lalitha Sahasranama

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Sub: Lalitha Sahasranama ( as published in Indian Express)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FAITH LINE

 

 

 

Lalita Devi

 

 

 

The democracy of devotion

 

 

 

RENUKA NARAYANAN

 

 

 

The hidden treasures of India can really stun you. Take the lovely little

edition of the Sri Lalita Sahasranama that came my way last week. It has the

Sanskrit text, English transliteration and translation, published by the Sri

Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai. Edited and prefaced crisply by Swami

Tapasyananda, it's got a mindblowing introduction from an out-of-print

translation by one Professor D.S. Sarma. Its brilliance and elegance are

overwhelming. Too often, one fails to relate to the spiritual writings of the

old guard because of their verbosity. Their words fall heavy as granite idlis.

But not Professor Sarma's! (Wish I knew something about him, but many of the old

guard, like our ancient sculptors, seem so self-effacing in these matters.)

 

Swami Tapasyananda writes of Professor Sarma's Introduction, "It is an

excellent, appreciative, but also critical, study of the Sahasranama as a piece

of Stotra literature and as an exposition of the philosophy of the Mother cult,

which is current all over India in different forms."

 

Delivering huge amounts of insight and information with a very light hand,

Professor Sarma takes us on a deceptively easy read through all aspects of Devi

worship. Even as a cynical modern reader, it's hard not to be charmed when he

says, "The Lalitas, the Sitas and the Savitris of poetry could not have come

into being, had not their creators been inspired by the Lalitas, the Sitas and

Savitris in real life. There is no doubt that the poet of the Lalita Sahasranama

has drawn as much from life around him as from tradition and legend, from

religion and philosophy." Don't you think such a view affirms the link between

the God-in-us and our human right to express that sense of Divinity in terms of

Devi's radiant, exquisite and unmatchable beauty, sort of idealising our better

self?

 

In the namavali of this stotra, it ranges from being as physical as "Om

charu-roopayai namah" (Hail to Her whose form is exquisite) to "Om atmane namah"

(Hail to Her who is the Self in all). Or "Om ranat-kinkini-mekhalayai namah"

(Hail to Her who wears a girdle of tinkling bells) to "Om kevalaayai namah"

(Hail to Her who is the Absolute, devoid of all attributes). When Professor

Sarma turns to a literary assessment of the stotra, his sarcasm makes you

chuckle: "The besetting sin of many a Sahasranama is that all logical thinking

is sacrificed to the tin gods of alliteration and assonance. Hence we often have

more sound than sense... In this respect the Lalita Sahasranama is much better."

 

If a gora wrote on anybody's theology, it would cost a bomb. But we get this

level of passion, insight and scholarship for just Rs 35!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=23264

 

 

 

 

 

kamakotimuscat

 

 

 

 

 

 

R.Ganapathy -- vijaya ganapathy

Muscat -- Oman

 

 

 

The New Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.

 

 

Ganapathy --- Vijaya

 

" Jai Bhavani " - - - - " Jai Sri Lalitha Maha Maha Tripura Sundari "

 

" Sarvam Shakti Mayam Jagath "

 

 

 

 

The New Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.