Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS-40)

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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 -

40

(Digest of pp. 970 - 973 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume,

4th imprn.)

 

In the Vaishnava tradition, they do not accept the

attributeless non-dual brahman, but they do talk about

One-ness with the state of the Almighty Mahavishnu, along

with all His powers. But even when they say this, out of

deference to propriety, they make an exception to what one

can obtain. The exception is ‘LakshmI-patitvam’, that is,

‘the state of being the spouse of Lakshmi’. Naturally

whatever powers and states of Mahavishnu you may aspire for

and actually get, becoming the spouse of Lakshmi is taboo.

In the same manner in the branch of philosophy called

‘ShivAdvaitam’, they talk of oneness with Lord Shiva, but

they make a similar exception, for the same reason of

propriety. All this is because, the destination in both

these schools of philosophy is a couple, such as

‘Narayana-Lakshmi’ or ‘Shiva-Parvati’. The very fact that

one has to make an exception throws a shade of doubt on the

other statements of objectives.

 

One would like not to make any exception at all. That is

where this shloka (#22) opens the door for us. It says:

‘Don’t aspire to become Narayana or Shiva; Don’t have your

object of meditation the divine form of Narayana or Shiva,

with the purpose of becoming one with it. Pray that you

should become one with the form of the Mother, that is

ambaal or Lakshmi. In their capacity of universal Mother,

they will not only accept your prayers but will also give

you that identical oneness with them. That Lakshmi or that

ambaal are themselves internally in oneness with Vishnu and

Shiva respectively. So when a jIva merges in the Mother,

the Mother takes him along with Her and merges the jIva in

either the Vishnu-form or the Shiva-form, thus granting

you the Vishnu-sAyujyam or the Shiva-sAyujyam’. This

shloka therefore gives the right strategy for us to become

one with the Almighty at the same time not transgressing

the elementary propriety of pati-patnI.

 

To say it shortly, first you become the mother then the

father. So first it is the oneness of filial affection.

When the mother becomes one with the father, it is the apex

of all bhakti attitudes, namely the attitude of nAyikA. And

that is what takes us to the ultimate advaita – so say the

great rishis and saints who have gone through it all! Go

back now and enjoy the imagery in shloka No.12, where the

divine damsels in order to understand the beauty of ambaal,

imagine their oneness with Lord Shiva and expect to get a

glimpse of the full beauty of ambaa.

 

Thus in this single shloka, the Acharya has brought in

advaitam and dvaitam, philosophy as well as a delightful

pun, service to the Lord as well as the concept of the

nAyikA (beloved of the Lord) bhAva -- all blended

together.

 

To top it all we have one more thing to enjoy about this

shloka. This is in the fourth line. It talks about the

Divinities like Vishnu, BrahmA and Indra falling at the

feet of the Goddess and the divine feet get the nIrAjana

(Reverential waving of Lights) from such great Gods. In

fact Soundaryalahari has three such nIrAjanas. One in this

shloka, one in shloka 30 and one in the very last shloka

(#100).

 

The situation in #30 is not the accidental utterance of

words of Shloka 22, which meant identification with the

Absolute in the generous interpretation of the poet. There

it is not just any one, ‘yah’. He is not even just a

devotee and a scholar. It is far more than that. He has

risen above the ‘dasoham’ stage and has reached the ‘soham’

stage. It is the stage where the conviction that ‘I am one

with You’ (= ‘tvAm-aham iti sadA bhAvayati yah’). He

lives in that continuous identification with the Absolute.

To such a one, says the Acharya (in #30), even the Cosmic

Fire of Dissolution is just a nIrajana (waving of Lights)

only. Because it is so to the Mother Goddess. And it is

therefore also so to one who has continually identified

with Her.

 

The third ‘nIrAjana’ comes in the very last shloka where

the Acharya offers this Soundaryalahari itself as a waving

of Lights to that Sun-like Light, that is the ambaa Herself

in Her capacity as the Source of all Speech and Learning.

The words of the Soundaryalahari are words which emanated

from Her. So Her own words form the nirAjana to Her.

 

These three nIrAjanas can be classified as one for

Creation, one for Sustenance and one for Dissolution. But

not in that order. They come in the order: Sustenance,

Dissolution and Creation. The devi-praNava is ‘umA’. The

letters come in the order: ‘u’ (which is the letter for

Sustenance, for it represents Vishnu ); ‘ma’ (which is the

letter for Dissolution, for it represents Rudra) and ‘a’

(which is the letter for Creation, for it represents

BrahmA). The first nIrAjana talks about the worship by

Vishnu, BrahmA and Indra. It is significant that this

listing of the divines begins with Vishnu, thus indicating

that we are talking about the nIrAjana meant as an offering

of the Sustenance function. The second nIrAjana (#30)

corresponds to the Dissolution function is already built

into the very words ‘the conflagration of Cosmic

Dissolution proves only to be the nIrAjana’

(“mahA-samvartAgnir-viracayati nIrAjana-vidhiM”).

 

How does the third nIrAjana (#100) correspond to the

Creation function? I shall explain this now.

To be Continued

 

 

Thus spake the Paramacharya

 

praNAms to all advaitins and Devotees of Mother Goddess.

profvk

 

 

 

 

=====

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.

Also see the webpages on Paramacharya's Soundaryalahari :

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