Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS -74)

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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 -

74

(Digest of pp.1226 - 1236 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume,

4th imprn.)

 

vipanchyA gAyantI vividham-apadAnaM pashupateH

tvayArabdhe vaktuM calita-shirasA sAdhu vacane /

tadIyair-mAdhuryair-apalapita-tantrI-kala-ravAM

nijAM vINAM vANI nichulayati cholena nibhRtaM // 66 //

 

There is a whole dramatic scene here. It takes place in the

very presence of ambaal. Ambaal is sitting totally relaxed

and listening to a music performance. Whose music? That of

Saraswati Herself! The word ‘VANI’ meaning, Saraswati,

occurs in the fourth line of the shloka. She is playing on

the Veena. Simultaneously She is also singing. The very

Goddess of Arts, Music and all Knowledge is performing. One

can only imagine the infinite grandeur of the sweet

richness of such a performance.

 

‘VipanchI’ means Veena. ‘ParIvAdinI’ also means Veena. The

Veenas belonging to particular celestials have particular

names. Narada’s Veena is called ‘mahatI’. That of Tumburu

is ‘KalAvatI’. Saraswati’s is ‘KacchapI’. The word

‘kacchapa’ means tortoise. The drum of Saraswati’s Veena is

in the shape of a tortoise. Hence it is called ‘kacchapI’.

Prof.Sambamurti (of Madras University) says that even today

we can see it in Phillipines, where they call it ‘katjapI’.

In Lalita Sahasranamam we have the name:

‘nija-sallApa-mAdhurya-vinirbhatsita-kacchapI’. It means

‘One whose speech is more melodious than kacchapI, the

Veena of Saraswati’. It is the idea contained in this

single line that has been elaborated by our Acharya in a

full shloka (#66) of Soundaryalahari and transformed into a

fascinating dramatic scene!

 

VipanchyA gAyantI: playing on the Veena.

 

But I translate it as ‘playing on the Veena and vocally

accompanying it also’. Why do I make this rendering?

Because of the words:

 

Vividham-apadAnaM pashupateH : Variegated anecdotes

pertaining to Lord Shiva.

 

How can these anecdotes be also performed by Saraswati

without being vocalised? The surest way to please ambaal is

to sing the praise of Her Lord. And the Glory of the Lord

is endless. Saraswati is singing and praising the infinite

glories of Lord Shiva. Naturally ambaal is enjoying both

the music of the Veena and the singing of the Lord’s

glories.

 

Now let us come to the second line of the shloka.

 

Calita-shirasA : by the nodding head. Now and then She

nods Her head in approval and appreciation. A nodding of

the head (‘shirah-kampa’) can show more delicacy of

appreciation than by an applause of the hand (karaH-kampa).

Whether it is in music, or in writing, or in studies or in

sports, one requires appreciation. And reciprocally, it is

the appreciation of the audience or the respondent that

provides further inspiration to the musician, writer,

student or sportsman. The same thing is happening here.

Ambaal is enjoying in appreciation and Saraswati is going

on playing on the Veena and singing.

 

tvayA-Arabdhe vaktum sAdhu vacane : When you started

speaking appreciative words.

 

It appears ambaal suddenly, instead of silently nodding Her

head, also began to applaud orally by saying a few

appreciative words: ‘sAdhu, sAdhu’. These words mean

‘Good, Good’. They are the Sanskrit equivalent of the

English usage: ‘hear, hear’. But as soon as these words

were spoken by ambaal something dramatic happened. This is

the punchline of the story. It is in the third and fourth

lines of the shloka.

 

tadIyair-mAdhuryair-apalapita-tantrI-kala-ravAM : (By

their – sweetness – degraded – strings –music) Before the

sweetness and melody of those words the sweet sound of the

Veena paled into insignificance.

 

Just one or two words only must have come from ambaal.

‘tvayA Arabdhe’ means ‘just when you began to speak’. In

our own way of thinking there could be nothing sweeter and

more melodious than the music of Saraswati’s Veena; for She

is the Goddess of Music. If there could be something more

pleasant it must be Her own voice. But now the few words

that stemmed forth from ambaal, have transformed all that

into nothing. Saraswati stopped her singing when She

realised the overpowering sweetness of ambaal’s voice. Not

only that. Her Veena-music also has been over-powered. What

did She do to Her Veena?

 

nijAM vINAM vANI niculayati cholena nibhRtaM :

 

vANI : Saraswati

niculayati : hides

nijAM vINAM : Her own Veena

cholena : by (its) cover, (in its case)

nibhRtaM : so that it will not show up.

 

Saraswati draws the cover on Her Veena and hides it! In

other words She accepts that Her Veena is nothing before

the sweet voice of ambaal and stops it then and there.

 

Ambaal, though She had all the musical sweetness in Her own

voice, intended to honour Saraswati by nodding Her head all

along and also saying the appreciative words ‘Sadhu’. But

instead of encouraging the performer to perform more, it

resulted in the performer bowing down and stopping the

performance. This incident brings into focus the greatness

of both Saraswati and ambaal.Saraswati hung down Her head

in shame and stopped singing. But what does the Veena do?

Even after being stopped, the music of the Veena has a

characteristic reverberation (anuraNanam, in Sanskrit;

rIngAram in Tamil), due to the resonating vibrations of the

strings. So Saraswati quickly silences it by hiding it

under its own cover (‘cholena nibhRtaM’).

 

We can go on thus enjoying the scene by visualising it in

various ways, scene after scene in this drama.

 

Maybe it was different. Maybe ambaal was not appreciating

the music but was nodding Her head to the

‘vividham-apadAnaM pashupateH’ -- the different stories of

the glories of Lord Shiva -- maybe that was what was being

enjoyed by Her in appreciation. Suddenly Saraswati might

have realised this, at the time when ambaal opened Her

mouth to say ‘Sadhu’.

 

There could be no end to such speculations of ours on the

scene. On the whole the shloka brings out the melodious

sweetness of Her voice, in addition to all the beauty of

form that the other shlokas have been revealing all along.

There can be no doubt that by meditating on this shloka one

gains excellence both in music and the composition of it.

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