Soundarya Lahari--Verse 97

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Kalatram vaidhAtram kati kati bhajante na kavayah

Sriyo devyAh ko vA na bhavati patih kair api dhanaih;

MahAdevam hitvA tava sati satInAm acarame

kucAbhyAm Asangah kuravaka-taror apy asulabhah.

 

O ideal of chastity! how many poets have not courted the wife of

VidhAtr? Who does not become the Lord of Sridevi [the goddess of

wealth] by [commanding] whatever [little] wealth? O foremost amongst

the chaste! embrace the Great Lord [MahAdeva], the embrace of Thy

breast is unattainable even by the Kuravaka tree.

 

 

The wife of vidhAtr - the wife of Brahman, ie SarasvatI, the goddess of

learning, at whose command is the gift of poesy and whose favour is

therefore courted by poets.

 

Sridevi - Laksmi, the goddess of wealth.

 

Wealth - in the form of hoards of precious metals, gems, coins, grain,

elephants, horses and other emblems of prosperity. Even the possession

of a little of one or more of the above evokes praise of the owner, as

a LaksmIpati, Lord of Wealty. The vein of levity assumed by the poet in

his references to Sarasvati and Laksmi as fickle-minded is for the

purpose of heightening the effect of the Devi's chastity. Even the

inanimate Kuravaka tree is denied the pleasure of the Devi's embrace,

to be cured of its barrenness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yantra image in : SS homepage.

 

http://www.shaktisadhana.org/Newhomepage/sadhana/Commentaries.html

 

The Saundarya-Lahari of Sri Samkara-Bhagavatpad a.

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