How to start reciting Lalitha Sahasranama ( Step Three)

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Step Three: There must be freshness at the sight of Beauty and Glow

in your Eyes

 

" A thing of beauty is joy for ever " (Keats). In a finite thing there

is no perfect unalloyed joy; what it gives cannot be abiding.

Limitless Bliss and beauty external are properties of truth

absolute. " Beauty is truth and Truth is Beauty " explains Keats.

 

Kalidasa amplifies " That is beauty which never fades but renews its

freshness at all moments.

 

" Ayi sumanah sumanah sumanah sumanah

sumanobara kaantiyute

Shrita rajanee rajanee rajanee rajanee

Rajanee karavaktravate

Sunayana vibhramara bhramara bhramara

Bhramara bhramaraadhipate………….. (10)

 

Taken from Sri Mahishasuramardini Stotra.

 

Meaning: Oh Mother! The one possessing splendour that is alluring

like the brightness of Parijata flowers that bloom in the gardens of

the good hearted heavenly beings, the one bearing the face that is

beautiful like the moon that is born from the milky ocean and that

which shines brightly at night, the one possessing bee like eyes,

the one wearing the flowers that are crowded with bees and hence

getting the `Bhramara'

 

When there is joy and love, there is beauty. Beauty causes Kama.

Kama means desire and love. Kama is the son of Brahma and he

portrays as carrying the sugarcane bow, representing the mind, and

five flower arrows representing the five sense perceptions. The

external world becomes knowable to us only when the mind is

conjoined to the sense objects.

 

Manas (Mind) is so called because its function is Mamana (Thinking).

The nativity of Kama from Brahma's mind illustrates that all desires

have their origin in the mind.

 

Devi is therefore Kama Dayini. Devi's very nature is Kama. Which

means one who gives devotees what they desire!

 

This means that if the desires are spiritual, then Devi takes the

devotee towards liberation. However, if the devotee desires are

towards material then Devi ties the devotee firmly to this earth.

 

Devi has Saraswathi in one eye and Lakshmi in the other eye. So Devi

gifts according to your desire. She never sleeps. Her eyes are

always watching out for her children and give them what she believes

they need. Always does what is best for them.

 

The eyes of those reflecting in the Self or Atman reflect that

fullness. Since there is no other which so beautiful and infinite,

the look will evidence this universality. Adi Sankara has mentioned

in Soundarya Lahari that it was Sakthi that made Shiva move but this

movement is from inside Shiva's heart. This means that that by

knowing Devi you are inside Shiva's Heart.

 

Just as Devi's eyes are always glowing our eyes also must glow to

recite Lalitha Sahasranama. Just as her glances will bestow immense

wealth your eyes glows to long for Devi and raise her to the skies

so that in the devotees it should generate bhakti towards her

exclusively.

 

R Ravi Sankar