Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS-59)

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Namaste.

Recall the Note about the organization of the ‘Digest’,

from DPDS – 26 or the earlier ones.

V. Krishnamurthy

A Digest of Paramacharya’s Discourses on Soundaryalahari -

59

(Digest of pp.1122 -1128 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume,

4th imprn.)

 

Darkness of night is the dominating factor all night. But

the moment the rising sun with its crimson rays shows up,

darkness has to flee. It has always been the unfulfilled

ambition of ‘darkness’ to settle this score with the young

sun. And here is ambaa having all the world’s darkness, as

it were, collected in her hair. But She has also brought

the young sun in the form of the sindhUra-spot right in the

midst of this dark forest of hair. It is a life-time

opportunity for darkness. With gusto it swallows all the

rays emanating from that sun, for once. But still there is

one single ray of crimson which goes straight across the

centre of all this dark hair. It is that crimson which

gives a decorating hue to the black hair. And it is the jet

black background which brings out the majesty of the

crimson parting of hair.

 

Thus we can see darkness having vanquished all but one ray

of the bright rising sun. Why did it not go all the way by

its challenge and overpower that one remaining ray also?

But for that single ray remaining in its place, how would

it be established that darkness had vanquished the bright

sun and its rays? It is the one remaining ray of the sun

that tells us that the other rays have been vanquished.

 

[Note by VK: Though the Paramacharya did not say this,

I can hear him saying: “Don’t you remember,

in the Sundara Kanda, every time Hanuman vanquishes

an entire army, he spares one person,

so that he may go back to Ravana

and say what happened in the battle”!]

 

“dvishhAM bRndaiH” means ‘by the gangs of enemies’. It is

from the root ‘dvishh’ that the word ‘dveshha’, meaning

‘hate’ is derived. “bRndaM” means a crowd, a gang. The

crowd of hair on ambaa’s head flows wave after wave and so

looks like armies of black ready for fight.

“bandIkRtam-iva” means ‘as if imprisoned’. It is the rising

sun in the form of the sImanta-sindhUraM that is imprisoned

here by the armies of black hair.The word “bandIkRtaM” is

significant. Not only have all the crimson rays of the

rising sun been vanquished, but even that one remaining

ray has been imprisoned by the dark army surrounding it on

either side so densely that it cannot move this way or that

way!

 

Incidentally, if one wants divine presence, the parting of

the hair has to be straight in the centre – not this side

or that side – of the hair on the head. And the sindhUram

has to come from pure turmeric, not from any other

artificial source.

 

Among the many meanings of “bandhaM” one is

‘imprisonment’. The meaning of “bandIkRtaM” is ‘be

imprisoned’. The difference is between the active and the

passive. So here ‘bandIkRtaM iva’ means ‘as if imprisoned’.

 

Well, what has all this – fight between darkness and light

-- to do in the devotional stotra “soundarya-laharI”? In

shloka 43, it was said that Her black braid of luxuriant

locks of hair itself will eradicate the dense darkness of

ignorance in us. In the same way he says in this shloka

that the sImantaM (parting of hair) which in a sense has

been imprisoned by the black forest of hair on either side,

will grace us with all prosperity. In fact the sImantam is

the residence of Lakshmi the Goddess of Prosperity. Its

‘imprisonment’ is only an imagination; ‘bandIkRtam-iva’ –

as if imprisoned – is the word. Now we shall see the other

side of this sImantaM. We shall indeed see its greatness.

I began with what appeared to be its negative side because

I wanted to end up this shloka with the positive side. The

Acharya of course begins this shloka only with the

positive.

Now look at the first two lines:

tanotu kshhemaM naH tava vadana-soundarya-laharI

parIvAha-srotaH saraNiH iva sImanta-saraNiH /

 

Great poets do not waste their words. So when our Acharya

uses ‘laharI’, ‘parIvAhaM’, ‘srotas’ and ‘saraNI’, which

all convey more or less the same meaning ‘flood’, there

should be something deeper in it. Yes, there is a deeper

point. There are shades of differences in the meaning.

‘laharI’ is the bubbling, wavy and noisy water-flow.

‘parIvAhaM’ is the real flood of water which simply marches

forward. ‘srotas’ could even be a silent rivulet. ‘saraNI’

is a straight flow of water, like that in an artificial

canal. What starts as a ‘laharI’ , widens up into a

‘parIvAhaM’ and then flows like a controlled river ‘srotas’

between two banks and finally is channelised into a canal

‘saraNI’.

 

This is how ambaaL’s beauty starts from Her face as a

laharI and spreads like a pravAha. When it touches the top

of the forehead it becomes a srotas. The banks on either

side of this srotas is the hair on either side of the

sImantaM. Actually the flood of beauty cannot be dammed by

the forest of hair. What is the greatness of ambaaL’s

beauty if one can dam it by holding it between two banks?

‘vaktra-lakshmI-parIvAhaM’ (the flood of beautiful

brilliance) says lalitA-sahasranAma. The brilliance starts

from the face and overflows as a flood into the locks of

hair on the head but is contained in the form of a ‘saraNi’

– sImanta-saraNi – between the dense forest of hair on

either side. It is this brilliance (lAvaNya) of the

Mother Goddess that bestows prosperity and happiness to all

Her devotees. And since it all starts from the face, he

calls it ‘vadana-soundarya-laharI’. And legitimately, the

whole work has been named – we do not know by whom –

Soundarya-laharI.

 

This shloka ‘tanotu kshhemaM naH’ properly meditated on,

will bring us divine help in controlling our mind and all

its evil tendencies – ‘dvishhAm bRndaiH’ – by which we are

all imprisoned – ‘bandIkRtaM’.

 

To be Continued

Thus spake the Paramacharya

praNAms to all advaitins and Devotees of Mother Goddess

profvk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

My website on Science and Spirituality is http://www.geocities.com/profvk/

You can access my book on Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought Vision and

Practice, and my father R. Visvanatha Sastri's manuscripts from the site.

Also see the webpages on Paramacharya's Soundaryalahari :

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/gohitvip/DPDS.html