Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS-64)

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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 -

64

(Digest of pp.1164 -1174 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume,

4th imprn.)

 

Shloka #49 continued:

 

Sweetness is the innate characteristic of ambaal’s form. So

how sweet would be her dRshhTi, in particular! Therefore it

is ‘madhurA’. The corresponding city in North India is

Mathura. But here it is the ‘Madhura’ of the Tamil region.

 

‘Bhogavati’ is said to be a place in Prayag (modern

Allahabad). But the shloka talks about ‘nagaras’ only. So a

part of Prayag cannot be what he is referring to. Also

Bhogavati is also the name of a city in the nether-world

and also the name of Ganga which flows in the three worlds.

But the Acharya is talking here only about cities on Earth,

none of these would be the Bhogavati that he is referring

to. So it must refer to only Cumbath in Gujarat, which has

however lost its good old name of Bhogavati!

 

Well, how does that name fit as a description of ambaal’s

eye-glance? The word means ‘deserving of experience’. If

only ambaal’s glance can fall on us, what greater

experience can we think of, other than the bliss such a

glance will bestow on us?

 

‘avantI’ means that which protects. It is ambaal’s

eye-glance that is a great force of protection for us. The

city named Ujjain also has the name ‘avantI’. In fact the

name once belonged to both the city as well as the kingdom

of which it was the capitol. Later, in order to avoid

confusion, the kingdom continued to be called ‘avantI’

while the capitol was named ‘Ujjain’. Later it appears that

the capitol was also called ‘VishAlA’.

 

A final observation. Ambaal’s dRshhTi certainly falls on

the whole universe and therefore on all the cities of the

world. But these eight have been highlighted because the

divine glance has all the qualities indicated by the names

of these cities; and that is what makes the poet in the

Acharya express his delight through this shloka.

 

The next shloka (#50) makes a direct connection between

poetic talent and ambaal’s eyes, by bringing in a

comparison between Her third eye and the other two eyes:

 

kavInAM sandarbha-stabaka-makarandaika-rasikaM

kaTAkshha-vyAkshhepa-bhramara-kalabhau karNa-yugalaM /

amuncantau dRshhTvA tava nava-rasAsvAda-taralau

asUyA samsargAd-alika-nayanaM kimcid-aruNaM // 50 //

 

dRshhTvA: Having seen

tava: Your

kaTAkshha-vyAkshhepa-bhramara-kalabhau : (side-glance –

pretext – honeybees – young) two eyes resembling the

young of honey-bees,on the pretext of (casting)

side-glances

amuncantau: not leaving

karNa-yugalaM : the two ears

sandarbha-stabaka-makrand-aika-rasikaM : (poetry – bouquet

– honey – exclusive – tasting) which enjoy the exclusive

taste of honey dripping from the bouquet of poetic

sentiments

kavInAM : of the poets

nava-rasa-AsvAda-taralau : and eager in tasting the nine

rasas

alika-nayanaM : the third eye (on the forehead)

asUyA-samsargAt: out of jealous hostility

kimcid-aruNaM : (has become) slightly reddish.

 

The key word here is ‘asUyA-samsargAt’ . Where came this

hostility? Why? To whom? These are the interesting

subtleties of the Acharya’s composition in this shloka.

The redness of the third eye is usually attributed by poets

to the traditional association of agni (fire) with the

third eye, just as the other two eyes are associated with

the Sun and the Moon. But the eye that goes with the Sun

should then be associated with heat and the other eye with

the coolness of the Moon. That way there will be a

distinction between the two eyes. The Acharya naturally

wanted to deviate from this stereotyped analogy of the

three eyes to the Sun, the Moon and agni. He assumes

therefore that all three eyes were naturally of the same

colour originally, but now because of the feeling of

jealousy on the part of the third eye towards the other two

eyes, it became red!

 

And, he gives a legitimate reason for this jealousy. The

word ‘sandarbha’ means ‘opportunity’ or ‘circumstance’. In

the context of this shloka it means that kind of exquisite

poetry which coordinates characters, events,

circumstances, words, flight of imagination, metre, and

everything connected with poetry. When poets make a

bouquet out of such excellent poetry, all the nine

sentiments – rasas – flow out like honey. This is the honey

that is exclusively enjoyed by the ears of ambaaL. Her eyes

are themselves long and when the side glances are there,

the ends of the eyes reach the ears! And that is how the

eyes partake of the poetic honey that has already been

poured into those ears by poets. Enjoying this taste of

honey the eyes would not leave the ears (‘amuncantau’).

Since the eyeballs are so fascinated by that enjoyment,

they do not come off from the ears; they are compared to

the young ones of honey-bees which get stuck in the depths

of the honey-full stems of flowers!

 

But here, in the poet’s imagination, ambaaL is playing a

trick with Her devotees. She has a duty of pouring out

compassion and grace on the people of the world. If She is

only enjoying the flattering stotras poured into Her ears

to such an extent that even Her eyes get stuck in extending

their side-glances up to the ears, then She will be failing

in Her duty of compassion to the rest of the world. Hence

the use of the words ‘kaTAkshha-vyAkshhepa’. On the pretext

of a side-glance She is allowing Her eyeballs to move

sideways up to the ears. This side-glance pretext is for

the world to be blessed with Her infinite compassion. In

other words She is achieving both by Her side-glance – one

is pouring out Her Grace on the world and two, the eyes

themselves are sharing with the ears the honey-taste of the

poetic fancies that reach the ears.

 

What are these poetic fancies? They are all about the Lord.

But this idea is not there in this particular shloka. By

sheer habit I just used the words ‘about the Lord’. But it

is not all mine. In shlokas 60 and 66, where Saraswati

Herself is singing praises and Mother Lalita is listening

with enjoyment, it is said ‘vividham-apadAnaM pashupateH’,

meaning ‘the varied leelas of Lord Shiva’.

 

Another shloka which talks about the fact that Mother

Lalita is enjoyhing the music of Sarasvati is shloka #60.

There are two “lahari’s” in this shloka.

“sarasvatyAs-sUktIH amRta-laharI kaushalaharIH” are the

beginning words. We have already seen various “lahari’s”:

Ananda-lahari; Soundarya-lahari; cidAnanda-lahari;

shRngAra-lahari. In this shloka (#60) though it looks like

there are two “lahari’s”, in actual fact there is only one,

namely, “amRta-lahari”. The other one, “kaushala-hari” is

not a “lahari”. It means that which captivates the

“kaushala” (talent). The content of the first line of

shloka #60 is to say that the words (actually, prayers –

sUktis) of Sarasvati capture even the flooding flow of

nectar (amRta-lahari). Earlier in shloka #50, it was said

that the ears store up the honey of praises from poets.

Here the same ears are said to be the small receptacles

(chuLuka-pAtraM) of those prayers given out by no less than

the Goddess of Learning Herself. When the ears are so

personified, the clang of the ear ornaments (kuNDala-gaNaH)

when Mother Lalita nods Her head in appreciation, is said

to be the cries of ‘hear hear’ of those ears in

appreciation of Sarasvati’s praises.

 

To be Continued

Thus spake the Paramacharya.

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.

Also see the webpages on Paramacharya's Soundaryalahari :

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