Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS-67)

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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 -

67

(Digest of pp.1186 -1188 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume,

4th imprn.)

 

The first two lines of Shloka 56 are:

 

tavAparNe karNe japa-nayana-paishunya-chakitAH

nilIyante toye niyatam-animeshhAH shapharikAH /

 

tavAparNe has to be broken as tava aparNe. aparNA is the

name of ambaa. The name aparNa means She who did not even

eat the leaves. In her manifestation as the daughter of the

Mountain King, when She was doing penance in order to be

wedded to Lord Shiva, She adopted such a terrific

self-discipline, wherein, She did not even have the fallen

leaves as Her food.

aparNe: Oh Goddess, who has the name aparNA,

niyataM : certainly,

shapharikAH: the female fishes

nilIyante : hide themselves

toye: in water

japa-nayana-paishunya-chakitAH: (talking – eyes – tell-tale

– trembling) trembling in fear that Your eyes (that extend

up to the ear) are perhaps carrying tales of slander (about

them)

tava karNe: to Your ears.

 

Why do fish never swim in the upper regions of the ocean

and instead always stay in deep waters? The Acharya here

imagines an interesting reason. They see ambaal’s eyes

which extend up to Her ears. She is always rolling Her

eyes on all sides in order that not a single being in the

universe misses Her blessed glance of protection. And so

they now and then reach the extremities of the eye and

appear as if they are touching the ears! And the fishes

think that is when the eyes say something secretive into

the divine ears. They think defensively that the devi’s

eyes are perhaps telling tales about them (the fishes);

because they always think that the fish-eyed looks of the

devi are only competing with them as rivals in terms of

fast movements. And naturally they are afraid the devi

might take it on them and therfefore they stay in deep

water! They know that if they are really put to test they

will lose in competition with ambaal’s eyes both in the

beauty as well as in fast movement.

 

In the Meenakshi temple at Madurai, there is the tank

called ‘The tank of the Golden Lotus’. There are no fishes

in that tank. The folklore is that they don’t come there

because they know they cannot compete with the beauty of

the eyes of Goddess Meenakshi . Thus the Acharya in

making a comparison of ambaal’s eyes with fishes and in

painting a picture for us of the fishes not wanting to

show up before Her, has really subtly hinted to us of

Goddess Meenakshi in this shloka!

 

This takes care of the other ‘default’ – namely, that in

Soundaryalahari, where is the mention of Meenakshi?

 

One more observation on this shloka before we move on .

This is about the word ‘animeshhAH’. It means ‘without

winking the eyes’. By the way, the word ‘nimeshha’ means a

unit of time equal to about one-fourth of a second. The

Tamil word ‘nimishhaM’ meaning ‘a minute’ must have come

from this ‘nimeshha’. That ambaal does not wink Her eyes

was effectively used by the Acharya in just the previous

shloka (#55). There he says that Creation and Dissolution

take place just during the winking of Her eyes. And so in

order to prevent this universe (that has been created at

the opening of Her eyelids) from dissolution She does not

wink Her eyes at all !. Here the general traditional belief

that the divines do not wink their eyes has been used by

the Acharya as a remarkable expression of Her protective

feeling towards the whole universe. But we can also look at

it in another way. The fraction of a second during which

the winking takes place may deny the Compassionate Divine

Glance to Her children of the world; and maybe that is why

She does not wink Her eyes!

 

But how can the same non-winking of eyes apply to fish? Of

course there is the traditional belief that fishes by

nature don’t sleep. But again this belief has been

elevated to a poetic imagination by the Acharya visualising

that the fish don’t wink because they, being afraid of the

effect of slander about them by Her eyes, want to be alert

all the time against any ‘attack’ by Her even while they

hide themselves in deep water!

 

Next comes one of the most touching shlokas (#57) of

Soundaryalahari. Here we have to melt our hearts in prayer.

Maybe this particular shloka was done by the Acharya when

He was overcome by Her KaruNA in all its fullness. But the

Acharya shows his humility even here. Instead of saying

“Your Grace has descended on me with all its overflowing

fullness”, he says, in talking of Her Grace, “Would it not

also reach me?” Look at the humility of our Acharya in

spite of his being at the apex of Bhakti, JnAna, Spiritual

Power and Poetic Excellence!

 

Indeed all the great nAyanmars, and Alwars, when they sing

about their love of God vie with each other in expressing

the sentiment of humility coupled with grief and self-pity.

“Oh Lord, Would you not condescend to shower your grace on

this poor little devotee of Yours?” – this is the running

theme in many of their compositions. Our Acharya also does

this. My own opinion is this. These great giants of

devotion do not have to belittle themselves so much. They

are all already realised souls. But they sing in this

strain because they want us ordinary folk to be able to

appeal to the Almighty in that strain. Ignorant as we are,

we lack that humility and we don’t even know how to pray.

And that is why they give us the very words to pray with

that kind of humility. And here, in this shloka #57,

ambaal has prompted our Acharya to pray to her in that

style with superlative humility!

 

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