LalithA SahasranAma [912] savyApasavyamArgasthA

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savyApasavyamArgasthA : Standing in the right and left paths.

 

Savya, right, apasavya, left, mArga [ the middle ] paths, sthA,

standing. The Meaning is she stands in three paths, she gives [the

result] of the three paths, she makes one the ruler, etc of the

three.

Or the three paths reside in her. There are three paths of the solar

disc distinguished as uttara [north], daksina [south] and madhyama

[middle]. Three Naksatras [constellations] beginning with Asvini

make

one vithi [line]; three vithis make a mArga [path]. These are fully

described in the VAyaviya Pr., "Asvini, KrttikA and YAmyA [bharani]

form NAgavithi. Rohini, ArdrA and Mrgasiras, form the GajavIthI.

Pusya, AslesA and Aditya [Punarvasu] form the AirAvativithI. These

three vithis form the uttara path. The two Phalgunis and MakhA form

Rsativithi. Hasta, CitrA and SvAti names GovithI. JyesthA, VisAkhA,

AnUrAdhA, is JAradgavIvIthI. These three vithis form the madhyama

path. MUla, PUrva- and Uttra-AsAdha is AjavIthI. Sravana and

DhanisthA

and SAtabhisak are called MrgavIthI. The two BhAdrapadas and Revati

is

VaisvAnaravIthI. These three form the daksina path"

 

Here savya [meaning both south and north] means the north path

consisting of the three vithIs, NAga, Gaja and AirAvati. Apasavya

means the south path consisting of the three vIthIs, Aja, Mrga and

VaisvArana.

 

MArga means the middle path with the three vithIa, Rsata, go and

Jaradgave. Or mArga, means the uttara path, deriving the meaning

from

that which belong to Mrga, for the north path has relation with the

Mrgasisras Naksatra. Savya, means the middle path because it is th

eleft side of the south. Apasavya of course means the south path.

This

is one explanation.

 

Or savya, the way of the gods called the "path of light" only to be

attained by renunciation; apasavya, the way of the pitrs called

the "path of smoke", etc., attained by worldly men. The word

mArgastha

means the world of Visnu the residing place of Dhruva.

 

Dhruva is the pole star on which depends the established paths

[mArga]

of the sun and the planes; hence mArgastha means dhruva. The full

description of this occurs in the Visnu Pr. {II. 8. 23

Wilson's ]:"On

the north of Agastya and south of the line of the Aja, exterior to

the

VaisvAnara path lies the road of the pitrs. There dwell the great

rsis, the agnihotrins, the mahAtmans, reverencing the Vedas after

whose injunctions creation commenced, and who were discharging the

duties of ministrant priests. For, as the worlds are destroyed and

renewed, they institue and re-established the interrupted rituals of

the Vedas. Mutually descending from each other, progenitor sprining

from descendant and descendant from progenitor, in the alternating

succession of births, they repeatedly appear in different houses

and

races - along with their prosperity, devout practices and instituted

observances - residing south of the solar orb, as long as the moon

and

stars endure"

 

Agastya's place is on the north path of the LokAloka mountain. The

matsya Pr. says, "The fourteen lokapAlas [the protectors of the

world]

are residing in the LokAloka mountain. The north peak of that is the

place of Agastya worshipped by gods and rsis. The path of the gods

lies to the north of the solar sphere, [which is] north to the

NAgavithI and south of the seven rsis. There dwell the siddhas, of

subdued senses, continent and pure, undesirous of progeny, and

therefor victorious over death. Eighty-eight thousand of these

chaste

beings tenant the regions of the sky, north of the sun, until the

destruction of the universe: they enjoy immortality, for they are

holy, exempt from covetourness and concupiscense, love and hatred,

taking no part in the procreation of living beings; and detecting

the

unreality of the properties of elementary matter. By immortality is

meant existence to the end of the Kalpa. Life as long as the three

regions [earth, sky and heaven] last means exemption from reiterated

death".

 

 

To be continued .......

 

 

BhAskararAya's Commentary

Translated into English by R. Ananthakrishna Sastry.

 

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