SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 94

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

VERSE 94

THE CIRCULATION BETWEEN ESSENCE AND SUBTLE EXISTENCE
IN THE PHYSIOLOGICAL AND COSMOLOGICAL BODY OF THE GODDESS
 
कलङ्कः कस्तूरी रजनिकर बिम्बं जलमयं
कलाभिः कर्पूरै-र्मरकतकरण्डं निबिडितम् ।
अतस्त्वद्भोगेन प्रतिदिनमिदं रिक्तकुहरं
विधि-र्भूयो भूयो निबिडयति नूनं तव कृते
 
kalankah kasturi rajanikara bimbam jalamayam
kalabhih karpurair marataka karandam nibiditam
atas tvad bhogena pratidinam idam rikta kuharam
vidhir bhuyo nibidayati nunam tava krte
 
The dark zone of the moon is musk; the moon's orb is water;
The moon's phases they are camphor bits filling a box of ebony,
Which, when emptied daily by Your joys,
For Your sake, Brahma fills up again and again.
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Verse 94 has a very complex structural content, representing beauty placed within the context of darkness or night, here referred to as the black “box of ebony”. The box is suggestive of a real existent object. We see that cosmolo­gical, psychological and theological entities are meant to create this picture of the negative aspect of beauty, which is of the nature of existence rather than of essence. Musk and camphor are favourite examples of objects which can change into precious essences in spite of being existent objects. The duality between existence and essence has been the cause of much philosophical controversy from scholastic times to the present day. Indian philosophy tends to speak in terms of existence, as when the Bhagavad Gita refers to the rasa, or taste of water, and identifies it with the absolute personality of Krishna himself who says, “I am the sapidity of the waters” (VII, 8). The composite picture presented in this verse brings existence and essence into relief as items that are contained in a black box belonging to the Goddess, who is supposed to expend them in the form of the joys that she might have during the course of each day. The moon is the presiding orb during the night, and it is in the context of the night that enjoyments of a negative order become operative, thus tending to make the essences disappear; either by permeation into the air, or by being changed into heat and light, as in the cases of musk and camphor respectively. Musk is a negative existent form of matter that spreads its perfume subtly throughout an enclosed room. The beauty of the night sky is compared to a jewel-box by philosophers like Kant and poets like Shelley.
 
We have here to think of a living form of the Goddess, who is placed within the cosmological context of the alternating waxing and waning of moonlight. It is not the bright side of the moon with which we are directly concerned here, but rather with the negative or dark side of moonlight. As in Shakespeare´s reference to the “watery moon”, from ancient times the moon has been understood to belong to water rather than fire. The moon´s rays are supposed to be cooling and comforting to persons afflicted with love. The moon´s phases have already been compared to camphor bits in Verse 65. These have to be replaced after a fortnight, but if we think of what is expended instead of what is gained, the light that is lost each day can be said to need replacement after each night's enjoyment of erotic pleasures on the part of the Goddess. Thus, in the last line, it is stated that Brahma, the creator, whose function is connected with eternal regeneration, fills the dark ebony box with what has been lost each day. There is thus a compensatory metabolism in terms of existences and essences in the combined context of cosmology, psychology and theology, evident here. The overall perspective, however, still remains negative, as it is the contents of the black ebony box that occupy the focus of interest in this verse. Beauty, seen from the dark side rather than from the bright side and subject to daily increase or decrease, is the overall theme of this verse. We know that in an ordinary physical metabolism food is transformed into caloric units of energy to be spent by the mechanistic activities of each day. This verse attains to the same kind of diurnally alternating metabolism, connected, not with any physiological system, but with an aspect of personal life where subtler enjoyments are involved. Instead of becoming exhausted by such enjoyment, it is to be seen that every time enjoyment expends the existent essences involved, they are replenished by the God of Creation himself. Thus, life goes on eternally in the form of a perpetual alternating motion, as between the getting and spending of existential essences.
 
In spite of this alternating process; what emerges out of the total situation is a form of dark-splendid beauty more proper to a Kali than a Sarasvati. Even in this late verse, ontology has primacy over teleology. This is underlined by the analogy of the ebony box. Shyamala “the Dark One” is an epithet that is applied to this kind of absolute Goddess, seen from the negative perspective.

 

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 7,

Verse 8
raso 'ham apsu kaunteya
prabha 'smi sasisuryayoh
pranavah sarvavedeshu
sabdah khe paurusham nrishu

 

I am the taste in waters, 0 Son of Kunti (Arjuna), 
I am the light in the moon and the sun, I am Aum
(numinous exclamation) in all the Vedas, sound in
the sky and the human quality in men.

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

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WORD FOR WORD
Kalankah - the dark zone
Kasturi - is musk
Rajani kara bimbam jala mayam - the orb of the moon is watery
Kala bhih kapuraihi - the phases are camphor
Marataka karandam - the box (casket) made of ebony
Nibiditam atah - are only packed with these
Tvat bhogena - by Your joys
Pratidinam idam - daily this
Rikta kuharam - this, having empty space inside
Vidhir bhuyo bhuyo - Brahma again and again
Nibidayati nunam - fills up indeed
Tava krte - for Your sake
 
"The dark zone of the moon is musk..." Kalankah kasturi..
Kasturi (musk) is the most volatile of perfumes, as costly as gold;  no perfume is more effective.

The Devi uses up some camphor-like effluvia by her pleasures every 24 hours and this has to be replenished by Brahma, the god of creation, himself.

The moon's phases are spent daily, like the camphor.

Certain kinds of essential nourishment have to be supplied to a woman's body; this is not an ordinary metabolism, but one of a very subtle order, not gross or physical.

What is seen in the sky on the numerator side becomes on the denominator side a black jewel box with something bright and beautiful inside.

This puts into relationship the inner world of the Devi with the outer world of Shiva.
The cosmic principle of creation daily restores spent animal magnetism.
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