Shree Matha

[Guest guest]

Dear Members,

 

Here is an explanation of the first name in Lalitha Sahasranama. This and the subsequent postings are purely my own views and based on my experiences and have not been culled from any available text on the meanings and 'artha' of the namas.And, therefore it would not be out of place to tell that,any defects concerning the translation or my analysis of the meaning are solely mine and all credits in this endeavour are my Gurunatha's.

 

 

(My Gurunatha, Sri Rajagopala Swami)

 

I do not wish to imprint my ''foot prints'' on anyone by way of following or by way of preaching. Every individual should be both dependent(for the sake of blasting the ego) and also independent(for the sake of the jeeva winside which is fiercely independent). Dependent on one's Guru and Independent of other influences and finally chalking one's path following one's inner spark of infinite wisdom.

 

 

 

Sree Mathre Namaha:

 

I bow to the Auspicious Mother(Divine)

 

Here the first reference is toward the Devi.

 

 

(Vageeshwari. Lalitha sahsranama is also known as Vageeshwari Vidya)

 

This is a litany composed by Vaageshwari and for Her the supreme Godhead manifests as Motherhood.She considers Rajarajeshwari as Her mother.And since the yogis and yoginis first start anything in the olden days thinking of Vighnaraja and then their Guru and mother. Vageeshwari starts like that.

 

This first name is not a mere formality.

 

 

 

If one is clever one might ask me then what ever happened to Vageeshwari's Guru and Ganapathy Dhyana?

 

The answer to the question is: That is covered in the Uttarabhaga and the sahsranama is strictly to do with Divine Mother Rajarajeshwari(whose colloquial name is Lalitha) and hence this reference to Mother in the very first name.

 

 

 

Yatho Vaa Imaani Bhoothaani Jaayanthe'

 

This is the Taittriya Upanishad Vaak. This means that 'the inchoatory point of this whole existence'..and this refers to 'Mother'.

 

 

 

The three vyahritis are also formed from Her Majesty's yoni. Bhuhu,Bhuvaha and Suvaha(swaha).

 

Now the first 21 verses in the litany of the Sahasranama is called the vivarana of the descent of Divinemother Rajarajeshwari. To be more specific it is called 'Sthula rupa Avataara Varnana'. 'Sthula' denotes physicality.Rupa denotes 'form'. 'Avatara' denotes the descent of of the divine(The divine descends for the human to ascend!) and 'varnana' denotes description.

 

 

 

'Mother' is verily the inchoatory point of all beings sentient or insentient. The Western cultures place less importance to the concept of mother except by way of worship of a few deities like Virgin Mary and lady saints(not mention western pagan Goddesses). And anyone who follows God as Mother is looked with askance. The children there have been brainwashed into considering God to be a male figure. They even refer to their land as Father-land. This disrespect(ignoring the greatness of feminity is also a sign of disrespect) has sown seeds of immorality by the unsparing sword of the law of karma.

 

 

 

The fatherhood notions bring out effort,ambitions,etc which when not balanced by the mother-upasana bring just material comforts but spiritual dissatisfaction.

 

 

 

Srividya upasana is bridge between both the male and the female aspects. The Guru(even if it is a female) is the purusha for the sadhakla or sadhaki and Divine mother is the stree.

 

 

 

We as human beings think mother is for comfort and love. But the love which we get from our physical mother though great cannot be equated to the love of Divine mother who knows a person's entire karmic history yet is compassionate enough to guide his or her path. Will your physical mother still guide knowing that you have killed all her children,parents and husband in your pastlives and that the killer is bron in this birth as her child. She might still love her child but that love will be tainted by the new information a bit unless she has come up in the 'chakric' order(in other words she is practicing maha-kundalini sadhana and has raised her consciousness atleast to the 'anahata' region).

 

 

(Uncoiling of the internal serpent...Mahakundalini and Veerakundalini sadhanas)

 

Divine mother gives,Parokshasiri--divine comfort and wealth, apart from ordinary wealth. This undying wealth is in the form of vidya(which means many things including mantric knowledge),Viveka(discerning power),Samskara(good cultured mind),saampradaya(a way to God and not just a tradition),Keerthi(fame),Deiva jignaasa(the curiostiy to know about God),Deivapoojaasakthi(the desire to do worship of God),Bhakthi,and mukthi as a result of this bhakthi. Without these true treasures one does not have any value.

 

 

 

To remember that one cannot even sniff the currency notes when one is dead is a sobering thought(though one might say spirts have the ability to sniff things!..such spirits are to be even more pitied for they even death does not release them from maya).

 

 

 

The true wealth is called 'Sri' and material wealth is called 'siri'. This small difference is not known to many.

 

That is why the appellative reference to Rajarajeshwari Devi in the litany begins with Sri Matha. It would be an insult to consider her to be a mother who gives pocket money to her children! She is the greatest mother of all mothers.

 

 

 

Moolakuttama:The mother of the three kutas of the panchadasi.

Muggurammala kanna amma: One who has given birth to the three mothers(here the reference though construed popularly as Lakshmi,saraswathy and parvathy actually means the three gunas which are like three mothers. These three gunas...the satva,rajas and tamas give rise to anything and everything in this physcial universe of ours)

 

Will not be an affront to call Moolakuttamma as Siri Matha?

 

Yes, She gives wealth too in a physcial sense but she gives more.

 

Another reason for the syllable 'sree' coming in the first is that any auspicious event should start with an auscpicious sound. Sree is the holdy syllable.

 

 

 

American scientists are doing lot of research in the field of Cymatics. I have Bengali friend of mine who is doing research in this field of Cymatics and She says for certain sounds certain patterns are formed(I had given it in an earlier posting of mine). For example Om produces on the advanced cymatic machine, a Srichakra(confirming the shiva shakthi aiiykaa). And sree produced the symbol sree in sanskrit in the same machine.

 

Vageeshwari(the goddess of sound) knows better than these budding American scientists and thus put this sound in the beggining of the litany.

 

 

 

Sree is a divya veejakshara and thus is prefixed before matha to make it the word of divine mother. Will you call your mother sree matha or mathaji? You might call her mathaji if you are given a choice between the two.This is because the term sree denoting auspiciousness is known to us subconsiously.

 

 

 

Sree is also prefixed for respect and since one is dealing with the biggest feminine force in the universe one uses the syllable Sree.

 

 

 

Ma means 'do not' and 'tha' means exist in sanskirt. So Matha means 'do not exist'. She is in non existence. This is an experiential feeling of a srividya upasaka.

 

 

 

The element ether (among the five bhutas) is to be studied carefully by one who wants to gain siddhi in mantra sadhanas and this element deals with the spaces in between. The spaces even the mind of a sadhaka between one thought and the other. This then synergises to give the existent -non-existent form of the deity which is expressed in the first word of the litany.

 

 

 

When anyone does this sahsranama it should be preceeded by a number of formalities like nyasa and dhyana. Nyasa is the deitifaction of oneself into a mirror image of the deity in question and when that happens here. She is existent in the person and also non-existent in the form of the person(unless one achives total coherence like Ramakrishna paramahamsa who developed breasts identifying himself completely with Bhavadharini)

 

 

(Ramakrishna Paramahamsa in Savikalpa Samadhi)

 

I can go on and on about this word but I think this will suffice as one needs initiation into srividya to explain to another person also in a more profound and deep manner.The words 'na shataya na dustaya' also come in my mind here!

 

Submitted at His Holy Feet

 

Eshwaree Rakshathu!!

 

Yours yogically,

 

Shreeram Balijepalli

 

 

 

 

 

 

Purity, Powers, Parabrahmam...

 

 

 

 

Click to join Rajarajeshwari_Kalpataru