saundarya laharI - 1 (Correction)

[Guest guest]

Dear brothers and sisters,

 

There was an inadvertent error in the first posting of

this series yesterday, wherein I wrote -

 

"Since it is customary to begin the description of Her

beautiful form starting from the feet and ending iwth

the crown (keshAdipAda), I begin this series with

paramAcArya's touching description of ambAL's Lotus

Feet."

 

It should have read -

 

"Even though it is customary to begin the description

of Her beautiful form starting from the crown and

ending with the feet (keshAdipAda), I begin ..."

 

I deviated from head-to-foot tradition of description

perhaps emboldened by shrI paramAcarya's own words -

 

"When there is no complete description of the physical

form of a deity, male or female, the feet must be

grasped first. When you go to a deity for refuge you

fall at his or her feet. Initiation is given by a

deity in the form of a guru by placing his or her foot

on the head of the devotee. ambA is the mother of

mothers, the guru of gurus. So whether we go to her

for refuge crying "Mother" or look upon her as our

guru and pray for dIkSA (initiation) we have to hold

her feet. So it is proper that the hymn commences in

this manner [the AcArya, so to speak, grasping

ambA's feet]."

 

 

At Her Feet,

Ramesh