Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS-26)

[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

A Digest of Paramacharya’s Discourses on Soundaryalahari -

26

(Digest of pp.887-892 of Deivathin Kural)

 

Let those who have the capacity to go through the path of

Kundalini yoga go that way. For us,the easier bhakti path

which holds doggedly to The Mother is enough. What they can

get, She will give the same to us. Maybe She will take us

also to that path, after a certain stage and give us those

experiences. Maybe She will also tell some of them who have

gone through that difficult terrain, “Enough of this” and

bring them back to stay quiet in a total attitude of

surrender.

 

Right in the sloka (No.10) where it talks about the flow

of amrita in the nADis, let us see how the sloka winds up.

It does not wind up with the idea that the eternal flow of

nectar at the point where the prANa Shakti reaches the

head, brings the non-dual union of the jIva with the

Absolute; but it ends up by saying: “the Kundalini in the

form of that prANa Shakti descends through Chakra after

Chakra and winds itself up in the mUlAdhAra Chakra, where

it again goes to sleep”.

It is the winding and whirling up that gave it the name of

‘Kundalini’. When a snake sleeps it winds and whirls up. In

fact all animals do it. They don’t stretch their limbs and

sleep. Some winding up will be there. But it is the snake

that winds up totally in the form of a kunDala (ear

ornament).The parAShakti whose power is infinite, exhibits

Herself in each of us only a fragment of a fragment. All

the remaining power of the parAShakti is the sleeping

Kundalini.

 

Well. Instead of continuing the talk of the flow of amrita

and the blissful sensation of it, I have now come down to

the talk of the sleeping state of ambaal in us commonfolk.

What is the meaning of this kind of ending such a profound

discussion? Yes, there is a meaning. So long as the thought

that ‘I have done a great yoga-sAdhanA’ is there, even

great yogis will have to tumble down to the normal

ground-level state. And so, mark it, even if one goes high

up to the kundalini yoga stage, the only key that will

unlock the door is the attitude of surrender which says:

‘It is not me; It is You, Oh Mother’!

 

In the next sloka (# 11), the ShrI Chakram (also called

the Shri Yantram) is described. The very mention of ‘ShrI

VidyA pUjA’ implies the pUjA of ShrI Chakram. Every deity

has a yantram exclusively associated with it. But those who

do Shiva pUjA and or VishNu pUjA do not usually keep the

corresponding yantrams in the pUjA. Maybe in temples under

the various altars of the deities the corresponding

yantrams would have been formally installed. But in

households where Shiva or VishNu pUja is done only the BANa

lingam or the SalagrAmam is kept, but not the yantram. In

the panchAyatana pUjA which includes worship of ambaaL one

keeps the stone called ‘svarNa-rekhA-ShilA’. But when you

worship ambaal alone, you don’t keep that ‘ShilA’. Only

ShrI Chakram is kept. In some places along with the

Chakram, an image with hands and feet may also be kept.

 

The regimen of worship for any deity has both ‘mantra’ and

‘yantra’ associated with it. A certain sequence of sounds,

repeated often and often gets the beatification of the

presence of that devatA (divinity) prescribed by it. Just

as each devatA has a physical form with limbs, so also each

devatA has a form in a stringed sequence of sounds. It is

called the sound-form, just as the recitation of mantras

aims at the mantra-form.

In addition there is the yantra-form for each devatA. The

form has lines, triangles, enclosures, circular or

otherwise; these are not just geometrical figures. Each of

them has a meaning and significance. They have

extraordinary power. Each yantram is set to absorb and

bring into focus the paramAtmA in the form of that devatA.

In addition to the repeated mental recitation of the

mantra, one does pUja to the yantram also. Within the

triangles of the yantras and other enclosures, the

seed-syllables (bIja-aksharas) corresponding to the mantra

pertaining to the devata would be inscribed. The very

devatA that is the life of an idol with arms and feet is

also considered to be brought alive in the corresponding

yantram, In fact the yantram is even more comprehensive;

for it includes the native residence of the devatA and all

its accessory deities within itself.

 

The Mother Goddess, whom we call ambaal, has many forms

like Meenakshi, durgA, Bhuvaneshvari, ShAradAmbikA etc.

Each of these has its own yantram. But it is very common

that even the worshippers of these forms do only the ShrI

Chakra pUjA, rather than the pUjA of the particular mUrti

(form). This is so not only in houses, but in temples also.

Famous durgA temples have only Shri Chakra installed

therein. Sringeri has ShAradAmbAl as the main mUrti;

however the yantra PujA is for ShrI Chakram. All this goes

to show the importance of the ShrI Chakram.

Lines, circles, squares, figures formed by these – all

these configured into a Chakra along with a centre point

(madhya-bindu), is called a yantram. Only such a design has

the power to bring into focus the power of the particular

devatA – in fact it is an infinite power –and so may be

called (with a smile) a ‘Divine Design’. (This is

Paramacharya’s own word). These designs collect and absorb

divine energy and have the power to radiate that energy .

 

In the ShrI Chakra, the central portion is circular. There

are nine triangles there. They criss cross one another,

thus producing forty-three triangles. The central dot is

also considered to be one triangle. Together the triangles

number forty-four. These forty-four triangles are

classified into six AvaraNas. The straightforward meaning

of this word ‘AvaraNa’ is ‘what hides’. Here it should be

taken to mean track, corridor, row, or prAkAra in Sanskrit.

If several people crowd around one individual, the latter

is naturally ‘hidden’. So they form an AvaraNam around him.

The central dot is also taken as one AvaraNam just as it is

taken also as a triangle. In fact around it the other

forty-three triangles constitute five AvaraNas. Together

with it we talk of six AvaraNas. Outside of these six

AvaraNas annd forty-four triangles, there are three rounds

or corridors. They constitute three more AvaraNas and thus

we have nine AvaraNas in all. You would have heard of

Dikshidar’s ‘nava-AvaraNa’ compositions in music. The

ShAstras describe and enunciate who lives in what AvaraNa,

what is the principle involved, who is the adhi-devatA,

what kind of anugraha (Grace) they can bestow, what mudrA

is to be shown to them and so on. The compositions of

Dikshidar go through all this in brief.

 

Out of the outermost three AvaraNas (rounds) of the total

nine, the two inner are made up of lotus petals arranged

in two circles. The ninth AvaraNa is a design looking

like three compound walls; but now it is not a circular

structure but of square design. The whole thing is a unique

design with an infinite divine potential.

 

But beware. One has to be careful.

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.