the Peace of Shiva on the one

side and the dynamism of MAya on the other side. For the same reason,

in the apex work of philosophy called .pAdukA-mantram., the Light that

is the Cause of all that is gross as well as subtle is called .traipuram

mahas. and when one talks of the unfoldment of the same as Jiva and

the Universe it is mentioned as .rakta-shukla-prabhA-mishraM. -- red

and white confluent effulgence . thereby indicating both the outward

dynamism of the Effect and the inward Peace of the Cause.

76

(Digest of pp.1243-1248)

The Shiva-factor and the Shakti-factor that are respectively

manifest in the male and the female, are most explicitly manifest in the

bulge of Adam.s apple in man and the three lines on the neck of woman.

These are the three lines that are referred to as .gale rekhAs-tisraH. by

the Acharya. The verse also allows us to interpret it as showing that She

is expert in all the three facets .gati., .gamakam. and .gItam. of music. In

addition to this implicit indication, he explicitly says in the fourth line of

the shloka: The boundaries between the different .grAmas. based on the

.shadja., .gAndhAra. and .madhyama. in music are what is shown by the

three lines on Thy neck . .trayANAM grAmANAM sthiti-niyama-sImAna

iva te (gale rekhAs-tisro virAjante)..

Recall .trayANAM devAnAM triguNa-janitAnAM. from Shloka #25.

[See DPDS-45]. The triad of Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra were said

therein to have originated from the three guNas. Here the .trayANAM

grAmANAM. also mentions along with it the three guNas in line 2.

What is stated in line 2, namely, .vivAha-vyAnaddha-praguNaguNa-

sankhyA-pratibhuvaH. that is, .A reminder of the strands of the

auspicious string made by twisting several threads and well tied round

the neck at the wedding ceremony.. This refers to the most auspicious

wedding of Goddess Parvati and the Lord. The direct meanings however

are:

vivAha-vyAnaddha : wedding . tied well.

guNa-sankhyA: consisting of a certain number of guNas.

praguNa : noble guNas.

pratibhuvaH: that which authenticates, guarantees.

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal

163

These direct meanings do not add up to an easily understood

message. The .guNa-sankhyA. refers to the number three, coming from

the three guNas satva, rajas and tamas. But when it comes to .praguNa.

he is talking of .strands of string., because guNa also means .strand.. And

.praguNa. means .auspicious strands.. And this is what brings in the

.mangala-sUtra. (auspicious marriage thread) that is tied at the time of

the wedding ceremony. In other words, it means that three noble strands

of string have been twisted to make the mangala sUtra for the Goddess.

And it is these three strands that are recalled . .pratibhuvaH. . by the

three lines on the neck of ambaa. Of course, in addition, we can also

interpret that the three lines implicitly stand for the three guNas also.

There are those who say that the .pANi-grahaNaM. (holding of the

hand) is the deciding religious rite for the wedding. The tying of the

mangala-sUtra may not be the tradition in many areas. But the very

fact that the Acharya has mentioned it here in connection with the

wedding of God and Goddess, gives it a unique importance. The .holding

of hand. is an event that does not leave any trace of itself after the event.

On the other hand it is the mangala-sUtra that permanently stands out

as a distinguishing mark of married status to women and is also

respected by all as such. At the time when the solar months of Aquarius

(mAshi, in Tamil) and Pisces (panguni, in Tamil) coalesce, it is the

mangala-sUtra that is greatly and duly worshipped by women. Even in

the Lalita Sahasranama, we have .kAmesha-baddha-mAngalya-sUtrashobhita-

kandarA. . She whose neck is adorned with the mangala-sUtra

fastened thereon by Her consort Kameshvara.

Another point. The Acharya says only .guNa. meaning .strand of

thread.. In modern times, women replace the marriage thread by a golden

chain and a heavy tirumangalyam and rolling balls (kuNDu, in Tamil) on

either side of it. It is very inappropriate. The alleged plea is that the

string becomes dirty in due course of time. If you coat it with turmeric

every day it won.t become dirty.

There is a five-fold (pancakaM) mention of triads in this shloka:

The three lines on the divine neck, the three musical nuances .gati,

gamakaM and gItaM., the three guNas, the three .grAmas. of music and

finally, the three strands of mangala-sUtra.

A sound musical tradition aims at the preservation of its age-old

purity. The classification in terms of .grAmas. is not supposed to be

mixed up. It is to show the distinctness of the three .grAmas. that the

three lines on the divine neck are so distinct, says the Acharya. All this

emphasizes the need for a certain discipline in following the music

traditions.

When music is performed as .nAdopAsanA. (a dedicated worship

of .nAda-brahman.) with bhakti, then that music itself will lead to Self-

Realisation. When one merges in the disciplined musical confluence of

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164

shruti and laya, that merger itself becomes the merging in the Atman.

.Entaro mahAnubhAvulu. -- sang Tyagaraja, the great .nAdopAsaka. (the

worshipper of .nAda-brahman.) and he was one such great soulexperiencer

(mahAnubhAva) of the musical trinity. All three of the trinity

were great souls who attained this Self-Realisation through the path of

Devotional Music. Interestingly, all these three flourished in the same

time frame within the past one and a half centuries.

Incidentally, I have added a sixth triad to the five-fold triads (of

this shloka) that I spoke of earlier!

Though the three qualities of satva, rajas and tamas are only three

in number they give rise to an infinite number of quality-combinations in

the worldly characters that we experience. So also, just from the seven

svaras of music, with various permutations and combinations according

to the three .grAmas., the musical world has generated numerous rAgas.

This is what is mentioned in the shloka as .nAnAvidha-madhurarAgAkara-

bhuvAM. . meaning, .those which generate the mine of

multifarious melodious rAgas. . Here the word .those. goes with .of the

three grAmas. (.trayANAm grAmANAM.) in the fourth line.

The word .rAga-Akara. is significant. Just as a mine gives out gold

and gems as you dig deeper and deeper, so also the subtleties of the

seven svaras yield numerously different rAgas as you delve deep. The

word .Akara. means .mine.. The ocean yields gems (ratnas) and that is

why it is called .ratnAkara.. The commonly used words .karuNakara.

and .dayAkara. should mean only .a mine of compassion and grace.

rather than .one who shows compassion or grace..

Again the word .madhura. in .nAnAvidha-madhura-rAga-bhuvAM.

is also significant. .madhura. means sweet and melodious. What is not

sweet or melodious should not form part of music. All this meticulous

use of words in this verse show how knowledgeable the Acharya is in the

subtleties of music and its understanding. Obviously he was himself a

.gati-gamaka-gIta-eka-nipuNaH. . Master of the musical technicalities of

the procedure, undulations and song of music!

77

(Digest of pp.1252-1265 )

Shloka #75 says further about the breast milk of ambaa. It

generates, says the shloka, everything superlatively noble . like wisdom,

compassion, beauty, knowledge, and the arts. .sArasvatam iva.,

meaning, everything for which Sarasvati is the source. They all flow like a

flood from the heart . .hRdayataH payaH pArAvAraH.. It was that milk

of wisdom, Oh Mother, that you fed to that child of the Dramila country.

And that child became a noted poet among great composers . .kavInAM

prouDhAnAM ajani kamanIyaH kavayitA..

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165

.prouDha-kavi. means a poet rich with poetic talent. The feminine

word .prouDhA. denotes a girl who has attained puberty. Just as the

physical tejas attains maturity, a person whose poetic talent has attained

perfection and maturity is called a .prouDha-kavi.. Ironically, a .prouDhakavi

. is also prone to be proud! And in the poetry that flows from such a

one there is likely to be a mischievous air of superiority. It may not

appeal to the heart. But the milk of wisdom, which flows like a flood from

this ocean of .SArasvata., generates poetic inspiration that captivates the

heart. By using the words .payaH pArAvAraH parivahati. . the milk

ocean flows like a flood . the Acharya has added one more .lahari.,

namely, the lahari of breast milk that represents all that is great in the

Mother, to the various lahari.s mentioned in Soundaryalahari --

cidAnanda-lahari, shRngAra-lahari, etc. When this .kshhIra-lahari. (the

flood of milk) is tasted by the dramila-shishu (Tamil child), the latter

becomes a poet who composes captivating songs that make him

distinguished among even .prouDha. composers!

Now who was this .dramila-shishu.? The immediate feeling is that

it should be the well-known Sambandar, also known as .JnAnasambandar

. of the Tamil region, who flourished in the seventh century

A.D. But the Acharya.s time was in the sixth-fifth century B.C.,

approximately.

[ Here the Paramacharya takes for granted

his own elaborate thesis-like discussion

on the date of Shankara,

that runs to hundreds of pages,

in his earlier discourses. These have been recorded

by Ra. Ganapati in the 5th volume of his book

.Deivathin Kural..]

The story about the child JnAna-sambandar is that the Mother

Goddess fed her breast milk to the three-year old child and the child

burst into ecstatic singing glorifying Lord Shiva and Parvati.

Commentators on Soundaryalahari opine that a similar incident did

happen in the case of the Acharya himself when he was a child and

therefore conclude that the .dramila-shishu. refers to the Acharya himself!

Instead of saying .I have that experience. he is saying it in third person,

in all modesty. But even here one can ask: How come the Acharya talks

about his own poetic talent in such superlative terms? Is this in keeping

with his well-known modesty? Well, the point to note here is that the

matter is not about poetic talent. The significant point is the glory of the

milk of wisdom that flows from ambaal. Actually the Acharya has talked

about himself as .the farthest of the lowly. (daviyAmsaM dInaM) in shloka

#66. And the significance now is that even such a .lowly. person has

reached poetic heights of excellence by the divine milk of wisdom.

On the correct interpretation of .dramila-shishu. there have been

controversies from very early times. Several commentators have debated

this issue. No definite conclusion has been accepted by all. But let us

not stay on that issue. What we need is not the correct meaning of

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166

.dramila-shishu. but the truth that we should seek that wisdom that

flows incessantly like milk from ambaal.s grace!

shrutInAM mUrdhAno dadhati tava yau shekharatayA

mamApy-etau mAtaH shirasi dayayA dhehi caraNau /

yayoH pAdyaM pAthaH pashu-pati-jaTA-jUTa-taTinI

yayor-lAkshhA-lakshhmIH aruNa-hari-cUDAmaNi ruciH // 84 //

mAtaH : Oh Mother,

yau tava caraNau : Those feet of Yours (which)

shrutInAM mUrdhAnaH : the crests of the vedas (namely, the

Upanishads)

dadhati : bear

shekharatayA : as (their) head ornament,

yayoH : for which (feet)

pashu-pati-jaTA-JUTa-taTinI : the river (Ganga) in the matted locks of

hair of Lord Shiva

pAdyaM pAthaH : (become) the water-offerings at the feet,

yayoH : for which (feet)

aruNa-hari-cUDAmaNi-ruciH : the red brilliance of the diadem of Vishnu

lAkshhA-lakshhmIH : (becomes the brilliance of red lac,

dhehi : please condescend to keep

etau : such feet

mama shirasi api : on my head, too

dayayA : out of compassion.

The description of Mother Goddess from head to foot finally comes

to the divine feet. The divine feet are requested to be placed on this

devotees.s (The Acharya.s) head. This is a kind of .Guru DikshhA., that is,

spiritual initiation by the Guru. But it is not openly said to be so.

Because, such initiations always have to be guarded as secret.

Kenopanishad details how the Mother Goddess appeared to the devas

and gave spiritual initiation to Indra, their King. The words .umA.

.haimavatI., .strI. .bahu-shobhamAnA. used in that narrative are the only

instances where the Absolute is specifically mentioned as manifesting as

Guru in the vedas. The deities .Shiva. or .Vishnu. are never mentioned in

the Vedas in the capacity of Guru. The two times Shivam and Vishnu

are mentioned are in Mandukyopanishad and Kathopanishad; but in

both cases it is a state that is described and not a Person. It is therefore

in the fitness of the wisdom of the vedas that the Acharya here describes

the divine feet of ambaa as the head ornament of the Upanishads!

The praise of the divine feet goes on for several shlokas. In shloka

88, the Acharya asks: Mother, How did thy Consort, Lord Shiva, with all

His softness (.dayamAnena manasA.) towards You, have the heart to

place them with his hand on a hard granite grinding stone at the

by Kanchi Maha-Swamigal

167

marriage rite? -- .upayamana-kAle, bAhubhyAm AdAya dRshhadi

nyastaM.. The word .upayamana. stands for a marriage ceremony. Just

as .upanayana. stands for the rite that initiates a boy into the spiritual

path, by initiating him into the Gayatri, so also the .upayamana. stands

for the rite that initiates a girl into married life. In this rite the

bridegroom places the feet of the bride on a granite pasting stone as a

part of the rite. The Mother Goddess Herself is considered here by the

Acharya as an ordinary bride going through the same marriage rite.

The act of placing the feet on a granite stone attains a spiritual

significance in the context of ambaal. For this we have to go to

Shivaananda-lahari shloka #80 where the Acharya asks: .Oh Lord! Why

are You dancing on this hard granite? On the auspicious day of Pradosha

why can.t You dance on a softer surface, in fact made up of flower

offerings? Is it because you have anticipated that I will be born with a

hard heart on this earth and You have to dwell and dance in that hard

rock-like heart?. Taking cue from this we can now interpret this shloka

#88 of Soundaryalahari as saying: .Oh Mother, the Lord is having

compassion towards You and wants to train You to dance along with

Him in the hard hearts of people of this earth. That is why He is placing

Your soft feet on the hard granite as a preview for Your feet.!

It is those divine feet of ambaaL that have to be meditated on by us

for melting our hearts. There is no other way! Particularly it is our ego

that stands solidly like a rock between us and mokshha. And that is

why, for our sake, the Acharya has put in the words .mama api. in

 

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)