SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 74

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI

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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.
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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.
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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.

 

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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.
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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

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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

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("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.
 
 
 
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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.

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