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Saundarya Lahari
SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 37
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SAUNDARYA LAHARI
VERSE 37
VISUDDHI CHAKRA - MEANS "VERY PURE"
SYMMETRY BETWEEN ALPHA AND OMEGA POINTS
विशुद्धौ ते शुद्धस्फतिक विशदं व्योम-जनकं
शिवं सेवे देवीमपि शिवसमान-व्यवसिताम् ।
ययोः कान्त्या यान्त्याः शशिकिरण्-सारूप्यसरणे
विधूतान्त-र्ध्वान्ता विलसति चकोरीव जगती
visuddhau te suddha sphatika visadam vyoma janakam
shivam seve devim api shiva samana vyavasitam
yayoh kantya yantyas sai kirana sarupya saraner
vidhutantar dhyanta vilasati cakoriva jagati
In your Visuddhi Chakra, crystal-clear and sky-generating,
I adore Shiva and the Goddess also, with a parity of status with Shiva,
By whose combined streaming, moonbeam-like fluorescence,
With banished inner dross, like a female partridge, the world hereunder shines.
In coming to Verse 37, we can note in the first place that it is meant to mark a position intermediate between the Omega Point and the O Point. The word "Visuddhi", which means "purity" or "clarity", still suggests a transparency of the spirit. A distinction is made here between bursting or scintillating light and fluorescent light like that of moonbeams. Moonlight is supposed to be watery, because its light seems to be flowing down vertically towards the lower half of the structure. The uniqueness of God at the Omega Point is now seen to be compromised, and we find that the negative aspect of the situation, which belongs properly to the consciousness of the negative self, is attributed to the consciousness of the female chakora (partridge). Without this peculiar literary device, it would be impossible to make the sky-generating light cancel out against its counterpart, which would represent what is of the status of the dream of the earth, here attributed to the partridge.
1. "Sky-generating" (vyoma janakam)
The numerator side of understanding refers to hypostatic factors, under which a sky could legitimately be included.
2. "Parity of status" (samana vyavasitam)
Two personalities are seen to be introduced at this level. In the text, the phrase samana vyavasitam, where samana means "equal" and vyavasitam means "functioning" justifies our translation as "parity".
3. "Like a female Chakora" (cakori iva)
Sankara resorts to the consciousness of a female partridge in order to make it easy for the reader to think of the counterpart of the bright side of consciousness described in the first half of the verse. It is within consciousness, whether of an animal, a bird or a human being, that we can correctly represent to ourselves that cancellable counterpart of consciousness which the numerator is supposed to represent in hypostatic terms. He takes care even to say that it is a female partridge, to show that negativity is more consistent with the feminine than with the masculine consciousness.
4. "The world hereunder shines" (jagat vilasati)
The world cannot ordinarily be said to be shining, except in terms of consciousness. Advaita philosophy depends on the cancellation of two selves, the pratyagatma, the negative self, and the atma which is its own mirror reflection (cidabhasa). Whether it is a concept or a percept that looms, the world has to refer to one or other of these two aspects of consciousness to have any reality at all, whether existent or subsistent, or both. When moonlight falls on a seaside village with its white walls, the calm and pleasing scene is not the same village as seen under the blazing noonday sun. The female chakora sees the world as if by moonlight. It does not like the sun. What it sees is thus to be distinguished from what this Chakra implies on its positive side.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.
WORD FOR WORD
Vishuddhau te - Your Visuddhi Chakra
Shuddha sphatika vishadam - crystal clear
Vyoma janakam - sky generating
Shivam seve devim api - I adore Shiva and the Goddess also
Shiva samana vyavasitam - with parity of status with Shiva
Yaya kantya yantya shashi kirana sarupya saranim - by whose combined moonbeam-like fluorescence
Vidhuta antar dhvanta - with banished inner dross
Vilasati - it shines
Chakoriya - like a female partridge
Jagati - the world (hereunder).
Vishuddhau te - Your Visuddhi Chakra
Shuddha sphatika vishadam - crystal clear
Vyoma janakam - sky generating
Shivam seve devim api - I adore Shiva and the Goddess also
Shiva samana vyavasitam - with parity of status with Shiva
Yaya kantya yantya shashi kirana sarupya saranim - by whose combined moonbeam-like fluorescence
Vidhuta antar dhvanta - with banished inner dross
Vilasati - it shines
Chakoriya - like a female partridge
Jagati - the world (hereunder).
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Here, the Visuddhi Chakra is clear and shining.
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Here, moonbeams stream downward; in Verse 36 they were radiating.
Again this Chakra is "Yours", (the Devi's).
Visuddhi Chakra comes in at the level of akasha - space or ether.
Shiva and the Devi have final equal status.
The flowering radiance of these two together, a descending light, has a resemblance to the moon - it is subjective, more interior.
There is no inner dross at this level - it is "dusted off".
The Chakora bird (partridge) is the enjoyer of all this, drinking it in.
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This picture flowing and fluid - intended for "those fully dusted of all dross within the mind".
The Chakora is Denominator.
There must be an enjoyer - the Chakora bird "drinks" the moonlight.
The Devi is sitting in perfectly equal status.
The Chakora is Denominator.
There must be an enjoyer - the Chakora bird "drinks" the moonlight.
The Devi is sitting in perfectly equal status.
The female partridge is used by the poet to indicate the negative part of consciousness.
Contemplation means a slightly dim or subdued, subjective world.
Visuddhi means pure or clean, but not effulgent, like Ajña.
This light is more subdued, fluorescent in quality; closer to the consciousness of the partridge.
This is 2/2 cancellation instead of the high-pressure 1/1 cancellation of the Ajña Chakra.
Imagine a bird, which has moonlight as an exciting factor in its life.
Contemplation means a slightly dim or subdued, subjective world.
Visuddhi means pure or clean, but not effulgent, like Ajña.
This light is more subdued, fluorescent in quality; closer to the consciousness of the partridge.
This is 2/2 cancellation instead of the high-pressure 1/1 cancellation of the Ajña Chakra.
Imagine a bird, which has moonlight as an exciting factor in its life.
The partridge is excited about the positive part and the negative part of moonlight: the positive part is outside the partridge, the negative part is inside the bird.
The Negative Side is the Female Partridge
There are two sides to consciousness.
Without dividing it properly, our understanding will not come to us.
The negative side is the more difficult to know: the side of the Devi's "faded lotus feet" (as in the poem by Narayana Guru) - "faded" means it is suffering.
The Devi is always crying at the corner of her eyes.
There are two sides to consciousness.
Without dividing it properly, our understanding will not come to us.
The negative side is the more difficult to know: the side of the Devi's "faded lotus feet" (as in the poem by Narayana Guru) - "faded" means it is suffering.
The Devi is always crying at the corner of her eyes.
(The association of Chakora or partridge and the moon has inspired a number of folk love stories in India. The chakora sometimes symbolizes intense, and often unrequited, love. This is probably the source of the erotic associations drawn by the Guru here. It is curiously also associated with eroticism and mysticism in the Sufi songs of the Turks and others, under the name "keklik". ED)
A cool lotus-wafting breeze is another secret of cancellation:
you cannot live in twenty-four hours of heat; but you can live nicely in only twenty-three hours, with just one hour of cool at daybreak, like Bangalore.
On a hot day, people drink more tea to make them perspire: hot inside and hot outside cancel out.
you cannot live in twenty-four hours of heat; but you can live nicely in only twenty-three hours, with just one hour of cool at daybreak, like Bangalore.
On a hot day, people drink more tea to make them perspire: hot inside and hot outside cancel out.
The principle of the female partridge is like the sudden change, in Verse 7, where he first compares the Devi's breasts to the knobs on the forehead of an elephant, on the numerator side; then says they are the heavy breasts of motherhood on the denominator side. It changes instantly when it touches the horizontal line.
(In the present verse, as well as in Verse 7, there is a contrast - note that below the Guru writes that the female partridge is "the Devi in this verse". This is not a contradiction, any more than the heavy maternal breasts are a a contradiction of the pert, girlish breasts of the Purushika Devi in Verse 7. In this verse, the Goddess who has a status as equally exalted as Shiva becomes transformed into a cute plump little bird, clucking and sipping drops of moonlight, once she crosses the horizontal line and descends into the lower world. This is not a contradiction but a paradox and we should remember that "there is a paradox at the core of the Absolute" in the Guru's words. Understanding this paradox is essential to grasping Erotic Mysticism and experiencing the Lahari or ultimate delight which lies at the core of this work. Similarly, we must bring together the beauty of our girlfriend and the beauty of the sunset; we must bring together the "Queen of the Ultimate Absolute" and "Any woman, just any woman"; we must realize fully that the dwelling place of "That Shiva Ultimate" in the Ajña Chakra is not just within the third eye of some exalted Goddess, but within that of the woman we love, and indeed within our own. ED)
The negative side cannot be derived from the negative side - it must be derived from your consciousness on the positive side; don't try to gradually build up the negative side from the bottom.
Place yourself inside the consciousness of a female bird or of a buffalo cooling itself in the river, as in Kaliedasa's Ritusamhara (2, 27); then you will get a new perspective of cancellation.
Sankara has taken the trouble to indicate all of these mathematical and epistemological secrets.
He reveals a continuum and the interaction (penetration) of time and space.
The five elements, at different levels, become all mixed up in a confusion of Maya.
At the Visuddhi Chakra, in the descending series of Chakras, the perceptual world ends and the conceptual world begins.
Here, Shiva and Parvati are together in the Visuddhi Chakra, which is "purified" ("With banished inner dross") and they are made epistemologically equal.
By the combined brilliance of these two there is a kind of moonlight, which is drunk by a Chakora bird, but remains outside.
This Chakra has risen above the horizontal; there is no dross, no residue of phenomena, it is "purified".
The Devi shines subjectively, and Shiva objectively.
Another version:
TRANSLATION
- In Your Visuddhi Chakra (the third from the top)
- Pure crystal-clear
- Intentionally implying open space (or sky)
(So it is a nominalistic point, implying or indicating the next high chakra.
(Its crystal clarity is an anticipation of the sky. This involves ascending dialectics.)
- I worship Shiva together with the Devi
(They have obtained a certain parity of status)
(The integration is begun in this Chakra)
- Ordered with equality of status with Shiva (cancellable)
- Of these two
- By the fluid (flowing) glory (of light) (Kantya Yantya)
- Resembling the streaming of moonbeams
- With wiped-out (or dusted) inner darkness (of ignorance)
- It shines (the triple worlds)
- The three worlds bathed in joy like the Chakora bird
- In Your Visuddhi Chakra (the third from the top)
- Pure crystal-clear
- Intentionally implying open space (or sky)
(So it is a nominalistic point, implying or indicating the next high chakra.
(Its crystal clarity is an anticipation of the sky. This involves ascending dialectics.)
- I worship Shiva together with the Devi
(They have obtained a certain parity of status)
(The integration is begun in this Chakra)
- Ordered with equality of status with Shiva (cancellable)
- Of these two
- By the fluid (flowing) glory (of light) (Kantya Yantya)
- Resembling the streaming of moonbeams
- With wiped-out (or dusted) inner darkness (of ignorance)
- It shines (the triple worlds)
- The three worlds bathed in joy like the Chakora bird
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THE CHAKORA BIRD IS THE DEVI IN THIS VERSE
Shiva is joyful outside.
Devi is joyful inside.
Shiva is joyful outside.
Devi is joyful inside.
She is joyful like the Chakora bird which drinks the moonlight which shines from Shiva.
When thus intoxicated, the colour of both Numerator and Denominator becomes the same magenta.
Only the joy, or value-factor, felt by the Chakora establishes the parity between them.
When thus intoxicated, the colour of both Numerator and Denominator becomes the same magenta.
Only the joy, or value-factor, felt by the Chakora establishes the parity between them.
The Chakora bird which drinks moonlight is the image of the Devi in this verse.
Thus the Chakora bird is a very apt description.
There is a parity established in the value world.
Joy is the common factor here. The moonlight comes from Shiva.
Thus the Chakora bird is a very apt description.
There is a parity established in the value world.
Joy is the common factor here. The moonlight comes from Shiva.
Inner ignorance is dusted away.
The whole of the secret is found in the analogy of the Chakora .
What is subjectively understood is inside the Chakora.
Objectivity is represented by the light of Shiva.
On a moonlit night, you may find yourself in the Visuddhi Chakra, with clear, transparent thoughts and no sleep.
Then, meditate on a lower Chakra.
If you are sleeping too much, meditate on a higher Chakra.
The whole of the secret is found in the analogy of the Chakora .
What is subjectively understood is inside the Chakora.
Objectivity is represented by the light of Shiva.
On a moonlit night, you may find yourself in the Visuddhi Chakra, with clear, transparent thoughts and no sleep.
Then, meditate on a lower Chakra.
If you are sleeping too much, meditate on a higher Chakra.
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After so much moonlight, why this unpleasant erotic Chakora bird?
Because the crystal analogy must be completed by providing the smoky side.
The Chakora is female, and enjoys the moonlight internally.
Because the crystal analogy must be completed by providing the smoky side.
The Chakora is female, and enjoys the moonlight internally.
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Schematically she takes up half the structure - with her neck bent, drinking the moonlight.
This is found in the last line of the verse.
This is found in the last line of the verse.
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Thus, the perceptual moonlight and the conceptual moonlight are here shown to exist in the same whole.
The joy outside and the joy inside are not the same.
A bird drinking moonlight (experiencing it) is different from a man seeing moonlight.
Similarly, a professor of Yoga does not necessarily have the experiences that go along with it.
The joy outside and the joy inside are not the same.
A bird drinking moonlight (experiencing it) is different from a man seeing moonlight.
Similarly, a professor of Yoga does not necessarily have the experiences that go along with it.
In this verse we have parity at the next subdued level: at the Visuddhi Chakra.
Parity is introduced to the picture.
Parity is introduced to the picture.
Whenever you verticalize, you get parity.
Philosophy is the universe seen end-on, at a 180 degree perspective - it is vertical.
Science is a cross-section view, a 90 degree perspective - it is horizontal.
Shiva and Parvati have a parity between them.
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Visuddhi Chakra is crystal clear, pure, with a fluid, not a bursting ligh; it is like moonstone.
Vertically, there is a parity between the sun and moon.
Horizontally, there is a complementarity between Numerator and Denominator.
Horizontally, there is a complementarity between Numerator and Denominator.
Sankara has taken great care in forming these Chakras.
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There are certain centres where you can draw a circle and say: "this is a system" - that is, it can be called a Chakra.
This Chakra is like the smoked glass through which we view an eclipse.
This Chakra is like the smoked glass through which we view an eclipse.
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A Chakra is where the mind can find out something : "The human mind cannot live on abstractions" - Bergson.
A synergism, in the most general and abstract terms, is like a Chakra.
The mind is made in such a way that it wants stable resting places, reference points, systems or ensembles.
A synergism, in the most general and abstract terms, is like a Chakra.
The mind is made in such a way that it wants stable resting places, reference points, systems or ensembles.
A Chakra is a synergism or syndrome, a stable set with a consistency between the elements: a gestalt.
(The central principle of gestalt psychology is that the mind forms a global whole with self-organizing tendencies. This principle maintains that when the human mind (perceptual system) forms a percept or gestalt, the whole has a reality of its own, independent of the parts. ED)
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Another version:
TRANSLATION
- In Your (the Devi's) Visuddhi (Chakra)
- Clear as crystal
- Giving birth to sky (the cause of the descent can be said to give birth to the effect - the sky)
- I adore Shiva
- The Goddess also (the distinction is justified because we descend from the Omega Point)
- With parity of function with Shiva
- Of whom (both together)
- By fluorescent glow of which (moonstone-like - the subdued glow from Shiva and Parvati)
- Resembling moonbeams
- Shine with dispelled inner dross ("dusted") (describes the views of someone like Eddington the physicist and philosopher of science.
- Like a female partridge (Chakora)
- In the world (the bird is in this world)
- In Your (the Devi's) Visuddhi (Chakra)
- Clear as crystal
- Giving birth to sky (the cause of the descent can be said to give birth to the effect - the sky)
- I adore Shiva
- The Goddess also (the distinction is justified because we descend from the Omega Point)
- With parity of function with Shiva
- Of whom (both together)
- By fluorescent glow of which (moonstone-like - the subdued glow from Shiva and Parvati)
- Resembling moonbeams
- Shine with dispelled inner dross ("dusted") (describes the views of someone like Eddington the physicist and philosopher of science.
- Like a female partridge (Chakora)
- In the world (the bird is in this world)
MOST IMPORTANT:
The Chakora drinking is complementarity.
Between Shiva and Parvati there is parity.
The Chakora drinking is complementarity.
Between Shiva and Parvati there is parity.
In this world, there is a female bird who can appreciate the numerator luminaries and thus cancel it.
The little heart of a bird can contain all of the Numerator.
The delight inside the mind of the bird is to be cancelled against the numerator moonlight concept.
When this is done, you have Absolute Beauty.
The delight inside the mind of the bird is to be cancelled against the numerator moonlight concept.
When this is done, you have Absolute Beauty.
Let the partridge drink the moonlight like lemonade through a straw; it is filled with light, as a man who meditates is filled.
"Sky-generating": this is an ascending Chakra.
The Devi has parity of status with Shiva.
The light is like a fluorescent tube light (moonlight).
The female partridge is the denominator enjoyer of numerator moonlight, with the enjoyment of the bird as a value-factor.
Meditation on this Visuddhi Chakra on the Numerator side gives the Yogi the joy or bliss of the female partridge on the denominator.
The Devi has parity of status with Shiva.
The light is like a fluorescent tube light (moonlight).
The female partridge is the denominator enjoyer of numerator moonlight, with the enjoyment of the bird as a value-factor.
Meditation on this Visuddhi Chakra on the Numerator side gives the Yogi the joy or bliss of the female partridge on the denominator.
Shiva is better when vertical; the Devi is better when horizontal.
In what sense is it "sky generating"? In the sense of Khechari Mudra.
See the Darsana Mala, Chapter 9, Yoga, Verse 9:
"When meditation with gaze fixed between the eye-brows
And the tongue-tip touching beyond the uvula (takes place)
Then happens (khecari mudra) that space-freedom attitude
Of drowsiness - and fatigue - dispelling capacity."
It is not sarira that moves the hand but the sariraka.
(Sariraka is derived from the word sarira or "body" by adding to it the suffix -kan which gives a sense of derogation. ED).
You just change the perspective, do not take anything away from reality.
The soul of man extends even to the fingernails, there are no grades of reality.
There is only one reality.
The soul of man extends even to the fingernails, there are no grades of reality.
There is only one reality.
Brahma Sutra Shastra (illegible, ED). Take your stand here; first agree that the Rishis cannot be wrong, for they have no axe to grind. They always have their wives near. Their greatness is to want nothing and to live in the forest.
"When people who do not want anything tell you something, you can be sure that it is true."
Imagine yourself as the Denominator partridge enjoying the Numerator moonlight.
In the Visuddhi Chakra - the cancellation takes place inside a female partridge.
The partridge is female because the female is more negative than the male.
The cancellation here is closer together than in the previous verse.
The moonlight is subjectivized by the female partridge.
The cancellation here is closer together than in the previous verse.
The moonlight is subjectivized by the female partridge.
Partridges are supposed to drink moonbeams.
Visuddhi Chakra is towards the negative side of fluorescent light and diffused moonbeam-like light.
The Devi meets Shiva as parity on the horizontal axis, they have equal status from that point down.
The partridge gets drunk at night on numerator moonbeams - Soma (The sacred drink of Vedic rituals. ED)
Visuddhi Chakra is towards the negative side of fluorescent light and diffused moonbeam-like light.
The Devi meets Shiva as parity on the horizontal axis, they have equal status from that point down.
The partridge gets drunk at night on numerator moonbeams - Soma (The sacred drink of Vedic rituals. ED)
Visuddhi Chakra has subsistential existence and parity.
It also has existential existence and parity..
It also has existential existence and parity..
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SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 38
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SAUNDARYA LAHARI
VERSE 38
ANAHATA CHAKRA - MEANS "NEVER KILLED", OR " A BELL NOT STRUCK", OR "UNDISTURBED"
समुन्मीलत् संवित्कमल-मकरन्दैक-रसिकं
भजे हंसद्वन्द्वं किमपि महतां मानसचरम् ।
यदालापा-दष्टादश-गुणित-विद्यापरिणतिः
यदादत्ते दोषाद् गुण-मखिल-मद्भ्यः पय इव
samunmilat samvit kamala makarandaika rasikam
bhaje hamsadvandvam kim api mahatam manasa caram
yad alapad astadasa gunita vidya parinatir
yad adatte dosad gunam akhilam adbhyah paya iva
I adore those twin swans, intent on enjoying the nectar
Of the lotus blooming within the consciousness of certain great ones,
Moving within whose mind as a result of their elaboration, the maturation
Of the eighteen arts takes place, freed from dross, their goodness extracted as milk from water.
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In Verse 38 we have the picture of two swans swimming in a lotus pond, having at least one lotus blooming at its centre. The first thing to notice about this Chakra, besides the fact that its conventional name is omitted, is that there is no value that is especially spiritual that is referred to in its overall design. It is rather meant to be a normalized version of value, where spirituality and morality meet and cancel out into a picture representing beauty in a very real form. In parks and gardens anywhere in the world it is possible to see a pair of swans swimming in a pond, and it is not difficult to imagine a blooming lotus flower at its centre. Swans are animals that need food in the ordinary sense, and although water supports vitality in a deeper sense, other food, such as milk, is required for the sustenance of normal life here. The mind, with its two functions having a horizontal parity between them, one of which could be auditory and the other visual in its reference - as with music and dance - could be conceded here to be the ground on which one finds some sort of aesthetic pleasure or enjoyment. Mind-stuff is here compared to water, while something more nourishing, containing body-building elements of food, is necessary for the two swans to have their enjoyable active life within the pond. The classical theory of aesthetics belonging to Sanskrit culture comprises all enjoyable artistic values within the scope of a fan-like expansion or elaboration of the elements of interest that could be normal to human beings. These are supposed to be the nine essences, called rasas. The nine rasas are: srngara (love), vira (heroism), bibhatsa (disgust), raudra (anger), hasya (mirth), bhayanaka (terror), karuna (pity), adbhuta (wonder), and santa (tranquility). If nine rasas are given to the visual (actual) side, nine rasas must also be given to the auditory (virtual) side. Thus we have, between visual and audible arts, eighteen rasas spread out like a fan, resembling the order of colours in the spectrum. The colour red is always associated with passion, because the conventional language of colour is understood, if vaguely, even in common parlance. The point where horizontal values meet the vertical parameter is to be located exactly at the core of the lotus. The 180 degrees above the O Point could be divided into 18 sectors of 10 degrees on the plus and minus sides of the structural whole.
The long and beautiful necks of the swans can delve down into the mud to pull out the tender edible roots of the lotus plant, on which they are supposed to thrive. When swans migrate to the Himalayan regions it is conventionally understood that some edible parts of the lotus plant are carried in their beaks, at the tip of their outstretched necks. The swans reach Manasarovar, the "mind lake" located somewhere in the Himalayas, in due course, enabling them to live at a celestial level and on an earthly level alternately.
Highly evolved spiritual souls are compared in Hindu literature to a central locus of this kind when they are called paramahamsas, which means that they are very realistically related to the total context of absolute value. The two swans touch and do not touch the lotus, like spirits apart, by participating through subtle verticality only at the O Point.
1. "The nectar of the lotus" (kamala makarandam)
Nectar is something nourishing and enjoyable of which milk could be considered a particular instance. Nectar is more than milk by its added enjoyability. The extra elements of enjoyability result from the elaboration of aesthetic interests in the minds of the two swans treated as one.
2. "Certain great ones" (kim api mahatam)
The reference here is to perfected paramahamsas for whom the duality between real or virtual, and hypostatic or hierophantic values have all been normalized.
3. "The maturation of the eighteen arts" (astadasa gunita vidya parinatih)
There is a central locus in the neutral and absolute self, which is the source from which all enjoyment must start, whether in the visual or auditory arts. Even when the arts are withdrawn in higher samadhi, these outgoing items of elaboration could be thought of as each being withdrawn into its own source, which is again the central locus within the absolute self. Maturation should not be mixed up with the idea of evolution because of the use of the Sanskrit word parinama for both. Maturation here only increases its eidetic content without changing it horizontally; as when we say that twilight matures fully when the sun is four degrees below the horizon. A mango ripens and matures without changing its identity horizontally.
4. "Goodness extracted as milk from water" (adatte gunam akhilam adbhyah paya iva)
Milk has a horizontal value reference which is existential in status. Water, on the other hand, has a vertical reference because of its pure sapidity. Thus we get the two references in respect of value, within the amplitude of which we could insert the double spectrum of both auditory and visual arts radiating fanwise from a central core which is both a source as well as an epicentre for all manifestations or absorptions.
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Concluding Remarks:
In this verse the language of conventional clichés has been used in an unobtrusive manner, by which it is possible to see that what is real could be the same as what is ideal, when viewed neutrally and normally, as between perceptual and conceptual values. The yogi has nothing to add or subtract here. The "Brahma Sutras" recommend such an attitude, in which nothing is to be explained away from life or added as an idea to embellish reality. One has neither to paint lilies nor gild gold. Vedanta is not a form of idealism as some scholars tend to think. It is fully realistic, as this verse of Narayana Guru's "Darsana Mala" clearly underlines:
"Of this world there is certainly nothing to be rejected nor accepted,
As for the Self, it is self-luminous.
Having understood thus, one should withdraw from all functionings.
Thereafter, function does not repeat itself."
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.
WORD FOR WORD
Samun milat samvit kamala makaranda - (blooming) lotus in consciousness enjoying the nectar
Ika rasikam bhaje - (I adore) intently
Hamsa dvandvam - the pair of swans
Kim api mahatam - of certain great ones
Manasa charam - moving within the mind
Yad alapat - as a result of whose elaboration
Ashtadasa gunita vidya parinatihi - the maturation of the eighteen arts takes place
Yad adattedoshat - which extracts from dross
Gunam akhilam - all goodness (therefrom)
Adbhyah paya eva - like milk from water.
Samun milat samvit kamala makaranda - (blooming) lotus in consciousness enjoying the nectar
Ika rasikam bhaje - (I adore) intently
Hamsa dvandvam - the pair of swans
Kim api mahatam - of certain great ones
Manasa charam - moving within the mind
Yad alapat - as a result of whose elaboration
Ashtadasa gunita vidya parinatihi - the maturation of the eighteen arts takes place
Yad adattedoshat - which extracts from dross
Gunam akhilam - all goodness (therefrom)
Adbhyah paya eva - like milk from water.
In Verse 39, we have this contrasting picture:
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There is a lake in the mind of some great man - two swans are drinking from a lotus - they leave the dross behind.
Horizontally, there is perfect parity and bilateral symmetry.
Here, the Anahata Chakra is where vertical meets horizontal.
The 18 branches of learning give completeness and maturity.
(The 18 Vidyas or vidyās (Sanskrit: विद्या) primarily means science, learning, philosophy, knowledge, scholarship, any knowledge whether true or false.
Its root is Vid (Sanskrit: विद्) which means - to reason upon, knower, finding, knowing, acquiring or understanding. ED)
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The lotus blooming within the consciousness of certain great ones.
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When swans migrate to the Himalayas it is traditionally believed that the finest central threads of the lotus plant's stalk (the mrinala tantu) are carried in their beaks to Manasarovar the "mind lake" located somewhere in the Himalayas. (This thread could be seen to represent the vertical axis. ED) in due course, enabling the swans to live at a celestial level and on an earthly level alternately.
We can imagine an ordinary city garden, where there are two swans in a pond.
Art is interesting and worthwhile for human life, like milk.
Water is negative and milk is positive.
Milk is negentropy and water is entropy.
This is the cancelling point.
Art is interesting and worthwhile for human life, like milk.
Water is negative and milk is positive.
Milk is negentropy and water is entropy.
This is the cancelling point.
The Numerator is specific: the particular art that humans enjoy.
The Denominator is the meshwork of all the arts.
The Denominator is the meshwork of all the arts.
Anahata means "never killed, whole".
(In Sanskrit, anahata means "unhurt, unstruck and unbeaten". In traditional Vedic lore Anahata refers to the concept of unstruck sound (the sound of the "celestial realm"). Ananhata is associated with a calm, serene sound devoid of violence. ED)
Anahata: every student knows it when he goes to the garden with a lotus pond, with a girl on a summer's day.
Shiva and Parvati receive a higher status of parity in this verse - as two birds.
(In the previous verse, 37, the Devi is, from a certain point of view, seen as a partridge on the negative side. Here the two swans have absolute parity between them, floating together on the lake. ED)
There is a lake of mystical geography referred to.
At the very end, there is another analogy.
This is a most effective locus.
There are two birds drinking, separating milk from water.
Two swans are swimming in the pond of consciousness, drinking honey from the centre of the same lotus, taking the essential and leaving the superfluous.
Swans are traditionally supposed to be able to separate the milk and leave the water.
There are certain people who are good poets and of a rare quality and in the minds of these people these swans will be found in their absolute parity.
They are enjoying the essence of Sanskrit culture and learning.
These swans are not like the chakora or partridge, of the previous verse - they have been promoted to a higher Chakra.
We have a pond, with at the centre a lotus.
In the lotus' heart, the heart of consciousness, is the concentrated essence of wisdom.
The two swans of equal status are both drinking of this honey, enjoying that which only a few people can enjoy.
Whereupon knowledge is divided into two parts: nine for Shiva and nine for Parvati.
As they suck the honey, the 18 arts are elaborated in the wings of each swan.
These two birds are taking the Absolute Value - or milk - and are leaving the extraneous disciplines - water.
For example:
pure mathematics is Numerator,
grammar or syntax is Denominator.
That is: milk represents the absolute value factor, which is separated from the extraneous water: this is discrimination.
(This is to be seen as the discrimination between lasting and transient values which, according to texts such as the Viveka Chudamani of Sankara (Verse 19) is the preliminary qualification required before one enters contemplative life. ED)
Shiva and Parvati are elevated from their position in the last Chakra to absolute parity in this Chakra.
In the previous verse, Shiva and the Devi are like this:
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In this verse they are like this:
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The eighteen vidyas (arts) are divided equally between them, becoming manifested, as they suck the honey, in the feathers of their wings.
Complementarity - one thing complements or completes the other - there is also reciprocity, cancellability, compensation.
There is a kind of parity between these two birds.
They are reciprocal, having a parity between them.
If they are equal, why talk about the two of them?
Parity is dealt with in the Schroedinger equation - the hydrogen atom.
"Parity of wave function" is given quantum number in Kaplan's "Nuclear Physics".
"Parity of wave function" is given quantum number in Kaplan's "Nuclear Physics".
Parity comes from "pair" and "reflection".
It is more of a structural entity than anything else.
It implies the actual and the virtual.
These twin swans who drink from the same intellectualised fountain-source of wisdom are both somewhat theoretical and also related by parity.
Knowledge here is a lotus, rather than a sea, so that we can establish a bi-polarity between Self and knowledge; then they are put together.
The two swans seem to be on the same horizontal level, although quite high up on the vertical axis, at a conceptualized, mathematical level.
The same laws of nature hold good on one side of the mirror as on the other: mathematics, the speed of light, etc.
So this parity is one of the four relationships which we normally use in our structural methodology: parity, reciprocity, complementarity and cancellation.
Ambivalence - the first level, the actual, Subrahmaniam and Ganesha are ambivalent.
Reciprocity - the second level; Saraswati and Lakshmi.
Complementarity - the third level, the Devi with callosities - she wants to establish the final cancellation with Shiva, here, she is his complementary counterpart.
Cancellation - the fourth level, the final operation - Shiva and Shakti united.
Parity - refers to the horizontal alone; bilateral symmetry.
They are related in the sense that one swan is original and the other not (It is a virtual mirror-image of the other. ED), and vice-versa, depending on which quality you consider - as between actual and virtual qualities.
This parity is a very thin relationship.
(The physicists Yang and Lee say that it does not matter whether a particle is real or not: in some cases it will respond to certain mathematical laws.).
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Cancellation is 2/2 = 1
Complementarity is like two halves of a broken eggshell.
Compensation is like the two sides of a pair of scales.
Complementarity is like two halves of a broken eggshell.
Compensation is like the two sides of a pair of scales.
The laws of nature are said to be represented in Schroedinger's equations, and all equations can be represented by graphs so the laws of nature can be demonstrated structurally - see Bergson and Eddington.
A law of nature is simply a generalization and an abstraction.
There are two swans swimming on a wisdom-lake; they are equally beautiful and there is parity between them.
Why two? Because they represent Shiva and Parvati: they are enjoying something intellectual, dividing the eighteen artistic disciplines between them.
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Another version:
TRANSLATION
- Fully blossomed lotus of wisdom consciousness (the final stage of knowledge)
- The ambrosia unique
- As enjoying
- I worship (or meditate upon)
- The pair of swans
- In certain great ones
- Fully blossomed lotus of wisdom consciousness (the final stage of knowledge)
- The ambrosia unique
- As enjoying
- I worship (or meditate upon)
- The pair of swans
- In certain great ones
(i.e. these exist in the minds of certain great or wise ones, capable of enjoying them)
- As moving in the mind-lake (this all happens in the mind)
- By the elaboration of which (of that joy)
- The matured form of the eighteen disciplines (grammar, syntax, etc.)
- Which draws out (these two swans draw it out - away)
- From what is no good
- All the essence
- Like milk from water
- As moving in the mind-lake (this all happens in the mind)
- By the elaboration of which (of that joy)
- The matured form of the eighteen disciplines (grammar, syntax, etc.)
- Which draws out (these two swans draw it out - away)
- From what is no good
- All the essence
- Like milk from water
They take the essence and leave the dross from the centre of the lotus on the lake of the mind.
These birds are sharing an "un-shareable" experience - one actually, the other virtually.
They are mathematically elevated to the world of the intelligibles.
These birds are sharing an "un-shareable" experience - one actually, the other virtually.
They are mathematically elevated to the world of the intelligibles.
In this verse, we have parity in Actual Aesthetics.
This Chakra, in the descending process, becomes very real.
Here, the two swans are floating in the mind-lake, and are in charge of all aesthetic values - the Kalas.
(The "mind-Lake" is Manasarovar in the Himalayas, where the swans are supposed to fly, bearing the finest filament of the lotus. ED)
Half of the Kalas belong to one swan and half to the other - and there is a perfect parity between them.
E.g., if you can sing poetry, the music belongs to the Devi and the thoughts of the poetry belong to Shiva.
All of the Kalas (arts) are distributed evenly between these two swans.
The Kalas can be seen as all concentrated in the lotus flower in the centre.
Here we are looking at the horizontal parity of the swans within the Chakra.
The lake is what gives them the unity.
The Kalas can be seen as all concentrated in the lotus flower in the centre.
Here we are looking at the horizontal parity of the swans within the Chakra.
The lake is what gives them the unity.
Another version:
TRANSLATION
- As solely interested in the nectar of the knowledge-lotus beginning to bloom.
(they are united in the same purpose - aesthetics, ananda or bliss)
- I adore that pair of swans
- In certain (kim api)
- Great minds moving
- By the further elaboration of which (i.e. suppositions)
- The perfection (or maturation ) of the eighteen-fold arts
- What separately draws out (extracts)
- From dross
- As from water, milk
- As solely interested in the nectar of the knowledge-lotus beginning to bloom.
(they are united in the same purpose - aesthetics, ananda or bliss)
- I adore that pair of swans
- In certain (kim api)
- Great minds moving
- By the further elaboration of which (i.e. suppositions)
- The perfection (or maturation ) of the eighteen-fold arts
- What separately draws out (extracts)
- From dross
- As from water, milk
ALL THE WORLD OF ART CAN BE SEEN AS INTERACTION BETWEEN TWO BIRDS
- ONE REPRESENTING CONCEPTS, AND THE OTHER PERCEPTS.
SO, EVERY ART IS THE RESULT OF TWO FACTORS INTERACTING IN THE MIND.
Milk and nectar are mixed on the denominator side.
The swans stretch their wings and virtual and actual meet.
Light changes from fluorescent moonstone to pearly lustre.
See Verse 17:
"He who can contemplate those word-bearing elements of broken moonstone lustre,
Joined with Vasinis, having an elusively fluid gleam;
He becomes, o Mother, the author of great poetic works,
Adding sweet charm to the lotus face of the Goddess of the Word."
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SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 39
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SAUNDARYA LAHARI
VERSE 39
THE SVADHISTHANA CHAKRA (TRADITIONALLY THE MANIPURA)
तव स्वाधिष्ठाने हुतवह-मधिष्ठाय निरतं
तमीडे संवर्तं जननि महतीं तां च समयाम् ।
यदालोके लोकान् दहति महसि क्रोध-कलिते
दयार्द्रा या दृष्टिः शिशिर-मुपचारं रचयति
tava svadhisthane hutavaham adhisthaya niratam
tam ide samvartam janani mahatim tam ca samayam
yad aloke lokan dahati mahati krodhakalite
dayardra ya drstis sistram upacaram racayati
tam ide samvartam janani mahatim tam ca samayam
yad aloke lokan dahati mahati krodhakalite
dayardra ya drstis sistram upacaram racayati
O Mother, I praise, placing in your Svadhisthana the fire of sacrifice,
Ever looking on it as the great fire of doom, and placing there her also
Called Samaya, so that when the worlds are burning due to his anger,
Her mercy-moist regard renders to it the cooling touch of early spring..
Ever looking on it as the great fire of doom, and placing there her also
Called Samaya, so that when the worlds are burning due to his anger,
Her mercy-moist regard renders to it the cooling touch of early spring..
Water cools and fire burns within the totality of the absolute content of reality, viewed as a phenotype and not as a noumenon. We can think of these two factors, fire and water, as participating from opposite sides of the total situation. When viewed from such an overall perspective, we can appreciate how even this Chakra called Svadhisthana is also based on the principle of the cancellation of counterparts. On a hot summer day a cool and perfumed breeze can act as an absolute source of consolation, even if it should only last for a few moments. The joy of cancellation does not depend upon the duration of the state of consolation and could be enjoyed for itself in the span of a split second.
1. "Svadhisthana"
The term svadhisthana suggests that this is a Chakra founded on itself. We have examined the status of the previous verse, which corresponds to the Chakra conventionally named Anahata, which name suggests that something like a bell remains unstruck. A bell that has not been struck would represent a neutral position between the possibility of its sound and its own material existence. When we come to the Svadhisthana, we have to put its locus a little lower in the vertical axis, because the basis of the Chakra is within itself, not on the numerator side of effects. It has a negative reference, but the numerator against which the cancellation within its scope is to take place has itself a highly positive status. Finally, lower and higher are meant to have no differentiating significance between Chakras and Adharas.
The term svadhisthana suggests that this is a Chakra founded on itself. We have examined the status of the previous verse, which corresponds to the Chakra conventionally named Anahata, which name suggests that something like a bell remains unstruck. A bell that has not been struck would represent a neutral position between the possibility of its sound and its own material existence. When we come to the Svadhisthana, we have to put its locus a little lower in the vertical axis, because the basis of the Chakra is within itself, not on the numerator side of effects. It has a negative reference, but the numerator against which the cancellation within its scope is to take place has itself a highly positive status. Finally, lower and higher are meant to have no differentiating significance between Chakras and Adharas.
2. "The fire of sacrifice" (hutavaham)
We find here two references to fire, one to the fire of sacrifice and one to the fire of doom. We have to locate these two fires correctly in their proper structural positions before we can grasp the status of this Chakra. The fire of sacrifice could be imagined to be somewhere near the region of the navel, just below the O Point - on the side of existence - because such a fire has to be really capable of burning at least some fuel. This idea of "The fire of sacrifice" is verified in Verse 78.
We find here two references to fire, one to the fire of sacrifice and one to the fire of doom. We have to locate these two fires correctly in their proper structural positions before we can grasp the status of this Chakra. The fire of sacrifice could be imagined to be somewhere near the region of the navel, just below the O Point - on the side of existence - because such a fire has to be really capable of burning at least some fuel. This idea of "The fire of sacrifice" is verified in Verse 78.
3. "Fire of doom" (samvartam)
The "fire of doom" cannot be located in the same position as the fire of sacrifice. Doomsday is always in the future and has necessarily an apocalyptic status. The function of doom is thus to be imagined as having a numerator reference, even when that picture has been produced far beyond the Omega Point in the possible world of prospective values. To balance this exaggerated apocalyptic tendency, there is a need to postulate its counterpart in the form of a feminine elemental factor which has to be essential rather than subsistential. Such a factor is what is meant to be implied by the second goddess named Samaya.
The "fire of doom" cannot be located in the same position as the fire of sacrifice. Doomsday is always in the future and has necessarily an apocalyptic status. The function of doom is thus to be imagined as having a numerator reference, even when that picture has been produced far beyond the Omega Point in the possible world of prospective values. To balance this exaggerated apocalyptic tendency, there is a need to postulate its counterpart in the form of a feminine elemental factor which has to be essential rather than subsistential. Such a factor is what is meant to be implied by the second goddess named Samaya.
4. "Samaya"
We are familiar with this goddess favoured by the Tantric school of Samayins, which we discussed in our comments on Verse 33. The total overall Goddess, having an absolutist status, cannot be held responsible for any partial or unilateral functions. This must be the reason why Sankara resorts to a goddess already known in the context of mother-worship, and introduces her here as capable of counteracting the heat implied in the Omega Point reference.
We are familiar with this goddess favoured by the Tantric school of Samayins, which we discussed in our comments on Verse 33. The total overall Goddess, having an absolutist status, cannot be held responsible for any partial or unilateral functions. This must be the reason why Sankara resorts to a goddess already known in the context of mother-worship, and introduces her here as capable of counteracting the heat implied in the Omega Point reference.
5. "Cooling touch" (sisiram)
We have already explained that this cooling need not be eternally operating. Cartesian occasionalism permits the notion of cancellation taking place at a given moment and thus revealing the will of the Absolute. Taken in this sense, even in the world of suffering in actual existence, there are pleasant moments of absolute joy, which Wordsworth would perhaps call "intimations of immortality".
We have already explained that this cooling need not be eternally operating. Cartesian occasionalism permits the notion of cancellation taking place at a given moment and thus revealing the will of the Absolute. Taken in this sense, even in the world of suffering in actual existence, there are pleasant moments of absolute joy, which Wordsworth would perhaps call "intimations of immortality".
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.
WORD FOR WORD
Tava svadhisthane - in Your Svadhisthana Chakra
Hutavaham - the sacrificial fire
Adhishthaya - placing
Niratam tam ide - ever I adore it
Samvartam - like the fire of doom
Janani - o Mother
Mahatim tam cha - as also that great one
Samayam - called Samaya
Yada loke lokan dahati - when, by his rage, the worlds burn
Mahati krodha kalite dayardra ya drshtih - Her mercy-moist regard
Shishiram upacharam rachayati - renders to it the cooling touch of early spring..
Tava svadhisthane - in Your Svadhisthana Chakra
Hutavaham - the sacrificial fire
Adhishthaya - placing
Niratam tam ide - ever I adore it
Samvartam - like the fire of doom
Janani - o Mother
Mahatim tam cha - as also that great one
Samayam - called Samaya
Yada loke lokan dahati - when, by his rage, the worlds burn
Mahati krodha kalite dayardra ya drshtih - Her mercy-moist regard
Shishiram upacharam rachayati - renders to it the cooling touch of early spring..
Svadhisthana: the cool morning breeze in hot summer or, for lovers, after a long night of lovemaking.
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It cancels all of the suffering for the whole night: that is the secret called cancellation.Sva-adhisthana means "one's own foundation": your own basement, depending on yourself from the bottom, where the Devi is found.
A night breeze is a cancellation of the heat.
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.Two lovers perspiring at six in the morning...mosquitoes dying on your forehead ... big breasts bending... (All the attitudes of the female partridge)
(The association of the chakora or partridge and the moon has been a theme in a number of love stories in India. The chakora sometimes symbolizes intense and often unrequited, love. This is probably the source of the erotic association made by the Guru here. It is curiously also associated with eroticism and mysticism in the Sufi songs of the Turks and others, under the name "keklik". ED)
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Between perceptual and conceptual, there is a suddenness.
This suddenness is referred to in Verse 18:
"With shades of Your bodily form enriched by the tenderly sunlit dawn,
And the whole earth submerged within magenta glory;
That man, able to contemplate You thus, wins You over with Urvasi and how many, how many other
Heavenly nymphs having gentle, startled, wild deer eyes."
A deer is neutralised eroticism, innocent and drunken.
Absolute Beauty comes like the expression of the slender, beautiful deer's eyes when startled.
Trasat is the startled movement of a faun.
"Having wild-doe eyes" and belonging to a respectable family, like Urvasi. (a female spirit of the clouds and waters in Hindu and Buddhist mythology. ED): there is an enigma here.
These eyes are found in a fourteen year-old girl fed on simple, peasant food like ragi (sorghum), not in the over-nourished daughters of respectable families.
Your eyes become bright by waiting and crying: too much kissing and food makes them dull.
Idealism is making a story about wild horses vomiting fire in heaven, as in Plato.
Advaita rejects this kind of story-telling. Instead it gives more down-to-earth examples, like a beautiful thunderstorm cooling the tired lovers in this verse.
Isn't that beautiful? Isn't it the Absolute?
Advaita rejects this kind of story-telling. Instead it gives more down-to-earth examples, like a beautiful thunderstorm cooling the tired lovers in this verse.
Isn't that beautiful? Isn't it the Absolute?
(The tender erotic beauty in the wild-doe eyes is a more realistic representation of the Absolute than some mythological horses. The Absolute in the Saundarya Lahari is represented as the Devi - remember always that she is "just a woman, any woman". This is of the essence of the erotic mysticism that this work is meant to describe.
As the Guru said:
"Put the beauty of the sunset and the beauty of your girlfriend together and you are a mystic." ED)
Suffering is cancelled by the breeze, like a drop of water on a wound.
A coincidence is an approval from God.
Fire of Sacrifice.
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Fire of Doom.
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In the Svadhisthana Chakra a denominator glance cools the burning worlds.
They burn by the joint glance of the Devi and Shiva's anger.
There is a paradox here between fire and water.
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A breeze can cancel the heat of summer; the cool morning can cancel the fatigue of hot lovers after a ten-hour night of lovemaking.
This is common in Kalidasa's poetry: one drop of water from the cloud is enough to cancel the fatigue of the prostitutes who have wounds on their bodies from over-passionate camel-drivers.
(Kalidasa, in the Ritusamhara, describes summer:
- To relieve their lovers of heat,
- Women make them lie
- On their girdled, round hips covered with silken robes, or
- On their sandal-anointed breasts
- Heavy with ornaments.
- They seek help from fragrant flowers
- Set in coiffures after a bath,
- To intoxicate and delight their lovers. ED).
You can put cancellation at any level. Cancellation by oneself: there are two aspects of ontology in the Svadhisthana Chakra.
The series of Chakras is supposed to represent the whole of the experience of the human psyche, including the negative side of the woman's psyche, such as the menses.
These Chakras cannot be finalized with this kind of language (metalanguage or the language of words, as opposed to protolanguage, which in the Guru's terminology, means the structural methodology he is using in the present work, among others. The Cartesian co-ordinates are protolinguistic in essence; so also are the longitudes and latitudes of maps. ED.).
You should know how to extract the truth from a myth.
A myth is a kind of lingua mystica; a special language which conveys an experience by analogy, parable, fable or figure of speech. It is a literary device to convey something other than what it actually says.
A myth is a kind of lingua mystica; a special language which conveys an experience by analogy, parable, fable or figure of speech. It is a literary device to convey something other than what it actually says.
Sankara takes the older idealization and symbolism of mythology and revises it, giving a picture you can verify, because it is correlated to the range of real experiences available to every man in the world; because it is related to the seasons (Chakras).
(The Ritusamhara of Kalidasa has six cantos for the six Indian seasons - grīṣma (summer), varṣā (rains), śarat (autumn), hemanta (cool season), śiśira (winter), and vasanta (spring). It is generally considered to be Kaldiasa's earliest work.
Sankara is against idealization.
He has normalized the Yogashastra (texts on Yoga).
That is the beauty of it.
When he uses mythology, it is only a thin veneer, which does not hide the structure that he wants to reveal.
The word saṃhāra is used here in the sense of "coming together" or "group". It is often translated as Medley of Seasons or Garland of Seasons,
The changing seasons are depicted against the thematic backdrop of how lovers react to the landscape. This imbues the poem with a strong strand of eroticism (sringara rasa). ED)
Sankara is against idealization.
He has normalized the Yogashastra (texts on Yoga).
That is the beauty of it.
When he uses mythology, it is only a thin veneer, which does not hide the structure that he wants to reveal.
It is an actual seasonal phenomenon that Sankara relies upon to describe his series of Chakras, like morning and evening.
He makes use of mythological monomarks because there are no others for these functions.
At the end he strikes a balance between the gods and goddesses to reveal the Absolute...he says your own body can become the function of Kama Rupa.
(kama - desire, rupa - body. ED)
He avoids esotericism and symbolism by not referring to the abstractions of the Samkhya like Ida, Pingala etc.
(In Kundalini Yoga there are three nadis: ida, pingala, and sushumna. Ida lies to the left of the spine, whereas pingala is to the right side of the spine, mirroring the ida. Sushumna runs along the spinal cord in the center, through the Chakras. ED)
He avoids the use of merely mathematical symbolism as too abstract and intellectual.
The two swans are back-to-back in this Chakra; face-to-face in the previous one.
So it is "tava" - "Your" Svadhisthana Chakra.
It is a cross-section of the Absolute for the purpose of Schematism or Structuralism.
There is no duality between the Chakras, they are different cross-sections, like slices of the same cucumber.
It is a cross-section of the Absolute for the purpose of Schematism or Structuralism.
There is no duality between the Chakras, they are different cross-sections, like slices of the same cucumber.
As in the Pythagorean theorem, there are two proofs of everything: one is axiomatic (not requiring proof) and one is experimental or geometric .
But the truth is neither axiomatic or experimental.
(The reference to the Pythagoras Theorem is not entirely clear to us. The two swans could well represent the two proofs - axiomatic and experimental - but there is a problem in that the two swans are related as below:
and it seems to us that axiomatic and experimental proofs would be structurally related as below:
It is very possible that we are mistaken. Such problems as this are the delight of structural methodology. ED)
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This Chakra has fire as its basis. "In your Svadhisthana, I worship that fire principle (of non-being), o Mother".
"Her, also" means "I worship both of you".
By the regard of these two, all the worlds have caught fire and continue to burn, "by his anger..."
"Her, also" means "I worship both of you".
By the regard of these two, all the worlds have caught fire and continue to burn, "by his anger..."
Both of them are responsible for the burning, thus: "joint glance".
Finally it is "Your" side glance, this is the Devi outside the context.
For She does not oppose the Numerator of Shiva - but cools it.
Finally it is "Your" side glance, this is the Devi outside the context.
For She does not oppose the Numerator of Shiva - but cools it.
The two swans have equal status in this burning Chakra, but the Chakra belongs to the Devi.
This is a normalized version of the Absolute.
If destruction comes from the Numerator, it must be re-normalized by the saving principle - the cooling glance of the Devi on the Denominator.
This is a normalized version of the Absolute.
If destruction comes from the Numerator, it must be re-normalized by the saving principle - the cooling glance of the Devi on the Denominator.
There is the total Devi and there is another Devi, and they cancel out.
The Guru says:
"Yesterday, I got ideas about the Chakras.
CHAKRAS GIVE YOU SOMETHING ON WHICH TO FIX YOUR ATTENTION, WHEN TRYING TO THINK OF THE ABSOLUTE.
They use circles, petals, triangles, etc."
CHAKRAS GIVE YOU SOMETHING ON WHICH TO FIX YOUR ATTENTION, WHEN TRYING TO THINK OF THE ABSOLUTE.
They use circles, petals, triangles, etc."
At the centre is the Bindhusthana. (Taxonomy) (?)
"Svadhisthana" means: standing on its own.
"Muladhara" is the seat of Kundalini etc .
Finally there is the one Chakra which contains all the rest.
Sankara has taken all this and put some order into it.
He gives the greatest status to overwhelming beauty.
Consciousness can be filled by one idea.
In the passage in Kena Upanishad referred to below it says that "that very space" was filled by the Devi, Uma Haimavati.
("Then in that very space in the sky the gods saw a lady of radiant beauty. She was Uma, divine wisdom, the daughter of the mountains of snow").
The Kaulins were worshipping women;
Sankara put order into the confusion between Buddhism and Hinduism.
"By the mere regard or glance of these two..."
She is responsible for the burning, along with Shiva. He says: "I worship them both".
They are jointly responsible, great anger is in their hearts.
But the sidelong glance of the Devi provides the wintry touch.
Sankara put order into the confusion between Buddhism and Hinduism.
"By the mere regard or glance of these two..."
She is responsible for the burning, along with Shiva. He says: "I worship them both".
They are jointly responsible, great anger is in their hearts.
But the sidelong glance of the Devi provides the wintry touch.
(You said that they were jointly responsible, now you have the Devi functioning oppositely.)
In the fire principle there is parity between them, but the parity is horizontal and at a given level; while vertically they must have their Alpha- and Omega-Point functions.
There is no contradiction here. You can put both of them together at the centre.
The Devi can let everything burn, but not the Absolute Beauty.
(How do you know? Because it cannot be otherwise. This is an example of "argument by impossibility" (i.e. "The impossibility of being otherwise". ED) - anupalabdhi pramana.)
(Anupalabdhi (अनुपलब्धि) means non-perception, negative/cognitive proof. Anupalabdhi pramana suggests that knowing a negative, such as "there is no jug in this room" is a form of valid knowledge. If something can be observed or inferred or proven as non-existent or impossible, then one knows more than what one did without such means. ED)
So the Devi is given a double function in this verse.
Vertically viewed, there is no contradiction here.
Horizontally, there is a contradiction.
Do not forget that in the whole work there is a slight focus on the negative side of Absolute Beauty.
FROM KENA UPANISHAD, 3rd Kanda.
Once upon a time, Brahman, the Spirit Supreme, won a victory for the gods. And the gods thought in their pride, 'We alone attained this victory, ours alone is the glory; Brahman saw it and appeared to them, but they knew him not. 'Who is that being that fills us with wonder?' they cried. And they spoke to Agni, the god of fire: '0 god all-knowing, go and see who is that being that fills us with wonder.' Agni ran towards him and Brahman asked: 'Who are you?' I am the god of fire,' he said, the god who knows all things.' What power is in you?' asked Brahman. 'I can burn all things on earth.' And Brahman placed a straw before him, saying: 'Burn this.' The god of fire strove with all his power, but was unable to burn it. He then returned to the other gods and said: 'I could not find out who was that being that fills us with wonder.' Then they spoke to Vayu, the god of the air. '0 Vayu, go and see who is that being that fills us with wonder.' Vayu ran towards him and Brahman asked: 'Who are you?' 'I am Vayu, the god of the air,' he said, 'Matarisvan, the air that moves in space.' 'What power is in you?' asked Brahman. 'In a whirlwind I can carry away all there is on earth'. And Brahman placed a straw before him saying: 'Blow this away.' The god of the air strove with all his power, but was unable to move it. He returned to the other gods and said: 'I could not find out who was that being that fills us with wonder.' Then the gods spoke to Indra, the god of thunder: '0 giver of earthly goods, go and see who is that being that fills us with wonder.' And Indra ran towards Brahman, the Spirit Supreme, but he disappeared. Then in the same region of the sky the gods saw a lady of radiant beauty. She was Uma, divine wisdom, the daughter of the mountains of snow.
SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 41
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SAUNDARYA LAHARI
VERSE 41
THE MULADHARA CHAKRA: MEANS "ROOT"
तवाधारे मूले सह समयया लास्यपरया
नवात्मान मन्ये नवरस-महाताण्डव-नटम् ।
उभाभ्या मेताभ्या-मुदय-विधि मुद्दिश्य दयया
सनाथाभ्यां जज्ञे जनक जननीमत् जगदिदम्
tavadhare mule saha samayaya lasya paraya
navatmanam manye navarasa maha tandava natam
ubhabhyam etabhyam udayavidham uddisya dayaya
sanathabhyam jajne janakajananimaj jagad idam
navatmanam manye navarasa maha tandava natam
ubhabhyam etabhyam udayavidham uddisya dayaya
sanathabhyam jajne janakajananimaj jagad idam
I meditate on your new self, as placed at your Muladhara, together with Samaya
Given to her light-step dance as also that great bold-step dancer;
Giving expression thereby to all nine aesthetic interests; thus by their joint lordship,
By mercy intending the rebirth of the world, they confer on it the renewed status of having both father and mother.
Given to her light-step dance as also that great bold-step dancer;
Giving expression thereby to all nine aesthetic interests; thus by their joint lordship,
By mercy intending the rebirth of the world, they confer on it the renewed status of having both father and mother.
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Verse 41 expressly refers by name to the conventionally recognized Muladhara Chakra. Already in Verse 9 the same Muladhara has been referred to as “earth”. There the Chakras were mentioned in an ascending order, starting with the Muladhara as the lowest, about which there seems to be sufficient agreement between textbooks of Yoga. Muladhara evidently has a firm ontological reference in the terra firma itself, so there is no room for ambiguity in the matter of fixing its epistemological status among the Chakras.
There are particular uncertainties to be noted about the actual number of Chakras to be officially admitted into our discussion for the purposes of this work. In Verse 9, counting the Chakras that have been named and structurally located in an ontologically biased phenomenological scheme, we find that the Sahasrara Padma (thousand-petalled lotus) figures as the upper limiting point, making seven Chakras in all. In the structure of the Sri Chakra, as described in Verse 11, we find the nine centres of prakrti or mulaprakrti (prime nature). If we now ask ourselves if there would be any objection to including a tenth, it becomes a fairly ambiguous matter to decide one way or the other. For purposes of structural symmetry, it would be easier, mathematically at least, to think of “five plus five” as making up the totality of the Chakras.
This is not, however, favoured by Sankara, who cannot be said to be without a sense of neatness in his mathematical abstractions and generalisations. Ten can be arrived at by adding one to nine, or nine by subtracting one from ten. When ascending dialectics is involved, adding one to nine would be normal, but in descending dialectics it would be normal to subtract one from ten. The demands of mechanistic symmetry are not the same as those of a truly structural symmetry which respects such factors as reciprocity and complementarity. As in the case of extras accompanying a football team, where the bigger number could be favoured; here the tendency toward numbers greater than the minimum required could not be taken as objectionable. Two extras for a match could reasonably accompany a team , even though they will not necessarily be employed in the match itself. Only one of them may be required in the normal course of events, but in principle the other is also necessary, though he will not usually actually enter into the game. A similar status has to be given to the limiting Chakra at the plus or minus ends, depending upon the contingency that might call for their entry into the game. There is an “either/or” option presented here, whether it is an ascending or a descending series with which we happen to be concerned. The status of the Sahasrara Chakra in Verse 9, which would make seven very tangible Chakras, is thus to be treated as an extra when we accept six as the normal basis. The Muladhara Chakra could similarly have a tenth one added to its negative limit. It is not difficult to recognize a certain methodological alternative choice implied in the enumeration of different Chakras in different textbooks, for which we have to make some allowance. By making such allowances we could recognize six basic Chakras, referred to ordinarily as the sad adhara or sad chakra. When Verse 9 and the present reference to Muladhara and five others are considered together (Verses 36 - 41), keeping in our minds the either/or ambiguities involved, it will be possible for us to justify the nine of mulaprakrti (prime nature) represented in the Sri Chakra itself. The word prakrti would suggest an ontological perspective rather than a teleological one. This does not mean that a teleological perspective has to be ruled out altogether, for both ascending and descending methods are equally permissible.
With these general remarks in our minds, if we should now scrutinize the chart attached (see Introductory Notes to Verse 36) and take into consideration the Chakras marked in each of the two Upanishads to which we have decided to give authoritative recognition for our purposes, it should be possible for us to recognize a certain interphysical and trans-subjective relationship between the two sets of Chakras, revealing a normalized pattern, which is always the same Sri Chakra.
Some have suggested that we could invert the Sri Chakra to obtain the Shiva (male) Chakra, but such an inversion is not called for, because Vedanta, at least with Sankara, gives primacy to ontological cause over teleological effect in its recognized methodology. A rope is more real than the idea of a snake superimposed on it. Existence must have primacy over essence, as even modern existentialists claim. Sense data cannot be explained away, and any philosophy that tends to such a form of idealism only discredits itself by having to contradict common sense at every stage of its speculation. Appearance might over-cover reality, but reality is not abolished thereby. Thus it is that the Sri Chakra calls the nine centres by the name mulaprakrti. Mula means “root” or “source”, and prakrti means “nature”. The ontological bias here is inevitable and necessary for a fully scientific approach. If a value called absolute beauty is to come within human experience at all, the eighth Chakra or Adhara could be added to or subtracted from the basic seven recognized in Verse 9 and could be named either Brahma Chakra or Brahma Randhra as seen in the two alternative Upanishads that we have used for reference (See the list of chakras under Verse 36). Thus the term astabandha (eight stable positions) sometimes used in connection with the installation of temple images could be justified in terms meaning “eight bonds”. One more detail remains to be clarified. In Verse 11 we have referred to four srikanthas, evidently referring to masculine deities used as a monomark. Any monomark having a numerator reference could be considered as masculine. In the present verse we find a reference to Shiva, as a masculine divinity, dancing with parity of status with a feminine divinity, although the Muladhara refers to a lower limit in the total situation. The masculine divinity here still has a numerator reference, just as in Verse 9 the female divinity is promoted to the seventh Chakra, beyond the Chakras known to the Kula path, which still has a denominator reference. “New” means that his reference is on the numerator side; while Samaya's reference is normal.
1. “Your new self” (navatmanam)
This must have an Omega Point reference and thus must imply a masculine Shiva, because the feminine is already represented by the other goddess called Samaya, who has a normal status with an ontological reference. Newness only implies that its reference is positive.
This must have an Omega Point reference and thus must imply a masculine Shiva, because the feminine is already represented by the other goddess called Samaya, who has a normal status with an ontological reference. Newness only implies that its reference is positive.
2. “Your Muladhara”
Each Chakra represents the totality of the Absolute in a normalized form in the context of beauty as a tangible reality. This reference in the second person singular is therefore justified. The word "Muladhara" still refers to the ontological or “source” side of the situation.
Each Chakra represents the totality of the Absolute in a normalized form in the context of beauty as a tangible reality. This reference in the second person singular is therefore justified. The word "Muladhara" still refers to the ontological or “source” side of the situation.
3. “Samaya”
The status of the goddess Samaya remains the same. Because the school of Samayins were not aware of the rival cancellable aspects, their approach was unilateral, immanent and within the scope of the three Gunas. A similar goddess is under reference in Verses 34, 37 and 39. According to the context, we have to give a legitimate status to each of these Samaya goddesses or divinities.
The status of the goddess Samaya remains the same. Because the school of Samayins were not aware of the rival cancellable aspects, their approach was unilateral, immanent and within the scope of the three Gunas. A similar goddess is under reference in Verses 34, 37 and 39. According to the context, we have to give a legitimate status to each of these Samaya goddesses or divinities.
4. “Her lasya Dance”
Lasya and Tandava are the two styles of dancing proper to feminine and masculine dancers, respectively. Tandava is characterized by a sinus curve that is vertical, like a frequency, while Lasya has a horizontal reference as in a wavelength. This distinction is well known in the Bharata Natyam school of classical Indian dance.
Lasya and Tandava are the two styles of dancing proper to feminine and masculine dancers, respectively. Tandava is characterized by a sinus curve that is vertical, like a frequency, while Lasya has a horizontal reference as in a wavelength. This distinction is well known in the Bharata Natyam school of classical Indian dance.
5. “All nine aesthetic interests” (navarasa)
The nine aesthetic interests could be multiplied by two, as applying to visual or auditory expressions in art. Basically, there are nine which apply to both.
The nine aesthetic interests could be multiplied by two, as applying to visual or auditory expressions in art. Basically, there are nine which apply to both.
6. “Joint lordship” (sanathabhyam ubabhyam)
A husband and wife could be considered as master and mistress. Thus, there is a kind of lordship, whether masculine or feminine, applied within the parity of status of the two divinities here. Vertically viewed, they are not husband and wife but father and mother. It is the grace or the sanction of the total Goddess that gives room for all these possibilities or probabilities.
A husband and wife could be considered as master and mistress. Thus, there is a kind of lordship, whether masculine or feminine, applied within the parity of status of the two divinities here. Vertically viewed, they are not husband and wife but father and mother. It is the grace or the sanction of the total Goddess that gives room for all these possibilities or probabilities.
7. “Intending the rebirth of the world” (udaya vidhim uddisya)
The rebirth is intended to be considered as taking place every split second. In Verse 55, the opening and shutting of the eyes represents creation and dissolution. Between the contradiction of opening and shutting the eyes, there is a purer process of becoming which knows no contraries; this has a third- or fourth-dimensional status which should not be mixed up with alternate creation and dissolution.
The rebirth is intended to be considered as taking place every split second. In Verse 55, the opening and shutting of the eyes represents creation and dissolution. Between the contradiction of opening and shutting the eyes, there is a purer process of becoming which knows no contraries; this has a third- or fourth-dimensional status which should not be mixed up with alternate creation and dissolution.
8. “Renewed status”
Renewed status implies that dissolution took place once, as understood in the idea of the great deluge (pralaya). Alternation of creation and dissolution can be viewed in the eternal present or as in an eternal moment. Plato's writings justify both these possibilities (Cf. “Parmenides” or “Timaeus”).
Renewed status implies that dissolution took place once, as understood in the idea of the great deluge (pralaya). Alternation of creation and dissolution can be viewed in the eternal present or as in an eternal moment. Plato's writings justify both these possibilities (Cf. “Parmenides” or “Timaeus”).
9. “Father and mother” (janaka jananimat)
Conferring parenthood implies the idea of having both father and mother, as opposed to being an orphan in respect of one or the other. The correct opposite; double orphanhood, which is anterior to this moment, is what is to be kept in mind here.
Conferring parenthood implies the idea of having both father and mother, as opposed to being an orphan in respect of one or the other. The correct opposite; double orphanhood, which is anterior to this moment, is what is to be kept in mind here.
(The above reference to a snake and a rope refers to the well-known Vedantic example of svarupa-adhyasa, which consists in superimposing an illusory (mithya) object on something real.
Example: Seeing a coiled rope as a snake, which is compared to the superimposing, through ignorance (avidya), of the empirical world upon Brahman, the Absolute. This is an example of a foundational error. ED)
Example: Seeing a coiled rope as a snake, which is compared to the superimposing, through ignorance (avidya), of the empirical world upon Brahman, the Absolute. This is an example of a foundational error. ED)
.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.
Now, we come to the Muladhara Chakra.
Shiva and the Devi dance here - it is the foundation, the beginning.
Samaya is the female Absolute of the Samayins.
Lasya is the dance of Samaya: it is horizontal, like a wavelength.
Shiva's Tandava dance is vertical, like amplitude.
By these two partners together the whole world is re-created by kindness.
Each becomes the mistress or master of the other.
The world began to have a new status of having parents - no more is the world an orphan.
The vertical axis becomes the parenthood.
They are "parents" by mutually possessive lordship.
.
.
All the world is an orphanage, until Shiva and the Devi come and dance in the Muladhara.
This universe is orphaned in nature, until they come to dance.
"You are in your Muladhara, together with your consort, doing a liquid, wave-like dance."
These are "new" souls. (A touch of the ever-new)
By putting these two together, by kindness the world is created.
The Absolute is kind, close to the Alpha Point.
One of them is dancing one way, one the other.
Each has its own consort.
At the time that they were united in their dance, the earth acquired parents.
The two dances cancel each other out.
All the eighteen Puranas derive from the Upanishads.
No Indian writer violates the Upanishads.
If you say "Vyasa says so", that is the last court of appeal.
(Traditionally, Vyasa is considered to be the author of all the Vedas and Puranas. ED)
So there is a popular growth of tradition, for Sudras (low-caste people) and women, starting at the bottom and working up.
The pundits are strongly influenced by the Puranas, but not by the philosophy.
The Puranas are traditional lore.
There are two temperaments: those willing to believe and those not willing to believe.
The Puranas are willing to believe; the Upanishads are slightly sceptical.
The Pundits will say : Ramanuja is comprehensible, Sankara is too theoretical and vague".
(Ramanuja represents a dualistic sub-school of Vedanta, Vishishta Advaita, which emphasizes bhakti, or religious devotion, usually to the God Vishnu. ED)
Get the whole question straight: it does not matter when we arrive.
What difference does it make if I wait ten more years for my salvation?
This is the normal way, and it is a better way - cool yourself.
What difference does it make if I wait ten more years for my salvation?
This is the normal way, and it is a better way - cool yourself.
Keep the structure in your mind, without losing any of the reality.
Here, the kindness of the Absolute is found at the Alpha point.
Kindness is just the other side of intelligence.
Their two dances represent amplitude and wavelength.
The two of them represent vertical and horizontal functions - Fourier Functions.
(In mathematics, a Fourier series decomposes periodic functions or periodic signals into the sum of a (possibly infinite) set of simple oscillating functions, namely sines and cosines (or complex exponentials) ED)
This is like a hologram - putting together two functions.
These two functions - the dances of Shiva and the Devi -are like sinus functions - they interact and interlace, and the whole world leaps into being.
This is like a hologram - in its separate aspects it is just dots and whorls; but put them together and they present a three-dimensional reality.
In the same way the world leaps into parentage - otherwise it is just two meaningless holographic plates.
Kalidasa, in his introduction to Shakuntala, talks about eight gods - these are eight possible verticalized views of the same god.
He also says that he worships the parents of the universe. (See bottom of page).
He also says that he worships the parents of the universe. (See bottom of page).
When the vertical and the horizontal dance together in joy in the Muladhara, the world has parents.
This occurs in the Muladhara because it is the most "earthy" of the chakras.
This dance is dynamic in character.
-
Another version:
TRANSLATION
- In your Muladhara (source, basis, horizontal firmness)
- Accompanied by Samaya (female counterpart)
- Absorbed always in Lasya (the horizontal dance, wavelength)
- I think of the new-born Self
- The great dancer of the nine artistic factors (love, mercy, heroism, humour, agony (tragic), terrifying, macabre, wonder, "shantam"- peaceful - the whole gamut - art must be represented at the lowest-level chakra)
- Of these two
- Considering the law of resurrection
- Each one (thus) having a consort
- Become
- By way of father and mother
- This phenomenal universe (something in flux)
- In your Muladhara (source, basis, horizontal firmness)
- Accompanied by Samaya (female counterpart)
- Absorbed always in Lasya (the horizontal dance, wavelength)
- I think of the new-born Self
- The great dancer of the nine artistic factors (love, mercy, heroism, humour, agony (tragic), terrifying, macabre, wonder, "shantam"- peaceful - the whole gamut - art must be represented at the lowest-level chakra)
- Of these two
- Considering the law of resurrection
- Each one (thus) having a consort
- Become
- By way of father and mother
- This phenomenal universe (something in flux)
Parenthood is achieved when men enjoy women and women, men.
So, this verse recommends marriage, so the world will have parents.
The father of the universe is Shiva, the mother is the Devi.
(The boy with typhoid wanted to die because his parents always quarreled)
Invent a way of life where you hurt no-one.
So, this verse recommends marriage, so the world will have parents.
The father of the universe is Shiva, the mother is the Devi.
(The boy with typhoid wanted to die because his parents always quarreled)
Invent a way of life where you hurt no-one.
There are two highlights: each gets a consort or companion, and they leap into vertical status by their horizontal parity - the vertical relationship is complementarity.
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"Your Muladhara" is at the base of the vertebral column.
Samaya is the denominator Goddess of the same context as the Devi, while the Devi has both Numerator and Denominator.
Shiva comes down to dance with Samaya,
All is taking place within the Devi Herself.
Samaya is the denominator Goddess of the same context as the Devi, while the Devi has both Numerator and Denominator.
Shiva comes down to dance with Samaya,
All is taking place within the Devi Herself.
Samaya is the negative part of the vertical axis.
Female mercy is operating here; kindness below, conferring the renewed status of having both father and mother.
The dance consists of all the nine aesthetic attitudes (nava rasas).
On the perceptual side, the Devi is called Samayaa, on the conceptual, Samaya.
On the perceptual side, the Devi is called Samayaa, on the conceptual, Samaya.
.
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-
"Your Muladhara" - put it in the lower part of the Devi.
I meditate on it as located within the Devi.
The denominator Samaya is called lasya parayaa, meaning that her dance is lasya.
I meditate on it as located within the Devi.
The denominator Samaya is called lasya parayaa, meaning that her dance is lasya.
In this verse, he is a new Self like the leaves; while she is the old body like the roots.
Of the Nava Rasas (nine aesthetic interests), there are 9 on the Denominator, while 18 on the Numerator in the previous verse.
"Nava" means "nine" or "new".
(The nine rasas are;
- Śṛngāram (शृङ्गारं) Love, Attractiveness.
- Hāsyam (हास्यं) Laughter, Mirth, Comedy.
- Raudram (रौद्रं) Fury.
- Kāruṇyam (कारुण्यं) Compassion, Tragedy.
- Bībhatsam (बीभत्सं) Disgust, Aversion.
- Bhayānakam (भयानकं) Horror, Terror.
- Vīram (वीरं) Heroic mood.
- Adbhutam (अद्भुतं) Wonder, Amazement. )
Shiva is acting out all the 9 Rasas as he descends through the vertical axis.
(Maha Tandava Natham -"that great bold-step dancer" means that Shiva is the dancer).
Through his dance, God is acting everything that all men anywhere have to act.
The Absolute Devi says: "Let those two who are dancing be born again."
The Devi is crying from pity and kindness at the destruction of the world.
By electromagnetic pulsations the world has parents; think of yourself: you were born; 9 months before, your parents were copulating; who arranged all this?
It is the Devi who is weeping, not Shiva, who is just dancing.
Shiva and Parvati dance in the Muladhara Chakra.
There are two kinds of dance:
Tandava corresponding to Shiva and Lasya corresponding to the Devi.
The nine rasas are all expressed by them.
The nine rasas are all expressed by them.
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The dance confers parenthood on an orphaned world.
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The word "Stop!" is a sign, the red light is a symbol.
There are two proofs of the Pythagoras theorem -
There are two proofs of the Pythagoras theorem -
AN ALGEBRAIC PROOF ON THE NUMERATOR SIDE
AND A GEOMETRIC PROOF ON THE DENOMINATOR SIDE
THE NANDI, OR BENEDICTION FROM SHAKUNTALA.
"That which is the first creation of the creator,
That which bears the offering made according to due rites,
That which is the offerer,
Those two which make time,
That which pervades all space,
having for its quality what is perceived by the ear,
That which is the womb of all seeds,
That by which all living beings breathe:
Endowed with these eight visible forms, may the supreme Lord protect you."
That which bears the offering made according to due rites,
That which is the offerer,
Those two which make time,
That which pervades all space,
having for its quality what is perceived by the ear,
That which is the womb of all seeds,
That by which all living beings breathe:
Endowed with these eight visible forms, may the supreme Lord protect you."
The benediction is a masterpiece of structuralism: a god with eight visible forms, both cosmology and psychology together.
1. The first creation is fire, the centre, as with Thales etc.
2. That which bears the fire (what is put in) according to a certain order in the universe: some grains.
3. The Hotri, or sacrificant, who makes the offering.
4 and 5. "Those two who make time" the sun and moon are to be verticalized
so as to rise and set in your consciousness as if presented to the five senses.
6. The visible world - i.e. attainable in a schematised form.
7. Whatever you call the horizontal world - the womb of all seeds.
8. That by which all things live - breath.
1. The first creation is fire, the centre, as with Thales etc.
2. That which bears the fire (what is put in) according to a certain order in the universe: some grains.
3. The Hotri, or sacrificant, who makes the offering.
4 and 5. "Those two who make time" the sun and moon are to be verticalized
so as to rise and set in your consciousness as if presented to the five senses.
6. The visible world - i.e. attainable in a schematised form.
7. Whatever you call the horizontal world - the womb of all seeds.
8. That by which all things live - breath.
ALL THESE FALL INTO A VERTICAL AXIS.
ABSTRACT AND GENERALIZE AND YOU GET STRUCTURE,
THAT IS, FORM.
ABSTRACT AND GENERALIZE AND YOU GET STRUCTURE,
THAT IS, FORM.
SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 41b
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SAUNDARYA LAHARI
VERSE 41b
PART II
THE TRANSITION FROM ANANDA TO SAUNDARYA
Pandits and professors alike have agreed to put a conventional mark of punctuation between Verses 41 and 42, distinguishing what is titled “Ananda Lahari”, (Verses 1 through 41) from the remainder of the work, entitled “Saundarya Lahari”. This latter title is also applied to the work as a whole. Thus there are two works distinguished within the one work, of forty and sixty or of forty-one and fifty-nine verses respectively.
The reasons given for making such a division at the very heart of this work vary within a wide range of speculation, and are sometimes not unmixed with imaginary episodes connected with the personal life of the author, Sankara. In Verse 75 there is a lurking, enigmatic reference to a “Dravidian child” who, on being nourished by the milk of the Goddess, became born as a poet who could write beautiful poetry. Sanskrit is unquestionably the language of the Aryan context, and if a Dravidian poet is to be given the authorship of the latter half of this work, as some surmise, it might be conceded that there seems to be at first sight a change of subject matter, or at least a revision in the perspective in which the subject matter is treated after the forty-first verse. The transition, when we come to examine it closely, needs to be effected very carefully, taking into consideration epistemological, methodological and axiological factors of a very thin speculative order. Evidently this requirement has confused the minds of critics and commentators, both European and Indian, to such an extent that Sankara's authorship of these verses, which so clearly all belong together to the same context of absolute beauty, is put into question. There is no other author in the field who could be even distantly proposed as a substitute for Sankara.
A discrepancy between the styles of the two sections of verses has also been suggested by both Pandits and professors. The “Dravidian child” of Verse 75, if an actual product of the Tamil or South Indian context of spirituality, must have been well versed in the Tantra that was natural to the Shaiva type of Siddhanta as distinguished from the Vedanta based on the Upanishads.
Some have even dared to suggest the name of one of the four Tamil Saints (Nalvars), Tirujnanasambandar, in trying to identify this Dravidian child. Even if it should be possible for Sambandar to be the actual author of these verses and it is assumed that he composed the latter half and tacked it on somehow to the text as presented to us in its actual, complete form, it is indeed difficult to explain how that Tamil saint, who has never been credited with any other work in Sanskrit, could have composed a work of such classical finish. It is equally difficult to credit that he could have quickly learned enough Sanskrit to play a trick on Sankara, who, on his side, has not been credited with writing in any Dravidian language, even granting that Malayalam did not exist at the time.
The enigmatic nature of the theory of double authorship, put forth so fancifully by a sufficiently respectable group of critics and commentators, is only heightened by their hypothetical proposals, and cannot therefore be warranted. There has even been a legendary incident created to explain this imaginary enigma of double authorship, in which Sankara comes upon a scene where the supposed real Dravidian author has emblazoned these hundred verses on a wall. As the first forty verses contained deeper secrets of the Shaivite Tantra tradition of proto-Aryan origin, that Dravidian child, at the insistence of the Devi herself, quickly wiped off the first half of the work to guard these secrets from the heterodox Aryan eyes of the Sanskritist Sankara, supposedly a stranger to the ancient Tantric tradition. In spite of this however, Sankara is said to have been clever enough to reconstruct from memory these first forty verses, having the gift of remembering words that he had read just once. This highly imaginative episode which even includes the Devi as an accomplice in a trick, only proves how natural myth-making is to the human mind. This story is found in the Malayalam edition of the Saundarya Lahari by Mahadeva Sastri, page 101, and in the Theosophical Society edition, page 214.
The whole mystery stems from the fact that the schematismus and non-verbose language of non-didactic description adopted here by Sankara is something completely new even to his latter-day critics, who tend to dismiss him as a mere mayavadin, that is, a believer in the unreality of the universe, and sometimes even as a prachanna bauddha, a Buddhist in disguise. The theologically-based philosophies that superseded Sankara during the Mogul Supremacy in India, and especially those latter forms of philosophy that prevailed after the fall of the Vijayanagar Empire, tended to make Sankara a less important figure on the philosophical scene of the decadent India of recent centuries. A cultural hiatus thus developed, both among Indian pundits and among western scholars, who came with the East India Company more as curiosity hunters than as genuine scholars belonging to the context proper to cultural expressions such as what we have before us as a supreme example.
The Mysore wars and the Indian Mutiny could be said to be due mostly to the defects of such a cultural gap or vacuum, which tended to put the graded and orderly development of a sense of cultural values into confusion at this particular period.
A close scrutiny of Verse 41 will reveal to us that, although it refers directly to the Muladhara Chakra, one of the most ontologically based of all the Chakras - even referring to the re-emergence of the world into a more real status from its amorphous anterior state of flux - this same verse suggests that the personality of the Goddess enjoys only a thin schematic status in terms of absolute beauty abstracted and generalized to its furthest possible limit. Thus, while the dance of Shiva and Samaya takes place at the ontological limit of the total situation, the Goddess herself remains unaffected by any rivalry with the pair who are given full freedom to bring the world back into existence, while she remains uninvolved in this phenomenal aspect in an overall and implied sense. The requirements of parity and symmetry are both complied with and transcended at the same time. The climax of normalization in the transition from the perceptual to the conceptual; from the Self to the Non-Self; from ontology to teleology or from physics to metaphysics, has been effected in principle in Verse 41. The Muladhara of that verse has nothing earthy about it at all, but represents a world-ground sufficiently fluid and emergent in an ever-continuing state of novelty, in which the world is created and destroyed alternately in split-second terms of momentariness in the eternal present. It is not an inert form of realism that is to be understood here, though the lesser Tantric schools might tend to imagine that it pertains to their own set of values. Prejudice in favour of Tantrism, as against full-fledged Advaita, implies a gap that is in the minds of critics rather than in the work itself, when properly and more closely examined.
One can even see that in Verse 42, Sankara takes care to keep close to the Chakra form of meditation, even when he passes from the limit of ontology, in Verse 41, into the domain of teleology, from Verse 42 onward. In fact it is hard to discover any abruptness at all in the changeover so harmoniously effected between these transitional verses (40 - 43) whose sequence is perfect.
The world becomes real as the focus of attention is transferred from the feet of the Goddess to her crest jewel, which is made up of twelve suns – one for each month of the year - fused together and tinged with the twilight colour of magenta, to make them resemble rubies rather than diamonds. A bright diamond would relate more to the midday sun, while a red ruby would better represent the twilight sun of morning or evening or both, when pressed together and fused into the crest-jewel of the revised Goddess, whose cosmological personality is going to be reviewed from head to foot in the remainder of this work. The inside becomes outside in this transition, but they retain a unity as if enclosed in circles of consciousness, not unlike the Chakras of the section just left behind. We would call these circles “conceptual Chakras”, having the same unitive value status, though instead of being placed within the heart of the yogi, they have been put “over there”, as it were, in terms of overt beauty, as in a landscape at sunrise. Thus the gem-set island within consciousness gives place to a Himalayan sunrise. Such is the nature of the transition we have to keep in mind to appreciate the continuity of the same value factor which could be called indifferently “Ananda” or “Saundarya”. By whatever name it is referred to and whether applicable to life in the self or in the non-self, it is the same overwhelming experience of beauty, viewed from two apparently different perspectives, that we are being treated to by Sankara, whose authorship, according to us, need not be suspected at all. Who else could have written Sanskrit with such a classical finish, after the days of Kalidasa?
He is conscious of his unrivaled position here, as he pointedly pats himself on the back when he says that this same “Dravidian Child” became an equal to any great poet of antiquity that we can think of. The internal evidence of Verse 75 is thus, to our eyes at least, overwhelmingly conclusive, and we have no hesitation in brushing aside all rival miscellaneous constructions on this matter. Narayana Guru's work could be considered a legitimate continuation of this Vedantic tradition. He speaks in the Malayalam language of Kerala, which is the by-product of the interaction of the Shiva-worshiping culture of South India and the sun-worshiping culture of the Himalayan regions. The island placed in mid-ocean and the sunlit peaks of the abode of Shiva become interchangeable as value-factors with an inner or outer factor of overwhelming intoxication in terms of beauty.
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