Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS-48)

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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 -

48

(Digest of pp.1033 - 1037 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume,

4th imprn.)

 

Note the words “sukham-akhilaM-AtmArpaNa-dRshA” in the

third line of shloka 27.

 

“sukham” means ‘without strain’, ‘naturally’. The word is

very significant here. Since our mind is not in our

control, it becomes a great strain to make it to

a moralistic routine. But if we train our mind to think

that everything is the work of ambaaL, the attempt to

become moralistic slips into a natural frame wherein the

goal is attained effortlessly. Because, when we have

surrendered everything to Her, the mind starts doing what

is natural to it, namely, it behaves like a pure mind. And

that is the road to eternal happiness.

 

The words “AtmArpaNa-dRshA” is the life-line of this

shloka; not only of this shloka, but of all Hindu

scriptures. This is the Atma-nivedanaM, the last of the

nine-fold bhakti methodologies enunciated in the

Bhagavatam. It is also the complete Surrender described in

all Bhakti literature and particularly in the

Bhagavad-Gita. The expression literally means: “By the

attitude which is ready to lay one’s life at Her feet”.

Only when that attitude is present, all talk becomes a

japa, all action becomes a mudrA, and so on for the rest.

Let things become like this through the attitude of

“Atma-samarpaNaM” (laying one’s life at the feet). The word

“bhavatu” in the last line stands for this plea. A person

who can do this surrender, would have his whole life

sanctified as a pUjA to Her Almighty.

 

An exactly analogous thought almost in the same words has

been given in “Shiva-mAnasa-pUjA” by the Acharya himself.

 

AtmA tvaM girijA matiH sahacarAH prANAH sharIraM gRhaM

pUjA te vishhayopa-bhoga-racanA nidrA samAdhi sthitiH /

sancAraH padayoH pradakshhiNa-vidhiH stotrANi sarvA giro

yad-yat karma karomi tat-tad-akhilaM shambho tavA-rAdhanaM

//

 

You Lord Shiva are my AtmA; my mind is ambikA, the daughter

of the Mountain; my five prANas are the GaNas that serve

you; my body is your temple; all my involvement in sensual

experience is your pUjA; my sleep is the samAdhi state; my

wanderings on my feet constitute Your pradakshhiNa;

whatever I talk shall be your praises; whatever I do O

shambho, all that shall be a propitiation of You.

 

Such a dedication of everything at the feet of the Lord is

what is prescribed by the Lord in the Gita:

 

Yat-karoshhi yad-ashnAsi yaj-juhoshhi dadAsi yat /

Yat-tapasyasi kaunteya tat-kurushhva mad-arpaNaM // IX -27

 

Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in

the homa-fire, whatever you give away, whatever intense

concentration you do – all that should be offered to Me.

 

“There is nothing that I do” “Good or bad, Am I the doer?”

– Such expressions of total surrender are everywhere in the

works of Nayanmars, Alvars and also the saints of other

religions. It is this kind of total surrender that gives

the destination of one’s birth, namely, jIvan-mukti.

 

What is talked of as ‘the cessation of mind’ in the path of

jnAna becomes the ‘total surrender’ in the path of bhakti.

Both are “AtmArpaNaM” only. Both have the same result,

namely, jIvan-mukti – Release (even) while alive!

 

To sum up, the body does what it does because it is being

made to do so by the jIva within it; so also what all this

jIva does is because it is being made to do so by a Supreme

jIva-Shakti behind it and that is the Mother Goddess. For

that Shakti, not only this Jiva is the body but all the

jIvas – nay, in fact the entire Universe is the body. So

whatever happens in the Universe is because of Her. Once

this idea settles deeply in our minds then there will be no

problem of ‘laying our lives at Her feet’

(Atma-samarpaNaM).

 

The concept that ambaaL is pervading the whole universe

immanently is elaborated in two shlokas (#34, 35) by the

Acharya.

 

sharIraM tvaM shambhoH shashi-mihira-vakshhoruha-yugaM

tavAtmAnaM manye bhagavati navAtmAnaM anaghaM /

atah sheshhas-sheshhI-ity-ayam-ubhaya-sAdhAraNatayA

sthitas-sambandho vAM sama-rasa-para-nanda-parayoH //34//

 

Bhagavati : Oh Goddess,

Manye : I think

tvaM : You

shashi-mihira-vakshhoruha-yugaM: (who) have the Sun and the

Moon as your breasts,

shambhoH sharIraM : (are) the body of Shiva,

anaghaM : (and) the spotless

navAtmAnaM : (Ananda-bhairava, i.e. Shiva) who has nine

facets (of presentation)

tava AtmAnaM : (as) your AtmA.

ataH : Therefore

ayam sambandhaH : this relationship

sheshhaH sheshhI iti : of ‘the accessory’ and ‘the

principal’

vAM : between You two

sama-rasa-parAnanda-parayoH : who are ParAnanda and ParA,

the enjoyers of the same Infinite Bliss

sthitaH : is poised

ubhaya-sAdhAraNatayA : as a mutual common factor.

 

“You are the body of Lord Shiva, O Goddess” – thus begins

the verse. Earlier it was said that the whole body of the

Lord has been appropriated by Her. But now are we talking

of the ‘crimson-coloured body with a crescent moon and a

third eye’? No. We are talking of this vast cosmos of

million universes which together constitute His

virAt-svarUpa (cosmic form). That cosmic body is ambaaL,

says the verse. The life-giving force for that entire

cosmos is the Absolute Reality, the para-brahman.

 

Mark it! What is being said here seems to be contrary to

what was declared in the very first shloka “shivaH shaktyA

yuktah ...”.Without Shakti, Shiva cannot even move – that

was the statement there. So it appeared as if Shiva is an

inert body and ambaaL is the life-giving force. Here it is

being said that She is the body and ...” !

 

No contradiction is intended or implied. There are two

viewpoints.

 

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