saundarya laharI - 3

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'MInAlocanA' - Hinted At

 

 

 

.... One of the stanzas describing ambA's eyes has

these two opening lines (Stanza 56):

 

tavAparNe karNe japanayana-paishunya-cakitA

nilIyante toye niyatamanimeSAH shapharikAH

 

"aparNe": O ambikA with the name of aparNA! ambA was

born the daughter of the mountain (parvatarAjakumArI)

and, wanting to marry Parameshvara, performed severe

austerities. During this time the R^iSis sustained

themselves on the leaves falling (naturally) from the

trees. But she, the daughter of the mountain, would

not do even that and hers was a total fast. For this

reason she earned the name of "aparNA", says kAlidAsa.

"ParNam" is leaf; she who did not eat even leaves is

"aparNA". "tava" = your; "karNe" = in the ear, to the

ear: "japa-nayane" = eyes that seemed to speak, to

mutter: "paishunya-cakitAH" = afraid that tales were

being told about them; "shapharikAH" = female fish;

"animeSAH" = without closing their eyes; "toye" = in

the water; "nilIyante" = become immersed; "niyatam" =

certainly.

 

Why is it that fish always keep swimming under the

water and not on its surface? The AcArya thinks of a

reason for this here. The fish see ambA's eyes

stretching up to her ears. The World Mother turns her

look to every.nook and corner of the world and to

every blade of grass and to every worm and insect.

Every time she looks out of the corner of her eye, it

(the eye) seems to touch the ear and whisper a secret

in it- so it seems to the fish. And what is the secret?

In shape the eyes resemble the fish. They are

tremulous as they take in the entire world so as to

bless it. The fish seem to "copy" the movement of

ambA's eyes by keeping always aswim under the water.

But they are afraid of the possibility that the eyes

may be complaining to ambA about them, whispering in

her ears, "The fish are competing with us." After

listening to their "petition", if ParAshakti decides

to take action against these lowly creatures? It is

because of this fear that the fish keep swimming under

the water instead of on its surface.

 

Just as duryodhana, after he had suffered defeat at

the hands of bhIma, hid in a cavern in a pond, so the

fish, afraid of the beauty of ambA's eyes, go deep

under the water.

 

"shapharikA" means female fish. "Paishunya" is telling

tales about somebody (ratting). "cakitA" means

trembling with fear. Afraid that if they go to battle

with ambA's eyes they would suffer defeat both in the

matter of their beauty and in their ability to swim

about, they live incognito under the water. There are

no fish in the pond of the golden lotuses of the

temple of mInAkSI in Madurai. The reason is that

shamed by the beauty of the eyes of the goddess, the

fish do not "raise their heads" [they are not seen].

By likening the eyes of ambA to fish and by stating

that the fish go into hiding shamed by the beauty of

those eyes, the AcArya brings in mInAkSI by suggestion

in the stanza, that is by "sUcanA".

 

"animeSAH" : without closing the eyes, says the hymn

about the fish. ("nimiSa" is the time taken for the

twinkling of an eye.) That ambA does not close her

eyes was mentioned in an earlier stanza and the very

word "animeSa" was used there. The world is created as

she opens her eyes and it is destroyed as she closes

them. She does not close her eyes for the reason that

the world should not perish. In the celestial world no

one closes his or her eyes. In the case of ambA the

AcArya says that she does not close her eyes because

of her desire to keep the world alive. Another reason

also occurs to me. During the fraction of a second

taken for the twinkling of her eye, the children of

the world (ambA's children) will be denied the

ambrosia of her sidelong glance.

 

Why does the AcArya say the same thing about fish

(That they do not close their eyes.) There is a belief

that fish do not sleep. The fish (referred to in the

stanza) go deep into the water and remain alert, the

reason being they are afraid that ambA will come to

fight with them because of her eyes telling tales in

her ears.

 

 

(Excerpted from 'saundaryalaharI: An exposition by

pUjyashrI candrashekharendra sarasvatI svAmI, 68th

sha~NkarAcArya of kA~nci kAmakoTi pITha', compiled and

edited by rA. GaNapati and translated into English by

R.G.K., Revised by BrahmashrI A. KuppusvAmI; Published

by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 2001)