Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS-32)

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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 -

32

(Digest of pp.921-924 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume, 4th

imprn.)

 

In the next shloka (#17) the talk is about the unique

‘sArasvata-siddhi’ (the siddhi of all Speech and Learning)

obtained by the dhyAna of LalitA-Tripurasundari surrounded

by the vAg-devatAs (the Gods of speech). The name

‘vAg-devatA’, if used in the singular, denotes Sarasvati

Herself. When it is used in the plural, it denotes eight

divinities. They are assigned as follows to the various

aksharas (letters of the alphabet):

One for the sixteen vowels;

One for the five letters starting with ka;

Similarly one for each set of five letters starting

respectively with cha, Ta, ta, and pa;

One for ya, ra, la and va;

One for sha, shha, sa, ha, La, kshha.

Thus there are eight vAg-devatAs for the 51 letters of the

Sanskrit alphabet.The first of these is called ‘vashinI’.

Therefore all the eight are called ‘vashinI, etc. devatAs’

(vashinyAdi devatAH) or simply, ‘vashinI devatAs’. These

are the ones who sang the Lalita-sahasranAma at the behest

of ambaal Herself. In the seventh AvaraNa (always you count

from outside) of the ShrI Chakra, there are eight

triangles; that is where these eight devatAs are seated,

surrounding ambaaL.

 

(Unfortunately for us the Paramacharya does not quote

the shloka #17 and give his word-by-word meanings,

though he explains most of it

For the sake of completeness I give below

the shloka and supply a word-by-word meaning

from what I understand from His Holiness’s discourse

and from other sources. VK)

 

savithrIbhir-vAcAM shashi-maNi-shilA-bhanga-rucibhiH

vashinyAdyAbhis-tvAM saha janani samcintayati yaH /

sa kartA kAvyAnAm bhavati mahatAM bhangi-rucibhiH

vacobhir-vAg-devI-vadana-kamalA-moda-madhuraiH // 17 //

 

yaH samcintayati : He who reflects on

tvAM : You

janani : Oh Mother,

vashinyAdyAbhiH saha : along with the vashinI-devatAs

vAcAM savithrIbhiH : who are the Generators of Speech

shashi-maNi-shilA-bhanga-rucibhiH : who have the colour of

the broken moonstone gem,

saH : he

mahatAm kAvyAnAM kartA bhavati : becomes the author of

great poetic compositions

vacobhiH ; through words

bhangi-rucibhiH : (which have) the taste of art and wit

vAgdevI-vadana-kamalA-moda-madhuraiH : (and which have) the

sweet fragrance of the lotus face of vAg-devI (Sarasvati).

 

(I now continue the Paramacharya’s comments – VK)

 

These eight vAg-devatAs constitute the Mothers of speech.

That is why the shloka No.17 which prays for excellence in

speech begins with ‘savithrIbhir vAcAM’ . In traditional

literature there is a gem known as ‘chandrakAnta gem’

which is crystal-like and which will melt in moonlight.

The vAg-devatAs have that kind of crystal colour in which

moon reflects in a dazzling manner. In one shloka ambaal

was depicted as pure white like the moonlight

(sharat-jyotsnA shuddhAm - #15). In another She is aruNA,

red (#16). In this shloka (#17) the aruNa, that is ambaal,

is sitting surrounded by the vAg-devatAs, majestically like

a Queen with all Her attendants. Whoever can meditate on

this scene (sancintayati yah) gets the literary capacity

and competence to compose great epic poems. In fact he

gets the fluency and the power of speech which only great

writers have.

And the shloka uses a specific word here: ‘mahatAm bhangi

rucibhiH’ . The word ‘ruci’ means ‘taste’, or ‘flavour’.

‘Taste’ certainly has an association with the tongue and

the food which it ‘tastes’. But the shloka adds on to this

the ‘flavour’ by the nose also. The food ‘taste’ was

indicated by the last line of shloka (#15) where it was

said that the speech prompted by ambAL has the taste of

‘honey, milk and grapes’. Now in this shloka that speech is

likened to a profound flavour, not of any ordinary one, but

of that which emanates from the lotus face of Her who is

the single vAgdevI integrating all the eight vAgdevIs! Not

only that. We can infer from this that it is not simply the

speech that emanates through the poetry of the devotee has

the divine flavour; the people who read and recite that

poetry would also get that divine flavour.!!

The fact that ambaaL graces and bestows the faculty of

speech is mentioned in the latter part of Soundaryalahari

several times. Shloka #75 says that, fed by Her breast milk

one is endowed with magnificient poetic capabilities.

Shloka 99 says that the SArasvata-Grace that She endows

makes even Brahma, the pati of Sarasvati, envious. The holy

water that washes Her feet can make even the dumb to sing

poems (Shloka 98). Obviously our Acharya takes pleasure in

talking about this aspect of ambaaL’s Grace. Maybe he wants

us all to read and recite his stotras, thereby get the

Grace of the Mother and also get the vAk-siddhi (speech

excellence) that She will certainly grant. That is why, it

appears, he is never tired of repeating this.

The word ‘shashi-maNi-shilA’ means ‘moon-gem-stone’

literally. Because of the fact that the dark patch on the

moon appears like a rabbit (‘shasha’ in Sanskrit), the moon

is known by the word ‘shashi’. The word ‘hima-kara’ also

denotes the moon, meaning thereby that there flows icy

water from the moon. So ‘hima-kara-shilA’ also represents

the same moonstone gem , known as ‘chandrakAnta stone’ in

Tamil. ‘sudhA’ is nectar and ‘sudhAkara’ is also the name

of the moon, because it is also said that there flows

nectar from it. Just as it was said that the attendants of

ambaal have the colour of the moonstone (#17:

shashi-maNi-shilA), it is said in shloka #20, that he who

can meditate on ambaal Herself in the form made up of the

moonstone (hima-kara-shilA), She who is the daughter of

hima-giri (Himalayas) and is therefore ‘hima-giri-sutA’,

will pour ‘sudhA’ on him, ‘sudhA’ meaning nectar and ‘sutA’

meaning daughter. In fact it says more.

(To be Continued)

Thus spake the Paramacharya.

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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.