AdvaitaVedanta Website - Introduction

Saundarya Lahari

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 71

Details
Parent Category: Content
Hits: 11219

SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

 

71 - 80 BRACKETING AND ONE/ONE CORRESPONDENCE
 

VERSE 71

THE UPPER AND LOWER LIMITS ARE MARKED OUT

 

नखाना-मुद्योतै-र्नवनलिनरागं विहसतां
कराणां ते कान्तिं कथय कथयामः कथमुमे ।
कयाचिद्वा साम्यं भजतु कलया हन्त कमलं
यदि क्रीडल्लक्ष्मी-चरणतल-लाक्षारस-चणम्

 

nakhanam udyotair nava nalina ragam vihasatam
karanam te kantim kathaya kathayamah katham ume
kayacid va samyam bhajatu kalaya hanta kamalam
yadi kridal laksmi caranatala laksa rasacanam
 
Shining by the brilliance of Your fingernails that mock the colour of
Just-opening lotus buds, how could we speak of the beauty of Your hand?
Granted be, o Uma, that the lotus could have one shade less of parity with it
If at all, and that, alas, only when touched by the magenta paste of the sole of Lakshmi as she plays thereon.
 
 
As in Verse 62, a rhetorical question is at the very core of the subject matter of this verse. Uma is being questioned here by the poet who wants to describe the absolute Beauty of the Goddess by praising the brilliance of the pink colour of lotus buds touched by sunlight as the flower opens in the morning. Uma herself has to tell him, because the final reference for the beauty of Uma is her own self or personality, and not what is described by someone else. Absolute Beauty has to be in itself, for itself, through itself and by itself. It cannot depend upon anything extraneous to itself. Substance and attribute have both to belong together to the same absolute Substance, finally to be understood in terms of the non-dual self. The fingernails referred to in the first line are part and parcel of the Goddess herself, and hence, when compared to the glory of the lotus bud just opening at dawn, the fingernails have an advantage in the analogy over the lotus-buds, which can refer only to the attribute and not to the substantial Self. The poet thus feels perplexed because all predications about the Absolute do not directly apply to the Absolute itself. Then he tries an alternative method to successfully give absolutist status to the beauty of the Goddess.
 
Instead of thinking of the fingertips or the sunlight, which are teleological in import, he descends to the lower ontological limit, where the feet of the Goddess are to be imagined as dancing on a lotus flower. The Goddess here is not Sarasvati, nor Parvati, as proper to this series, but Lakshmi, who is the Goddess of wealth and prosperity in this world. She has thus a hierophantic status rather than a hypostatic one, which belongs more properly to Sarasvati. These structural interrelationships between gods and goddesses will come up for discussion at the end of the work, in Verse 99. In anticipation, we are justified here in saying that Sarasvati and Lakshmi are partners or counterparts within a totality which properly belongs to Parvati, who belongs to an Absolute context distinct from more relativistic subordinate functionary divinities or presences. In the second half of the verse, it is thus Lakshmi who represents the ontological counterpart of the Absolute. The soles of her feet are smeared with some kind of magenta paste, as is normal to beautiful women in the poetry of Kalidasa and others. This magenta paste is a substance meant to enhance the beauty of the whole personality of Lakshmi. Because it is applied to her feet, we could consider it an attribute to her personality, which would itself represent the substance. Substance and attribute have to participate in Advaita Vedanta, and the difference between them is to be abolished in the name of the final oneness of absolute Truth.
 
Here it is the beauty of the lotus that is being compared to the beauty of the fingernails of the Goddess. It can be asked whether the lotus on which Lakshmi dances with magenta paste on the soles of her feet is to be considered as glorious as the magenta of the fingernails in the first line. One would expect that, on the ontological side at least, the magenta colour conferred by the feet of the Goddess would enhance the beauty of the lotus to such an extent as to make it rival the beauty of the fingernails. But the answer is that this is just a possibility and not a certainty. It is true that ontology scores above teleology in Vedanta, as we have already indicated. This is a doctrine underlined by Sankara as early as Verse 4. A slight difference of degree still remains to be bridged between the notion of absolute Beauty and what even an ontological type of participation can confer on the Absolute. In other words, the poet finds it impossible to praise the beauty here, because absolute Beauty is beyond all predicability. It exists in itself, without any outside reference. The Beauty of the Absolute is beyond praise, as is often heard in contemplative literature. Words come back from it without touching it, as the Upanishads put it.
 
We have to note also that this verse supplies a vertical parameter passing through the quaternion situation pictured in the previous verse. It is therefore meant to make the structural­ism complete.
 
It is also noteworthy that the appellation “Uma” used here is not an accident. Parvati was called “Uma” (Sanskrit: “Oh do not!”) by her mother, by way of admonishing her against performing austerities to attain Shiva. She being a direct repre­sentative of the Absolute, it was supposed by her mother that she needed nothing outside herself, even in the form of austerities, to complete her status. There are other derivations besides this one, found in Kalidasa's “Kumarasambhava”, which suggest that Uma should not resemble Lakshmi, but be herself. There is still another derivation which suggests that she considers even Shiva as unnecessary for her happiness, being complete in herself. All these derivations confer upon Uma a self-sufficient and unique status in the overwhelming context of absolute Beauty. It is just this uniqueness that distinguishes mere appreciation of beauty from the lahari, or upsurge of beauty, meant to be experienced in these verses.
 
 

 

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

 

WORD FOR WORD
Nakhanam udyotaih - by the shining of Your fingernails
Nava nalina ragam vihasatam - that mock the colour of just-opening lotus buds
Karanam te - of Your hands
Kantim kathaya - say the beauty
Kathaya mah katham - how could we
Ume - o Uma
Kaya cid va - somehow
Samyam bhajati - equality have
Kalaya - (at least) by a shade (of) difference only (e.g. one day from full moon)
Hanta - alas
Kamalam yadi - if the lotus should
Kridat lakshmi chrana tala - as Lakshmi sporting (thereon)
Laksha rasachanam - the sole of her feet with its magenta paste
of the sole of Lakshmi as she plays thereon.
 
.
Another version:
.
WORD FOR WORD
Nakhanamudyotaih - by the excellent brilliance of fingernails
Nava nalina ragam vihasatam - putting to shame the new-born colour of a lotus
Karanam te - of thy hands
Kanthim kathaya - tell the glory
Katha yamah katham - how could we tell
Ume - o Uma
Kaya chid iva - by whatever means

(Here, in the original manuscript, there is a line dividing the text, and the note: "Kumaran Asan's (Famous poet of Kerala and translator of the Saundarya Lahari. ED) version completely different by second half")

Samyam bhajatu - let it attain equality of status
Kalaya - even fractionally
Hanta! - Alas!
Kamalam yadi - if the lotus could
Kridal lakshmi caranatala laksha rasacanam - if it should be shadow-hued, with the red hibiscus flower on the sole of the feet of Lakshmi sporting thereon
 
 
.
Another version:
 
TRANSLATION
- By the excellent brilliance of nails
- Putting to shame the newly born colour of the lotus (newly born lotus)
- Of the hands (of thy hands)

THIS IS AN ORDER TO THE POET:
- Tell the glory (the poet is being ordered to tell the glory of the nail-tips of the Devi)

RESPONSE:
- How can we say this (the Poet asks how can all the poets assembled here describe this?)
- By whatever means (This beauty is Absolute and cannot be related to something)
.

.

.

.

.

The hands of Devi are over Her head, fingertips together, like a lotus blossom.
 
.
.

(From here this section of the translation is designated: "Lakshmi - Denominator lotus value")
(Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth. ED)

.

Another version:

TRANSLATION
- Let it attain equality of status
("What I am going to say now...")
- Even fractionally ("Think of a second lotus...")
- Alas
- If the lotus could... (Lotus of Denominator)
- If it should be hued with the red hibiscus flower on the sole of the feet of Lakshmi
(In this way, the second lotus will try to cancel out the lotus of the Numerator. This can only happen fractionally.)

 (This page is in the Guru's own hand, and the structures are almost impossible to disentangle - it needs facsimile treatment. ED)


-
The Devi's fingertips are at the Omega Point.
 
 
Attribute and substance are juxtaposed and cancelled out at different levels.
The real lotus is superior to the paper one,
but every shade of difference is cancelled out in the vertical axis.
"Uma" (a name of the Devi)  means "no equal to you, unique".
 
.
.
.
.
The lotus from the bottom has accepted Lakshmi, whose magenta-coloured feet dance on it.

There is something sad about a lotus in nature trying to attain parity with the magenta of the Devi.
But even after participating with Lakshmi, there is still something missing.
Poor lotus: it is not able to stabilize itself.
This is the force of "Alas!"

It has come up to the horizontal axis, but is still vibrating.

 
 
He wants to compare the glory of the fingernails of the Devi to something, so he uses the feet of Lakshmi as on a lotus (on the negative, Denominator side) for she is also a clear, transparent glory.
He wants to cancel the Numerator Lotus with the Denominator Lotus, to resolve them both into the Absolute.
 
The beauty of the nails "reflected thereon" has an absolute status of conceptualization and generalization.
Think of Lakshmi, who has magenta hibiscus juice on the soles of her feet.
Think of a beautiful woman - semi-divine.
If you can, imagine this real hierophantic beauty, giving colour to the lotus below.
Then apply all these revisions, and you can get something which comes close to cancelling out the Absolute Beauty of the Devi's nails.
 
Lakshmi descends from the Numerator and touches the Denominator lotus, giving Absolute (relative) Universal Concrete status to that lotus and thus it can be compared to the Devi´s feet.
So here, some real, existent value is almost equated.
 

 

 

 

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 72

Details
Parent Category: Content
Hits: 12224

SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

VERSE 72

MUTUAL ERROR FROM TWO POINTS ON THE VERTICAL AXIS

GANESHA AND SUBRAHMANIAN TOGETHER MAKE UP THE ABSOLUTE.

 

समं देवि स्कन्द द्विपिवदन पीतं स्तनयुगं
तवेदं नः खेदं हरतु सततं प्रस्नुत-मुखम् ।
यदालोक्याशङ्काकुलित हृदयो हासजनकः
स्वकुम्भौ हेरम्बः परिमृशति हस्तेन झडिति

 

samam devi skanda dvipavadana pitam stanayugam
tavedam nah khedam haratu satatam prasnuta mukham
yad alokyasankakulitahrdayo hasajanakah
svakhumbhau herambah parimrsati hastena chatiti
 
Let it banish our misery, o Goddess, your twin breasts,
Ever being sucked equally by Skanda and Ganesha;
Of which, seeing their milk-spouting fronts, Ganesha causes laughter
As he feels his own front with misgivings in his mind.
.
 
The parity and chirality ("handedness", see below) of the structure of the Absolute are attempted to be put together in this verse, together with a horizo­ntally placed mirror-like reflecting surface separating the counterparts. Ganesa (the elephant-headed god) and Skanda or Subrahmanya (the god who glorifies Brahminical virtues) enter as equal partners into this composite picture, evidently created by Sankara himself and not found in any other mythological story. We have now to put a circle round the breast region of the Goddess and try to visualize the structural relationships that are meant to give integrated beauty-content to the absolute Goddess.
 
The two breasts being sucked by the two sons of the Mountain Goddess represent in themselves strikingly ambivalent characteristics between them. The elephant-headed god, Ganesa, has a more earthy character than his brother Subrahmanya, who is thin and refined and full of heavenly brightness. The difference in their personalities could be traced to the milk that each of them is nourished on, which is from the same mother and cannot be basically different. Peripherally considered, however, the breasts of the Mother could have a slight lack of parity between them, one being derived from the side of sunlight and the other being derived from the side of moonlight. This idea was suggested in Verse 19. There is a degree of virtuality and actuality, even within the overall status of parity between the breasts, when viewed horizontally. The Absolute is enclosed within an upper limit and a lower limit, and horizontal parity, when tilted 90 degrees, can be absorbed into the vertical axis. Then, instead of parity, we have to think in terms of chirality (handedness). These distinc­tions are now entering into the discussion of the structure of space in modern science. There is a right-handed spin and a left-handed spin of electrons described in quantum mechanics. Hexagonal crystals of quartz could have their right-handed facets or left-handed facets more developed, presenting a verticalized asymmetry. (See the Lee-Yang theorem). The complexity of the structure within the Absolute and its dynamism are still the subject of speculation by scientists and philosophers, nor is this question likely to be settled in the near future, unless epistemology and methodology are subjected to drastic revision independently of the one-sided prejudices of either physics or metaphysics. An integrated Science of the Absolute has still to be presented to the world.
 
After visualizing the two divinities, Ganesa and Subrahmanya, sucking the twin breasts of' the Goddess on a basis of horizontal parity, it is natural for us to view the same picture later in a more vertically-revised perspective at a stage when at least one of these divinities has been at least partially weaned from the early state of childhood. This gives us the picture of Ganesa alone confronting the two breasts of the Goddess, so generously spouting milk out of their tips. The suggestion here is that while Parvati and Subrahmanya are watching Ganesa still engaged in, or just after, sucking the milk of his mother; Ganesa looks round, and has the strange illusion that the two small tusks growing on his snout are some sort of duplicate of the ivory-white spouts of milk that he sees coming from the two breasts of the Goddess. This would suggest that there is a reflecting surface between the consciousness of Ganesa and what he is able to visualize in front of him. Ganesa, being a divinity more earthy than Subrahmanya, is to be placed below this line of demarca­tion separating the conceptual from the perceptual.
 
The situation on the whole occasions humour on the part of everyone except Ganesa himself, who still treats the illusion seriously and wishes to verify the truth experimentally by passing his hands over his face to see if his tusks are real or only a reflection. They could be both; and in this two-sided predicament of doubt, there is an element of humour to be recognized by us. Bergson in his well-known work on laughter, “Le Rire”, analyzes the essence of humour on similar lines. When the mechanistic and the vitalistic worlds interfere with each other, humour emerges
 
Now a question remains about the aptness of the prayer of the poet here that the picture presented above should banish the misery of humanity. This can only be in the sense that knowledge of the essence of the Absolute, with all its contents and relations properly understood within its context, would, as the Upanishads promise, make a person identical with Brahman itself, and thus would confer salvation directly, without any other intervening factor.
 
The word “ever” in the second line confers an eternal or absolute status on the picture and lifts it out of the context of a mere mythological solution.
 
The last line further underlines that the misgivings of Ganesa take place in his heart; and not really outside. Thus the schematic status of the imagery is further assured.
 

.

 

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

 

A mother sees her child as an elephant,
The child sees the mother as an elephant
There is hallucination both ways
 
WORD FOR WORD
Samam devi - equally at once, o Goddess
Skanda dvipa vadana - (dvipa = twice drinking: i.e. both by trunk and mouth)
pitam stanayugam - by Skanda and Ganesha sucked, the twin breasts.
Tava idam - yours these here
Naha khedam haratu - let it banish our misery (abolish our paradox)
Satatam - for ever
Prasnuta mukham - milk-spouting
Yad alokya - which, on seeing
Ashanka kulitah hrdayah - with misgivings in his heart
Hastena jhaditi - causes laughter (in Skanda)
.

Another version:

WORD FOR WORD
Samam devi - at once, o Devi (on underfocus)
Skanda dvipa vadana pitam stanayugam - Your twin breasts sucked by Skanda (brother of Ganesha) and Ganesha (baby elephant god and super- refined baby)
Tava idam - these thy
Nah khedam haratu - let it banish sorrow for us
Satatam - for all time
Prasnuta mukham - milk-dripping face
...which on seeing, with doubting, anxious heart
...Shiva and two others, in a manner giving cause for laughter
...his own snout, Ganesha
He passes his hands to know...by looking at breasts, he asks; "have I lost my tusks?"
...by hands quickly...(the white, streaming milk represents his tusks).
 
 
A popular image of the Devi with Skanda and Ganesha, with Saraswati on her left and Lakshmi on her right.
 
 
 
A popular image of Ganesha and Skanda as babies.
 
 
 
Chirality or handedness is the relationship between Skanda and Ganesha.
 
Another version:
 
WORD FOR WORD
Samam devi - at once, o Devi
Skanda dvipa vadana pitam stana yugam - the twin breasts sucked by Skanda and Ganesha
Tava idam - these thy
Naha khedam haratu - let it banish sorrow for us
Satatam - always
Prasnuta mukham - of milk-drinking face
Yad alokya - which on seeing
Asanka kulita hrdayaha - with doubting, anxious heart
Hasa janakaha - giving cause for laughter
Sva kumbhau - on his own front of head (snout)
Herambah - the elephant god
Pari mrshati - he passes his hand to know
Hastena jhaditi - by hands quickly
 
Shed religions; shed the frontiers of language and politics.
.
 

On this subject consult:

Wilfred Cantwell Smith on comparative religion.
Suzanne Langer on Philosophy.
Mircea Eliade.
Bucar.... (illegible ED)
A negative hallucination is occurring here.
 
 
The streak of milk represents the conceptual, or hypostatic side,
The tusks represent the perceptual, or hierophantic side.

Ganesha is confused as to how they participate.
Shiva and Parvati laugh because he is looking in the horizontal for the answer to a vertical problem.
 
ANYTHING VERTICAL WHICH IS MADE HORIZONTAL IS CALLED A JOKE
 
This participation, then, is of concepts and percepts - of mind and matter.
 
An earlier version:
 
TRANSLATION
Thy breasts, here sucked at the same time by Skanda and Ganesha,
Let they banish our sorrows always.
The face, streaming with the overflow of milk,
Suspicious in mind, in a manner giving rise to laughter,
On his own front feels, the elephant-headed god, with hands.
 
 
Baby Elephant.
 
The elephant-headed god has one-to-one correspondence with the Devi.
He touches his face because he is on the Denominator side,
While Skanda (also known as Subrahmanya - Ganesa's brother) is on the Numerator side.
 
(Skanda is white and Brahminical - representing positive values; Ganesha is dark and elephant-like - the Guru said that space was like being inside an elephant - and represents negative values. ED.)
 
 
 
 

Numerator and Denominator are nourished by the same Absolute Devi
- when you understand this, all sorrow is abolished.
 
Ganesha thinks that the streams of milk from the Devi's breasts are the tusks of an elephant - and he puts his hands on his own face, as if to say, "Am I not the elephant-headed one?"

There is a one-to-one correspondence established between Ganesha and the Devi.
Not between Skanda and the Devi, because he is a numerator god, while Ganesha is denominator.
 
 
 

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 73

Details
Parent Category: Content
Hits: 14191

SAUNDARYA LAHARI

.

 

VERSE 73

COMPENSATION BETWEEN HIGHER NOURISHMENT, GIVING A PURER LIFE
GANESHA AND SUBRAHMANIAN TOGETHER MAKE UP THE ABSOLUTE
 
अमू ते वक्षोजा-वमृतरस-माणिक्य कुतुपौ
न सन्देहस्पन्दो नगपति पताके मनसि नः ।
पिबन्तौ तौ यस्मा दविदित वधूसङ्ग रसिकौ
कुमारावद्यापि द्विरदवदन-क्रौञ्च्दलनौ
 
amu te vaksojav amrta rasa manikya kutupau
na sandehaspando nagapati patake manasi nah
pibantau tau yasmad avidita vadhusanga rasikau
kumarav adyapi dviradavadana kraunca dalanau
 
O banner of the King of Peaks, Your breasts, shoulder-borne
Are nectar-bearing ruby pots indeed, without any trace of doubt:
These two, Skanda and Ganesha, both innocent of the pleasures of marital contact
Drinking from them they remain thus child-like to the present day
.
 
After outlining in Verse 72 the broad structural features connected with the breast-region of the Goddess, this verse focuses attention on the same breasts when understood from a revised standpoint. They are here spoken of as ruby pots containing nectar instead of nourishing milk. A ruby is also a precious stone. The world of colours and rubies suggests a peak lower than that of Kailasa, where Shiva with his renuncia­tion reigns supreme among ascetics. Asceticism is to be placed at a higher vertical point in the scale of values, because it transcends all other, lesser joys or values and, in principle, includes all of them. The world of luxury, where the Lord of Wealth, Kubera, reigns supreme, is marked by a peak lower than the one where Shiva resides.
 
The difference here is the same as that in the Bible between manna and plain bread, which is spoken of as “the staff of life”. The very first line describes the Goddess as “the banner of the King of Peaks”, combining the nobility of both her father and her husband in her personality, as already seen in Verse 61. Manna and bread both provide life-giving nourishment, but they are placed at different levels: manna being more hypostatic than plain bread. Jesus spoke in terms of plain bread instead of the manna promised by Moses to the chosen people.
 
Advaita respects both these alternatives, and gives each of them a rightful place in a complete scale of values.
 
Sometimes the breasts are compared to golden pots, as we see elsewhere in Sanskrit literature, as also in Verse 77, where they are not specifically described as golden but as solid and metallic. If we should imagine a series of values placed in pairs, making up a series of horizontal lines at different levels, we would get a picture like the golden ladder of Jacob in the Bible, with angels going up and down. Goethe, in his Faust, has improved on this two-way staircase arrangement by making the angels pour wine into vases while ascending and descending. It was suggested in Verse 7 that the breasts of the Goddess resemble the frontal bulges of a calf elephant. In Verse 19, also, we saw that it is permitted to think of a pair of breasts below as well as a pair of breasts placed above the face, and to cancel out the two sets thus presented. Wherever the horizontal line crosses the vertical we could imagine value centres, not unlike breasts that feed babies. The higher we go in the scale, the more the nourish­ment derived from the breasts resembles manna rather than mere bread or milk.
 
At lower psycho-physical synergic centres (chakras or adharas), more earthy values, like fertility or fecundity, can be imagined to be present, according to the degree of abstraction or generalization we might be interested in making.
 
The first line further underlines, by the Sanskrit word vaksoja (the shoulder-born), the hypostatic rather than the hierophantic status of these value-nodes, belonging to a series of such.
 
To explain how Skanda and Ganesa, though nourished on the same divine nourishment, could show between them ambi­valent characteristics, is another enigma that we have to fit into the dynamism of the scheme presented here. Both of them are free from carnal dispositions which would have made them enter married life quite early. Extroversion and introversion might at first be supposed to be implied in the difference between Ganesa and Skanda.
 
If that were so, Ganesa, being an extrovert, could have been married, and Skanda, being an introverted type, should have been naturally celibate. This, however, is not what is claimed in this verse. We have to suppose, therefore, that there is something in the milk itself, even from the same mother, which is capable of accentuating opposite characteristics, as evidenced by the strongly contrasting bodily structures of Skanda and Ganesa.
 
Freudian psychology, which gives primacy to sex as influencing the libido and its growth, would perhaps insist that we treat Ganesa as representing horizontally accentuated tendencies and Skanda, his younger brother, as representing more fully verticalized tendencies. Both of these structural features were already put together without conflict, as we have seen in Verse 72. Just as the filament of an electric bulb could be visible when the current is weak, but could become effaced when the current is strong, so both these structural features could be thought of as being present alternately or together without contradiction. As always, a four-fold structure is implied, whether visible or invisible.
 
The ambivalence or polarity between Skanda and Ganesa here could thus, in principle, be viewed from both perspectives at once, inclusively, or alternately as an “either/or” situation. When voltage is increased, the polarity is also accentuated. Carnal feelings of sexual attraction can apply only to a state of low voltage. Both these divinities are nourished on milk derived from a highly hypostatic point on the vertical scale. For Skanda, being already on the numerator side, this high voltage agrees with the type he already represents. In the case of Ganesa, the polarizing effect is equally pronounced, nourished as he is from the same milk, but has another ambivalent effect, acting as it were, by double negation and not merely by a one-sided absence of electricity. A magnetic needle can be deflected both positively and negatively by virtue of the intensity of the electric current. Electromagnetism follows the same laws as light waves and can accommodate parity as well as right- or left-handedness, as recent scientific experiments have revealed.
 
Another way of explaining the difference between Ganesa and Subrahmanya here could be sought in terms of enzymes found in different balances in both sexes at the same time. Equations are easily reversible here, and bodily growth can depend upon such wonderful factors in chemistry as are every day being discovered. The predominance of one or the other of these enzymes or hormones could explain these ambivalent types, biologically as well as in the context of electromagnetism. Sex determination itself might be said to be decided by such factors.
 
The last line would therefore suggest three contingencies:
  1. Low energy, producing horizontal ambivalence between sexes in which carnality could prevail,
  2. A middle state in which intermediate energy is to be presupposed, in which carnality could coexist with more sublimated instincts,
  3. A third stage of high cyclotronic energy in which carnality is abolished and a new kind of dichotomy takes the place of mere biological ambivalence. This applies to deeper regions of abstraction or generalization of the third or fourth dimension. Predominance of the pituitary or the thyroid without adrenalin entering into the bloodstream, could produce such a state of sex innocence.

.

 

 

 

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


WORD FOR WORD
Amu te vakshojav - these thy bosom-born breasts
Amrta rasa manikya kutupau - are gem containers filled with ambrosia
Na sandeha spandah - there is no alternating movement of doubt here
Naga pati patake - o triumphant banner of the Lord of Hills
Manasi naha - in our minds
Pibantau tau - these two who drink of the two
Yasmad - by this reason
Avidita vadhu sanga rasikau - are these (two) who have never known conjugal felicity
Kumarau adi api - the youths even today
Dvirada vadana krauncha dalanau - the Skanda Ganeshas (? ED)

-

Another version:

WORD FOR WORD
Amu te vakshojau - these Your breasts, shoulder-borne
Amrta rasa manikya kutupau - are nectar-bearing ruby pots
Na sandeha spandaha - without any trace of doubt
Naga pati patake - o banner of the King of Peaks
Manasih nah - in our mind
Pibantau tau - drinking (thereof) the two (Skanda and Ganesha)
Yasmat - by reason of it
Avidita vadhusanga rasikau - innocent of conjugal joy
Kumarau adi api - even now, infant sons they remain.
Dvirada vadana kraunca dalanau - the elephant-faced and the mountain-splitting Skanda
 
(Ganesha: the elephant-headed god, the eldest-born to Shiva and Parvati. He is also called Ganapati, which would suggest that he is the first of the Ganas or beings (from gan to count; and pati, chief). Ganapati has always to be propitiated first in prayers or ceremonies so that no hindrances may befall an undertaking, such as the writing of a book, etc. Ganapati is pot-bellied and has the rat or field-mouse as his Vahana, or vehicle. One of his tusks is also broken, and with the broken piece he is supposed to have written the Maha-Bharata to the dictated recitation on the epic by its author, Vyasa.
 

Skanda or Subrahmanya: synonymous with Kartikeya and Bahuleya, who was supposed to be born in a lake by the light or glance of Shiva which fell there. Subrahmanya rides the peacock and is six-headed, being born to six mothers. This myth is supposed to be astronomical also in its import, as there is a group of six stars with the same name (possibly the Pleiades). Subrahmanya is younger brother to Ganesha, the elephant-headed son of Shiva. Subrahmanya is much adored in South India, and is mentioned also in the Vedas.  ED)

 
 
 
 
Traditional Indian pot.
 
 
In the previous verse, the horizontal difference between the two gods was noted; now we have the vertical difference.

Horizontally, the tusks are put on a par with the milk of the Mother - the tusks contain the principle of interpenetrability.

To arrive at a neutral ground, the tusks and the milk become homogeneous.

The horizontal axis is a value; thus tusks and milk are introduced.
In this verse we have a vertical reference.

-

Another version:
 
TRANSLATION
These Thy breasts born (abstracted and generalized) breasts, both together,
Are gem containers filled with ambrosia (not breasts filled with milk, they are vertical - gems are superior to milk)
There is no alternating feeling of doubt here (spandaha)
(Uncertainty exists horizontally, and we have not entered that region here - see previous verse)
O triumphant banner of the Lord of Hills (the Devi is related to Shiva),
In our minds, (conceptual status - "our" means " we who seek the Absolute)
These two who drink of the two, by this reason (because they drink of this hypostatic ambrosia)
Are those twins who have never known conjugal felicity,
The youths, even today: Skanda and Ganesha.
(Even now they are innocent of that aspect of sex which is horizontal)
Sometime after the previous verse, they remain innocent.

 

 
 

Another version:

TRANSLATION
These two breasts, o daughter of the mountain, contain gems.
Drinking from these, Subrahmanya and Ganesha are eternally free from erotic sentiments.
Even now, they are innocent of copulation.
 
Instead of milk, which is horizontal, they are nourished on a more negative, real and vertical content of ruby-like purity - the chalices of the breasts - which are filled with hypostatic, numerator, nectar
 
"O banner of the King of Peaks, Your breasts, shoulder-borne"
High breasts mean hypostatic nourishment.
A higher source of life results in innocence.
 
(BELOW IS A HIGHLY SPECULATIVE STRUCTURE, NOT PRODUCED BY THE GURU, BUT WHICH MAY CLARIFY THE MEANING OF THIS VERSE. ED.)
 

 

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 74

Details
Parent Category: Content
Hits: 12298

SAUNDARYA LAHARI

.

 

VERSE 74

THERE IS A PARAMETER DESCENDING FROM PEARL TO RUBY AND BLACK (HAIR)
 
वहत्यम्ब स्त्म्बेरम-दनुज-कुम्भप्रकृतिभिः
समारब्धां मुक्तामणिभिरमलां हारलतिकाम् ।
कुचाभोगो बिम्बाधर-रुचिभि-रन्तः शबलितां
प्रताप-व्यामिश्रां पुरदमयितुः कीर्तिमिव ते
 
vahaty amba stambera madanuja kumbha prakrtibhis
samarabhdam muktamanibhir amalam haralatikam
kucabhogo bimbadhara rucibhir antah sabalitam
pratapa vyamisram puradamayatuh kirtim iva te
 
Your mid-bust region, wearing a slender garland of pearly beads,
Derived and worked out by some elephant-demon vanquished by Shiva
The semblance bears of his reputation with added redness of lips
And an inner brightness presenting a picturesque charm.
.
 
Instead of descending another step, we find in Verse 74 that the Chakra refers to even thinner hypostatic factors than the previous verse. There is a reference here again to the reputation of Shiva. Reputation (kirti) and fearlessness (abhaya) figure very high in the enumeration of absolute virtues. When such an enumeration of divine or superior positive qualities or virtues is attempted in the Bhagavad Gita, the series begins with abhaya (XVI: 1). Kirti is the leading item in another series where factors in a woman's absolutism are enumerated in serial order (X: 34). Both these factors figure here in the first two lines, which refer to the mid-bust region wearing a pearly garland. The garland is not made of simple pearls, but derived from pearls supposed to be contained within the cranium of an elephant-demon which was a victim of the bravery of Shiva. The elephant represents space and horizontality in the contemplative Sanskrit lingua mystica. Killing the elephant to wear its skin is a mythological way of saying that horizontal values are effectively abolished at a point approximating to the Sahasrara Chakra (crown of the head) or the Ajña Chakra (between the eye-brows). Peripherally, the elephant is space-like in its evil-portending value status but, within its brow, between the frontal knobs pearls are said to be hidden - at least by poetic convention. Similarly, the snake is sometimes said to carry jewels in its hood. This is to show that hypostatic values could be far removed from actual levels of biological life functions, but still participate with the same vertically bright parameter represented here by the pearly garland. This theory is sufficiently justified by the text when closely scrutinized. Meditation in the middle of the eyebrows represents a superior form of yoga known to experts on the subject. It is supposed to give the power to move in the sky, and called khecari mudra (“moving in the sky, sky-­moving”). (See the “Darsana Mala” of Narayana Guru on the subject of khecari mudra in  Chapter 9, on Yoga).
 
In the third line, besides valour and reputation, we find that a touch of the phenomenal or vitalistic functions of the Goddess as Mother of the Universe is made to condition the sheer pearly whiteness of the two other virtues. When blended thus, both by positive and by negative qualities, the neutralization of the redness of the lips adds vitalism to the otherwise conceptual status of factors like bravery or reputation. The last line further qualifies the vitalism by bringing in the inner factor, a self-luminous fluorescence, which is more than mere conceptual brightness. Thus, the language of colour reveals the value gradations within the total amplitude of the vertical parameter marking the mid-bust region of the Goddess.
 
It is always difficult to relate virtues or qualities with psycho-physical levels. Some psychology books have attempted such graded enumerations, which have mostly failed because an overall structural pattern referring to the totality of the psyche has not been seriously attempted. Psychology has been too much compartmentalized into disciplines in which experts alone can operate intelligently. Freudian psychology introduced many features unknown to brass instrument-dominated experimental psychological disciplines, but even today it is still considered not quite acceptable to academic psychologists. The process of revising what Freud ushered into existence in the world of psychology is still taking place, and such a task is far from being completed, even now.
 
The beads derived from the skull of an elephant first give place to pearly ones, then they receive a touch of redness at a still lower level and finally an inner fluorescence or iridescence is added, the source being in inner space rather than in outer space. Thus, psychological factors are revealed at all possible levels within the psyche.
.
.
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter XI:

1
Sribhagavan uvacha
abhayam sattvasamsuddhir
jnanayoga vyavasthitih
danam damas cha yajnas cha
svadhyayas taba drjavam

2
ahimsa satyam akrodhas
yogah santir apaisunam
daya bhuteshv aloluptvam
mardavam hrir achapalam

3
tejah kshama dhritih saucham
adroho na 'timanita
bhavanti sampadam daivim
abhijatasya bharata

 

Krishna said:
Fearlessness, transparency to truth, proper affiliation to
unitive wisdom, attitude of generous sharing, self-restraint
and sacrifice, private perusal of sacred books, discipline
and rectitude,

 

non-hurting, truth, non-anger, relinquishment, calmness,
self-integrity, compassion to beings, non-interest
in sense-values, gentleness, modesty, non-fickleness,

 

alertness, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness, absence of
malice, absence of excessive respectability: these make up
the divine (higher) values of anyone, 0 Bharata (Arjuna),
born for them.

 

.
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter X:

34
mrityuh sarvaharas cha 'ham
udbhavas cha bhavishyatam
kirtih srir vak cha narinam
smritir medha dhritih kshama

 

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

 

Darsana Mala, Chapter 9:

9. dhyanamantantarbhruvordrstirjihvagram lambikordhvatah
yada syatkhecari mudra nidralasyadinasini

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.
.
.

 

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

 

WORD FOR WORD
Vahati - it is wearing
Ambe - o Mother
Stambera madanuja kumbha prakrti bhih - derived from the frontal knobs of the elephant demon killed by Shiva
Sama rabdham mukta mani bhih - pearls fabricated
Amalam hara latikam - killed by Shiva
Kucha bhogam - the mid-bust region
Bimba adhara ruci bhih - with added lip-red sweetness
Antah shabalitam - made variegated from within
(giving an iridescent glow to pearls)
Pratapa vyamishram - mixed with his exploits
Pura damayituh - of the controller of the cities
Kirtim iva - like the reputation
Te - for You

.

Another version:

WORD FOR WORD
Vahati - it bears
Ambe - o Mother
Stambera madanuja kumbha prakrti bhih - of the nature of having origin in the skull of the elephant demon
Sama rabdham mukta mani bhih - by well-made pearls
Amalam hara latikam - by the pure string of pearls
Kucha bhogah - the mid-region of the breasts
Bimba dhara ruchi bhih - by the reflected beauty of the lips
Antah shabalitam - having inside brilliance
Pratapa vyamishram - mixed with the glory of exploits
Pura damayituh - of the destroyer of cities
Kirtim iva - as if the reputation
Te - of Yours

.

("Abhaya" is also often referred to in the Saundarya Lahari as a hand pose or "mudra" that is the gesture of reassurance and safety, which dispels fear and accords divine protection to the devotee. In Abhayamudra, the right hand is held upright, and the palm is facing outwards. "Kirti" means "good reputation". ED)

 

Abhayamudra.

 

The reputation of Shiva is very thin and spreads towards the Numerator side.
There are supposed to be pearls in the frontal knobs of an elephant: this only means that on the numerator side there are certain values - fearlessness, reputation, etc., here represented by pearls. The elephant is a horizontal factor.
 
(The elephant is used in the Indian tradition to represent space, due to its large, heavy and rough-skinned nature - there are supposed to be eight Dik Gajas - one for each of the eight directions of the compass. ED)

All these exploits of Shiva are placed between the breasts of the Devi; there is a cancellation here: killing the elephant to obtain the pearls is inserted into feeding the baby.
 
 
One pearl is to be seen glowing at the O Point, or with a dancing Nataraja there.
 
 
 
.



An elephant-demon, Gajasura, was killed by Shiva.

The Devi wears a garland which praises this feat, made of rounded and polished pearls, hanging between her breasts, having the reflected colour of her lips, with an inner glory of their own, as if this glory is to extol the exploits of Shiva. (E.g. killing the elephant demon. ED)

 

The Devi is saying: "My husband is a great numerator factor who killed an asura (demon)."


At every level, there is participation - here it is between the exploits and the necklace.
 This garland or necklace is made of pearls found in the head of an elephant killed by Shiva.
It is between the breasts and also has the reflected colour of her lips from inside.
Outside is the glory of Shiva's exploits.

 

The praise for Shiva comes from the lips on the positive side, whose colour also tinges the necklace of pearls on the negative side.

Between the breasts there is a parameter.
The pearls there are supposed to cancel numerator pearls.

The glory is intrinsic to the Denominator, thus the red colour, which comes from inside, because this is the existential side.

What is Numerator is public.
What is Denominator is private (interior)

 

Thus the horizontal lips praise Shiva is a downwards movement - hence the colour of the lips inside the pearls

As a counterpart to this is the pure white glory of the pearls moving upwards.

 

In the Denominator - "God is within" (within your consciousness); and consciousness begins at the mouth - when something is swallowed.

The colour is intrinsically, interiorly, derived on the Denominator side.
The inner colour of the pearls is derived from the lips.

This verse goes into the subjective aspect of the two previous verses.

 

(The above structure is extremely interesting. The banner at the top of the vertical axis refers to Verse 61:


"O banner of the dynasty of the Himalayas, Your nose ridge, here as Your clan's flagstaff,
Let it ripen for us, standing so near below You, deserving fruit;
Inwardly wearing pearls as they do, and dropped by cool moonbeam respiration,
It bears, even outside, pearls due to the plenitude of the same".

 

This verse describes numerator pearls produced by the Devi's breathing descending upon the situation.

The two arrows along the horizontal axis indicate that the pearls inside the elephant's skull are a verticalisation of horizontal elements - the horizontal being the elephant - the Guru would say that space was like sitting inside an elephant -  four elephants (dik gajas) are used to indicate the four cardinal directions of space. ED)

 

Another version:


 TRANSLATION

It bears (the garland) of pearls

O Mother (Devi)
Having origin (pearls) within the hard (thick) skull of the elephant principle(which is an obstructing influence - represents the demon principle)
By well made pearls
of the pure string of pearls
The mid-region of the breasts (not the quantitative breasts)
By the reflected beauty of the lips
Having inside brilliance (meditative values)
Mixed up with fame (the glory of a heroic exploit = having killed the elephant)
Of the destroyer of the cities, as if the reputation of Yours...
You are glorified by the garland which has both Numerator and Denominator value - which is beautifully worked (meditated upon), and whose colour is tinted red by the lips of the Devi.

.

 
 

 

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 75

Details
Parent Category: Content
Hits: 19187

SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

VERSE 75

THE MILK OF WISDOM IS EQUATED WITH  WORDS OF WISDOM
 
तव स्तन्यं मन्ये धरणिधरकन्ये हृदयतः
पयः पारावारः परिवहति सारस्वतमिव ।
दयावत्या दत्तं द्रविडशिशु-रास्वाद्य तव यत्
कवीनां प्रौढाना मजनि कमनीयः कवयिता
 
tava stanyam manye dharanidhara kanye hrdayatah
payah paravarah parivahati sarasvatam iva
dayavatya dattam dravidasisur asvadya tava yat
kavinam praudhanam ajani kamaniyah kavayita
 
Your breast milk, I consider, O Maiden born to the Earth- Supporting Lord,
As if it were word-wisdom's ocean of nectar, flooding from out of Your heart
Offered by one who is kind, which, on tasting,
This Dravidian child, amidst superior poets, is born a composer of charming verse.
.
 
Inserted between Verses 74 and 76, we find one that gives a personal reference to the author himself as a Dravidian child, or product of a proto-Aryan culture. This reference to himself constitutes a kind of signature of the author, which we could also notice in three others: 57, 59 and 98.
 
There is also an implied first-person reference in the first and the last verses, where he disowns direct involvement in the content of these verses. The position that this verse occupies between outer and inner aspects of the mind, when correctly balanced and neutrally normalized, justifies the realistic perspective adopted here and this pointed reference to his own cultural affiliation. This reference has a great value for us as unmistakable internal evidence that the author of this work is Sankara (see “Generalities”).
 
We have to note that it is an ocean of milk on which the would-be poet here is to be nourished. Such an ocean of milk represents a vital or life-giving value. Intelligence cannot thrive when vitality is at a low ebb. Thus, the gift of poetry is based on inspiration from the numerator side, as well as nourishment from the side of nature. The second line refers to the ocean of word-wisdom which, being a numerator value, is compared to nectar at a more normal level suggested in the first line by the status of Parvati as daughter of the Earth-supporting Lord. It is not nectar but human breast milk with which the would-be poet is to be nourished in a real sense. “Word wisdom´s ocean” is a generalized and abstracted version of common-sense milk, the two of which are related in the same way as are manna and plain bread, as explained under Verse 73.
 
The Dravidian child belongs to the first-dimensional common-sense order. Vedism and proto-Vedism are meant to complement each other, and the resultant value, which is just normal human mother´s milk, when realistically viewed, is an ocean of wisdom-nectar, when viewed from a more hypostatic perspective. The kindness referred to in the third line redresses this slight asymmetry on the numerator side. The last line refers to superior poets as well as to one who is merely capable of producing charming verses.
 
Sankara, as a product of South India, is naturally influenced by the Shaivite proto-Aryan civilization to which Tantrism also belongs, together with a fully-developed structural language which was known to ancient Shaiva cults, where the famous dancing Nataraja of Chidambaram and the Eternal Mother prin­ciple, Shakti, are understood as representing the two aspects of the Absolute, even by the popular mind. The suggestion which is sometimes made that the reference here is to Sambandar, one of the four Shaivite revivalists, who ruled in Madurai after the defeat of the Jainas, (a comparatively recent period), cannot be considered tenable, especially because Sambandar is not known to have composed any poem in Sanskrit. The distinctness of the two personalities is very clear in spite of punditry, which might confuse the two personalities. In our eyes, at least, Sankara was a product of that part of India fed for centuries by the Malaya breeze, which figures so prominently in Sanskrit poetry from the time of Kalidasa, covering the long richly-forested strip extending from the limit of the desert of central India, down to the southern limit marked by the cape at Kanya Kumari. The whole coastal line of this forested region, having an average depth inland of more than 100 miles, is dotted with temples to the Devi. The Narmada and the Tapti rivers, Kaladi, as well as Mukambika must have been the regions fre­quented by Sankara as a pedestrian pilgrim. The most famous of Sankara's institutions is at Sringeri, also lying within the limits of the same region.
 
Although Sankara is referred to as belonging to a Brahmin, especially a Nambudri Brahmin, family, the well-known fact that his own kinsmen would not co-operate in finding fuel for the funeral-pyre of his mother lends enough support to the view that, on his mother's side at least, he was not of Brahminical origin at all. Further, he was also often nicknamed by Brahmin schools a “Buddhist in disguise”. This could not have happened if he had already belonged to an orthodox context. The forms of Tantrism which we see here revalued by Sankara prevailed in this particular geographical region. Gaudapada himself, as the guru of Sankara´s own preceptor, whose philosophy bears many points of affinity with Sankara´s own, can further confirm the theory that Sankara might have been born to an itinerant scholar traveling from North India as a pilgrim in South India, a genius born, like Leonardo da Vinci, under somewhat questionable circumstances. This theory is here put forward as one at least as believable as some other events attributed to Sankara in the famous work called "Sankara Dig­vijaya", many details of which recent research by the Madras University has revealed to be untenable in the light of history, because of a discrepancy of hundreds of years between the personalities with whom Sankara is said to have had arguments or polemical doctrinal duels in his wanderings. (See the short work by Sri Narayana Sastri of Madras University.)
 
From Ujjain to Kanya Kumari a uniform Sanskritic culture, influencing the lives of the people in this particular coastal area, must have been started about 1200 years ago, which tallies with the number of the Malayalam era and with the age of Sankara himself, who was unmistakably born at Kaladi in the erstwhile North Travancore about 800 A.D. Sankara did not write any work in Malayalam, probably because the Malayalam language itself came into being after this date by the interaction between an older language, resembling Tamil, and Sanskrit, which percolated downwards by the constant contact with pilgrims as they traveled between Ujjain, Sringeri, Kalyani, Mukambika and Kanya Kumari. This pilgrim´s road must have been a living nerve connecting centres of cultural and spiritual importance.
 
Since our main interest in this work is one of salvaging Sankara's precious contribution to Advaita Vedanta, this question of fixing the authorship is only of secondary importance to us. Continuators of the same Tantric-Vedantic tradition have been found on the same soil of Kerala from time to time, the latest examples being Chatambi Swami and Narayana Guru. These modern gurus have such a family resemblance with Sankara's type of spirituality that their natural affinities must belong to the period prior to the infiltration of influences extraneous to that of Sankara on the Kerala soil; from the Muslim supremacy that followed the fall of the Vijayanagar Empire, through the advent of the European invaders, to the time of the Indian Mutiny. Revalued spirituality at the hands of these modern continuators bypasses the intervening period to catch up with the anterior epoch marking the decline of Buddhism and the rise of Advaita Vedanta. The same circumstances also explain why so much suspicion overcovers the clear Advaitic doctrines contained in these verses.
 
Other mythological explanations of the phrase “Dravidian child” (dravida sishu) arise from:
  1. A myth-making instinct where a rational explanation becomes difficult,
  2. A failure to appreciate how the first part (Verses 1-41) called Ananda Lahari and the latter part (Verses 42-100) Saundarya Lahari belong together to the same subject of Beauty, the only difference being that they refer to inner and outer spaces, respectively,
  3. A failure to appreciate the deeper structural implications. Such mytholo­gical explanations are many and do not deserve our serious attention here.

.

 

 

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

 
WORD FOR WORD
Tava stanyam manye - Your breasts, I consider
Dharani dhara kanye - Of the earth-supporter, the maid
Hrdayatah - from the heart
Payah paravarah - milk ocean
Parivahati - bears aloft
Saraswatam - of Saraswati
Iva dayavatya - of a kindly one as if
Dattam - given
Dravida shishur - of the Dravidian child
Asvadya tava - having drunk of thine
Yat - by reason
Kavinam praudhanam - into famous poets
Ajani - has come to be born
Kamaniyah kavayitah - a perfectly beautiful poet.

.

Another version:

WORD FOR WORD
Tava stanyam manye - Your breast-milk , I consider
Dharani dhara kanye - o maiden born to the Earth-Supporting Lord
Hrdayatah - from the heart
Paya para varah - as an ocean of nectar
Parivahati - as flooding out
Sarasvatam iva - as pertaining to word-wisdom
Daya vatya dattam - as offered by one of kindness
Dravida shishuh - this child of the Dravidian context
Asvadya tava - Yours having tasted
Yat - by which reason
Kavinam praudhanam ajani - born amidst superior poets
Kamaniyah kavayita - a composer of charming verse.
 
(Dravidian: Referred to by historians as being unlike the Aryans (q.v.) in colour and physiognomy and supposed to represent the most important proto-Aryan ethnic group, especially persisting to the present day in the south of India, and also represented by various hill-tribes in pockets and in isolated areas all over India. ED)
 
 
The structures below refer to the Devi's breasts in Verses 72, 73, 74, and 75..


.

 
We have come from the breasts to the heart.
 
 
 
 
Saraswati is the Numerator aspect of the Devi here indicated
Lakshmi is the Denominator.
 
 
Saraswati: Otherwise known as Sarada or Bharati: The goddess of learning. Though born of a low-caste, occupies by the side of Shiva, as one of his consorts, a high place in the Indian pantheon. She is clad in pure white and carries a book and a musical instrument (the vina) as marks of culture and the fine arts; as opposed to her anterior counterpart Kali or Bhadra-Kali, who represents darker and more tragic aspects of cosmic reality personified in female form
 
 
Lakshmi: The consort of Vishnu; the personification of the principle of plenty and prosperity. She is lotus-born and with four arms; one of the first results of the churning of the ocean of good and evil, symbolising a central human value when looked at from the utilitarian point of view. After the highly negative and lifeless values of decadent Buddhist periods, Lakshmi or Sri as a principle of good or Godhead gained popularity in India which she holds to the present day. Often suggesting even a sloppy love of comfort in certain pleasure-loving minds.
 
 
"As if belonging to Saraswati" (the Goddess of Learning) and drinking that (Numerator), the denominator Dravidian child (dravida shishyu) has become very learned - absorbing the Wisdom of the Aryans.
 
(It should be noted that "Dravidian" implies dark-skinned and inferior in the terms of Indian racial prejudice, which has been prevalent since the dawn of  history. At the time of the invasions of pale-skinned horse-riding Aryans (2nd millenium B.C.E.), the original inhabitants  are generally recognized to have been darker-skinned Dravidians. They are referred to as "Dasa" - a term meaning "enemy" or "slave, servant" and associated with terms for "black or dark-skinned". So when Sankara refers to himself as a "Dravidian child amongst superior poets", it would correspond, in terms of the American South, to him saying "I am just a nigger kid, among all these great white poets". ED)
 
 

By absorbing the numerator-side wisdom, a participation is now established between Numerator and Denominator.
 
Now we have an ocean of milk - and why does it come from the heart and not the breasts?
 
Here the beauty is the poetry:
 
Denominator - dravida shishyu (the "Dravidian child")
Numerator    - Aryan wisdom

When these two sides participate, you get the beauty of pure poetry.
The kindness comes from the heart and fills the Numerator side, like an ocean.

Without the Denominator, there is no Advaita, this is the significance of dravida shishyu (the "Dravidian child".
 
(Dravidian is denominator because it implies dark, South Indian etc. ED)

By this verse, Sankara is able to see the light at the other end of the tunnel.
"I worship Saraswati, but I am also creating a Mukambika (the Devi as the "silent mother"  ED), without which there can be no Advaita.
Mukambika says: "Shut up!" "
 

He is thankful, not for salvation, but for becoming a real poet.
Put a figure-8 where the mother offers the breast, and the baby wants to suck it.
She is purposely bending to feed him, with kindness in her face.
 

 

  1. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 76
  2. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 77
  3. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 78
  4. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 79