Soundarya Lahari-- Verse 24 [Sri Samkara-Bhagavatpada]

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Jagat sUte dhAtA harir avati rudrah ksapayate

tiraskurvann etat svam api vapur Isas tirayati

SadA-pUrvah sarvam tad idam anugrhnAti can Sivas

tavAjNAm Alambya ksana-calitayor bhrUlati-kayoh.

 

The DhAtr creates the world; Hari sustains it; Rudra destroys it;

making all this disappear, Isa causes his own form to disappear as

well; while SadAsiva, in pursuance of the mandate from thy slightly-

knit creeper-llike eyebrows, blesses all this.

 

 

Th eevolution and the involution of the macrocosm preparatory to its

creation once again, are indicated in this stanza. The world is in a

state of evolution through Brahman discharging his function of

creating it and Visnu discharging his function of sustaining it.

Then commences the involution with the destruction of the world by

Rudra, whereupon Isvara causes the destroyed universe to disappear

alon gwith Brahman, Visnu and Rudra, and himself disappears. During

the process of involution, the lower Tattva-s merge into the higher

Tattva, Isvara, who represents the lower Tattva-s in their

collective form and ceases to have an independent existence after

the process of involution is complete.

 

There, then, remains SadAsiva alone, who is the all-witness, and

absorbs all the Tattva-s including Isvara in the Bija form within

himself, and in his passive attitude implies his approval of the

actions of the lower powers who carry out the work of involution in

obedience to the pre-ordained laws of evolution and involution,

himself standing changeless and eternal, preparatory to the

creation of the universe once again, at the instance of the Devi,

who conveys her mandate through the knitting of her eyebrows, as

represented in this stanza. The implication is that the Devi is

All-supreme and the five powers, through whom she carries out her

mandates, are but her agents.

 

The Ocean of beauty - Saundarya Lahari of Sri Samkara-Bhagavatpada

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