AdvaitaVedanta Website - Introduction

Saundarya Lahari

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 76

Details
Parent Category: Content
Hits: 12854

SAUNDARYA LAHARI

.

 

 

VERSE 76

THE PARAMETER CONTINUES BELOW THE O POINT FROM THE DIVING OF EROS BELOW THE O POINT

 

हरक्रोध-ज्वालावलिभि-रवलीढेन वपुषा
गभीरे ते नाभीसरसि कृतसङो मनसिजः ।
समुत्तस्थौ तस्मा-दचलतनये धूमलतिका
जनस्तां जानीते तव जननि रोमावलिरिति

 

hara krodhajvala valibhir avalidhena vapusa
gabhire te nabhi sarasi krtasango manasijah
samuttasthau tasmad acala tanaye dhuma latika
janastam janite janani tava romavalir iti
 
That mind-born god, once, on his body being engulfed
In the fire of Shiva's ire, into the deep lake of Your navel,
O Mountain Daughter, he dived, and on re-emerging,
The smoke thus raised, the people look upon as Your rows of hair.
.
 
From the vitalistic level, which lends a touch of redness to the lowest level marked in Verse 74, we pass on now to the transition from the outer to the inner space within the psycho-physical structure of the body of the Goddess. The variegated fluorescence that produced a picturesque effect, visible from outside but originating from inside, marked in theoretical terms the lowest point of transition where the participation was equally between outer and inner spaces. In the present verse, the mode of operation of this participation is being more closely scrutinized. For the purpose of such a scrutiny, it is necessary to think of Kama as a mind-born divinity or demiurge who could pass from inner space to outer space, as between the two compartments of an hour-glass. He is able to dive into inner space when his head has caught fire and he is also capable of coming back into outer space again. Outer space, representing as it does conceptual, numerator factors not necessarily favourable to life, is comparable to fire rather than to water. In the philosophy of Heraclitus, fire occupies a central place among the elementals; while Thales gives importance to water. The Hylozoists or Eleatics give primacy to one elemental principle or another. Here we are concerned with water and fire only; one favourable to life, the other too hot to sustain life. A dividing line passes horizontally at the point of the navel of the Goddess, schematically under­stood. The Mind-born God does not experience discomfort, because eroticism and discomfort cannot go together. Thus, he is said here to move between the plus and minus sides of the vertical parameter, alternately ducking into and re-emerging from, the water. When he ducks under the water the smoke will be enclosed within bubbles, if any, in inner space, and when he re-emerges, the smoke could ascend to form a vertical line in the atmosphere, which can be imagined to be motionless and having its own horizontal pressure at the limit of transition between the regions proper to water and fire. The streak of smoke could be like the one rising from a burning incense stick in a still room. This streak is compared to the thin streak of hair at the abdominal region of both men and women. Hair growth indicates places where erotic pleasures are likely to be hiding in concentrated form. Secondary sex qualities are indicated by the presence or absence of hair on the surface of the skin. Thus the absence of hair would indicate negative eroticism and growth of hair would mean positive eroticism. There can be an intermediate region marked by the streak referred to here. Deeper structura­lism thus can be revealed by superficial ectodermal features which are secondarily related to sex.
 
The encircling flames of the second line give place to a streak marked by the growth of hair, represented by smoke at a deeper level. Two inverse logarithmic spirals could be imagined here in terms of the inside and outside of a loop-like structure, according to the principle of the Moebius strip, just at the region where inner space participates with outer space. If Shiva's flames are comparable to his city-burning fervour, the Mountain Daugh­ter´s body below her navel can, by contrast, represent the cool kindness of living waters. The Mind-born God has been compared by other Sanskrit poets to a limbless magenta ball of light, not unlike the variegated picture presented at the end of Verse 74.

.

.


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

 

WORD FOR WORD
Hara krodha jvala vali bhih - by the collection of glances of fire/by the ensembles of the glances of fire of the anger of Hara
Avalidhena vapusha - with body permeated through and through
Gabhire te nabhi sarasi - in the deep navel-lake of thine
Krta sangah - one who has submerged himself
Manasijah samuttasthau - Eros rising up
Tasmad - from it (from this sinking)
Achala tanaye - o Daughter of the Hills
Dhuma latika - smoke streak
Janah stam - people, them
Janite - treat it like
Janani tava roma valir iti - o Mother, to be Your hairy ensembles (Mount Tamalpais) (sic - see the Guru's autobiography, page 620, Adventures in Inner and Outer Space. referring to Hippie Midsummer orgies on Mount Tamalpais. ED)
.
(Eros, or Kamadeva, is here called "Manasija", (he who is born of mind, a contraction of the Sanskrit phrase "sah manasah jāta"), because desire is born in the mind. ED)
 

Another version:

WORD FOR WORD
Hara krodha jvala vali bhih - by the encircling flames of the ire of Shiva
Avalidhena vapusha - with body engulfed
Gabhire te nabhi sarasi - in the profound navel lake of Yours
Krtah sangah - having dived
Manasi jaha samuttasthau - the mind-born god Eros emerged therefrom
Tasmat - by that reason
Achala tanaye - daughter of the mountain
Dhuma latika - the creeper-like streaks of smoke
Janas tam - them, the people
Janite - they take to be
Janani tava roma valih iti - o Mother as Your rows of hairs
 

 

 

Uha-poha: That intuitive faculty which is akin to imagination or insight, or even critical acumen which, like statesmanship, chivalry or even craftsmanship is a gift with which certain persons are more endowed than others. It is more than what mere scholarship can give.

 
The vertical axis passes from between the breasts into the navel, and there it becomes an interior parameter - a Denominator factor (for the next verses).
 

Ripples on the river seem to be a slight disturbance on the horizontal when it is met by the vertical.
 

The waist is referred to also as slim - it is a kind of parameter.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Logarithmic spirals.
.
.
.

 

The beauty here is something vague.
"There are some people with great insight who will see something very slender at Your navel, and will see a slight delicate interplay, like ripples.
 
(The ripples on the horizontal axis could be seen as the "fluctuations of awareness" which make up the universe, when seen with the eye of wisdom. The universe comes into being through the union of Shiva and the Devi, which is brought about by Eros, despite his flaming crash dive described in this verse. ED)
 
 
 
 
 
The hollow of Your navel is filled with these; and that is where the attenuated space from between the breasts is entering".
 
The thinness of the waist means that this is only a thin parameter connecting the Numerator and Denominator aspects of the Devi's body.

When noumenal (positive) meets phenomenal (negative, perceptible by the senses or through immediate experience), there is a delicate touch of ripples such as found on the surface of a river when a gentle breeze blows.
.
.
By the anger of Shiva, Eros is caused to burn; he sinks into the navel of the Devi in order to quench the flames.

The milk ocean is at a certain level.
 
(This suggests that when Eros quenches his burning body in the Devi's navel it is in the milk ocean. This is the ocean where Vishnu or Narayana, the preserver of the universe, sleeps:

Narayana; One who sleeps on the primordial waters (Nara, water; ayana, to lie in repose). Creation, before Brahma gave it the four directions, symbolized by his four heads, has the indefinite nature of all-pervading water ("God moved upon the face of the waters" as Genesis, I, 2 puts it) on which the numinous principle of life or creation was supposed to recline. ED).


 
 

Why is there fire suddenly at the area of the navel?
Because this man, Eros, is suffering from the contradiction of actualization.
 
(This happens when he descends to the actual, horizontal level where positive and negative factors contradict each other, rather than cancelling out vertically. ED)
 
Saraswati's milk is not harmful to the Devi, because it is conceptual or numerator.
But when you get to the Denominator, perceptual factors are mutually exclusive - the character of the vertical axis is now changed from water to fire.

When a man is erotic, he is likely to be pushing out some rival.
 
(This is the exclusion which is characteristic of the horizontal. e.g. two bowls will fit one into the other vertically, but exclude each other vertically. Matter is defined as "something that impenetrably occupies space". ED)

Eros is an entity belonging to that level, so he cannot sink forever.
(He belongs to the negative level below the horizontal stratum of the Devi's navel. ED)

He has a degree of immortality, and so he has to come back onto the scene.
He has to come there week by week.

.

 

Eros dives into the Devi's navel after being set on fire by Shiva's anger, because he was running peripherally, playing tricks: if he approaches Shiva vertically, he will fall down.

This brings out the rahman-rahim aspect of the Absolute (Arabic, "(Allah) the merciful, the compassionate"see Quran).
(One is horizontal; one is vertical. ED)
 
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
bismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm
 
Cruel numerator, kind denominator.
(Burning fire from Shiva on the Numerator; refuge within the Devi's body on the Denominator. ED)

 

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 77

Details
Parent Category: Content
Hits: 15732

SAUNDARYA LAHARI

.

 

VERSE 77

FINE STRUCTURALIZED SPACE

 

यदेतत्कालिन्दी-तनुतर-तरङ्गाकृति शिवे
कृशे मध्ये किञ्चिज्जननि तव यद्भाति सुधियाम् ।
विमर्दा-दन्योन्यं कुचकलशयो-रन्तरगतं
तनूभूतं व्योम प्रविशदिव नाभिं कुहरिणीम्

 

yad etat kalinditanutara tarangakrti sive
krse maddhye kincijjanani tava yad bhati sudhiyam
vimardad anyonyamkucakalasayor antaragatam
tanubhutam vyoma pravisad iva nabhim kuharinim
 
O Auspicious Mother, that something revealed at Your slender waist
Looking like ripples on the surface of the river Kalindi,
Looms in the mind of contemplatives as space reduced to ethereal particles
Entering into the cavity of Your navel, and produced by the friction of Your pot-like breasts.
.
 
Verse 77 presents many enigmatic features which cannot be easily explained.
The first is that oft-repeated idea found in Sanskrit prayers to the Goddess that the waist of the Goddess is so thin that it is mithya kalpita (falsely put there by the mind).
 
The second major enigma is the reference to the pot-like breasts, which must be metalically solid, creating waves or vibrations fine enough to reveal the very inner structure of pure space itself.
 
Thirdly, it is stated that such a vision is given to selected devotees called sudhis, suggesting that they have to be especially clever, wise, or sensible. We have here translated this word as “contemplatives”.
 
Even a contemplative has to focus his attention on this region before it can reveal the special kind of wave effect present on the surface of the river Kalindi when fine ripples play on its placid water. Perhaps this refers to a special light effect which could be described as a glimmering sheen produced by the crisscross effect of ripples of thinly alter­nating troughs and crests, forming a spiral pattern made up of spots of light, alternately dim or bright.
 
We have already had a reference to the breasts as ruby pots in Verse 73, which makes them out to be solid instead of supple, as in reality. We have also seen that such qualities as applied to the twin breasts could form a whole series, sometimes rich in terms of luxury, or of a consistency that is metallic and solid. Here the pot-like breasts have to be imagined to be made up of a heavy metal like gold. When two such pots that are floating on water collide with each other, vibrations will be produced which send ripples cutting crisscross against the natural ripples produced by the gentle wind playing on the placid surface of the river. This is a new structural detail that is purposely introduced here by Sankara. The middle waist region of the Goddess round the navel is supposed to present a mystery, into the depths of which only a wise man can penetrate, as is evidently meant to be understood here.
 
The structure of Absolute Space has been a major headache with modern scientists. Space is said to have a curvature in the context of Einsteinian relativism. There is also non-Euclidian space, projective space, scalar space, topological space, vectorial space, as also the structure of space as understood by Minkowski, Lobachevsky and Riemann. We have hitherto kept in mind our own structural pattern of two cones placed base to base. We have elsewhere suggested that these two cones could also be placed apex to apex, when the position of the structure is pushed from the bottom of the vertical scale to the top. We have an ontological “universal concrete” here-and-now locus when the cones are placed base to base at the bottom. The converse of the same, where “universal elsewhere” and “universal nowhere” come together in an intelligible point of light at the meeting point of the apexes, rather than the bases, or similar cones, could be imagined on the numerator side; instead of a “ universal here-and-now” we would get a “universal elsewhere” when the perspective is thus changed.
 
In this verse we are concerned with the middle region of the Goddess. A special kind of magic or mystery is supposed to be hiding here which it requires a wise man to see. The ontological basis becomes abolished in favour of a teleological one. When the apex points of two inverted cones come into contact, there is a point of beauty or interest where they participate. This is the central locus to be kept in mind in respect of this verse. This point is what is referred to in the first line, as an enigmatic “something” placed at the centre of the slender waist. The words yad etad, “this something” (which is seen), justify the location of such a point of participation, which could be said to be both visible and invisible to the eyes of a fully-informed Advaita philosopher, implied by the word “contemplatives” here. Thus, the slenderness of the waist and the point of interest at the locus are understood by us from this first line.
 
The second line refers to superfine ripples which, according to the fourth line, are produced by the impact of the solid metallic pot-like breasts and postulated for the purpose of revealing the fine structure applicable to this mid-region where motherhood can freely function. The appellation “Auspicious Mother” (sivajanani) would indicate that such a sacred idea of motherhood is in the mind of the poet also.
 
In the fourth line there is reference to tanu bhutam vyomam, which we have translated as “space reduced to ethereal particles”. Physicists have postulated something like ether as the medium for the propagation of light; but no ponderable ether was discovered by the Michelson-Morley experiment. Ether thus remains to us an ambiguity equally relied upon by both physicists and metaphysicians as a kind of Absolute Substance, both material and mental, within which a measurable velocity of light could be calculated or postulated. We shall not examine the final epistemological status of this vyoma, or space, but treat it as a kind of neutral medium, both mental and material at once. The collision of the two pots representing the breasts of the Goddess produces vibrations which cut at right angles to the natural ripples produced by the wind on the surface of a river. As the river flows downwards toward the navel of the Goddess, it is to be imagined as becoming subterranean. The outside world and its space are turned into an inside world, in terms of some kind of negative or pseudo-space. Outside can become inside in topological or projective space. Right-angled triangles can become obtuse or acute-angled ones by expansion or con­traction of space. Inside can become outside by a Moebius-strip inversion. A one-to-one correspondence in relative positions, vectorially or tensorially understood, could still be maintained. Euclidean axioms can give place to revised ones known to modern non-Euclidian geometry. Right and left could be interchanged by torsions or rotations around an axis. The navel of the Goddess is going to be compared to a frozen whirlpool in the next verse.
 
It thus requires a great deal of what is also known to modern mathematicians to sympathize, even barely, with what Sankara is saying here. He cannot be easily dismissed as a man of superstitious belief. It must be assumed that contemplation can arrive at certain theoretical intuitions that science also attains through more positive or demonstrable laboratory-based disciplines. Axiomatic thinking and experimental thinking have to meet in either case. Eddington is known to be a non-experimental physicist. Mathematics is mainly axiomatic in its status as a discipline. Thus, what intuition can guess from one side can meet what laboratory disciplines can reconstruct from the other. When they meet, as Bertrand Russell writes, the marriage of these two rival approaches can take place. On our part, we believe that Sankara, in his own way, understood intuitively long ago what modern scientists are just beginning to understand. There are points of contact between the writings of Eddington and Narayana Guru.
 
Without entering into this subject in too much detail, let us think of the “space reduced to ethereal particles” in the third line (tanu bhutam vyomam). We could easily concede that waves or ripples could be of two kinds. The main waves have a simple harmonic movement, as between crest and trough, which is properly called “wavelength”; while “frequency” is a kind of sinuous movement, vibrating more quickly, where amplitude and shortness give it intensity rather than length. If one is magnetic; the other could be said to be electromagnetic. Maxwell and Fourier have studied the laws of the propagation of waves of both sound and of light; and modern television and the use of videotape to propagate light or sound have many secrets, all of which depend upon the uniformity of the laws applicable to the propa­gation of light and of electromagnetic impulses. An antenna can conduct all these impulses intact and reproduce them thousands of miles away on a television screen in the drawing room. Thus, the disappearance of two sets of waves, in the form of ethereal particles, into the cavity of the navel of the Goddess is at least not to be consi­dered merely as a mythological exaggeration.
 
It is also possible to think of the structure of space as revealed in crystallography, where cross-polarized light can produce strange interference figures, sometimes suggesting the embryonic stages of some simple animals, together with what is called “optical movements”. Crystals are supposed to have lattice-like structures in their makeup, conforming to units of different solid polygons. These are sometimes referred to as gratings through which light is reflected, refracted or diffracted into variegated coloured patterns, which also seem to be revealed in nuclear structure. We have already said that the surface of some fruits represent light patterns belonging to outer space. The conversion of outer space into inner space is a magic that takes place at what is referred to here as the navel of the Goddess.
 
The impact of the metallic breasts finds mention in Verse 80 also. The “universal concrete” can have an accentuated material solidity. Matter is defined as "something that impenetrably occupies space". This is a quality of exclusion of the extraneous, and thus a highly horizontalized tendency or impetus found at the heart of existence, which can express itself in fluid verticality or solid horizontality. The impact of two solids will produce vertical lines of force resembling ripples. Thus, wave­lengths and horizontal free amplitudes can break up pure space into ethereal particles. Probabilities and possibilities, parameters or perimeters, expressing qualitative or quantitative processes of growth or becoming in the general flux of life, could all be thought of in abstract terms, with the deep navel region of the Goddess treated as the lake in this verse.

 

("There is also non-Euclidian space, projective space, scalar space, topological space, vectorial space, as also the structure of space as understood by Minkowski, Lobachevsky and Riemann". In mathematics non-Euclidean geometry is a small set of geometries based on axioms closely related to those specifying Euclidean Geometry The essential difference between the metric geometries is the nature of parallel lines. Another way to describe the differences between these geometries is to consider two straight lines indefinitely extended in a two-dimensional plane that are both perpendicular to a third line.

 

  • In Euclidean geometry the lines remain at a constant distance from each other even if extended to infinity, and are known as parallels.
  • In hyperbolic geometry they "curve away" from each other, increasing in distance as one moves further from the points of intersection with the common perpendicular; these lines are often called ultraparallels.
  • In elliptic geometry the lines "curve toward" each other and intersect. ED)

 -

 

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

 

WORD FOR WORD
Yadetat - gleaming (with a sheen)
Kalindi tanutara taranga krtih - of the form of the slender or fine ripples on the surface of the river Kalindi
Shive - o Shiva-consort
Krshe madhye - with thin middle part
Kimchit - something
Janani - mother
Tava yat - that which is Yours
Bhati sudhiyam - to learned and good devotees it shines (as)
Vimardad anyonyam kucha kala shayoh - by mutual impact of the water-pot-shaped breasts
Antara gatam - what lies between
Tanu bhutam vyomam - made into a thin, schematic factor (sky-space: "bhutam vyomam")
Pravishad iva - as if entering
Nabhim kuharinim - the navel, an orifice or opening
.

Another version:
 
WORD FOR WORD
Yad etat - this which is here seen
Kalindi tanu tara taranga krti - having the form of superfine ripples on the river Kalindi
Shive - o Shiva consort
Krshe madhye - at Your slender middle region
Kinchit - that something
Janani - o Mother
Tava yad - Yours which is
Bhati sudhiyam - looms in the mind of contemplatives
Vimardat anyonyam kucha kala shayoh - reduced by the friction of Your pot-like breasts
Antara gatam - entering inside (the cavity of the navel)
Tanu bhutam vyoma - pure space reduced to ethereal particles
Pravishad iva nabhim - as if entering into the cavity of the navel
Kuharinim - which has a hollow cavity.
.
 
For the next five verses Sankara talks about the stomach and navel of a woman as an area which materializes the Absolute.
The Devi is here treated as a universal concrete.

 
This is the powdered or pulverised world of the monde affiné of Bergson .
There is no major difficulty in its treatment.
 
 
(In Vedanta the world is a "monde affiné" as Bergson calls it - a flux; a world of particle physics, not as actual as it seems. ED)
 
 
 
 
 
 
The ripples are the Kalindi river going underground in the Devi's body.
The surface picture is of an affiné river.

This is Eddington's physical world, exponential mathematics.
It is pure mathematical contemplation, abstracted and generalized.

The four dimensions become abstract at the waist where there is only a vertical vertebral column.

There is no psycho-physical communication except through the Susumna - the extremely thin central nadi or passage.
 
Matter is horizontal wrinkles in pure vertical space according to Eddington.
There is nothing in the middle of a woman's body except the pure virtuality of a child to be born.

This is gynaecological schematismus.

 

 

 

 

Above are some examples of Minkowskian Space

.
We have hitherto kept in mind our own structural pattern of two cones placed base to base. We have elsewhere suggested that these two cones could also be placed apex to apex, when the position of the structure is pushed from the bottom of the vertical scale to the top. We have an ontological “universal concrete” here-and-now locus when the cones are placed base to base at the bottom.
 
The converse of the same, where “universal elsewhere” and “universal nowhere” come together in an intelligible point of light at the meeting point of the apexes, rather than the bases, or similar cones, could be imagined on the numerator side; instead of a “ universal here-and-now” we would get a “universal elsewhere” when the perspective is thus changed.
.

.

 

Also, below, the colour solid:

.

 

.

Other examples of the same structure, with different applications:

 

 

 Minkowski Space.

 

 

 

 

Riemannian Space

.

The Guru's space has cones and Chakras and conic sections.
The Devi's garland between her breasts is a hyperbola coming from the other side of the universe, like Halley's comet, which appears, then goes to the other side of the universe.

 

.
.

When schematism (i.e. structuralism) is known to you with all its dynamisms, you become a wise man, your consciousness becomes like that of a baby in the womb, verticalized in Lobachevskian space. You know your past and your future, what it is possible to do with yourself and what is not possible.

 

Another version:
 
TRANSLATION
Gleaming (with a sheen) of the form of the slender (or fine) ripples on the surface of the river Kalindi
O consort of Shiva
With thin middle part (waist)
Something (which resembles the shining of the ripples)
O Mother
That which is yours
To learned and good devotees it shines (as)
By mutual harsh contact (impact)of the water-pot-like shaped breasts
What lies between
The sky-space made into a thin string (schematic factor), (reduced into the vertical)
As if entering the navel /orifice leading into (navel), (the sky which has been pulverised by the two breasts, enters into the navel)
 
 
 
.
Schemas - what are the ripples on the water?
 

 

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 78

Details
Parent Category: Content
Hits: 14729

SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

VERSE 78

THE O POINT WITH FOURFOLD POLYVALENCE

 

स्थिरो गङ्गा वर्तः स्तनमुकुल-रोमावलि-लता
कलावालं कुण्डं कुसुमशर तेजो-हुतभुजः ।
रते-र्लीलागारं किमपि तव नाभिर्गिरिसुते
बेलद्वारं सिद्धे-र्गिरिशनयनानां विजयते

 

sthiro gangavartah stanamukula romavali lata
kalavalam kundam kusuma sara tejo huta bhujah
rater lilagaram kim api tava nabhir girisute
biladvaram siddher girisa nayananam vijayate
 
O mountain-born, your navel reigns supreme
As a stilled gangetic whirlpool, as the fecund flowerbed of Your breast-bud-bearing creeper
As the sacrificial fire-pit for Kama, and for Rati as her pleasure- bower
While to the eyes of the Mountain Lord the cavern mouth for his austerities
.
 
Verse 78 further confirms the schematic status of the region marked by the navel. The value or function that it represents or fulfils could be varied, but there is always a substratum that continues to be the same. The latitudes, longitudes or equators marked on a globe are not real, but are only meant to be references. Ships, as they cross the equator, do not cross any black line, which is only found on the map for the guidance of the mariner. Charting only makes the high seas more easily navigable. If the ship's compass works correctly, officers can be trained to pilot ships to safety with the help of such charted indications. Thus, the schematic markings could be said to be real to the extent that they have a value. A waterfall might keep its shape unaltered through the years, with slight variations permitted for the seasons. Cascades are thus recognizable by name as well as by form, through the centuries. Jog Falls have four such cascades, each named after a lady. When Heraclitus says that one cannot enter into the same river twice, the river is given the paradoxical status of being a flux as well as a reality with a name. It is in this sense that we have to understand what is said in this verse.
 
The navel of the Goddess need not be only a lake, as described In Verse 76. Alternatively it could be one of the other four analogies enumerated in this verse.
 
The first analogy is of a whirlpool in the Ganges, which is not to be understood as actually petrified or frozen, but simply as a lasting schematic pattern conforming to the shape of a whirlpool.
 
When the analogy is changed to a biological context the navel becomes a hotbed for flowers to grow in. The breasts are then compared to the effects that are produced from such a common source.
 
In the structural image proper to Vedic sacrifice the same navel could be compared to the hollow in which the sacrificial fire is lit, receiving offerings of clarified butter, meant to glorify the function of eroticism for the benefit of the sacrificer, Kama.
But to the wife of Kama it is a cool bower where, instead of being burnt, she finds the rest and pleasure she needs as a negative principle - of negentropy rather than entropy.
 
The same navel could be compared to a cavern for Shiva, whose only interest in life is to find a quiet place for meditation so that he could get away from it all, while still remaining paradoxically right within the core of the situation.
 
This paradox, which is of the essence of the Absolute, can be expected to abolish itself when all the polyvalent implications of this central locus, which constitute a profound mystery in themselves, are fully understood as belonging together to a schematic whole. Each component has its own function, whose plus and minus are cancellable against each other, leaving behind the wonder of the Absolute as a supreme value.
 
The glory of Kama cannot operate within a vacuum, it must have some kind of locus or receptacle; just as clarified butter must fall within the core of the fire kindled in a hollow. Rati´s need is not a hollow, which she already represents by her negati­vity, but something that will protect her against the heat normal to the numerator side of the total situation. Hence, to her, the navel becomes a bower affording shade and coolness from the rays which are likely to be too hot for life on the positive side.
When thinking of this analogy it would be helpful to conceive of the orientation of this lake as being within a conic section of solid geometry, instead of the two-dimensional context of the surface of paper normal to the Sri Chakra.
 
Fire burns upward, water flows horizontally. To turn a lake into a fire pit requires a revised orientation so as to fit it into the schema without violating the structure of space known to some kind of geometry or other. All these are left to the imagination of the reader.
 
The last line would suggest that Shiva's austerities are not unlike an organic process in which one perfection succeeds another, as his austerities progress in their eternal course. When the duality of ends and means in austerities is abolished, such a process of becoming amounts to fruition in the eternal present. Thus interpreted, it will not detract even a little from the absolutist quality of the tapas or pure austerity proper to Shiva in the context of the positive Absolute, for whom Parvati herself is the negative reference He is always to be given this function, though totally inactive, for, as stated in the very first verse, he is present merely as an “unmoved mover” or catalyser. Nature cannot operate without this agent, which has only a thin logical status.
.
(Tapas: the burning up of oneself, mystical agony, renunciation, mystical discipline, austerity, asceticism.)
.
.

.

 

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

 
WORD FOR WORD
Sthiro ganga vartah - the permanent whirlpool of the Ganges it is (Thou art)
Stana mukula roma valilata kala valam - the bed of fecundity for the hairy creeper bearing the buds of breasts
Kundam kusuma shara tejo huta bhujah - the fire sacrifice receptacle where the bright glory of the god of flower arrow is offered
Rateh lila garam - a house (or ground) for the play of Rati, the female counterpart of Eros
Kim api - somehow or other (by hook...)
Tava nabhih giri sute - Your navel, o Daughter of the Mountain
Bilad varam siddhah girisha nayanam vijayate - of the Lord of the Mountain, the door of the subterranean hole for the
.....(ILLEGIBLE)...psychic prowess, in the eye of Shiva.
 
Another version:

WORD FOR WORD
Sthiro ganga vartah - still Gangetic whirlpool
Stana mukula roma vali lata kala valam - as the flower-bed for the creeper of lines of hair for which Your breasts are buds
Kundam kusuma shara tejo huta bhujah - the sacrificial fire-pit for receiving the offerings of the glory of Eros.
Rateh lila garam - for Rati her pleasure bower
Kim api - and as what not
Tava nabhir giri sute - o daughter of the peak, Your navel
Bilad varam siddhah girisha nayananam vijayate - to the eyes of Shiva the cave for austerities to bear fruit
Vijayate - it reigns supreme
.
 
The navel is here described as a frozen whirlpool.
 
 
 
 
As a flower bed.
 
 
As a sacrificial fire-pit for Eros.

As the pleasure bower for Eros' wife Rati ("desire").
 
 
 
As a cavern-mouth for Shiva to meditate in.
 
 
(The poetic description of her waist-region - at the central O Point - continues in the next two verses.
 
Verse 79 describes the Devi's fatigue: She is bending, an almost broken shape, like a tree sliding into a fast river.
 
In Verse 80 weight of the Devi's breasts is so great that She needs Eros to bind Her waist with a creeper to keep it from breaking.
 
Verses 79 and 80 are always alternating from the horizontal to the vertical. ED)

-

Another version:
 
TRANSLATION
The permanent whirlpool of the Ganges it is (or "thou art")
The bed of fecundity for the hair creeper bearing the buds of breasts
The fire sacrifice receptacle wherein the bright glory of the god of flower arrow is offered
House (or ground) for the play of the female companion of the god Eros
Somehow or other (by hook or by crook)
Your navel, o Daughter of the Mountain.
 

 

The river here can be thought of as the eternally flowing Ganges
- think of the whirlpool of Her navel and a kundam (sacrificial pit) as the same thing - the source of Eros.
Histology says that milk comes from the hair of the body.
 
(Ceruminous glands (which produce ear wax), mammary glands (which produce milk), and ciliary glands in the eyelids are considered to be modified sweat glands. ED)
.
.
.
Kundam - here we have again a sacrificial pit; there is emptiness, but it is not devoid of content.

All this fire and passion is the negative Absolute, which can destroy.
 
The playground for the female companion of Eros, called Rati, meaning "desire" is again the whirlpool, a petrified Gangetic whirlpool.
 
The whirlpool means that there is a twist at the centre of life itself, the Devi's navel - the waist of the Devi is to be abolished mentally.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 79

Details
Parent Category: Content
Hits: 10467

SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

VERSE 79

PRECARIOUS VACUITY AT THE O POINT

 

निसर्ग-क्षीणस्य स्तनतट-भरेण क्लमजुषो
नमन्मूर्ते र्नारीतिलक शनकै-स्त्रुट्यत इव ।
चिरं ते मध्यस्य त्रुटित तटिनी-तीर-तरुणा
समावस्था-स्थेम्नो भवतु कुशलं शैलतनये

 

nisarga kshinasya stana tata bharena klamajuso
naman murter nari tilaka sanakais trutyata iva
ciram te maddhyasya trutita tatini tira taruna
samavasthastemno bhavatu kusalam saila tanaye
 
For Your waist, naturally slim, fatigued by weight of bust form,
Bending by form and on the point of breaking,
Equal in state to a tree on a collapsing brook bank;
O mountain-born one, let there be security forever.
.
Verse 79 is addressed to the “Best of Women”, more literally to the “Beauty-spot of womanhood”. Sankara has written other verses in which he touchingly says that he cost his mother a lot of emaciation and suffering in the act of giving birth to her child, as is normal to all mothers, through all time, anywhere. Maternity viewed in this way is a form of martyrdom that women have to pass through and for this reason they deserve the praise and gratitude of all humans born from their mother's womb. The aptness of the apostrophe employed in this verse is therefore perfect, motherhood being the central function of womanhood.
 
There is reference to the slimness of the waist again here, and also to fatigue due to the weight of the bust. In the second line there is a reference to the disastrous predicament of a possible breaking of the vertical support. A tree standing on the sands next to a deep canyon cannot main­tain its stable and erect position as the narrow brook below keeps eroding the earth deeper and deeper. Beside the problem of breaking at the mid-region of the waist, there is the more seriously precarious position of the whole tree slanting or falling to one side at any moment. The tragedy of incertitude in personal life cannot be portrayed in any more forcible language than that which is adopted here in the name of the status of the pure principle of Motherhood. The reference to the bent figure in the second line underlines the pain and suffering that is involved in childbearing. The canyon-like formation where the brook flows very deep, is to bring out the profundity of the inner space in which this zone of tragic incertitude is to be located. The reference to the father and the absence of reference to the husband are also to be noticed. We are on the negative side of the situation, where the flag-post and banner proper to Verse 73 and the reference to Shiva's reputation are left behind. Here we have a figure which has already appeared as early as Verse 7, where the proud purusika and recumbent motherhood were inserted into the same complex schematic dynamism. The nature of the danger of the middle region snapping is to be brought out in the next verse. The worst trials of motherhood, according to Sankara here, are in finding some ground on which life could thrive with stability and steadiness. It is just these factors, where womanhood and its specific functions tend to be most pronounced, that are endangered here. The stability of the mountain from which she is descended is the only feature that can supply what she herself lacks in respect of that function of maternity, for which this region of her body stands.
 
The central prayer in this verse is the concern of the author for the safety of the middle region of the Goddess. The beauty here could be called a tragic predicament rather than a colourful one, as hitherto presented.

-

 

 

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

 

WORD FOR WORD
Nisarga kshinasya - by nature (weakened or thinned, emaciated)
Stana tata bharena klamajusoh - by the weight of the heaving breasts attaining to fatigue
Naman murteh - with form bending down
Nari tilaka - perfected spot of womanly beauty
Shanakaih trutyta iva - as if about to break
Chiram - for long years
Te madhyasya - in the middle region of thine
Trutita tatini tira taruna - resembling a tree on the bank of a brook slid down
Sama vastah stemnah - having a firmness equal to it
Bhavatu kushalam - let it bless
Shaila tanaye - o daughter of the mountain.

.

Another version:

WORD FOR WORD
Nisharga kshinasya - by very nature fatigued, emaciated or tired (By the weight of the breast bank, what has come to have fatigue)
Naman murteh - with form bowing down
Nari tilaka - o crowning forehead red mark of perfection of womanhood
Shanakais trutya iva - as if broken a little
Chiram - for long
Te madhyasya - of Your middle part
Trutita tatini tira taruna - broken (slid down, disrupted)
brook bank tree as comparable to
Sama vastha themnah - having resemblances
Bhavatu kushalam - let it bring blessings
Shaila tanaye - o Daughter of the Mountain
 
.

.

There is a parallel between this structure of two cones meeting apex-to-apex, vertically, and the multiplication table of 9 where 18, 27, 36 etc is mirrored by 81, 72, 63, 54 etc.
 

Another version:
 
TRANSLATION
By nature (weakened or thinned - or emaciated)
By the weight of the heaving breasts attaining to fatigue
With form bending down (prostrating)
O perfect spot of womanly beauty (the spot placed by Indian women between the eyebrows)
As if about to break (one part of the breast from the other) (see structure)
For long years
In the middle region of thine (see structure)
Resembling a tree on a brook bank sliding down
Having a firmness equal to it
Let it bless
O Daughter of the Himalayas
Let the devotee attain long years of bliss by meditating on the middle part of this Goddess.
 

.
 
Here there is Numerator fecundity and Denominator fertility, divided by a tragic line, which is the breaking point.
 
 
At the bottom of the structure is the square root of minus-one
 
Her waist is breaking peripherally due to fecundity of breasts - but is still intact within.
It is a tragic line about to break.
 

 

Another version of a translation:
 
By very nature fatigued (emaciated or tired)
By the weight of breasts' bank (like the bank of a river)
What has become fatigued
With the form recumbent (as in humility or prayer)
O crowning forehead red mark of perfection of women (nari tilaka).
As if broken a little (peripherally broken, but within still intact)
For long (let this meditation give contemplative content...)
Of Your middle part
Broken (slid down or disrupted) brook bank tree as comparable
To hyper-fecundity in the nature of woman)
(A mound has been formed on which a tree can grow)
Let the devotee think of this comparison
Having resemblances (by the analogy )
Let it bring blessings, O Daughter of the Mountain
 
A certain suffering of motherhood is eternal by nature
 
A further translation:
 
By the protuberance of the breasts there is fatigue
With form bowing down
O perfected woman (a tired woman is the perfect lover).
As if broken
For long
Of your middle part
As comparable to the broken brook-bank tree
They have got equality or resemblance (with Your middle part)
Let this meditation on this resemblance bring peace (a vision of the Absolute)

 
 
At the centre is a tragic line and a breaking point - her waist is almost broken.
 

.
A tree on a collapsing brook-bank. Make a river flow into a ravine, and compare it to the lower-loin part of the Devi.
 
 
 
 

The banks are eroding on both sides, and on one of them is a tree, precariously standing.

There is a precarious part of a woman's body where the child is born: inside the mind of every woman there is this uncertainty.

The tree is about to fall; the child is about to come out: "My father did not even know me, and my mother could not do anything."

Verticality is life, and it is about to fall down; that is why the baby is meditating.

The beginnings of life are based on a precarious horizontal uncertainty.
Horizontalism is exclusive - the collapsing sides allow nothing to grow.
Precariousness = projective geometry.
 
 
 
 
Projective Geometry.
 
(In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant under projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, projective space, and a selective set of basic geometric concepts. The basic intuitions are that projective space has more points than Euclidean space, in a given dimension, and that geometric transformations are permitted that move the extra points (called "points at infinity") to traditional points, and vice-versa. ED)

 

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 80

Details
Parent Category: Content
Hits: 13384

 

SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

VERSE 80

FULL HORIZONTALITY WITH A THIN MIDDLE GROUND
RECIPROCITY BETWEEN HORIZONTAL DEVELOPMENT AND VERTICAL THINNESS
SPEED GLOWS - TIME SHRINKS
RECIPROCITY BETWEEN THE HORIZONTAL AND THE VERTICAL
THE LIMIT OF HORIZONTALITY IMPLIES THE LIMIT OF VERTICALITY

 

कुचौ सद्यः स्विद्य-त्तटघटित-कूर्पासभिदुरौ
कषन्तौ-दौर्मूले कनककलशाभौ कलयता ।
तव त्रातुं भङ्गादलमिति वलग्नं तनुभुवा
त्रिधा नद्ध्म् देवी त्रिवलि लवलीवल्लिभिरिव

 

O Goddess, having made Your twin breasts gain the beauty of gold pots,
Rubbing at the upper arms, bursting the bodice and presently perspiring,
The God of Love, now wanting to save your threefold waist from breaking, saying : "enough"
With three strands of a wild creeper, he presently binds.

 

kucau sadyah svidyat tata ghatitakurpasabhidurau
kasantau dormule kanaka kalasabhau kalayata
tava tratum bhangad alam iti valagnam tanu bhuva
triddha naddham devi trivali lavalivallibhir iva

 

The predicament found in Verse 79 is here presented in a slightly more accentuated form. Here, what makes the danger worse is not womanhood in itself, but the factor of eroticism personified, the god of love. Womanly nature in itself is not responsible for the exaggeration of certain tendencies that become accentuated at certain times within the scope of the total personality of the Goddess. When a mature mango drops to the ground, it is not considered an advantage from the standpoint of the tree itself. Horizontalization involves an accentuation of certain tendencies at the expense of others. If one should lop off the side branches of a tree, the main branch will gain in strength from the extra sap available for its growth upward. The pruning of trees implies the recognition of such a complementary principle of growth. In cultivating a frail plant, like a tomato, the intelligent gardener often clips away the side branches and retains the main one. When the plant becomes fully laden with fruit, the careful gardener supports the frail stem by binding it to a stick to keep it upright. The heavy weight of the fruit  might tend to snap the vertical stem, which is the disaster implied here.

 

The function of maternity is directly proportionate to the function of natural eroticism operating within the harmonized system of normal womanhood. Maternity is not a sin because of its libidinous implications. Sex is only a sin in the eyes of an angry God in the Garden of Eden, where it is referred to as a “forbidden fruit”. This does not mean that there is no place for an eroticism that is fully human and natural. The Bhagavad Gita allows for this by saying that when sex does not violate the norms of right conduct and is fully compatible with human nature in its basic tendencies, which it must share with all living beings, it is a kind of kama, or passion which is to be identified with the principle of the Absolute itself. This principle is repre­sented by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, who says, “I am myself pure passion of this kind” (VII: 11), thus taking away the sense of guilt from eroti­cism. Although Semitic and prophetic religions have denounced sex; in the “Song of Solomon”, erotic mysticism is seen to be allow­ed as it is in the “Gita Govindam”and other works openly based on erotic mysticism in India.

 

Krishna stealing the clothes of gopis (female cowherds) and hiding in the trees is a favourite Rajput theme emblazoned on tapestries which are still admired in modern drawing rooms in the West. Here, beauty is the subject, not sin. Thus, Eros is admitted as a sufficiently dignified functionary in this work, as we have already seen as early as Verses 5 and 6. In fact, there are two rival functions to be recognized here: one in charge of horizontalizing tendencies, and the other which is normal to womanhood. Eroticism can assert itself strongly or lightly in different types of women, in the same way that both Ganesa and Subrahmanya could escape the carnal aspect of life. In womanhood especially, the accentuation of vitalistic tendencies can never be considered as a drawback. No cow could be bad because it gives milk as a result of its vitalism. Jesus would not curse a fig tree except for its sterility. What is a virtue with Shiva need not necessarily be a virtue with Parvati.

 

We notice that the God of Love is the maker of the horizon­talized maturation of the two breasts, which are said to rub against the upper arms because of their fullness.

 

The bursting of the bodice is reminiscent of the nurse Peggotty in Dickens' "David Copperfield", whose buttons are said to be bursting each time she embraces the boy; so this is an old joke not unknown to English literature. Perspiration is also an indication of an extreme erotic state of mind, as referred to in Kalidasa's "Shakuntala". While, on one hand Kama accentuates horizontal “sin”; on the other,  he is much concerned about the danger of the waist snapping when overladen with heavy fruit. The beauty here consists of the delicate interplay between tragic and comic elements, neither of which is allowed to predominate and spoil the balance or harmony. Before the last straw enters into the situation which he himself induced horizontally, Kama steps in saying, “enough!”. In order to keep the stem from breaking he props it up and binds it with three strands of a wild creeper, so that it could still stand erect. The three strands represent the three levels through which verticality has to pass to transcend  the over-accentuation of any one of them. The way of transcending the three nature modalities (gunas) has been examined already in Verses 53 and 54. What applies there at a high level should also apply, by extrapolation, at the lower level of  the middle region of the waist. The gold pots under reference here are found also in Kalidasa's poetry in the context of watering plants to help their growth. Compared with ruby pots, these might suggest a lower position in the hierarchical scale of values. Here it is not solidity that counts, but the golden coloration or brightness (abha).

 

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter VII:

Verse 11

balam balavatam cha'ham
kamaraga vivarjitam
dharmaviruddho bhuteshu
kamo 'smi bharatarshabha

 

I am the strength of the strong, devoid of desire
and passion. In beings I am desire which is not
contrary, to righteousness (dharma) 0 Leader of
the Bharatas (Arjuna).

 

 

.

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


The positive over-generosity of life requires protection from the god of vitality.

 

WORD FOR WORD
Kuchau - the twin breasts
Sadya svidyat tata ghatita kurpasa bhidurau - bursting the brassiere which has just been put on them while perspiring
Kashantau dormule - pressing on the armpit region
Kanaka kalasha abhau - having the lustre of golden water pots
Kalayata - manufactured, made
Tava - Your
Tratum - to save
Bhangat alam iti - saying "Do not!" - from being broken up
Valagnam - the middle region
Tanu bhuva tridha naddham - by three rounds (loops) has bound, the god of love
Devi - Devi
Tri vali lavali valli bhih - by triple branch creeper of Lavali creeper
Iva - as if
 
 

.

Another version is:

WORD FOR WORD
Kuchau - the pair of breasts
Sadyah svidya tata ghatita kurpasa bhidurau - bursting the knotted bodice and presently perspiring
Kashantau dormule - rubbing at the upper arms
Kanaka kala shabau - having the brilliance of twin golden pots
Kalayata - he who makes
Tava tratum - these Yours to save
Bhangat - from breaking
Alam iti - saying enough
Valagnam - the mid region
Tanu bhuvatridha naddham - the god of love has bound by three-fold strands
Devi - Goddess
Triva lila vallibhih - by three strands of a wild creeper
Iva - it would seem
 
 
This is psychological structuralism realistically analysed.

 

Another version:

TRANSLATION
1 - The twin breasts
2 - Bursting the brassiere that has just been bound on them while perspiring
3 - Pressing on the armpits region
4 - Having the lustre of golden water pots
5 - Manufactured, made
6 - Your
7 - To save
8 - Saying : "Do not!" - from being broken up
9 - The middle region
10 - By three rounds has bound the God of Love
11 - Devi
12 - By triple-branched creeper of Lavali
13 - As if


 

 

 

COMMENTARY ON THE WORD-FOR-WORD ABOVE
1 - ...
2 - Perspiring - representing the Universal Absolute. Shiva the husband, watches as Eros is the cause of the perspiration.
The brassiere is just put on, and the breasts are bursting through it - a PRESENT erotic picture.
3 - The breasts want to burst in every direction, not just forward
4 - In the West the breasts would be called "ivory"
5 - Breasts are not made by the woman herself. Eros has entered into Her as a horizontal factor and manufactured this state.
6 - "Your" refers to the middle region of the Devi
7 - To save - Eros feels responsible
8 - Saying...any more eroticism will burst the middle
9 - the middle region
10 - Eros has said: "If You act like this, I am going to bind Your middle with three strands".
He is concerned.
 
 
The horizontal tendencies in a woman manifest themselves in the breasts.
Concern is thus directed towards binding the middle and....(ILLEGIBLE)
There is vertical binding to prevent the horizontal from flying apart.
 
(The three strands which stop the Devi's waist from breaking are cognate with the three gunas which make the horizontal universe which extends horizontally from the O Point at the Her waist - also the three functions of creation, preservation and destruction which characterize the universe. There are also three folds at the Devi's waist. All of these must merge in the consciousness of the reader to form an interrelated poetic and mystical whole. This is where protolanguage, which is not limited to one exclusive meaning, is superior to mere verbal metalanguage. ED)

Eros binds by three bindings - to unite it organically with a lower pole - to prevent breaking at the waist.
Her waist is so thin that it is mithya kalpita - falsely put there by the mind.
 
 
 
Verse 79 describes the Devi's fatigue: She is bending, an almost broken shape, like a tree sliding into a fast river.
 
In Verse 80 weight of the Devi's breasts is so great that She needs Eros to bind Her waist with a creeper to keep it from breaking.
 
Verses 79 and 80 are always alternating from the horizontal to the vertical.
 
 
(The Dirac Point is apparently relevant but we do not understand it. ED)
 
 
Logarithmic spirals are proceeding from the same source, they are due to Eros - they are not organically separated.
 
 
This is realistically analyzed from the point of view of Eros, as an agent of biological, hierophantic functions on the negative side; he is not in charge of the origin of the creeper, but only of the binding.
 
 
"Binds with three turns of a creeper..." Eros is the functionary up to that point, all horizontality is in his charge; and that is why Shiva will not come there.
.

 

(Note the correspondence with Verse 69. ED)

 

 

 

Show Shakuntala being mocked; she carries a golden pot almost the same shape as her breasts. Borrow from Kalidasa.
The breasts are sometimes golden pots, sometimes ruby pots: see VERSE 73.

Her two chidren are drinking milk from Her breasts:

Subrahmanya is in Ajna Chakra,

Ganesha in Muladhara Chakra: neither have sex, one is too thin and one is too fat and comfortable; it is the man in between who has to copulate.
 
Her breasts are described as ruby pots - these are hard.
The Devi's legs are quivers.
Her toenails are sharpened on the crowns of gods.
The point is: within the personality of the Devi there are two kinds of hardness: diamond hardness on the negative side, and hydrogen-flame "hardness" on the Numerator side.
One increases with the other, thus the crowns are whetstones; there is a cancellability between the nails and the crowns.
The bipolarity between the ontological and the teleological is brought out here, absolute hardness does not reside in any one part of the body.
 
When schematism is known to you with all its dynamisms you become a wise man, your consciousness becomes like that of a baby in the womb, verticalized in Lobachevskian space. You know your past and your future, what it is possible to do with yourself and what is not possible.

The vertical axis is happiness, the horizontal axis is suffering: teach people to adjust their insides; you will do them a great service.
 
God can be in three places; in your heart, in your mother's feet or in heaven, between the eyebrows.
Whatever god they give you, ask for his functions and place him mathematically in a schema.

The contribution of Vedanta: svadharma ("your own dharma" - karma verticalized) is to be cultivated from the Denominator side, do not try and pick your svadharma from the Numerator side.
Start from the side of cause, and work upwards to your own spiritual progress.
Do not try to descend from above, do not put too much emphasis on the prophetic side.

 

  1. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 81
  2. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 82
  3. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 83
  4. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 84