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Saundarya Lahari

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 86

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

VERSE 86

ONTOLOGY MEETS TELEOLOGY RATHER ABRUPTLY
CONCEPTUALISM REDUCED STILL FURTHER IS NOMINALISM

 

मृषा कृत्वा गोत्रस्खलन-मथ वैलक्ष्यनमितं
ललाटे भर्तारं चरणकमले ताडयति ते ।
चिरादन्तः शल्यं दहनकृत मुन्मूलितवता
तुलाकोटिक्वाणैः किलिकिलित मीशान रिपुणा

 

mrsa krtva gotra skhalanam atha vailaksya namitam
lalale bhartaram carana kamale tadayati te
cirad antas salyam dahana krtam unmilitavata
tulakoti kvanaih kilikilitam isana ripuna
 
On having inadvertently defaulted in respect of Your family name,
While stooping in shame, Your husband's forehead as
You kicked with Your lotus feet,
That enemy of Shiva, wholly giving up his rancour, his victory
celebrates with clamour of many jingle bells.
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In Verse 86, the counterparts are the lotus feet, which are meant to be cancelled out against a mistake made by Shiva in referring to the name of the clan of Parvati´s father. In other words, name and form are meant to be cancelled out to help us to attain the Absolute. There is no Tantric secret at all here, as some would try to find in every one of these verses. It is not impossible, however, to see the verse in a Tantric perspective if we should so desire. The divinities Shiva, Parvati and Kama enter into the composition of this verse, which might remind us of the Tantric tradition. The picture of Shiva stooping in shame, also reminiscent of some structural features belonging to the Tantric context, has to be seen side by side with the lotus feet, which have to reach the forehead to be able to kick it.
 
This could happen only if the feet are placed in a bent position, corresponding to that of Shiva. They could be imagined to be in contiguity within a circle or better still within the figure-eight formation at the core of the total situation. There is a kind of second- or third-dimensional loop or circle to be understood here. As we have said in respect of Verse 7, solid geometry and conic sections of more than two or three dimensions could be pressed into the service of this structuralism. Pythagorean geometric or trigonometric and differential mathematical forms or calculations could be applied also.
 
The jingle bells have also to be located by us in the total structure, without violating conventions proper to the language of Tantra, Mantra or Yantra. Evidently, they must be treated as the same as the jingle bells of Verse 7 on the waist belt of the purushika, represented there in the full dynamism of all her possible motions put together into one living form. Here the negative or horizontal feeling, which is not a virtue at all and thus not ornamental even to the God of Love, is the element of long-standing rancour which Kama has been keeping repressed within himself against Shiva, whom he considers to be a rival obstructing his own intentions and free functioning. Shiva stands defeated in this verse, at least for a moment. How does this enhance the beauty of the Goddess to make it attain the Absolute? Here the same argument as in the previous verse should hold good. Every kick on the forehead of Shiva by Parvati makes the erotic sentiment circulate more freely. The God of Love thus feels that he is not fully useless. Shiva is against him normally, because he represents the heated or lighted side of reality, which has also a corresponding cold and dark side. The circulation of erotic values in the core of the Absolute, whether positive or negative, takes place because of a slight mistake in naming the clan to which Parvati belonged. This slight error has had the disastrous consequence of causing eroticism to begin to function, although indirectly, stimulating the sentiments that can bridge the gulf by cancellation of dark against bright instinctive dispositions. The victory belongs directly to the beauty of the Goddess, in whose borrowed light or glory the God of Love is also jubilant. It is again the occasionalism that justifies such a temporary defeat and humiliation of Shiva. The beauty of the total picture is not marred by this slight blemish; just as one can prove the opposite by the same token. This way of proving the opposite is a favourite method adopted by wives for arguing with their husbands. It is negative but not false. An awareness of such a possibility might avoid many quarrels in everyday life.
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.

 

WORD FOR WORD
Mrsha krtva gotra skhalanam - having inadvertently defaulted in respect of Your family name
Atha vailakshya namitam - then stooping in shame
Lalata bhartaram - on Your husband's forehead
Charana kamale tadayati te - when the two lotus feet are kicking
Chirat - what is long standing
Antah shalyam - rancour
Dahana krtam - caused by the burning of Shiva
Unmulita vata - having wholly abandoned (plucked out) his rancour
Tula koti kvanaih - by sound rising from the end of ankle
Kilikilitam - with jingle bells
Ishana ripuna - by the enemy of Shiva
 
This is an example of cancellation, i.e. the kick on the forehead.
The jingling bells are tied to the feet of Eros - his being burnt means that he was pushed to the negative side.
The Devi kicks Shiva and Eros dances happily because of it.
Shiva did not pronounce some other woman's name - it had something to do with pride in the origin of Her family (gotra skhalana).

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Another version:
 
WORD FOR WORD
Mrsa krtva gotra skhalanam - inadvertently having had a family-disrupting thought
Atha vailaksya namitam - then recumbent with lost face
Lalate bhartaram - on the forehead of the husband
Carana kamale tadayati - when he is being kicked by her lotus feet
Te cirat - your (feet), long prevailing (nourishing)
Antah salyam dahana krtam - the anger caused inside by the consuming fire (of Shiva)
Unmulita vata - by him who has awakened out of it
Tula koti kvanaih - by the sounds of many bells
Kili kilitam - is jingled (in triumph)
Isana ripuna - by the enemy of Isana (Shiva)
 
The Alpha point of one - Her foot - touches the Omega point of the other - Shiva's head.
The family honour of Parvati is at stake here.
The kick is caused by the nominalistic indifference of Shiva.
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Another version:
 
TRANSLATION
1) Shiva made a mistake in vertical reference to his wife (mistook another)
2) Becomes ashamed about the mistake about family descent
3) Is kicked on the forehead while he is bent over in shame
4) Absolute negative value of the lotus-coloured feet, she kicks
5) Refers to Eros hiding near the waist of the Devi
6) Long prevailing fire on the head of Eros, caused by Shiva's enmity
7) Eros wakes up and sees that Shiva is being kicked
8) Bells, and
9) jingling sounds occur when the Devi kicks, and when Eros realizes it (the bells could be around the Devi's ankles)
10) When the enemy of Eros is kicked
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Another version:

TRANSLATION
1) Inadvertently having had a family-disrupting thought
2) Then recumbent with lost face
3) On the forehead of the husband
4) With the lotus feet she kicked, your
5) Long prevailing
6) The anger caused inside by long prevailing fire
7) By him who awakened out of it
8) By the sound of jingling of many bells
9) Is jingled
10) By the enemy of Isana (Shiva)
 
Shiva made a mistake, forgetting that the Devi is a daughter of the Himalayas and his proper wife, since he is also prone to horizontal errors.
The Devi is obliged to straighten him out with a kick in the forehead.

SANKARA IS SAYING THAT THERE IS ALSO A VERTICAL NEGATIVE POWER
- NOT JUST A POSITIVE POWER.
THE NEGATIVE POWER IS REPRESENTED HERE BY THE DEVI KICKING SHIVA IN THE HEAD.
 
Gotra skhalana (disrespect of Her family): the Devi kicks and Eros celebrates with the jingling of bells in a circle. The kicking also takes place in a circle.

Kicking is justified in the rarest of absolute circumstances: when the Numerator shows a lack of respect for the dignity of the Denominator.

It means that, for example, in the Bible, the son of David and the son of God are the same: it make no distinction - they are equally dignified.
 
Make it into a tambourine, in which circle the Devi kicks Shiva; Eros applauds with crescendo jingling and drumming.
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SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 87

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

VERSE 87

A FOURFOLD CIRCULATION OF VALUES BETWEEN TWO PAIRS
OF LOTUS FEET
A QUATERNION OF LOTUSES, DIFFERENT STATUSES OF EXISTENCE
SLEEPING AT NIGHT = RIGHT HAND
FOUR EPISTEMOLOGICAL TYPES OF EXISTENCE:
CONCRETE, VIRTUAL, CONCEPTUAL, ACTUAL
 
हिमानी हन्तव्यं हिमगिरिनिवासैक-चतुरौ
निशायां निद्राणं निशि-चरमभागे च विशदौ ।
वरं लक्ष्मीपात्रं श्रिय-मतिसृहन्तो समयिनां
सरोजं त्वत्पादौ जननि जयत-श्चित्रमिह किम्
 
himani hantavyam himagiri nivasaika caturau
nisayam nidranam nisi caramabhage ca visadau
varam laksmi patram sriyam atisrjantau samayinam
sarojam tvad padau janani jayatas citram iha kim
.
Capable of being killed by snow, and fully at home on the snow peak;
Sleeping at night, and in bloom both at dawn and after;
Making Lakshmi's bowl overgenerous to Your Vedic worshippers,
Such the twin lotus of Your foot, it triumphs: what wonder herein?
.
 
In Verse 87 the twin feet are treated together, and not as “one plus one”. With this secret in mind, we can grasp the intended meaning more easily than if the theory of ensembles involved here is not duly respected at the very start. In order to treat the twin feet as an ensemble consisting of two items of the same class, it would be helpful for us to put a circle, or even the three circles of the Sri Chakra, round them, placed at the bindusthana (central locus of meditation).
 
There are three sets of lotuses in this verse which have to be arranged in pairs to fulfil the requirements of the correct structuralism intended in this poem. A hierophantic lotus is likely to be killed by snow, but a golden lotus placed at a high hypostatic level would thrive even at a very low temperature. These two lotuses have thus to be placed on the vertical axis at different levels. There are two other lotuses in the second line which are to be placed horizontally because of the alternation of day and night, and which are not as generalized and abstracted as the first pair of lotuses.
 
In the third and fourth lines the ensemble represented by the two feet compared to lotuses has no horizontal or vertical duality implied between them. They are compared to the bowl of Lakshmi, though placed at a lower level in a more ordinary, workaday world, where hedonistic and relativistic interests are still natural and permissible. We have seen that Lakshmi is the Goddess of Wealth whom those who want to become rich in this life naturally treat as their chosen divinity. Sankara is evidently thinking here of the Tantric school of Samayins, who belong to the revised and more respectable Vedic context, as against the Kaulins who connive at certain disreputable practices; though perhaps in a manner more correctly fulfilling the requirements of Tantrism in other respects. There is, however, one respect in which the description here does not fit the Samayins. Over-generousness is an absolutist virtue which cannot strictly apply to a relativistic or hedonistic context proper to a Vedic school such as the Samayins. This distinction, between just granting prayers and granting more than what is prayed for, has been brought into its correct revised perspective by Sankara as early as Verse 4, where the feet of the Goddess alone were considered to be expert in yielding “more-than ­asked-for boon”. This is a touch of revaluation coming from Sankara of which the Samayins could be taken to be ignorant.
 
We have to further note that the Sanskrit language has singular, dual and plural numbers, and not merely singular and plural as in most languages. Here the twin feet could be treated as a singular ensemble, or as being dualistic when each foot has a distinguishable characteristic of its own. Both of these syntactical requirements are meant to be respected in this verse, as we can see by scrutinizing the antecedents of the words padau (your twin feet) and jayatah (they both triumph) where the dual verb agrees with a dual noun. Strict syntactical requirements would demand a separate verb to agree with what should be treated in the singular. Amends for this kind of grammatical discrepancy seem to be made quickly by Sankara at the end of this verse, when it says “what wonder herein”. This is as good as saying that, even if there is an impossibility hiding here, the absolutist status given to the two feet treated together, when understood in all its uniqueness as an ensemble with a unity of meaning in itself and for itself, should not be treated as anything unexpected. In other words, one should not wonder. There is still room for miracles in this world. The Absolute itself is a miracle, and one should not be surprised to find it so.
 
The reference in the second line to two kinds of lotuses could be treated as referring to a sensitive lotus, like an ordinary lotus, and to one that is not sensitive and does not change, whether it is day or night. The sensitive lotus would correspond to the virtuality or subjectivity implied in a dream state. Ordinary flowers, which have no such sensitivity to light, are like the waking consciousness, lacking subjectivity altogether. This is a horizontal difference between the positive and negative aspects, quantitatively understood, as between plus and minus numbers in the context of Cartesian correlates. They do not refer to the imaginary numbers of incommensurables, which have a deeper and more theoretical transfinite reference. Complex numbers belong together as understood here.
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(Cartesian correlates or coordinates, which allow reference to a point in space as a set of numbers, and allow algebraic equations to be expressed as geometric shapes in a two-dimensional coordinate system (and conversely, shapes to be described as equations) were named after René Descartes, French philosopher, 1596-1650. The structural methodology used by Nataraja Guru couls be seen as a three-dimansional revision and revaluation of Descartes. ED)
 
(An imaginary number is a number whose square is less than or equal to zero. For example, \sqrt{-25} is an imaginary number and its square is -25. ED)
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.

 

WORD FOR WORD
Hima nihantavyam - that which gets blasted by frost or snow
Himagiri nivasaika caturau - the (twin) that are expert in living in the Himalayan region
Nisayam nidranam - which go to sleep at night
Nisi carama bhage ca - at dusk as at the point of death of darkness
Visadau - clear
Varam - desired boon
Laksmi patram - the receptacle of (the goddess of) prosperity
Sriyam ati srjantau - which spreads around wealth with extra readiness
Samayinam - to votaries
Sarojam - the water-born (flower lotus)
Tvat padau - your twin feet
Janani jayatah - o Mother they (both) reign victorious
Citram iha kim - what wonder herein
.

Another version:

WORD FOR WORD
Himani hantavyam - capable of being killed by snow
Hima giri naivasika chaturau - (Your twin feet) fully at home on snow peak
Nishayam nidranam - sleeping at night
Nishim charama bhage cha vishadau - and in bloom at dusk and day
Varam lakshmi patram - as a desirable seat for Lakshmi
Shriyam ati srjantau samayinam - overgenerous in gifts bestowed on Your Vedic worshippers called Samayins
Sarojam tvad padau - such Your twin lotus feet
Janani jayata - o mother , they triumph
Chitram iha kim - what cause for wonder here?
 
 
.
The Devi's lotus is the subject here; it is a lotus which is absolute and thus is not blighted by anything outside itself and horizontal - it is by itself, for itself, in itself etc. It is above the O Point in the numerator domain.

But, lower down, from the O Point to the Alpha Point on the denominator side, is Lakshmi, who is not always the same; she is affected by the weather and by night and day, etc.

.

Another version:
 
TRANSLATION
That which gets blasted by the frost (or the snows of the Himalayas)
The (twin) that are expert in living in the Himalayan peaks
Which go to sleep at night
At dusk as at the point of death of darkness
Clear (which are both clear)
Desired boon
The receptacle of the Goddess of Prosperity
Which spreads around wealth (with extra readiness)
To votaries (devotees)
The water bound (born ) (flower lotus (lotus flower?)
Your twin feet
O Mother, they (both) reign victorious
What wonder herein?

.

Another version:

TRANSLATION
Frost in the Himalayas which blasts a lotus flower
"Expert" because they are Absolute Beauty - they cannot suffer from frost
In the night this flower will go to sleep
At the end of the night, just as at dusk
It is clear (as a flower) at both times
(The Absolute is eternal, not blasted by cold, even though it closes)
 
A person who worships Lakshmi will have all the boons that are desired - She is a Denominator goddess - but think of Her in a revised, more absolute terms.
(Lakshmi is a relativistic goddess who bestows relativistic gifts - the Devi grants the gift of wisdom - of becoming the Devi herself. ED)

Around the numerator lotus of the Devi, the gift is beyond the normal limit - it is absolute.

Those who know how to worship the Goddess in the right way win much more than just a mediocre boon from Lakshmi.
 
Sankra is saying: "The conventional goddess, Lakshmi, gives you profit, but I am talking about extra prosperity - something more - is there any wonder in this?"
 
 
 
 
 
In the Himalayas there is a beautiful lotus which represents the beauty of the Devi, the negative absolute principle, living in the frost of the Himalayas.
 
 
 
 
This flower is blasted every day by cold.
But it is not an ordinary flower, it is absolute and resists the frost by its expertness.
It is very different from the ordinary lotuses that people worship.

However, it sleeps at night - even in the Absolute there is an alternation between night and day - it too sleeps at night, just as does any other organism.
 
.
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Lotuses are placed in different position on the horizontal and vertical axis of the structure.
 
The Absolute is placed between sleeping and waking.

A woman is supposed to be tender, like the feet - the ontological negative Absolute on the Denominator side.

If she did not sleep, she would not be the Absolute.
 

She is clear at night, just as at any other time.

How can you have any benefit from contemplating the Absolute?
Every kind of value which is prayed for will be given.
This wealth is thrown out with extra force by the cup or container of the lotus
It is not ordinary gifts, but the Big Bang of the Absolute - something worth while.
To whom are these gifts given? To votaries. The ordinary devotee gets a good house; the man expert in Absolute Values will get wisdom.

"Water bound", describing the lotus flower, means Denominator - not afraid of the frost.
Your twin feet, they are both victorious - what is impossible about this?
You had better find out what I am talking about.
 

.
 
Why twin feet? He has built an image in abstract terms, now do not forget that the two feet are real, the ontological Absolute.
There is a difference in quality, depending on how much of the vertical and horizontal are involved.
 
The epistemological status of the four elements of the quaternion.
"Lakshmi's bowl overgenerous": on one side put a Jaina or Marwari religious person who accepts the Hindu Goddess without qualification as a relativistic object of religious worship.

(A Jaina is a follower of the ancient Indian religion of Jainism. A Marwari is a member of the Marwari ethnic group from Rajasthan, now spread across North India and often associated with money-lending. They are often devotees of Lakshmi, as Goddess of Wealth. ED)
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The pair of feet are better than the lotus representing Lakshmi's bowl or seat.
Cancel the duality between the feet, which are both transcendent and immanent.
The Advaitic God is a wonder and a paradox. "What is the wonder here?"
Do not be surprised that there is a wonder.

 

 

Put a lotus between the two heels to mark the upper and lower levels: but only one of the heels is touching the ground, the other is raised slightly: thus suppleness is retained even in the universal concrete.

 


This alternation is most important, as in the representations of Nataraja.


 

This rhythm applies particularly to the sex organs of both men and women.
"How did you treat the twin feet as singular?"
"Shut up! I told you it is a wonder."
The feet are better than a lotus, as a Guru is better than a book or idol.
Worship the Devi, not a lotus.
.

 

Sankara wants to cancel the whole thing out into a beautiful gem.
Read this verse with Verses 71, 88, and 89.
 
Reduce the horizontal alternations into a vertical, and view it as a flux; this is the methodology to be adopted.
 
Below are structures relating to the three verses above:
 

 

Structure of Verse 71

 

Verse 71:

 

Shining by the brilliance of Your fingernails that mock the colour of
Just-opening lotus buds, how could we speak of the beauty of Your hand?
Granted be, o Uma, that the lotus could have one shade less of parity with it
If at all, and that, alas, only when touched by the magenta paste of the sole of Lakshmi as she plays thereon.

 

 

Structure of Verse 88.

 

Verse 88:

 

Your foot is the seat for good repute, o Goddess;
How then from danger to safety did it come?
The wise treat it as of tortoise-shell hardness; how then was it that Shiva,
At his wedding, could lift it with a tender mind to place it on the ritual stone?

 

 

 

 

slc1-p58-v89

 

Structure of Verse 89.

 

Verse 89:

 

With fingernails like moons, putting to shame
The lotus hands of celestial damsels, and feet that seem to mock celestial trees,
O tragic one, Chandi, Your twin feet offer fruit to heaven dwellers
With leaf-tender finger-tips, and bring secure riches to the poor instantly and incessantly.
.

 

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 88

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

VERSE 88

ABOLISH THE PARADOX BETWEEN ONTOLOGY AND TELEOLOGY
A PUN ON THE CONCEPTUAL AND PERCEPTUAL IMPORT OF VALUES
 
पदं ते कीर्तीनां प्रपदमपदं देवि विपदां
कथं नीतं सद्भिः कठिन-कमठी-कर्पर-तुलाम् ।
कथं वा बाहुभ्या-मुपयमनकाले पुरभिदा
यदादाय न्यस्तं दृषदि दयमानेन मनसा
 
padam te kirtinam prapadam apadam devi vipadam
katham nitam sadbhih kadhina kamadhi karpara tulam
katham va bahubhyam upayamana kale purabhida
yad adaya nyastam drsati dayamanena manasa
 
Your foot is the seat for good repute, o Goddess;
How then from danger to safety did it come?
The wise treat it as of tortoise-shell hardness; how then was it that Shiva,
At his wedding, could lift it with a tender mind to place it on the ritual stone?
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In Verse 88, the wonder of the previous verse, by which miracles are to be expected as normal, is carried over into the domain of semantic polyvalence. Punning is not considered quite respectable in societies that conform to conventional stand­ards, but Shakespeare indulges in it very frequently. Homer's Odyssey contains the story of how Ulysses, along with his fellow travelers, escaped from the cavern of the Cyclops by giving his name as “no-man”. Great poets have such a licence, which heightens the quality of their poetry instead of detracting from it. In this verse, Sankara freely indulges in Sanskrit words which seem to contain a mystery based on the interplay of sounds and meanings. In analytic psychology this tendency is looked upon as a low form of association, reflecting psychotic states. It is elsewhere understood, however, that poets, madmen and lovers have the same kind of imagination. Viewed in this light, this verse continues the vague background of wonder proper to a devotee whose instincts are stronger than the workings of his intelligence. We have, therefore, not to look for any strict consistency of meaning here. Words and their meanings blend into a beautiful confection which we are asked to enjoy.
 
In spite of this, there are vague traces of suggested meaning which we can extract and, by abolishing paradox, heighten the sense of wonder with reference to the same beautiful pair of feet, which are now to be put again at the focal point of the bindusthana for us to meditate upon. The first two lines, as before, contain a paradox which is of a conceptual, semantic and semiotic order. The second half of this verse refers to a more realistic paradox in which something rigidly solid is still capable of being treated as something supple. If the former is a metaphysical wonder, taking us beyond paradox, the latter is a physical wonder which is heightened still more than if the paradox were abolished altogether. The word padam can suggest both the feet and a state sufficiently stable, with an idea contained in it, representing an absolute value. Padam (a state) and apadam (a non-state) are used interchangeably and figuratively as referring to states of mind.
 
When thinking of the value represented here by the two lotus feet of the Goddess, two opposite perspectives belonging to two ambivalent attributes that could be applied to them could be suggested together to the mind. Normally, the feet of a Goddess could be treated as the seat of good reputation, or kirti. The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter X, Verse 34, P.455)  gives good reputation the first place among absolutist virtues which can embellish the beauty-value of woman­hood. As a leading virtue belonging to the bright side of life, good repute could be an attribute applicable to the feet of the Goddess, when viewed in a hypostatic perspective. When the same feet are viewed from the negative standpoint, they could have a dark, tragic connotation. These two ambivalent meanings, especially when an element of punning enters into the style, give this poetry a special appeal. The three words padam, prapadam and apadam employed here, are seen to be pressed into service as apt alliterations and artful aids. Epigrammatic pithiness indicates a bright form of literary ability. Nominalism and structuralism are being employed here, as if one wants to outdo the other. The first half of the verse suggests that at the lower limit there is a tragic import attached to the feet, which has now been sublimated and cancelled out.
 
The second half of the verse refers to the ritualistic custom by which the husband must make his bride stand on a mashing stone for curry spices and look at one of the small stars, hardly visible to the naked eye, near the tail-end of the constellation Orion. This is the test of a long and happy married life. Whether the test failed or succeeded, it was adopted because of its ceremonial impressive­ness, while relating human destiny to the movements of the stars.
 
When both of these suggestive representations of polyvalent meaning of meanings are treated together, there is a common characteristic of some value which could be called numinous, as opposed to phenomenal. It is the touch of the numinous that is to heighten the beauty-value when the two instances are treated together, as referring to existence and subsistence, to produce a value.
 
The reference to the wise treating the foot as of tortoise-shell ­hardness must either refer to some definite mythology some­where in the eighteen epics in Sanskrit, or in the Tamil epics such as the “Shiva Purana”. As mythologies generally are meant to suggest a deeper philosophical truth, we could guess here that the feet of the Goddess are where ontology attains to its maximum richness. In this sense it could be treated as solid matter, rather than anything flexible like a piece of wax. Solidity and liqui­dity have between them an element of paradox, even in the world of solid existences. That must be the reason why such a reference becomes pertinent here.
 
Further, we note that the mind of Shiva was melted in a state of kindness or compassion, while the feet of Parvati were suppo­sed by the wise to be concrete and rigid. The paradox results from a cross-reference from matter to mind, implying a transfer or interchangeability of epithets. This is another touch that is meant to heighten the paradox in the domain of semantic polyva­lence as applied to the significance of the beauty of the feet of the Goddess.
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Bhagavad Gita, Chapter X,
 
Verse 34

mrityuh sarvaharas cha 'ham
udbhavas cha bhavishyatam
kirtih srir vak cha narinam
smritir medha dhritih kshama

 

I am all-engulfing death and the Source throwing up
all things to be; and of womanly values, fame, grace,
speech, memory, Willpower, firmness and endurance.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.

 

The fore part of the Devi's feet is the seat of reputation.

 

WORD FOR WORD
Padam te kirtinam prapadam - your feet are the exalted seat of good repute
Apadam devi vipadam katham nitam - O Goddess, how come that danger was led to be non-dangerous?
Sad bhih kathina kamathi kar para tulam - by good poets sung in terms of tortoise-shell hardness
Katham va bahubhyam - how is it possible that by his hands
Upayama nakale - at the time of wedlock
Pura bheda - by the ancient ones so called
Yad adaya nyastam - were they taken so as to be placed
Drsadi - on the stone
Daya manena manasa - with a kindly mind


Note the four kinds of feet: Padam, Prapadam, Apadam, Vipadam

(Please note that we have only found unsatisfactory translations of these terms online, as you will have noticed. We are not expert in Sanskrit. The best definitions are to be found in the word-for-word above, written by the Guru who was a Sanskrit scholar. ED)

 

(These four terms: Padam, Prapadam, Apadam, Vipadam, suggest Pratyaksha Pramana - one of the sources of valid knowledge according to Vedanta. ED)

Pratyaksha - the four elements of paradox.
 
Pratyaksha - “that which is, or makes, evident” in Indian philosophy, is the first of the five pramanas.
 
(ED notes that the text appears confused here - in Advaita Vedanta the following pramanas, or sources of valid knowledge, are accepted:
  1. Pratyaksha, perception, knowledge gained by means of the senses;
  2. Anumana,  knowledge gained by means of inference;
  3. Sabda, knowledge gained by verbal testimony;
  4. Upamana, comparison, knowledge gained by means of analogy
  5. Arthapatti, postulation, knowledge gained by superimposing the known knowledge on an appearing knowledge that does not concur with the known knowledge;
  6. Anupalabdhi, reductio ad absurdum)

(Another definition of Anupalabdhi pramana is "the impossibility of being otherwise" ED.)

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Another version:
 
WORD FOR WORD
Padam te kirtinam prapadam - Your foot is the supreme seat of good repute
Apadam devi vipadam katham nitam - how then from danger it was led to its denial
Sad bhih kathina kamathi karpa thula - by the good poets or writers as equal in hardness to the tortoise shell
Katham va - however could it have been
Bahu bhyam - by both hands
Upaya mana kale - at his wedding time
Pura bhida - by the destroyer of cities
Yad adaya nyastam - the same was taken and placed
Drshati - on the ritual stone block
Dayamanena manasa - with tender mind (or supple state of)

TRANSLATION
Your feet are the exalted seat of (your) good repute
O Goddess, how is it that danger became non-dangerous?
By good poets (people) in terms of tortoiseshell
How is it possible that by his hands
At the time of wedlock (to Shiva)
By the ancient one so cold
Were taken so as to be placed
On the stone
With kindly mind
"How could Shiva have taken thy feet, tender as a lotus, and put them on a stone at the time of wedlock to Shiva, your feet, sung by poets as being as hard as tortoiseshell?"
(Placing the bride's foot on the stone is part of the wedding-ritual. ED)
Instead of being tender like a lotus, the feet have become hard by being praised by poets.
In temples, people praise the feet of the Devi - that is, they become hard when they become public.

The public mind makes them as hard as tortoiseshell, which is secreted by the living organism of the tortoise.

They are the seat of reputation of the Absolute and thus vertical.

How is it possible that when you were in danger of falling into a negative pit, you were saved by a horizontal reference (sung of by good poets)?
The paradox is represented by the horizontal and vertical - when verticalized, the paradox disappears.

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1st question: How could the dangerousness of the negative aspect be abolished?
2nd question: How could Shiva take the horizontal aspect of the feet and put them on a stone at the time of marriage?
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It is impossible to imagine Shiva taking hard feet and putting them on a stone that is hard itself...(Unclear in the original. ED)
1 - Good repute resides in the legs
2 - How come the danger of the negative aspect was brought to the horizontal plane and made auspicious?
3 - How was it possible at the time of wedlock for Shiva to lift the stone legs?
4 - Why put them on the stone?
A circulation of values is possible through your meditations - he will take these four elements of paradox and give meaning through a circulation of values.
 

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Give equal importance to the horizontal and vertical - unite them in the Absolute.
Shiva descends by kindness to fulfil the desires of people.
The intelligent man is free to see this game and play it by himself.
Priests want money, so they put an idol in a temple - but do not minimize their importance.

All these people come to worship where the Devi's feet are stone.
The ritual requires Shiva to put the feet (here they themselves are stone) on the stone for his bride to look at the star Arundati.

There are four elements of paradox here.
The two lotus feet at the bottom of the structure are the most ontological part of the Absolute - it ascends to the horizontal for the people.
 
Reputation is on the Numerator side, residing in the heel of the foot.
When the star Arundati is visible to the wife, her vitality is all right and she can marry.
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The secret of the feet is the left-right alternation; one foot is raised, both are not on the ground.

This is a structural secret, as in the figure of the dancing Shiva, Nataraja.
He is telling you to let sex life alternate as in a beautiful figure-8.
.
The fallopian tubes also operate in a figure-8.
You can almost see the Nataraja dance in this verse.

There is a pun here on padam and apadam (danger) which cannot be put into English.

The syntactical structure contains secrets of structure.
Also prapadam: the "pra-" underlines the meaning twice in the same direction.

"Brought from danger into safety" - Her foot, as a substantial thing, was in danger of clashing with the hard kitchen stone. Safety is attained by virtue of the suppleness of the leg.
"Tortoise-shell hardness" is ontological: there is something hard in her leg.
The first quality for a woman is to have a good reputation: she can be praised as having "A great name and a great beauty"
 

The Gita also places good reputation (kirti) at the head of the list of feminine virtues Ch.X, V.34, P.455

"I am all-engulfing Death, and the Source throwing up
all things to be; and of womanly values, fame, grace,
speech, memory, willpower, firmness and endurance."


The foot is the seat of this repute, as the ontological basis of beauty.
The anklets ring out, as it were, her reputation on the Numerator side.
Think of her as dancing on one foot.

How is it that the universal concrete foot could be made supple?
Shiva lifts it with two hands to overcome gravitation and inertia.
The reputation, on the numerator side, cancels with heaviness at the ontological limiting point on the denominator side.
There is a paradox between solidity and suppleness of the foot: one foot is lifted and one is placed solidly on the ground - there is an alternation between them.

The tenderness of Shiva's heart corresponds to the suppleness of the Denominator.
Another paradox is attempted to be abolished - "what a wonder!".

There is a dancing figure-8 between the two sides of the paradox.
There is a trans-personal and inter-subjective exchange of values in which airy and solid things can co-exist. The feet are both hard and also the seat of her reputation.
There are paradoxes at different levels; here they are ascending; in the previous verse, they are descending.
 
The Guru then refers to the following quotation from Henri Bergson on Structuralism - quoted in the Preliminaries of "An Integrated Science of the Absolute". (p. 154)
 
"Traversing Time and Space, which we have always known to be distinct, and by that very reason as amorphous, we shall be able to see, as if by transparency, an organism of articulated Space-Time. The mathematical notation of these articulations, effected on a basis that is virtual and carried to its most high degree of generalization, will give us an unexpected hold on reality. We shall then have in our hands a powerful means of investigation, a principle of research of which one could predict even from the present, that the human spirit will not renounce it, even when experience should impose a new form to the Theory of Relativity."
 
The Devi needs contact with the horizontal principle of the stone; it keeps the wife from becoming hysterical.
The lifting is not a joke; it requires the two hands of Shiva to do the job.

The paradox between negative, denominator ontology and positive, numerator teleology is melted from the denominator side by the Universal Concrete; from the Numerator side by the kindness of Shiva.
The Numerator corrects the Denominator and vice-versa.

Finally, Shiva loves the Devi, and the picture is beautiful.
Shiva is the contact between reputation and the Universal Concrete.
All rigidity yields to the kindness of the Absolute.

Note the four kinds of feet: Padam, Prapadam, Apadam, Vipadam.
Two legs dance Lasya, two dance Tandava.

(See Verses 7 and 41. ED)

 

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 89

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

VERSE 89

BOTH HYPOSTATIC AND HIEROPHANTIC VALUES
ARE REVIEWED UNDER THE ABSOLUTE

 

नखै-र्नाकस्त्रीणां करकमल-सङ्कोच-शशिभिः
तरूणां दिव्यानां हसत इव ते चण्डि चरणौ ।
फलानि स्वःस्थेभ्यः किसलय-कराग्रेण ददतां
दरिद्रेभ्यो भद्रां श्रियमनिश-मह्नाय ददतौ

 

nakhair nakastrinam karakamala sankoca sasibhis-
tarunam divyanam hasata iva te candi caranau
phalani svastebhyah kisalaya karagrena dadatam
daridrebhyo bhadram sriyam anisam ahnaya dadatau
 
With fingernails like moons, putting to shame
The lotus hands of celestial damsels, and feet that seem to mock celestial trees,
O tragic one, Chandi, Your twin feet offer fruit to heaven dwellers
With leaf-tender finger-tips, and bring secure riches to the poor instantly and incessantly.
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A biological analogy is resorted to in Verse 89, rather than a semantic one. States of consciousness are involved in the wonder of Verse 87. The beauty of a tree can be recognized by the magenta-coloured tender shoots, which resemble lotus buds. The fingernails could represent the growing points of trees as they unfold the tips of their leaf-buds, resembling outstretched hands, trying, as it were, to propitiate heaven by fit offerings from below. The moon is also a biological object in heaven, but it is stated here in the first line that the beauty of moonlight is nothing compared to the beauty of the tender offering of colourful leafy sprouts marking the topmost limit of the structure of a tree. The trees in heaven must have slender stems, corresponding to their refined status in the scale of hypostatic values. The feet of the goddess, in such a superfine or superior context, could mock the stems of celestial trees by superior strength or stability, because the Absolute has an equal reference to heaven and earth.
 
In the second half of this verse, the aspect of the Goddess is seen in a slightly revised perspective. She is no longer a delicate celestial damsel, but is here called Chandi (one with a terrible or tragic touch in her character). Chandi or Kali is darker in colour; but what she loses by way of delicacy or refinement, she gains on the side of ontology.
 
These two polarized perspectives of the same Absolute Goddess yield contrasting pictures which are meant to be cancelled-out against each other, and not to be treated as permitting any duality to persist between them. One is a horiz­ontalized version of the other, which is the same, viewed in a more transparent aspect where concepts merge instead of being exclusive of each other. The mind participates equally with the two domains, where conflicts could be recognized so that they could be transcended. The feet of the latter Goddess are planted on the Earth with full firmness or stability. Here she knows exactly what she wants, because ontology is richer in the content of certitude. The Vedanta of Sankara does not reject the importance of pratyaksha, that is, what is given to the senses. Experimental evidence is not to be explained away to lift the Absolute out of a workaday context, making it something holy or celestial with an “ivory tower” isolation of superiority. In this more ontologically-biased version, the tender leaves are not omitted, but the tragic touch of earthiness is a quality that not only tries to please the heavenly gods, but is sympathetic to the needs of poorer men on earth. Sankara seems to opt for the latter version, because duality is seen to be more thoroughly abolished in it. This does not mean, however, that heaven-dwellers are to be left starving. The beauty of the Goddess, suggested in the first two lines, is good enough - but what is suggested in the second half is better. Neither of them is to be rejected, but they are to be correctly fitted into the total context of a non-dual absolute value called Beauty.
 
The phrase “secure riches to the poor instantly and incessantly” makes happiness refer to a here-and-now world, rather than to a promised land which theologians might hold out for believers. Religion is full of promises which may or may not be realized. Politics also falls into the same category, often without being aware of it.
 
The results are instantaneous when ontology is given its full place and the benefits are more generally applicable. The satisfaction of the needy is more important than the fantasies of the chosen few, who think of going to heaven first, before wishing for a life free from a scarcity of basic necessities here below. The dialectics is between the “good of all” and the “general good”. In the eyes of Advaita, both are equally important. It is not “either/or” but “both together” that is to be kept as our aim, hope or ideal.

 

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.

 

WORD FOR WORD
Nakhair nakastrinam - by nails for the heavenly damsels
Kara kamala samkoca - sasibhih - effectual as moons that cause to fade the lotus hands
Tarunam divyanam - (as for) the heavenly trees
Hasata iva - seem to be (mocking)
Te - yours
Candi - dominant Goddess (Parvati)
Caranau phalani - the two feet, the fruits
Svah sthebhyah - for people in heaven
Kisalaya karagrena - by sprouts (? illegible) tender tips of fingers
Dadatam - what is giving
Daridrebhyo - to the indigent
Bhadram sriyam anisam - fully beneficial wealth incessantly
Ahnaya dadatau - what quickly confers
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Another version:
 
TRANSLATION
By nails for the heavenly damsels
Effectual as moons that cause to fade the lotus hands
(As for) the heavenly trees
Seem to be mocking
Yours ( your nails)
Dominant Goddess (name for Parvati - Chandi - riding on a lion) ("slayer of Chanda" according to Malayalam edition. ED)
The two feet, the prints (?)
For the people in heaven
By the sprout tender tips of fingers
What is giving
To the indigent
Fully beneficial wealth incessantly
What quickly confers
There are many lower goddesses in Vedic literature, but they have to be cancelled out by the Absolute Principle of Beauty.
 
This principle is the Devi, whose toenails cancel out all the epic literature of India and boil it down to Vedantic terms in revised form.
.

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The nails are the lowest point of the negative pole - they have universal concrete value - when verticalized they become moonlight, not something hard.
Think of a tree in heaven, a numerator hypostatic function.
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Those who meditate on such trees gain heavenly values.
 

But here we come to the feet of the Goddess and the nails are so beautiful, they are like moonlight in consciousness, like the radiance of the crescent moon.
 

The nails are mocking the totality of hypostatic values.
When the moon comes, the numerator lotus closes, mocked by the denominator nails of the Devi.

Why should the lotus nails cancel the hands of the Goddess?
Because the nails are absolute negative moonlight.
The Goddesses are only heavenly.
 
 
 

The lotus hands are trying to give benefits, but they contract in moonlight.
The Denominator is mocking the Numerator.
.

.
 

There are two comparisons made here:
1) On the one hand, the Numerator aspect of the divine tree, which has flowers and can give benefits in heaven - a priest will worship goddesses who bestow benefits in the heavenly context. This heaven is a hedonistic, relativistic value-world where various Numerator goddesses are worshipped: their hands are like tree blossoms, giving benefits.
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2) On the other hand, the nails of the Devi are like five crescent moons, the light of which represents Knowledge.
The absolute aspect of the nails is superior to the goddesses and, as moonlight, make the lotus hands fold up.

This is the "mocking": the Devi's nails, as moonlight, mock the hedonistic, relativistic, pluralistic aspect of the Goddesses.

In terms of consciousness, the light of the Goddess' toenails, which represent the vertical hierophantic (negative) Absolute, cancel out the hedonistic, relativistic, pluralistic benefits of the heavenly goddesses.

"Meditate on the ontological aspect of my toenails; goddesses will give to you only with their hands."
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Another version:
 
TRANSLATION
" By nails" - superior to lotus hands (In the Platonic world)
" Cause to fade" - the lotus hands
" Seem to be mocking" - the nails are superior
" Lion" - the dominant factor of Chandi - the Devi on a lion abolishes the horizontal aspect
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(Chandi or Durga is usually depicted as riding on a lion or tiger. ED)

" Two feet" - the negative Absolute, ontological, here and now
" For the people in heaven" - benefits to Brahmins
" Indigent" - gives benefits both to indigents and to the Sannyasins; there is no distinction
" Incessantly" - a constant gift, absolute and uniform
" Quickly" - as soon as you understand the Absolute, the permanent benefit is incessantly given and seen.
 
 
"With fingernails of the lotus hands of celestial damsels.."
The foot is again the central subject, planted like a tree.
Heaven-dwellers want only ice-cream, finger-tip dainties of magenta-tinged moonlight of the theoretical order of beautiful gifts.
But the poor below need more ontologically rich things: kanji (rice gruel) and tapioca (manioc).
Thus the fingertips are at the Numerator and the feet at the Denominator.
The Devi's feet are well planted - like a tree, only the fingertips are celestial.
Thus the well-planted feet are mocking the trees of heaven.
 


The feet give benefits to the poor people on the Denominator side.
It is also the feet which should be worshipped by the heaven-dwellers, even though the fingertips belong to that side.
The Devi is two-sided; she does not ignore the heaven-dwellers.
but her feet are like ordinary trees, which mock the celestial ones, as the buffalo mocks the Brahmin cow.
.
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She is Chandi.
Again there are layer upon layer of multiple metaphors; he is trying to abolish paradox by getting you confused.
If you know how to meditate on the root of the tree - put a circle around the Devi's feet - you get the appropriate benefit, whether god or indigent.
Be sure to make the legs like those of a working girl.
It is the same Goddess in both cases, neither upper or lower class.
 

 

slc1-p58-v89

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 90

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

VERSE 90

 


VERTICAL ABSORPTION IN ABSOLUTE VALUES

 

ददाने दीनेभ्यः श्रियमनिश-माशानुसदृशीं
अमन्दं सौन्दर्यं प्रकर-मकरन्दं विकिरति ।
तवास्मिन् मन्दार-स्तबक-सुभगे यातु चरणे
निमज्जन् मज्जीवः करणचरणः ष्ट्चरणताम्

 

dadane dinebhyah sriyam anisam asanu sadrsim
amandam saundarya prakara makarandam vikirati
tavasmin mandara stabaka subhage yatu carane
nimajjan majjivah karana caranah sat caranatum
 
Giving riches incessantly to the needy as required, and of its store of honey
Distributing plentifully sweetness around; into such a beauty
Of the celestial blossom of Your feet, immersed altogether,
Let my life go merged with legs and inner organs into six-footed bee-hood.
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The 90th verse brings the two counterparts into closer integration so as to put the seal on them and close the subject, which still refers to the feet of the Goddess. We can see that a certain concession is made in this revised picture in favour of the teleological, rather than the ontological, but the unitive character of the values involved is intended to be maintained as a constant common to the series referring to the twin feet which began with Verse 84. The centre of interest can move lower or higher, but the Absolute Value-content is still maintained as a constant. The needy people are seen to be satisfied first, but the celestial values are also distributed all around without considerations of high or low. The cluster of celestial blooms is inserted, permitting different levels, high or low, within the scope or amplitude of values in the third line, and the ontological aspect has passed from the beauty that is worshipped into the self of the worshipper, who now compares himself to a six-footed insect, which is the bee that seeks the honey at the core of flower blossoms. The final term of spirituality is when the non-self aspect, which is to be objecti­vely enjoyed; and the self aspect which is the enjoyer - distinguished as the bhogya and the bhokta by Vedantic tradition - are finally cancelled out to accomplish what is called sayujya (union or immersion of the relative into the Absolute). The devotee is so wholehearted in his bipolar affiliation that he goes to the extent of saying that his very life should be abolished so as to become merged in the absolute Value. The comparison to a bee is a favourite one. The individual personality of an aspirant could have three levels, each with two sides, representing the three karanas (inner instruments or organs) which are, psychologically: buddhi (intelligence), citta (relational mind) and ahankara (ego sense). Karana and carana are used together here. Karana represents the three instruments which we have just enumerated. Carana refers to the feet, such as those of an insect. Satcaranata means “insect-hood”.
 
The feet of an insect are outward organs of action; the three instruments are inner organs of understanding. Action and understanding are guided by the five senses and the mind, which are not mentioned here. This omission must be intentional, because it is the denominator status of the bee that can properly cancel out against the numerator factor of sense alteration, such as colour, smell, etc., applicable to the five senses and the mind. By the identity of interest in the content of the flower, the senses and the mind are, in effect, already cancelled, especially when the bee is sitting inside the flower after establishing a wholehearted bipolarity of relationship between enjoyer and enjoyed. What remains still to be absorbed or lost into the context of absolute Value, represented here by the beauty of the feet of the Goddess, are the inner organs and the three pairs of feet, making six (which is a specific characteristic of the zoological group called insecta).
 
Insect-hood is thus still to be cancelled out against the positive qualities of the flower, which it seeks wholeheartedly to enjoy. The suggested idea is that the aspirant is praying for a wholehearted cancellation between subjective and objective aspects of beauty, so that even life itself could be abolished in favour of what the absolute Value of the feet could represent. The limit of a wholehearted affiliation is thus marked by the favourite picture of a bee sucking honey within a flower, having values ranging from celestial to earthy without any duality between them. It is permitted here to think of a hierarchy of beautiful feet arranged tier on tier, touching both earthly and heavenly values in an ascending as well as a descending order, neutralized at every point of the scale.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.
 
This is Vedantic salvation, a vertical affiliation within a circle of horizontal interests.

WORD FOR WORD
Dadane - what confers
Dinebhyah - for poor people
Sriyam anisam - wealth incessantly
Asanu sa drsim - what is compatible with its corresponding desire
Amandam - with spontaneous generosity
Saundarya prakara makarandam - the collected honey of beauty
Vikirati tava - what radiant shines around
Asmin mandara stabaka subhage - amidst these clustering blossoms of the tree of heaven
Yati (yatu in Sanskrit) - let it attain
Carane nimajjan - having immersed within the (value represented by the) feet
Majjivah - my life
Karana caranah - having the senses (with mind) as feet
Sat caranatam - the likeness of the six-footed, bee-like insect
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Another version:

WORD FOR WORD
Dadane dine bhyah - giving to the needy
Shriyam anisham - wealth incessantly
Ashanu sadrshim - according to desire
Amandam - according to desire (plentifully and quickly)
Saundarya prakara makarandam - the honey of the celestial blossoms of beauty
Vikirati tava - what distributes all around Your
Asmin mandara stabaka subhage - into such a beauty of the cluster of celestial blooms
Yatu - let it attain
Charane nimajja - immersed into the feet
Maj jivah - my life
Karana charanah - the six organs (with mind) for feet
Shat charanatam - into six-footed bee-hood.
.

 

slp3-p47-v90c
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.
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Here, the author is making a bee enter a lotus with six limbs, corresponding to the breasts of a young girl, compared to the bulges on the forehead of an elephant in Verse 7 and the callosities on the Devi's knees from her kneeling in worship of Shiva, in Verse 82.
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There is bilateral symmetry, which is horizontal
There is transverse symmetry, which is vertical
 
The knob on the elephant's forehead is made of ectodermal hair. (see Verse 7)
A horn is made up of hair.
Sunlight is the origin of breast-milk.
(The milk-producing cells in the breasts are related to those which produce hair)
 
Either tautology or contradiction will result if you posit two realities.
Parity exists between left-handed and right-handed spin.
In the eddies from a boat, some are left- and some are right-handed.
 
 
"Let us die like a bee immersed in the celestial bloom that is You".
The feet are below, at the lowest level of brightness; above are celestial blooms with blinding light.
At the central core of the value called the Absolute all that remains is the empty body of the insect with its 6 feet.

The attraction between the bee and the honey is a vertical diving into the total situation, in which there is a cancellation between the personal and the universal soul.
This is the image chosen by the Rishis (sages).

Final salvation, sayujya, is only this: the tiny negative body of the bee is cancelled against a single positive drop of honey.
This is a favourite Vedantic example of cancellation, it is almost mathematical, excelling in the simplicity of its appeal.
 
At one level She gives benefits to the needy as needed or requested - not more.
At another level there is beauty radiating all around.
At the third level are clusters of celestial blooms at Her feet. (An ontological reference.)
 

Sankara wants salvation at the negative vertical Alpha Point, not in heaven, away from the common man.

I want to kill my individuality at a very ordinary level:
Buddhi, chitta and ahamkara (The intelligence, relational mind and ego-sense) can be absorbed in the interest of the subject called the Absolute; all that is left is the dry shell and the six legs of the bee.

In the past verses, Sankara has under-focused on the side of beauty, allowing the Devi to kick Shiva on the forehead.
Now he is going to start slowing down - turning off the gas.
 
Another version:
 
TRANSLATION
What confers
For poor people
Wealth incessantly
(the Devi will give that portion of the gold dollar that is asked for - if you do not ask, you will not get it)
According to what is desired
(what is compatible with its corresponding desire - this is known as Cartesian Ocasionalism)
With spontaneous generosity
(without hesitation - the Absolute happens with a bang - the Guru's love at first sight with a twelve year-old girl)
The collected honey of beauty
(like a flash of beauty or lightning)
Your radiantly bursting round (that which...)
(Illegible "....det these" ? ED)
For this celestial clustering blossom of the tree of heaven
("spray" - many flowers hanging together)
Let it attain (let the mind of the devotee attain the boon of entering the blooms)
Having immersed within the value represented by the feet
My life
Having the senses with mind as feet
(the five senses together with the mind as sixth)
Like the six-footed bee-like insect (having the likeness)
Let the man who is a true devotee enter into the feet of the Goddess like a bee enters into the lotus flower.

Brightness represents the essence of the beauty of the Devi.
There is a central lotus which includes all the other lotus flowers ("lotus" means an item of beauty; it could be beautiful women etc.)

Six senses are needed to perceive the flash of Absolute Beauty, like ambrosia.

The embodiment of the Devi - which is entered by the devotee in the same way that the six-footed bee enters into the heart or essence of the lotus.

"Let me become like the six-footed insect to enter into the normative essence of beauty represented by the essence of the centre of the lotus flower".

Sankara is summing up: "My life" is Sankara's signature.
The insect - the five senses represented in the sixth as a Denominator totality - enters into the lotus, five within the sixth. The stem represents the stem....(? ED).
 
(The manuscript breaks off after "stem". We might suggest that "stem" refers to the "mrinala tantu" - the finest central fibre of the lotus stalk, representing the most refined vertical axis, traditionally carried by swans in their beaks up to Manasarovar, the "mind lake" in the Himalayas. This image appears in many places in the Saundarya Lahari. The mrinala would represent, therefore, the pure vertical axis of value which signals the exalted status of the lotus into which the worshipper is engulfed and merged, This lotus is also the feet of the Devi - signalling that the highest value is also the denominator aspect of the Devi - Her feeet. ED)
 

Subject and object become one, beauty is the content and it is enough.
Enter within the philosophy - you can never have the totality by trying to deal with the parts of the whole by meditation.

This blessing is conferred only by Sanyasins.

One must not be in love with the Guru, but with the Goddess - "Let my life become merged into the Devi".
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The lotus stem, with its root in the mud, represents the vertical axis of values, from the most negative to the highest.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  1. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 91
  2. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 92
  3. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 93
  4. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 94