Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS-53)

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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 -

53

(Digest of pp.1061 - 1071 of Deivathin Kural, 6th

volume, 4th imprn.)

 

Shloka #41 is the last shloka of Anandalahari. It

propitiates ambaaL along with Lord Shiva in the lowest

chakra, that is, mUlAdhAra. It is remarkable to note that

this shloka as well as shloka #34 have both mentioned

“navAtmAnaM” for Lord Shiva. From #34 to #41 the topic has

been the divine couple. With this shloka the discussion on

the chakras is completed. So in addition to interpreting

“navAtmA” as the nine-faceted (starting from Time etc.)

Shiva, we can also interpret it as “six chakras plus the

three granthis – together making a set of nine, for which

He is the Atman”.

 

“lAsya” is the dance that is characteristically feminine.

It is delicate, gentle and polished. On the other hand the

masculine dance “tANDava” would be noisy, forceful and

aggressive. In ‘tANDava’ what is important is ‘nRttaM’ in

which the assemblage of beats (‘tALa’) and nuances in the

pace (‘gati’) and march (‘jati’) of the dance dominate. In

‘lAsya’ it is the bhAva (face expression of mental states)

that dominates. Hence the traditional association of words

like ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ with these dance forms.

 

Lord Shiva is called ‘mahAnaTaH’, the great dancer.

‘mahAkAlo mahAnaTaH’ is part of the list of names of Shiva

in amara-kosha. Without His dance there cannot be any

movement in the world. Even when the world is to dissolve,

He has to do the ‘dance’ of destruction! Since the first

shloka has already said that His very movement itself is

due to Her, it follows that every movement in the Universe

is because of Her. She lets Him do the magnificent dance

and She also joins with her lAsya. It is this ever-lasting

dance of this divine couple that is the reason for the

multifarious movements that we beings make with our

physical bodies, or the varied physical reactions that our

nerves exhibit in concordance with the attitudinal

expressions that invade us through anger, sorrow, or lust.

When we are engulfed in sorrow, why should the eyes twitch?

When we are invaded by anger why do the lips twitch? It is

all because the Lord is within us and He goes through His

dance covering all the nine rasas, that are expressed by

the lAsya of ambaa. All these are related to the varying

attitudes that engulf us.

 

There are also dances without the attitudinal expressions.

All the world is making periodic revolutions. The planets

are going round the sun. The wind blows. Everything is a

dance. The fire is a dance of the flames. Water is dancing

through its floods. These are ‘tANDava’ without ‘bhAva’.

But they cause various bhAvas in us. When the breeze blows

past us we feel happy. But the same wind when it blows

fiercely as a storm, we feel the bhAva of fear. And so on.

This is what has been said in this shloka. Ananda-bhairava

(the Lord) and Ananda-bhairavi (ambaa) are doing this

tANDava-lAsya dance. And we meditate on this scene in

mUlAdhAra-chakra. ‘Ananda-bhairavi’ is the name of a raga

in music. But here it goes also with dance.

 

“maheshvara-mahAkalpa-mahAtANDava-sAkshhiNI” is one of

the names of ambaa in LalitA-sahasranAma. There it is the

tANDava dance of the Lord at the time of Dissolution, that

She is watching as a witness. But the tANDava dance

described in this shloka is the dance of Creation. So She

joins in it with Her lAsya.

 

‘Ananda’ – joy, happiness, bliss – usually goes with

excitement and dance. The divine couple are dancing with

the fullness of Ananda in them. But we should not think

therefore we can take liberties with them. That is why the

disciplining bhairava name is associated with their names.

‘bhairava’ indicates anger, fear and the like. All for

disciplining us. But the bhairava nature is only

temporary. It is Ananda that is permanent. And the

greatest Ananda is universal compassion. Hence the word

‘dayayA’ in this shloka.

 

The word ‘dayA’ means compassion. Where do they show the

‘dayA’ in this dance of creation? The very creation is the

compassionate act. For without creation how do we, with all

our baggage of sins behind us, ever reach Him ultimately?

It is to help all the souls to have opportunities of

redemption that a creation starts after every dissolution.

This greatest act of compassion is done by the Dance of

Creation of this divine couple. Hence ‘dayayA’!

‘udaya-vidhim uddishya’ means ‘with the purpose of

regulated creation’.

 

The divine couple therefore is the Father and Mother of the

universe. ‘janaka-jananI’. Let the world not feel that

there is no one visible to take care of it. There is an

invisible father and mother. The world (jagat) has become

janaka-jananImat, endowed with a father and mother and

therefore also ‘sanAtha’, that is, (endowed with) a

‘care-taking Lord’. In fact our children feel that if even

one of the parents is not there, they are ‘anAtha’

(orphaned). So when both of them are there we are not

‘anAtha’ but ‘sanAtha’.

 

But wait. There is a greater subtlety. The word ‘sanAtha’

used in the shloka is not about our being ‘anAtha’ or

‘sanAtha’. The word actually used is ‘sanAthAbhyAm’ that

goes with ‘ubHAbhyAM etAbhyAM’. Therefore ‘sanAthAbhyAM’

refers to the divine couple. In other words it is they,

each one of them individually, who needs a ‘nAtha’

(care-taking overlord), because they have nobody ‘above’

them. But if you carefully read the shloka the correct

meaning will spark; it is not somebody else who is taking

care of them as their Lord – there is nobody – but it is

they themselves, namely Shiva the Lord and ambaaL the

Shakti, who are taking care of each other. Each is a

‘nAtha’ for the other. There is no Shiva without Shakti;

and no Shakti without Shiva. In one viewpoint, He is the

SheshhI (the Principal) and She is the Sheshha (the

Accessory); in another viewpoint, She is the Principal and

He is the Accessory. When He drinks the poison She protects

Him and when She is in the form of the daughter of Daksha

and later the daughter of the Mountain King, He protects

Her. This mutual support and protection that this divine

couple give each other is the mysterious divine symbiosis

that all the Shiva Agamas, and mantra shAstras, and the

Tamil Tirumandiram talk about eloquently. Tirumandiram

verse No. 333 says “By the grace of the ShaktimAn, Shakti

dispenses Her Grace and By the grace of Shakti, the

ShaktimAn dispenses His Grace”.

 

In the Trichinopoly Rock Fort Temple dedicated to the Lord,

His manifestation there is ‘TayumAnavar’ .

(Tamil word meaning, He who became also the Mother –

there is a whole story behind it,

wherein He appears at the right time as the Mother-nurse

who helps a lonely woman-devotee deliver her baby - VK)

 

But though He has become the mother, the temple dedicated

to Him has also a sannadhi for ambaa, the Mother. It is in

the precincts of this temple that all the shlokas of

‘Anandalahari’ have been engraved on the walls.

 

Thus with the auspicious account of the divine couple

becoming the Father and the Mother of the whole universe,

the Anandalahari portion of Soundaryalahari ends.

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