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
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
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
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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.
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(Tapas: the burning up of oneself, mystical agony, renunciation, mystical discipline, austerity, asceticism.)
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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.
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
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
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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)
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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 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.
- 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)
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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.
