Soundarya Lahiri Verse 12 [ of Sri Samkara-Bhagavatpada ]

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<sitam_subba wrote:

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> tvadeeyam soundaryam tuhinagiri kanye tulayitum

> kaveendraah kalpantey kathamapi virinchi prabhrutayah

> yadaalokaastuktyaadamaralalanaa yanti manasaa

> tapobhirdushpraapaamapi girisa saaujya padaveem

 

 

O Daughter of the snow-capped Mountains! The foremost poets, such as

ViriNci and others, are baulked in their attempt to find a match for

Thy beauty, as [even] celestial damsels, in their eagerness to

appreciate which, mentally attain at-one-ment with Girisa, which is

hard to attain even by severe penance.

 

 

In this stanza, the author extols, though indirectly the SAyujya,

the state of at-one-ment brought about by the merger of Siva and the

Sakti, the presiding deity of the Ananda-lahari, after describing

her abode, the Sri-cakra in the previous one.

 

The foremost poets - those that indulge in portraiture of the

sublime and the beautiful, out of the flights of their fancy, with

the aid of rhetorical devices. Brahman is here spoken of as one of

the foremost poets, in fact the foremost among them, for the reason

that he is the author of the most beautiful among created things,

and any attempt made by a poet in this direction could but be a poor

imitaion of Brahman's artistic skill.

 

Further the Veda-s, which afford the sublimes examples of poesy, owe

their origin to him.

 

Baulked - beacuse they do not commad that power of mental analysis

and expression which would enable them to draw a pen-picture of the

Devi's beauty, at least in terms of equally beautiful objects. Their

only possible resource in this respect would be the celestial

nymphs. But these in their own estimate fall so far short of the

Devi that, in their eagerness to have a look at her, they always

think of Siva, who alone has the privilege of enjoying the Devi's

beauty at close quarters, and in their emulation become one with

him.

 

In the case of the reading 'yad Alokya' - having seen

which, 'manasA' - with the mind, the meaning would be 'having

meditated upon Thy beauty'. The celestial nymphs, by the sheer

strength of such DhyAna-yoga, attain that oneness with Siva, which

is denied even to the greatest sages, notwithstanding their severe

austerities. There is another reading 'pasUnAm' for 'tapobih' -

meaning 'by those who are Pasu-s' [animals], in that they do not

follow the Tantra-s.

 

 

The Ocean of Beauty.

Saundarya-Lahari of Sri Samkara-Bhagavatpada

Pandit S. Subrahmanya Sastri and T.R Srinivasa Ayyangar.