Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS-80)

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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 -

80

(Digest of pp.1295 -1306 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume,

4th imprn.)

 

sarasvatyA lakshhmyA vidhi-hari-sapatno viharate

rateH pAtivratyaM shithilayati ramyeNa vapushhA/

ciraM jIvan-neva kshhapita-pashu-pAsha-vyatikaraH

parAnandAbhikhyaM rasayati rasaM tvad-bhajanavAn // 99//

 

The modesty of our Acharya is well-known. It is going to

exhibit itself again in the next shloka #100 where he

says, in winding up the stotra, that nothing is his, it

is all ambaal’s work. So he does not give any phala-shruti

(a list of what one achieves by reading this stotra;

‘phala’ means fruit, consequence, reward) as is usual with

all devotional compositions. Instead, he gives, in this

shloka #99, a different form of phala-shruti, wherein he

says what an upAsana of ambaal would give a devotee

(tvad-bhajanaVAn, meaning, one who propitiates You), and

thus indirectly hinting to us something like a

phala-shruti. The first part of this stotra is the form of

Her in mantra and tantra. The second part is the form of

Her physical beauty. Thereby the whole stotra becomes

Her very Self. So the recitation of this stotra is itself

an upAsanA. The reciter is the ‘bhajanavAn’.

 

What does the ‘bhajanavAn’ get? The only answer could be:

What will he not get? Whether it is of this world (‘iha’)

or of the other world (‘para’), he will get everything. One

might say, from a Vedantic point of view, that ‘iha-phala’

is no ‘phala’ at all. But who has that kind of maturity

that does not want mundane rewards of this world? One has

to start from the tastes of this world and move on to

discard them only gradually. The movement from the ‘iha’

(meaning ‘here’, ‘now’) to the ‘para’ (meaning ‘distant’,

‘subsequent’) has to go from stage to stage in the natural

course of one’s evolution. It is in this context that this

shloka details both the ‘iha-phala’ and the ‘para-phala’ as

rewards for the upAsaka. Both the kinds of rewards may be

put together under four heads: Knowledge, Wealth, Beauty,

Life. Of these the first one goes along with both ‘iha’ and

‘para’.

 

Knowledge is obtained by Learning. The Goddess of Learning

is Sarasvati. But ambaal Herself gives all that is given

by Sarasvati – to such an extent that even Brahma, the

Creator, is envious of such a devotee who has got all the

learning that Sarasvati can bestow. Brahma the Creator, the

consort of Sarasvati, was all along thinking that he was

the sole beneficiary of Sarasvati’s favours. Remember that

Brahma with his four faces always chanting the four vedas

is the repository of all knowledge. Still he feels that the

devotee who is favoured by ambaal with all that Sarasvati

has ever given Him, is a kind of competitor to Him

vis-a-vis Sarasvati. ‘How come, this human devotee of

ambaaL has more favours of the Sarasvati-type than what I

myself have!’ is the Creator’s feeling. This is part of the

first line of the shloka. “SarasvatyA vidhi-sapatno

viharate”.

 

The other part of the first line – “lakshhmyA hari-sapatno

viharate” says the same thing of Vishnu, whose consort is

Lakshmi. Again , ambaal’s Grace gives Her upAsaka, all

favours of the Lakshmi type – meaning, wealth and

prosperity -- that Vishnu Himself is envious!

 

The Acharya mentions Sarasvati before Lakshmi. In other

words, he talks of Knowledge before Wealth. If the choice

is given to us we might want to put Wealth before

Knowledge. I am sure that if God were to suddenly appear

before us and ask us what we want, most of us – nay, almost

all of us – would ask for wealth, as our first priority.

Wealth is the one thing that never satiates the human mind.

 

Certainly, Knowledge, Wealth, and Beauty are all desired by

every one. But it is Wealth that gets the first seat in

this. There is an interesting irony here. As far as wisdom

and knowledge are concerned, none of us would call oneself

unwise or unknowing. Even if we do not know we usually like

to pose as one who knows! We don’t take extraordinary

efforts to make an improvement to our real knowledge. The

same story with Beauty. None of us would like to be told

that there is no beauty in us. And we would not like others

also to think of us otherwise. In the case of Knowledge we

may be slack in making efforts to improve. But in the case

of Beauty every one of us takes elaborate pains to improve

our presentation and appearance. This is the story with

Knowledge and Beauty.

 

On the other hand, in the case of wealth, we all behave

differently, almost contrarily. We may have wealth but we

would not like other people to know about it. Always we

make a plea for our need to have more and we go about

taking that posture. In the case of Knowledge and Beauty,

we pose as if we have them even if we do not have them. In

the case of Wealth it is the opposite! This is the irony,

which clearly establishes that, among the three, Wealth is

our first preference.

 

But our Acharya mentions Knowledge first and then only

Wealth. This only shows his infinite concern for us.

However much he may know our minds and their predeliction

for wealth in preference to knowledge, he wants to do good

to us by influencing us in favour of the one thing that he

knows will only do good to us. Because if wealth is accrued

before the wisdom to use that wealth properly, there is

every chance that such wealth will be lost in no time. His

thinking goes along with Taittiriyopanishad where, the

prayer is for ‘medhA’ (Right knowledge) (1.4.1) and then it

says ‘Thereafter (‘tataH’) give me wealth’ (1.4.2). His own

Bhaja Govindam also emphasizes this in “artham-anartham

bhAvaya nityaM”.

 

In an earlier shloka (#97) he said “You are Sarasvati, You

are Lakshmi, Parvati also; and You are the source of them

all, because You are the Queen-Consort of the Absolute

Brahman” He did not call Sarasvati or Lakshmi as the

Goddess of Learning or the Goddess of Wealth. Instead He

made them the Shaktis corresponding to the ‘sRshhTi’

function and the ‘sthiti’ function. In apposition to the

fact that they were the Shaktis corresponding to Cosmic

functions, ambaal was placed as the Universal Shakti

integrated into the parabrahman itself. And thereby She

becomes the source of all other Shaktis. So the Learning

and Wealth which are the domains of Sarasvati and Lakshmi,

have their original source in ambaal. Naturally, by

propitiating ambaal, the other two also are obtained.

 

And thirdly, ambaal is the original source of Power for the

God of Love, namely ‘Kama’. In fact Her own name is

Kameshvari, KamAkshi and KamakoTi. It is that Kama who was

reinstated by her by being given a new life. It is he who

reigns over the third fundamental desire of man, namely,

Beauty. That is why when somebody possesses all the beauty

that we can think of, we say the person is a Manmatha in

physical form. The stotra that talks predominantly of the

‘soundarya’ (beauty) of ambaal, is now said to give the

beauty that man desires. In the case of Sarasvati and

Lakshmi, they were feminine; so it was said (in the first

line) that a devotee of ambaal gets knowledge (Sarasvati’s

gift) and wealth (Lakshmi’s gift) in such abundance that

their own husbands were envious of the recipient. Now

Manmatha is male and so when his bounty of beauty is

bestowed on the devotee due to ambaal’s Grace, his own wife

Rati, becomes suspicious of the identity of the recipient

–whether he is Manmatha himself! This is the content of the

second line of the shloka.

 

Well, Knowledge, Wealth and Beauty – all three have been

obtained. Are these enough? What if the recipient does not

live long? Then that itself will negate everything else!

That is why all our scriptures include in their

benedictions, ‘dIrghAyuH’ as the first blessing. Without

long life and the implied good health, everything else is

of no value.

 

And this is what is promised in the third line of the

shloka. This is the most (materially) significant benefit

to the upAsaka. ‘ciraM jIvanneva’ says the shloka. But as

one goes on in one’s life, living long, in due time he gets

into the thought process: “All these days I have obtained

everything of value in this world (‘iha’) in terms of

knoledge, wealth and beauty, - all by ambaal’s Grace. Let

me hereafter work through the same upAsanA of ambaal, for

betterment of my after-life”. And then, what happens, is

said in the third and fourth line of the shloka:

 

“ciraM jIvanneva kshhapita-pashu-pAsha-vyatikaraH

parAnandA-bhikhyaM rasayati rasaM tvad-bhajanavAn”

 

He who propitiates You, namely Your upAsaka, lives long, is

able to discard the pashu-pAsha knot and enjoys the

infinite bliss of BrahmAnanada.

 

So long as a Jiva revolves in the quagmire of the senses

and their natural attractions, the Jiva is nothing but an

animal (pashu). That is when the bond of ‘karma’ anchors

him to the concept of ‘janma’ (birth and death). It is that

bond that is called ‘pAshaM’. It makes him revolve again

and again in the samsAra cycle. It is the sword of jnAna

that cuts it asunder. And then he is no more a pashu. He

becomes Shiva, the pashu-pati (the Lord of the pashu). The

parAnandaM – supreme bliss of advaita – is then the essence

(rasa) of his experience. Note that the Acharya uses his

words very carefully. He does not say he ‘experiences’

that ‘rasa’. If he wanted to say so he would have used the

words ‘pibati’ (drinks, consumes) or ‘AsvAdayati’ (tastes).

But he has put in the word ‘rasayati’ meaning, he becomes

the rasa (essence) himself and it is that becoming that is

termed as ‘rasayati’. In other words there is no duality of

the experiencer and the experienced. There is only one

‘rasa’. It is advaitam!

 

The great teacher of advaita uses two concepts of what is

going to develop in future as the great Shaiva siddhanta.

This shows his universality of outlook. Also, all along he

has been propagating Soundaryalahari according to the

ShAkta schools of thought. Accordingly Shakti was placed in

the dominant position. But when he ends the stotra he

raises Shiva to dominance and effortlessly throws in two

important concepts -- namely ‘pashu’ and ‘pAsha’ -- of the

Shaiva canon.

-------------------------------

 

The flood of beauty of Mother Goddess is now terminating.

All floods have to terminate in a sea or ocean. This flood

(lahari) of words has now to merge in the ocean of

shabda-brahman. The Acharya uses the word ‘salila-nidhi’

which is the same as ‘jala-nidhi’ that means ‘ocean’.

 

pradIpa-jvAlAbhir-divasakara-nIrAjana-vidhiH

sudhA-sUtesh-candropala-jala-lavair-arghya-racanA /

svakIyair-ambhobhiH salila-nidhi-sauhitya-karaNaM

tvadIyAbhir-vAgbhis-tava janani vAcAM stutir-iyaM // 100 //

 

vAcAM janani: Oh Mother who generated Speech,

divasakara-nIrAjana-vidhiH : (just as one does) the

light-waving ritual to the Sun-God

pradIpa-jvAlAbhiH : by the flames of a lamp,

arghya-racanA : (just as) the offering of the arghya ritual

sudhA-sUteH : to the moon

candropala-jala-lavaiH : by the water drops that ooze out

of the moonstone in contact with moonlight,

salila-nidhi-sauhitya-karaNaM : (just as) offering ritual

bathing to the ocean

svakIyaiH ambhobhiH : by its own water,

tava iyaM stutiH : (so also is) this stotra on You

tvadIyAbhiH vAgbhiH : composed of Thine own words.

 

An elaborate explanation is needed for this final shloka.

 

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