Name 806 in the Lalita Saharanamam, “Param Jyothi” - Great Radiance

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Great Radiance

 

Name 806 in the Lalita Saharanamam, or Thousand Names of the Divine

Mother, in the Indian tradition is

 

" Param Jyothi " Great Radiance

 

" She who is the Supreme Light. Devi (the Goddess) is indeed the

`one who turns into darkness this sun with a thousand rays.'

Her brilliance is that of ten thousand suns rising at once.

Brhadaranayaka Upanisad (IV.4.16) says, `Upon that Light of

lights, the devas meditate for longevity.' Katha Upanisad

(II.ii.15) says, `The sun does not shine there, nor do thte moon

and the stars, nor does lightning shine, and much less this fire.

When He shines, everything shines after Him; by His light, all these

shine. " (The Thousand Names of the Divine Mother, Sri Lalita

Sahasranama, with Commentary, by T.V. Narayana Menon, translated

into English by Dr. M.N. Namboodiri, pp 344-345)

 

From the western tradition, I can quote a paper I wrote myself, as

part of my preparation for my master's thesis in theology,

written in 1985.

 

" Our Hebrew tradition named and characterized God as female, but

this stream of the tradition has been overshadowed by the more

dominant male-oriented streams of tradition. There are four feminine

characterizations of God with which I am familiar. They are 1) the

Spirit of God, 2) the Wisdom of God, and 3) the Presence of God

Among God's People in the Shekinah Glory.

 

" God's Shekinah Glory is a neglected topic in biblical study [but

not anymore, thanks to feminist studies]. It is not even mentioned

in Leon-Dufour's Dictionary of Biblical Theology. [this was written

in 1985] But Urban T. Holmes in his History of Christianity writes

that:

 

" 'Shekinah means the dwelling of God with his people, perceived

as one would see the sun's rays coming from behind a dark cloud.'

[this is , btw, similar to the concept contained in the Gayatri

mantra] 'It is the manifestation of God. It is the provisional

presence of God. The Shekinah is the presence of the holy in the

midst of the profane. But the metaphor is that the Shekinah is like

the sun; it is everywhere. Yahweh is present in the totality of

creation. (Yahweh) can appear in a burning bush as much as in the

Holy of Holies.'

 

" In these passages the image of the Shekinah combines the notions of

brightness or radiance with that of presence or manifestation. God

appears to us in the midst of the `profane' or `everyday

world' in a radiance like that of the sun. Holmes goes on to note

that 'It is interesting that in the twelfth- and thirteenth-century

Kabbalah, a Jewish mystical sect, the Shekinah becomes the feminine

principle (of God) in the ten emanations of God, known as the

Sefiret.'

 

" In my own experience, this warm, loving presence of glory and

light has been both strong and maternal, powerful and safe. " (©

Karen Mattern, 1985)...

 

" The Spirit of God, the holy Ruach, is also feminine in gender in

the Hebrew. Other Christian symbols for the Holy Spirit coincide

with cross-culturally archetypal symbols for the feminine: e.g., the

bird, the fountain, the bringer of comfort, the flame. But the

Hebrew word `ruach' means `breath' or `wind',

images that are especially feminine. They are full of life and

movement, like soul, (thought and feeling) itself. These images

speak to me of the Divine, as well, covering the greatest to the

least as does Wind in the scope of their movement, as does Wind,

penetrating to the depths of the interior dimension and

acknowledging the reciprocity between inside and outside, as does

Breath.

 

" The Wisdom of God is personified as feminine in the book of

Proverbs: she was with God at the beginning of God's work

(Prov.8:22-31), and the earth was created in her (Prov.3:19).

 

" Here is a passage from Scripture that combines images of the

Spirit and Wisdom of God:

 

For wisdom is mobile beyond all motion

And she penetrtes and pervades all things by reason of her purity.

For she is an aura of the might of God, And pure effusion of the

glory of the Almighty...

For she is the refulgence of eternal light, the spotless mirror of

the power of God, the image of God's goodness.

And she who is one, can do all things, and renews everything while

herself perduring;

And passing into holy souls from age to age

She produces friends of God and prophets.

(Wisdom 7:24-27, JB)'

 

(© Karen Mattern, 2004)

 

In this paper, I went on to discover the Sacred Feminine within the

Christian tradition, : " In the New Testament, Jesus is the

perfect image of God. Jesus is called the Wisdom of God by Paul, and

is paralelled to the ancient Wisdom figure of Proverbs 8 by John.

(Citations available upon request)

 

" The presence of glory (the Shekinah glory of God's presence

among God's people) is in both these references, and is extended to

the believers in these passages: " while you have the Light, walk

in the Light, that you may become children of Light " , and

" God...made known the riches of the glory of this mystery, which

is Christ in you, the hope of glory. " Jesus promised that he,

himself, the Father and the Holy Spirit (the feminine Ruach of God)

will be in us. Because of this union - participation in the life of

God and of the Risen Christ, we are called to behavior in life that

will reflect their life and glory; we are to be an extension of

their presence on earth. " For once you were in darkness, but now

you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light... " We also

now live and walk by the Spirit, the feminine Ruach, the Mind of

God. As women we are genuine reflections of God and of Christ, made

in God's image, in the likeness of Jesus Christ. " (© Karen

Mattern, 1985)

 

Great Radiance

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