SAUNDARYA LAHARI - 2 kaaruNyamae ambaal's laavaNyam (part 4/4)

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.... continuedfrom part 3/4

How to visualize Ambaal's actual swaroopam ( form ) ?

 

Will She be green hued, red or black ? Ambaal has manifestations in

all these colors. Like Brahma has 4 heads, Shiva 5 heads and

Subramanya 6 heads, how many heads does She have ? She has thousand

(s) of heads in her Viraat / Vishva roopam ( like Vedas say 'sahasra

seersha"). But we are totally unable to visualize her with thousand

heads with our mental eye. She has been described with several forms

from two handed Meenakshi to 18 handed Mahishasura Mardhini, in the

way the Rishis saw her. So how shall we imagine her ? She has

different forms - one with disheveled hair, one with beautiful crown

on her head, one form fully adorned with dazzling jewels, and another

without any clothes, but with entire body fully smeared with blood,

and with a string of skeletons as her necklace. Out of all these,

which form shall we visualize her for our meditation on Her ?

 

The answer to this question is this.....

 

WHATEVER IS HER FORM, WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT IS LOVE. THEREFORE,

CONTEMPLATE ON HER AS A PERSONIFICATION OF SUPREME LOVE.

 

One may say : " I do not know how to contemplate on supreme love".

 

OK.. If you find a benevolent person making sincere anna dhanam (

poor feeding) without expecting anything at all in return, then look

at his face. Find out how much more blissful the donor is, happier

than all the donees. Does it not create kindness and joy in your

heart to look at that scene ? A person who feeds a hundred or

thousand persons once or twice gets so much affectionate bliss, If

so, how much will be the affection and bliss of our Divine Mother,

who feeds ALL OF US, ( all the billions and trillions of the living

beings including those of us who perform many of the great sins at

least mentally, if not physically) for all these several millions of

years right from the day of creation of the living species ?

Multiply and find out how much will be Her Loving Bliss in feeding

all of us for so long as our own Divine Mother.

 

THAT IS THE ROOPAM OF AMBAAL.

 

IT IS HER KAARUNYAM THAT HAS BECOME HER LAAVANYAM.

 

The beauty of our physical body is absolutely not worth it. Because,

if we get angry or if we become melancholic and cry, then we

ourselves will not like our face, if we look into the mirror. Even

if you get the slightest fever, our physical beauty fades. Only

Ambaal's swarupa, who does not have to suffer from anger, sadness or

disease, and which is the personification of love, is what is indeed

beautiful. So, imagine Her love to the most superior degree as

possible, and treat it as Her Roopam.

 

One may ask : " Ambaal represents the entire Sakthi of the

Paramaathma . Then why She should be considered as a personification

of love only as a very special case ? Even aspects such as

difficulties, problems, fear, jealousy etc., also are manifested

out of Her power ? When such is the case, why should She be

particularly lauded as being full of Love only ? "

 

Yes, it is true that She is everything, including fear and anger. It

is also true that different kinds and levels of affection - that

between mother and child, brothers and sisters, friends, husband and

wife, that of devotees, the grace of mahaathmas, -- all these are

derived from the foundation of Her supreme love. So, contemplate on

her aspect of love only, because, even if SHE REPRESENTS all aspects

including that of fear and anger, YOU do not derive happiness and

peace except in contemplating on Her aspect of love. Only when you

visualize her as an embodiment of love, it soothes YOUR heart, and

creates peace and joy. Therefore, in order to suit YOUR limitations,

limit the unlimited and immeasurable Paraashakthi as only LOVE. But

meditate on that love, as being limitless and borderless.

 

Consider the holy Ganges. From Gomukhi to the Bay of Bengal, it is

all Ganges only. But will we able to take a comfortable bath in it in

the Himalayan hills where it violently makes its way ? Even when the

river flows in the plains, we prefer to bathe only where it is not

too deep, where there are no alligators, and where there are no

swirling currents. You get into the river where YOU are able to

comfortably enjoy it, irrespective of the fact that it is Ganges all

through wherever it flows. Similarly, even if the Paraashakthi

represents both the good and the bad, if YOU want to comfortably

enjoy your devotion to Her, them meditate on Her as an ocean of

benevolence and love only. It is for these reasons that our

ancestors have specified Her especially as the Power of Benevolence

and Grace ( Krupa shakthi ) of the Paramaathma.

 

When we pray to the Paramaathma and Paraashakthi ( the emperor and

empress of the universe) as our parents, in the form of Shiva and

Ambaal, Saiva Siddhantham considers Ambaal mainly as the Power of

Benevolence and Grace of Shiva. It says "aruL adhu Sakthi aahum aran

thanakku". Similarly, Vaishnava Sastras say that Lakshmi only

induces Vishnu to bestow grace. Even the Vaishnava sect/path is

named as "Shri Vaishnavam" after Shri's ( Lakshmi's) grace.

 

It is not even very proper to say that love is one of the aspects of

the Paraashakthi. It is Her main and most important aspect. Just like

a diamond's dazzle is more effectively displayed when placed in the

background of a black velvet cloth, She adorns other aspects also

just to highlight Her love. That is how even if she takes up gora (

severe?) forms, She is still an ocean of love and beauty. Otherwise,

will the people of Bengal and Kerala adore her forms like Kali

as "Maa" and "Bhagavathi" ? If such a God comes in the most

beautiful form also ?

 

Ambaal is a Saundarya Lahari ( flood of beauty) which washes and

carries away all our miseries , filth of desire and anger, fear --

the greatest of all these fears namely that of Samsara . That beauty

provides to us all our prosperity and auspiciousness. (soubhagyam).

Bhagam is the root word for Bhagyam. Bhagam means excellence. One who

is full of excellence if Bhagavan. In feminine gender, it is

Bhagavathi. Soubhagyam increases the auspiciousness of Bhagyam. All

Sowbhagyam have converged into the Soundaryam ( Beauty) of Ambaal.

THEREFORE BY JUST REMEMBERING HER SWARUPA, WE WILL GET ALL THE

SOUBHAGHYAM AND KSHEMAM ( WELL-BEING). Sri Sankarachaarya says in

sloka 44 - "thanothu kshemam na: thava vadhana soundarya lahari"

Mother ! Let the flood of beauty springing from your face generate

OUR well being (kshemam) . Therefore we understand that Her beauty

itself is capable of giving us the benediction of our well-being. If

what is beautiful to look at, also generates our welfare, it proves

that Ambaal's beauty and grace are one and the same. It also proves

that Ambaal's divine benevolent heart of love for the welfare of Her

children has become Her form of flood of beauty (Saundarya Lahari).

Her graceful heart has become Her ocean of beauty.

 

 

(Sri Sankarachaarya is asking for the benevolence to ALL of us. He

did not seek it for Himself only, but for all of us. Our of kindness

and love for all living beings, he prays for the welfare of

everybody, including those who are not able to have the darshan of

Ambaal ( like it rains for the benefits of all, and not for one

person only). In Gayathri Mantra also, similarly, the prayer is to

generate good thinking in the minds of ALL people. )

 

 

(concluded).

 

>From Part 6 (Saundarya Lahari ) of Dhievathin Kural of Kanchi

Paramaacharyal

 

 

.......YOUR COMMENTS ARE MOST WELCOME .....

 

Kameshwaran