Info abt the 4 ayudhams

[Guest guest]

Dear members,

 

I would like a detailed description of the 4 ayudhams in the hands of Shri

Rajarajeshwari...the noose, goad, 5 pushabanams and the sugarcane. I understand

that these weapons hv much more esoteric significance. This will help me very

much in my prayers.

 

Bala sharanam,

Lalitha Ramani.

 

 

 

 

 

With a free 1 GB, there's more in store with Mail.

 

 

[Guest guest]

Raviji ,

 

May i be permitted to add the following commentary from A Digest of

Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari

by Prof. V.Krishnamurthy

 

Here it is - i have edited it somewhat but it is so divine , I would

like to share the entire commentary on Ambaal's four weapons ...

 

( this is available in the archives of this group also. But i have

gathered most of it in one single post ,)

 

The third line of the seventh shloka s Of Saundarya Lahari is :

dhanur-bANAn pAshaM sRNimapi dadhAnA karatalaiH.

 

Holding by the hands the bow, the arrows, the noose and the goad is

the meaning sRNi means ankusha, the goad. These four are the

specifics that determine now the deity of dedication in this stotra.

And so we may be certain now that the deity that is being praised is

the deity of the ShrIvidyA mantra, namely lalitA-tripura-sundari or

Kameshwari.

 

<<<<<snip snip snip>>>>>>>>

 

There are two things: rAga (attachment and liking); and dvesha (hate

and dislike). The former gives rise to kAma (desire) and the latter

gives rise to krodha (anger). Desire and anger have to be kept in

control. Of course all these are born out of the great divine mAyic

play of ambaaL. And by the same leelA of ambAL, they disappear by Her

Grace (anugraha). The very thought that they will so disappear by Her

Grace will help us fight against them.

 

rAga-swarUpa-pAshADhyA , meaning, She who holds the noose, which is

rAga in physical form -- is one of Her many names in the lalitA-

sahasranAma. Similarly, another name is krodhA-karAnkushojjvalA ,

meaning, She who shines by the goad, which is krodha in physical

form. Of the twin of Desire and Anger, desire has the form of

ambaaL's noose (pAshaM). When you talk of yama-pAshaM. it is the

noose. When you talk of mother's pAshaM (tAip-pAshaM, in Tamil) it is

her attachment and affection and therefore her concern, her desire

(AshA). It is the desire that binds us. It binds us like a rope.

Anger has the form of ambaaL's goad. Anger pierces you like a goad.

But it does not pierce the other man on whom you are angry. He may go

away just like that, indifferently. Our anger pierces only ourselves.

The pierce of the goad will be felt by us only. And we hurt

ourselves.

 

<<<<<<<<<snip snip snip >>>>>>>>>>

 

The words pAshaM and ankushaM both ring a bell and bring the elephant

to our minds. The elephant is always tethered by a heavy chain to an

anchor. The chain is actually a rope of attachment. (pAshakkayiru, in

Tamil) for the elephant. The twins kAma and krodha are elephant-like

in their strength; so they have to be controlled with effort in the

same way an elephant is controlled by a pAshaM (rope) and ankusham

(goad). The man who rides and monitors the elephant uses the goad to

control it. The elephant-like evils of Desire and Anger are both in

the mind. So it is the mind that has to be controlled. In fact in

Sivanandalahari (shloka #96) our Acharya compares the human mind to a

madhepa, meaning, a mad elephant.

 

Our ambaaL is always shown with a pAshaM (noose) and ankushaM (goad).

This itself is Her leelA. They are Her important accessories. This is

one way of looking at it. Another way is this. She shows pAshaM

(affection, attachment) to us; so with the pAshaM in her hand she

binds us and pulls us away from all our worldly pAshaMs (attachments)

and makes us come back to Her with the cry .Oh Mother!.. And that

gives us the attachment to the attachmentless Divine. PatratrAn patru

(in the language of Valluvar, in Tamil)! Again, when we fall into the

Anger mode, She brings her ankusham (goad) on us and subdues our

anger, by that very ankusham which stands in her hand as the

personification of Anger (krodham) !

 

When Desire is unfulfilled it turns into Anger. The same Desire and

Anger, in Her hands, in the form of the noose and the goad, become

the cure for the two evils in human minds.

 

Though our shloka in the Soundaryalahari mentions bow and arrow first

and then mentions the noose and goad, it is the noose and goad that

are special to ambAL. Manmatha the God of Love has the same bow and

arrows both of which he uses to get mankind downward into sensuality.

His bow draws man's mind into sensuousness and his five arrows affect

the five organs of cognition. But the same bow and five arrows in the

hands of ambaaL work in a positive way as is vindicated by two names

(that appear just immediately after the two names about rAga and

krodha I mentioned a little while ago) in lalitA-sahasranAma, namely,

mano-rupekshhukodanDA and pancha-tanmAtra-sAyakA. The former means:

(She who has) the bow of sugarcane, the sugarcane being the

figuration of the mind. The latter name means: .(She who has) the

five arrows that are the figurations of the five tanmAtras (= subtle

principles behind the senses). The same sugarcane bow, which in

Manmatha's hands, draws man downward into sensuality, in Her hands,

leads us upward by producing the desire for mokshha. The same five

arrows of flowers, which in Manmatha's hands, lead man's five senses

outward toward sense objects, in ambaal's hands, makes us desire, to

see Her divine form, to hear the melody of music in devotion to Her,

to taste the sweetness of the nectar flowing from Her Grace, to smell

the fragrance of the flowers that adorned Her, and to feel the touch

of Her lotus feet.

 

 

 

Just a change of place of the weapons changes their purpose and

effects! The same bow and arrows, that, in the hands of the God of

Love, were the cause of man's downfall into the sensual world,

become, in the hands of the Mother Divine, the switches for turning

our mind and senses towards the Eternal Bliss of Her Presence. It is

something like the knife in the hands of the thief; if the same knife

were in our hands, he runs away! When we submit to that magical

switch of Hers, we overflow with bhakti; and this together with the

outpouring of Her Grace drenches us in the flood of that spiritual

Bliss, and we forget ourselves as separate entities. When we delude

ourselves as separate it is MAyA ; this is the worst state of

existence. When we forget ourselves as separate it is Knowledge; it

is the best state.

 

Thus when we see that a change of place transforms the worst into the

best, we may learn a lesson. Why not transfer all the beautifications

and dressing-up that we do for ourselves into ornamentations and

dresses for ambaal, thereby transforming their effect? When we

decorate ourselves it BRINGS IN the Ego. When we decorate Her, it

BRINGS DOWN our Ego. Decoration in Sanskrit is alankAraM; and ego is

ahamkAraM. If we do the alankAraM to Her, our ahamkAraM is gone ! In

short, the flower-arrows in ambaal's hands grace us with the needed

sense-control and the sugar-cane bow in Her hands bestows on us

control of our mind. Nothing else is needed for Enlightenment ! As

Muka-kavi says in Pancha-shati, .Mother! Whereas You sparked desire

in Shiva Himself who had burnt the Lord of Desire to ashes, the same

You, in our case, eradicate desires in the desire-filled Jivas.

Mind and the five senses are together counted as six instruments for

the human being. Instruments are called karaNas in Sanskrit. The six

karaNas of man are like the caraNas (feet) of a bee. So the jIva

itself is nothing but a six-footed bee with six instruments of

action. The analogy becomes apt when we think of the bee merging into

the depths of a flower with all its (six) feet stuck in that depth.

For, the jIva has to work its way to stick its six instruments out

into the lotus of the divine feet of the Mother. This is the idea

which our Acharya himself later builds into Sloka 90 of

Soundaryalahari: .nimajjan majjIvaH karaNacaraNaH shhaT-caraNatAm,

meaning, .plunging (into Your lotus feet), may this jIva of mine with

its six instruments as the feet (become) the six-legged bee. The

important thing to note here is what has not been said. It is not

said that the mind and the five senses should submit themselves to

the bow and arrows of ambaal. It is only said that they should

dissolve themselves into the divine feet. Recall from shloka #4

that .She need not give abhaya and vara by Her hands; Her feet

themselves are capable of doing that. In this shloka #7, instead of

the vara and abhaya mudrAs in the two hands, the bow and arrows are

mentioned. They have been said to give the mind-control and the sense-

control. But one may question: Why can't these controls be also a

Grace from Her feet? That is why it has been said that the mind and

the five senses should merge in the lotus of Her feet as a bee gets

lost inside the flower. The noose and the goad in the other two hands

would then be not necessary at all to quell the Desire and Anger in

the human mind. But then, the question arises: Why four hands,

instead of just two? (These things are not amenable to logic, said

the Maha-Swamigal earlier. But here he does not repeat himself. )

That the four hands add to the beauty of this beauty Queen is to say

it naively. But remember She is the Queen of the Universe. The

majesty of that status is shown by the bow and arrow in the two

forehands. But She is also the Benefactor of the bliss of Mokshha;

therefore She is the Queen of the Empire of Enlightenment

(jnAnasAmrAjyaM).

 

RAga (Attachment) and dveshha (hatred, enmity) are two arch-villains

that constitute the obstacle to mokshha. These two are killed by the

noose and the goad in Her other two hands, thus establishing that She

is the Queen of jnAna-sAmrAjyaM. The bow and the arrows in the

forehands has also another significance. What we have to surrender to

Her feet, namely our mind and the senses, She draws by Her own

initiative to Herself; the bow draws the mind and the arrows the

senses, to Herself. It is as if a loving mother says to her

child: `Dear child, why do you have to fall at my feet; I will take

you onto my lap!'

 

 

you can read the entire webpages on Paramacharya's Soundaryalahari

at Professor vkji's website

 

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

 

It is beautiful and I enjoy reading every word of it.

 

Sri Gurubyo namaha

 

Sri Lalithambikaye namaha

 

 

 

 

 

 

, Ravisankar Mayavaram

<abhayambika@g...> wrote:

>

> shrI lalitA sahasranAmam describes these weapons and their inner

> significance. We should use this opportunity and go over these names

> in detail.

>

> rAgasvarUpapAshADhyA

>

> krodhAkArA~NkushojjvalA

>

> manorUpexukodaNDA

>

> pa~nchatanmAtrasAyakA

>

>

> These are also described in other works such as shakti-mahimna

stotram.

>

> Ravi

>

>