Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS-56)

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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 -

56

(Digest of pp.1091- 1098 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume,

4th imprn.)

 

“VaidarbhI rIti” and “GaudI rIti” are two styles in

Sanskrit poetry. The former conveys delightful thoughts by

very gentle words, flowing like a river of honey. The

latter, which originated in Bengal, has not only difficult

thoughts, but they are also expressed in a high-sounding

noisy style. The Acharya has used both the styles in

Soundaryalahari. He has just finished the Anandalahari

portion with the mention of ‘jananI’, thus bringing the

Goddess as near as a Mother to us. But, lest that should

make Her very familiar and simple for us, and lest that

might make us under-estimate Her majesty and grandeur, he

starts the Soundaryalahari portion, with a bang, through

the 42nd shloka, with a complicated thought and with a

torrent-like flow of language.

 

The subject is the description of ambaal’s head. We see in

the shloka the dazzling shine of the bright hot sun and the

cooling comfort of gentle moonshine, through the poet’s

imagination and his language.

 

Gatair-mANikyatvaM gagana-maNibhis-sAndra-ghaTitaM

kirITaM te haimaM himagiri-sute kIrtayati yaH /

sa nIDeyac-cchAyAc-cchuraNa-shabalaM chandra-shakalaM

dhanuH-shaunAsIraM kim-iti na nibadhnAti dhishhaNAM // 42

//

 

 

himagiri-sute : Oh Daughter of the snow-capped mountain

yaH : Whoever

kIrtayati : describes

te : your

haimaM kirITaM: golden crown

sAndra-ghaTitaM: studded densely with

mANikyatvaM gataiH gagana-maNibhiH: the (twelve) suns that

have become the precious ruby stones (on the crown)

kim saH na nibadhnAti dhishhaNAM: why would he not record

the idea (that)

chandra-shakalaM: the crescent moon (on the crown)

nIDeyac-cchAyAc-cchuraNa-shabalaM : (bird’s nest –shadow

–reflected shine – enveloped - variegated colour) which

reflects the variegated colours from the shadows of the

(gems) in that nest (of the crown)

dhanuH-shaunAsIraM iti : is (nothing but) Indra’s bow

(rainbow)?

 

The whole metaphor is pouring like a torrent from the

heavens as Ganga did on Shiva’s head. Once this description

of Amba’s crown on the head is done in this shloka, the

style changes from the next shloka to a softer one.

‘Chandra-sekhara’ is a name of the Lord, because the half

moon is on His head. Already in shloka No.23 Devi was

described as having the Moon on Her hairdo. So She is also

‘Chandra-sekhari’. Shiva has also the name ‘Surya-sekhara’

because in many of the Shiva-kshhetras, there are certain

days on which the rising Sun’s rays directly fall on the

linga in the sanctum sanctorum. Here we have also a

Surya-shekharI, because not just one Sun but twelve Suns

are supposed to be sitting in the form of ruby gems on the

crown of Devi. The very first line of the shloka thus

brings before us the grandeur of Her enthralling form with

the blinding dazzle of twelve suns radiating from the gems

of Her crown.

 

The use of the word ‘hima-giri-sute’ is significant.

‘hima’ means ‘snow’. So ‘hima-giri-sutA’ means ‘the

daughter of the snow-capped mountain. The first line has

brought the heat of twelve suns in the picture. As a

contrast the second line cools it off and brings in the

coolness of ‘hima-giri’. Also the daughter of ‘hima-giri’

that is Parvati is said to be of cool greenish colour. It

is Sati, the daughter of Daksha who immolated herself in

the Fire of Daksha-yajna; and the same Sati, immediately

after that heat of the immolation, was born in Her next

birth as the daughter of the Himalayas, fresh as green, in

the form of hima-giri-sutA, called Parvati. In modern

times in the time of jnAna-sambandhar, the argument with

the Jain saints ended up only after the palm leaves of his

devotional songs (tevAraM) survived the heat of the fire

into which they were placed, and they emerged as green

leaves with the writing unscathed.

 

The crown on the head of Devi is made of gold. ‘hema’ means

gold. ‘haimam’ means ‘made of gold’. In Kenopanishat, the

Goddess appears as Brahma VidyA and teaches the divines

led by Indra. There the word used for the Goddess is

‘haimavati’. Our Acharya interprets it in two ways: one, as

‘hima-giri-sutA’, namely Parvati and the other as, the One

who shines with the shine of ‘hema’, that is ‘a golden

shine’. It is perhaps his intention to show the connection

with the Upanishad that the Acharya in the very first

shloka of the Anandalahari portion, uses both the words

‘hima-giri’ and ‘hema’. To boot, let us remember that in

the Upanishad, Her disciple was Indra; and here also

‘Indra-dhanus’ is mentioned as ‘dhanuH shaunAsIraM’, the

rainbow.

 

The golden crown is studded with ‘suns’ as gems. So the

‘suns’ are specks on the crown; but on the crown there is

the big crescent moon. In the real world the Sun is far far

bigger than the Moon. Here it is the other way. The moon

pours out nectar as well as the cool snow. So its cool

downpour from the moon are the snowflakes on the crown. The

bright light from the sun-gems falls on them and gets

refracted as a multi-coloured rainbow: This is the

‘nIDeyac-chAyAcchuraNa-shabalam’. This extraordinary poetic

imagination -- that the self-effulgent moon’s rays receive

the sun’s light and thereby the rainbow appears -- beats

all scientific understanding. That, of course, is the

privilege of poetic liberty.

 

In the very first shloka that starts describing the beauty

of ambaaL, the idea of white light being refracted into the

several constituent colours of the rainbow is brought in,

as if to indicate esoterically that the nirguNa brahman

manifests itself as the varied multipliciy of the universe

by the magic of parAshakti.

 

But why imagine refraction? One can also imagine it to be

reflection. Instead of taking that the light of the Sun

falls on the cool rays of the moon and in that flow of

cool snow it becomes the multicoloured rainbow, one can

also imagine that there are several suns whose lights are

in various colours and they get reflected in the

mirror-like crescent moon and produces the rainbow effect.

 

In fact the poet here implies that it is not just his

imagination; this is what anybody would say if he wants to

describe the multicoloured radiance from the gems of the

golden crown on the head of the Goddess.

Another point which comes out here is the modesty of the

Acharya in underplaying himself and speaking so highly of

others who might be in his position of describing the

Devi’s glory. The modesty with which he begins this very

first shloka of the Soundarylahari part goes on till the

very end.

 

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