Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari(DPDS-20)

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

FOR NEW READERS of this series, it may be worthwhile to go back

to the Introduction about the objective of this Digest and the

Note on the Organization (both at advaitin Message No.18425;

message no.5273; advaita-L message No.14046;

Sadhana_shakti message no.334).

Let us recall that the entire contents of the Digest are from

the Paramacharya’s ideas and words, including the first person

reference to himself, except for my English rendering. Wherever

he uses specific English words himself, I have drawn the

attention of the reader to that fact. Recall particularly that

‘our Acharya’ or ‘The Acharya’ in the discourses, means ‘Adi

Sankaracharya’.

V. Krishnamurthy

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A Digest of Paramacharya’s Discourses on Soundaryalahari - 20

(Digest of pp. 831-836 of Deivathin Kural Vol.6, 4th imprn)

 

Even if millions of people do not go the right way what is of

significance is that one of them will see the difference between

good and bad and make the total surrender to Her and get Her

shower of Grace for him to see that he (the jIva) and the

Ultimate are one. Not all the seeds of the fruits of a tree grow

into a full tree. In the whole world of living beings even if

one in a million achieves that Infinite fullness of Man the

purpose of Creation is fulfilled. That probably is ambaal’s

idea of Creation.

 

But again, those who do not so achieve the Fullness are not to

be considered wasted or damned. There is no eternal damnation in

our scriptures. Acharya Madhva propagated that idea. Maybe he

thought that at least the dread and fear of eternal damnation

would motivate people into reforming themselves to be good. Even

an extremely sinful person has a way of ultimate redemption --

that is the creed of our religion.

 

Once there was a king. An ordinary commoner was told by him, on

an important mission, to come and see him in his camp. But the

commoner entreated the king to give him some kind of an

authentification, like a ring or something, which would gain him

the entry to the king’s presence when he presented himself at

the camp. The king gave him such a ring; but the ring did not

have his (the king’s) seal. It had the seal of the enemy king.

The commoner was perplexed. Why is this king giving him a ring

which would only be identified as the enemy’s? The king himself

removed his doubt by saying: “There are so many of my own

couriers and courtiers who have obtained from me my authentified

ring so that they can meet me any time they like. The line of

such people would be so large at any time, that you would not

get anywhere near me when you come to meet me. But if they see

the seal of the enemy king in your hands they would take you to

be a spy and would present you before me in no time !”

 

This perhaps is the strategy of ambaal ! Desire, Anger and the

whole gang of bad things are Her own Grace to us in the form of

authentified ‘rings’, so that we may go to Her soon. Once Kunti,

the mother of the Pandavas, asked Krishna to keep giving her

difficulties and miseries all the time so that she will never

forget the Lord ! In other words, in the mystery of creation,

unhappiness itself is a divine blessing in disguise.

 

Again, the opportunity of showering Grace on an individual does

not stop with that person. It continues to pour on all the

offsprings of that person in the same way. At this point one is

tempted to say that, in spite of the general Hindu prayer that

there should be no more births, the very fact that there are

offsprings is itself a shower of Her Grace. How else can the

balance of karma of jIvas be exhausted? If there was no ‘kAma’

in the world those who die with a large balance of karma would

have to go unredeemed. Thus it is ambaal’s grace that there is

‘kAma’ as one of the four objectives or purposes of life.

 

And the scriptures come to our help by earmarking four stages

of life in which one of the stages, namely, grihastAshrama (the

householder-stage) is set apart for giving vent to our

legitimate desires. Just as there are exceptions to every rule,

for this general rule of creation also there are certain

exceptions in the form of a few, - very few -, who take to the

fourth ashrama (sannyasa) without having to go through the

second ashrama of a householder.

 

Another final point. Whoever has the power and the means to

create should have also the power and the means to bring the end

to creation and the created. The ambaal has the power to create

and spark the desire in us; and therefore She has also the power

to free us from that creation and release us from the desire

that overpowered us. The obverse of a coin has always a

reverse. So the same (obverse) power which originates ‘kAma’ in

human beings, has also the (reverse) power to say, in respect of

certain blessed individuals, to that ‘kAma’, “Don’t go near

such and such persons” !

 

So Manmatha, the God of all sensualities, who overpowers us by

the power which he got from ambaal, has however to obey Her when

She says: “Thus far and no further”. The slokas 5 and 6 which

talk of the power of Manmatha has this implication for the

devotees of ambaal, though the slokas do not say so; they only

talk of the obverse of the coin, not its reverse ! And that, the

unsaid reverse, is the significance of those two slokas,

especially for those of us who can surrender to Her through

recitation of these slokas. Her leelA is: From advaita through

‘desire’ to dvaita; and then, ultimately, to advaita through

Her Grace and Compassion!

 

Now we shall go over to sloka 7. Here comes, for the first time,

a graphic description of the form of Kameshvari

(Raja-rajeshvari, LalitA-tripura-sundari), the deity of praise

in Soundaryalahari. Even here, no name is mentioned; in fact,

throughout the hymn, the name does not occur.

(To be continued)

 

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.