Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS-31)

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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 -

31

(Digest of pp.915-920 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume, 4th

imprn.)

 

The power of speech is endowed by parA-shakti only to the

human species. As a special gift from Her it must be really

important for us. If we have any good sense in us we would

use it only for noble purposes. The shakti of speech that

She has given us should be used only to reach Her again.

 

The greatness of the power of speech lies in this. Its

greatness lies in using it, not just to get great

experiences for oneself but for further transmitting them

to others also. This can be done only by the faculty of

speech. It is for such sharing that the parA-shakti has

given us, Her children, this unique faculty. What greater

benefit could there be in life for the power of speech?

 

When a Guru teaches a certain path of sAdhanA, he appends

to it a number of strict injunctions to be followed. On

the other hand a poet perhaps is able to give a similar

thing in the form of pleasing enjoyable music. It is the

Grace of ambaal that has made such a thing possible by

endowing us all with the faculty of speech. That is why we

praise vAk-Shakti. It is LalitAmbika who graces us thus

and this shloka says She does it in the form of vAg-devi,

that is Sarasvati. Just once if we bow down to Her, good

souls get the excellence of the faculty from Her.

 

Note however that ‘satAm’ is the word used. Not everybody

but only those noble souls who can be classified as ‘sAdhu’

would be endowed. The excellence of speech is compared to

the excellence of sweetness of three kinds: honey, milk and

grapes. They can be easily swallowed and digested. On the

spiritual side, the speech faculty would help them receive

messages full of sense and assimilate them in their

innermost hearts; and all this by just one prostration.

Instead of saying in prosaic words that ‘they will be

endowed with such faculties’ the poet in the Acharya says:

Why would not they be endowed with such faculties?’

 

Just a word about the play with the sound of the word

‘natvA’. It is used two times. One time to mean ‘natvA’,

that is, (having) prostrated; and another time to mean ‘na

tvA’ meaning, ‘not – You’. Here it is two words ‘na’ and

‘tvA’ . The word ‘na’ goes with ‘sannidadhe’ (endowed,

graced) so that it gives the meaning: (Why would they) be

not endowed. The ‘You’ goes with the earlier word ‘natvA’

thus meaning prostrated to You.

 

kavIndrANAM cetaH kamala-vana-bAlAtapa-ruciM

bhajante ye santaH katicid-aruNAm-eva bhavatIM /

virinchi-preyasyAs-taruNatara-sRGgAra-laharI-

gabhIrAbhir-vAgbhir-vidadhati satAM ranjanam-amI // 16 //

 

ye katicit santaH : Those few righteous persons who

bhajante : worship

aruNAm eva bhavatIM: You who are nothing but aruNA , that

is, the colour of crimson personified

bAlAtapa-ruchiM: (and) who are the rising Sun to

kavIndrANAM cetaH kamala-vana: the forest of lotuses (in

the form of ) the minds of great poets,

amI : they

ranjanaM vidadhati: give rapturing excitement

satAM ; to the noble souls

gabhIrAbhir-vAgbhiH: by majestic and profound words

taruNa-tara-sRGgAra-laharI : that is a flood of love which

is youthfully fresh

virinchi-preyasyAH : from the beloved of Brahma, i.e., from

Sarasvati.

 

In the previous shloka the talk was about the all-white

vAgdevI. The same Sarasvati is now talked about in her

dynamic (rajo-guNa) form. Just before sunrise, it is all

crimson in the east and we call it the rising of aruNa. The

word aruNa means ‘crimson-red’. The charioteer of the Sun

is of that colour; so he is called aruNa. Here aruNA is the

personification of the crimson colour and this is

Sarasvati in Her rajo-guNa form. When She is meditated in

this form She gives the speech-excellence, where love is

dominant. Love belongs to rajo-guNa. It is therefore

usually symbolised as crimson. So it is quite fitting that

aruNA-devi graces one with Love.

 

But mark it. It is not the usual natural romantic love of

the worldly kind. It is the esoteric Love of the

partnership of Kameshvara and Kameshvari. Those who can

comprehend it in that light are the righteous ones

(santaH). In the previous shloka, one is said to obtain

poetic excellence by worshipping the all-white pure

Sarasvati. The poetry that springs out of this grace would

also be white, sAtvic and would have the consequence of

giving wisdom and dispassion. Such a wisdom and

dispassion can be experienced as an expression of Love.

That occurs only to the noble souls (satAM) . It is to

their satisfaction that the devotees of Sarasvati sing. It

is these noble souls who were said (in the previous shloka)

to obtain the sweetness of speech, equal in sweetness to

madhu (honey), kshIra (milk) and drAkshA (grapes). And in

this shloka the same noble souls are being joyfully

entertained by the worshippers of Sarasvati, the Crimson

(aruNA): ‘vidadhati satAm ranjanam amI’. Those who were

‘poets’ in the previous shloka, have now become

‘connoisiurs’ !

 

The poets of the previous shloka were those noble persons

who obtain the proficiency for poetry from ambAL. Among

those noble persons those who reach the nAyikA-bhava

(attitude of the beloved) towards the Almighty are only a

few (‘katicit’); these are the ones who can sing of Her

Love in the proper manner.

The ecstasy they enjoy and give in singing is called

‘ranjanaM’. There is a pun on this word here. It is made up

of two words ‘ram’ and ‘janam’. The consonant ‘ra’ itself

denotes ‘red’. It stands for two kinds of fires. One is the

ordinary one; and the other is the fire of love (kAmAgni).

‘ram’ + ‘janam’ means that which causes red. It means ‘to

cause love that is red’. The redness here indicates

ripeness. When a fruit is ripe it is deep red. The

‘reddening’ of the mind is to make it fully mature and ripe

for receiving the Fullness that is God. The noble persons

who are now singing by the Grace of ambaal in the form of

arunA (red Sarasvati), are mature enough to produce the

esoteric ‘redness’ of ‘ram’. So the poetry comes out of

them in a wave of Love (ShRngAra-lahari). They are actually

deep and profound words (gabhIrAbhir-vAgbhIh). On the

surface they appear to be love and romance. But deep within

it, there are gems of philosophy there.

 

Goddess Kameshvari has herself the name ‘aruNA’. Recall Her

dhyAna-shloka: ‘aruNAM karuNA-tarangitAkshhIM’. Here our

Acharya is actually invoking the eight armed Goddess: with

bow, arrow, noose and spear (that go with Kameshvari) in

four of the hands and with varam, abhayam, aksha-mAlA and

book (that go with Sarasvati) in the other four hands. This

is the aruNa-Sarasvati with eight hands, talked about by

our elders.

 

(Thus spake the Paramacharya)

(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.