saundarya laharI - 5

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"Mother, Bathe Me too in Your Grace"

 

(continued)

 

 

And this reply is contained in the second half of the

stanza:

 

anenAyam dhanyo bhavati na ca te hAniriyatA

vane vA harmye vA samakaranipAto himakaraH

 

"I do not deserve it, your glance, and I must not ask

for it, and it is in conformity with the laws of

ethics or morality. But where is the law or rule for

love, for devotion, that is unalloyed? There are

objects that do good to all, without consideration of

merit or justice. Does not the gItA teach

samadarshana, the concept of seeing the selfsame thing

in everything and everybody, and describe it as the

characteristic of j~nAnins? There are so many who have

samadarshana. I will give a specific example:

himakaraH." The AcArya invariably uses the word

"himakaraH" for the moon whenever he speaks of ambA

because he showers coolness. This himakara does not

think about where his light serene should fall or

where it should not, whether anyone deserves it or

does not. Without the least discrimination, the moon

pours out his light equally on the ta~njAvUr gopuram

as he does on the sculptures of mAmallapuram; he pours

it out as much on the slums as on the burning grounds.

"vane vA harmye vA", whether it is the forest or the

terrace of a palace he pours out his rays without

making any distinction between the two.

"samakaranipAtaH": he rains his rays equally on all.

Does the moon emit his light in extra measure on the

smooth and shiny marble terrace of the emperor's

palace, the terrace specially built to receive

moonlight? Or does he reduce his flow of light when it

falls in the forest where brush and thorny shrubs

grow? "Your sidelong glance," states the AcArya to

ambA, "must have the same character as the moon. So,

though I am totally undeserving of it, could you not

bathe me in the sacred water of your sidelong glance

just as the moon drenches even a cactus with his

rays?"

 

ambA's question of how the AcArya can pray for her

kaTAkSa without deserving it has been answered. The

answer is: "You should not mind whether one merits it

or not and you must act with samadR^ishTi

(samadarshana) on all."

 

There is another interesting question which we could

presume ambA would have put to the AcArya: "By looking

at a sinner, my sidelong glance will itself be

tainted. What will I do then? When the glance falls on

people who are not all right, what harm will come to

it? Will it be like eye trouble that is contagious?"

 

The AcArya's reply: "na ca te hAniriyatA". "Na ca te

hanIH iyatA". "iyatA" = because of it; "te" = to you;

with "vA" it means "even to you"; "hAniH na" = (there

will be) no harm.

 

"By looking at a great sinner like me you will come to

no harm. You do not stand to lose anything and you

will not be affected by what is seen by you, by the

object seen by you. Is the subject not affected by the

object? The example of the moon could be enough. If

moonlight falls in the forest, is the moon pricked by

the thorny shrubs in it? Do the stones there cause the

moon any injury? No. When moonlight fell on the bed

that is the hamsa-swing on the terrace, did the moon

feel anything soft to his touch or did he experience

any pleasure? If moonlight is not affected by any

object whatever its nature, why should any object,

because it does not deserve your kaTAkSa, affect that

glance of yours, affect the compassionate glance of

candramaulIshvarI, that is you? Let me continue to be

full of evil. How will that affect your sidelong

glance?"

 

....It is because the AcArya wants all of us to be

rewarded with this wealth (the wealth of ambA's grace)

that he has blessed us with this shloka. If it is

recited with all one's heart, ambA will bless us

however undeserving we be. Her sidelong glance, which

is cool like moonlight and the blue water-lily, will

elevate us.

 

We make ourselves happy by adorning ourselves in many

ways. We go not only after outward adornment.

Learning, status, wealth, fame: we seek all these and

they too are adornments. But there is no ornament

higher than that of deserving ambA's grace. If her

sidelong glance falls on us we will realise that there

is no jewellery, no decoration, superior to it. It is

an ornament that will bring us the realisation that

all else is no ornament at all.