Saundarya Lahari ( Kanchi Paramaacharyaa ) 1. Worship of Divine Mother

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WORSHIP OF DIVINE MOTHER

 

(Rough Translation from Part 6 of Dheivathin Kural by Kanchi

Paramacharyaa)

 

The basis for the greatness of Saundarya Lahari and its superior

attraction to everybody is due to the reason that it presents

Paramaathma before us as our own Divine Mother.

 

Tamil Poetess Avvaiyar says " Mother and Father are the Gods to be

known first" ( annaiyum piThavum munnari dheivam - in Tamil). Vedas

also proclaim that one should consider one's mother and father as

God. In both cases, we have to note that mother has a precedence over

father.

 

If we have to consider our biological mother as God, the reverse side

of the coin is to consider God itself as Divine Mother, as Ambaal.

When we feel ( 'bhaavam' ) Paramaathma as Mother, we get much

greater happiness than when we consider Him in any other form .

 

Why is it so ?

 

Because there is nobody who showers love on us more than our mother.

We have great liberty with her. We have absolutely no fear in her

presence. We are not shy. All those which make us shy and anxious,

get automatically dissolved in her presence. Whenever a child is

afraid, it runs and embraces her. All the adolescent ( and

subsequent ) mental aberrations die a natural death in her presence.

 

One cannot get the unadulterated, pure love of mother from anybody

else. Even if the son /daughter does not reciprocate with appropriate

love, and in spite of how he/she behaves, the mother never bothers

about it, but she still shows her fullest love towards her child. In

Tamil, we have a proverb "the heart of the mother is mad in love with

the child, but the heart of the child is tough like a stone" ( peTha

manam piThu, piLLai manam Kallu in Tamil). In Devi aparadha

Kshamapana sthothra, it is said ' there could be wicked children, but

there is no absolutely no wicked mother'.

 

We are born out of her soul, in her body and live out of her

food. After birth, right from giving good, she is the sole recourse

for the child for absolutely everything. Only in the earliest

childhood, the bond of mutual love between mother and child is the

greatest. It is also when the child is not into any aberration

(starting with kama) and it entirely depends on her with free

abandon and a firm belief that she will take care of every one of its

needs.

 

This is the reason why we have to consider Paramaathma as divine

Mother, Ambaal. Irrespective of our age, we become children in Her

presence. We have to do so in order to imbibe the divinity of child-

likeness ( like absolute faith, total surrender to her closely with

free abandon and love, and absence of aberrations starting with

kama ) . If a child desires to get any article, if it wants to go

out or if is suffering from any illness, it just clings firmly to its

mother. If we have to cling to Paramaathma doggedly like that, then

we have to consider Him as Jaganmaatha and ourselves as children.

Brhadharanyaka Upanishad ( III.5.1) also advises us to become like

children.

 

 

If we have to consider Paramaathma as "Jaga Janani' ( Mother of the

Universe), it is not as if we are imagining something which is not

true, just for the purpose of our pleasure or satisfaction. In fact,

Paramaathma which is the repository of all Gunas, does also possess

perfectly complete pure mathru-bhava( motherhood) also. The

Paramaathma is the sole source for all these mothers, and for the

affection and sacrifice displayed by all of them. As such, whether

we consider Paramaathma with mathru-bhava or not, He in fact, is full

of it. This is what Manikavachagar ( one of the four principal

Shaiva saints) calls ' the Supreme Principle which shows greater love

than mother' (thayir chirandha dhayavaana ThaThuvanae in Tamil - in

Shiva Puranam - 61) . He also addresses Shiva as " My Mother, Father

and uncomparable gem" . Appar Swamigal ( another principal Shaiva

saints ) calls him , " You are my Father, You are my Mother". (

Theyvaaram - Piditha Pathu 3 ) . These saints have actually enjoyed

His mathru-bhava and have created these verses out of real anubhava

( experience).

 

In spite of the supreme love displayed by our biological mother, the

relationship ends when her or the child's body first dies. We get

different mothers in different births. However, the sole

foundation/source of the love displayed by all these mothers, viz.,.

the Paramaathma alone, continues with us permanently. He is called "

the Mother who follows us continuously" ( Appar Swamigal - Thiru

Aalavaai Thiru Thandagam - 8). Paramaathma is the Mother not only for

the (destructible physical ) body, but also for the indestructible

soul; He is also the Mother with the supreme love to protect us in

this world and beyond this world. HE is the permanent and continuous

Mother for all the living beings starting from the worms and insects

upto the elephants, lions, humans, Devas and all such other sentient

beings , for all the past, present and future billions of years (

unlike a physical mother who is mother for 5 or 10 beings for a

limited period). Only that Supreme Mother creates the necessary

things in this word for the food and other enjoyment of all of her

sentient children. When a child is born, its mother secretes milk for

the child automatically, while she is pregnant, the child gets food

from the mother through the umbilical cord. These arrangements occur

without any specific effort on the mother's part to make them

happen. It is the Will of the Supreme Mother that has created all

such arrangements.

 

Paramaathma is the Supreme Mother who nourishes not only our body ,

but also our soul. She nourishes our knowledge and provides Aathma

anubhavam. Like she feeds her milk for our body, she feeds us with

the milk of Gnana and thereby makes us one with Her in an advaitic

fashion.

 

It is not only for the reasons that we have happiness in regarding

Her as our own Supreme Mother, that it is appropriate to deem Her as

our Mother, ( similar to treating our biological mother of this

birth, as Divine) , but also because She is in fact the Mother for

all our births and again for removing us from the cycle of births

even, that we have to pray to Paramaathma as Supreme Mother.

 

Paramaathma, which has only become all the sentient beings and

insentient things, comes before us in whichever way we think of Him.

If we pray to the Para Brahmam requesting Him to appear before as

Mother, Ambaa, He does grace us in the form requested by us.

 

Why do we need the Aroopa ( one without a form) Paramaathma to have

Roopam ( form) ? It is because all of us with Roopam are born from

that Source and He is our Mother and we are all Her Children. (

Though Advaita says that we also do not have a form and we are not

different from the formless Aathma, we have not yet realized /

experienced that concept). We are able to understand that only

because there are so many forms of sentient beings, there is also a

fundamental source for all these forms. This source is the Mother and

all those that were created by the source are Her children.

 

For a child, it needs to SEE its mother. It is not sufficient if its

mother places the food for her to eat, ( but remains out of its

sight), it will never take the food. Unless she comes to it and

physically feeds him, it will not eat. It does not even need the

food, but it needs her to be with it, within its sight. It is not

sufficient, even if she calls endearingly from inside, still out of

sight. IT HAS TO SEE HER. IT NEEDS HER TO PHYSICALLY HOLD IT. It will

chuckle lovingly only when she sees her face . Similarly, we are all

Paraashakthi's children. That is why, we are not satisfied if we

intellectually recognize that there is a supreme power, which

protects and nourishes us, but without any form. Only when She comes

to us in the form of Divine Mother with form and love, our heart is

satisfied.

 

If we want to observe Paramaathma in a form which oozes Supreme

Compassion, there is no better form than that of Ambaal. For all

beings, for all births and for all times, Paramaathma is the Supreme

Mother. If we are able to have profound love for Her lotus feet,

then our lives will become full with Supreme Bliss. If we start

doing Upaasana to Her as Mother, then such a blissful river of love

will naturally start flowing out of us.

 

If Ambaal's meditation starts flowing as a continuous stream from us,

that is the Punya ( holy ) Theertham (stream) that will quench all

our thirsts and nullify all our Papa ( unholy acts) . That is the

fountain spring for all love .

 

If we have to really experience the feeling of universal brotherhood

instead of merely making such rhetoric, then we have to REALIZE (

anubhava- experience ) Paramaathma as our Supreme Mother; It will

happen only when we realize that all of us really have one single

Mother, like what Kalidasa said in Shyaamala Dhandakam ( 'Namasthe

jagat Eka maathaha': namasthe to the single Mother of the Jagat).

 

We will physically experience the love and affection that embraces

all the sentient beings as being born together with us, only when we

have a conscious feeling of the Supreme Mother common to all of us.

 

(concluded)

 

Regards

 

Kameshwaran