SAUNDARYA LAHARI
VERSE 44
THE PARAMETER IS PRODUCED UPWARDS
THE INVASION OF RIVAL HORIZONTAL FORCES
THE INVASION OF RIVAL HORIZONTAL FORCES
तनोतु क्षेमं न-स्तव वदनसौन्दर्यलहरी
परीवाहस्रोतः-सरणिरिव सीमन्तसरणिः।
वहन्ती- सिन्दूरं प्रबलकबरी-भार-तिमिर
द्विषां बृन्दै-र्वन्दीकृतमेव नवीनार्क केरणम्
परीवाहस्रोतः-सरणिरिव सीमन्तसरणिः।
वहन्ती- सिन्दूरं प्रबलकबरी-भार-तिमिर
द्विषां बृन्दै-र्वन्दीकृतमेव नवीनार्क केरणम्
tanotu ksemam nas tava vadana saundarya lahari
parivaha srotas saranir iva simanta saranih vahanti
sinduram prabala kabari bhara timiradvisam vyndair
bandikytam iva navinarka kiranam.
parivaha srotas saranir iva simanta saranih vahanti
sinduram prabala kabari bhara timiradvisam vyndair
bandikytam iva navinarka kiranam.
May it bless us - the upsurging billow of the beauty of your face
Outflowing like unto a stream to resemble your parted hairline bedecked with vermilion dust,
Keeping apart the strong growth of tresses,
Held as if in bondage by an anti-darkness gang, to reveal the tender rays of dawn.
Outflowing like unto a stream to resemble your parted hairline bedecked with vermilion dust,
Keeping apart the strong growth of tresses,
Held as if in bondage by an anti-darkness gang, to reveal the tender rays of dawn.
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In Verse 44 there is a direct reference to the saundarya element, which labels this section definitely, as against the ananda of the previous section. We can read this verse together with Verse 45, as they are almost identical in their subject matter, which is the bright Chakra-like face of the Goddess.
While Verse 43 spoke in terms of banishing darkness, here the prayer is for Beauty to bless humanity. It is not a passive picture that is presented here. The last line suggests that there are two groups of people trying hard to keep at least a streak of light visible, while darkness, in its turn, is trying forcibly to enter into every nook and cranny of our consciousness, when it is allowed to be lazy. Shiva killed the elephant Gajendra in order to conquer his own mystical heights by an agonizing tragic proces,s without which horizontal evil or ignorance - represented by the wild elephant gone out of control - would hinder the higher flights of contemplative life. The “anti-darkness gang” here, is clearing the thick forest growth, binding it down on both sides, so as to blaze the trail for higher and higher contemplation to follow vertically upwards. A thin line, if it could be marked to indicate the course of the contemplative progress the yogi must follow, would in itself constitute a great gain. The situation suggested is not unlike the one when the king comes in a procession, with a gang of policemen pushing aside the crowds on both sides to keep them from blocking the road in front of the king. The vertical parameter must be clearly visualized by the yogi before the Chakra itself could be placed in its proper relational perspective. Darkness is the enemy of light, its invasion is in terms of space encroaching from both sides and not in terms of time, which marks the path of light as it extends from the present towards doomsday itself. Thus, the function of the “anti-darkness gang” is only to help the yogi to meditate better, which is the object of this verse.
The beauty of the face is not a plain conventional beauty, but something that can burst through barriers or other factors of ignorance, however thick. The mixed metaphor here even allows us to imagine that the face could be a lotus lake bordering on a forest touched by the pink rays of the rising sun, situated vertically above it. Such a picture was presented in Verse 16. The water in a lake can break its bounds and create a stream vertically, ending at a vanishing point where the sun´s rays stream downward, as in this verse. The parameter would then become complete from both ends, the immanent and the transcendent. The only colour that would suit such a glistening streak of light would be vermillion or ruby or other magenta colours which have brilliance, rather then just a tint or shade. Such a structural version of a vision here is to be referred back to the familiar habit of Indian women who put a streak of kumkum (vermillion powder) on the line of their parted hair, plaited on both sides or simply kept bound and apart, as by the efforts of the “anti-darkness gang” here. The kumkum powder used by the Goddess touches that colour where hypostatic beauty cancels against is own hierophantic counterpart.
A thick growth of hair in a woman indicates richness of the vital principle, and there is no harm in thinking that it adds to beauty rather than subtracts from it. It is in this sense that perhaps the Mona Lisa of Leonardo is an improvement on pale pre-Raphaelite Madonnas.
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.
The parting is like a river, it corresponds to the vertical axis leading to infinity, and reflected magenta light is there also.
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The Devi has a numerator parameter, which is the saving factor.
The rays represent the effulgence of Her face.
Now I want to call together artists and put together some visual images of the first 44 verses.
The rays represent the effulgence of Her face.
Now I want to call together artists and put together some visual images of the first 44 verses.
This wisdom can only be put over to the public through the cinema.
These Mandalas are inner space.
The thickness of the growth of hair is proportional to the thinness of the parting or parameter..
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The thickness of the hair represents ignorance or the horizontal,
while the parting is the vertical axis running through all and abolishing our ignorance.
while the parting is the vertical axis running through all and abolishing our ignorance.
Here, "Saundarya Lahari " is directly referred to, in the first line, translated as "The upsurging billow of the beauty of Your face".
This is a point of punctuation.
The preceding Tantric approach has been terminated.
It says that the parting of the hair (a "semanteme", or indivisible unit of meaning), which would generally be white, is decorated with magenta powder.
Sankara is referring to more than convention when he says, "Let this line save us".
It can save us because it is a vertical parameter, while the horizontal is negative.
The Devi's face is thus a bright parameter - it is a correlation.
As for the pundits, they will say: "there is nothing to be emotional about, it is all a joke and it is all Maya".
Ignorance is like darkness - the Devi parts it - then she paints the parting in Her dark hair in magenta to add vitality and beauty to an otherwise mathematical parameter.
So let us be saved by this parameter.
We do not need Zeus or God; this line, which is the vertical axis, will save us.)
A parameter is solely mathematical in nature and the whole universe can be related to it.
"The world is a machine for creating Gods" - Bergson.
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Another version:
TRANSLATION
- Let it confer happiness on us.
- Like the streak of the overflow.
- Of the beauty of Your face.
- The ceremonially decorated streak of women.
- Bears the vermilion.
- The gangs of enemies of
- The darkness represented by the strong hair growth.
- Ever bound
- As if it is a streak of morning sunlight (pink dawn).
- Let it confer happiness on us.
- Like the streak of the overflow.
- Of the beauty of Your face.
- The ceremonially decorated streak of women.
- Bears the vermilion.
- The gangs of enemies of
- The darkness represented by the strong hair growth.
- Ever bound
- As if it is a streak of morning sunlight (pink dawn).
Beauty has broken through the face of the Devi - breaking through barriers like a streak of white light.
SOMETHING (MAGENTA) IS ADDED TO THE WHITE COLOUR OF HER PARTING IN ORDER TO NORMALIZE IT FROM THE "JEHOVAH" PRINCIPLE INTO SOMETHING KIND.
A group of factors of darkness have tried to overbind even that (white) parameter - they are ganging up against the Absolute Beauty and Wisdom of this magenta-coloured parameter.
This neutral magenta streak is there to save you from ignorance.
It gives you knowledge of the Absolute and knowledge is the saving factor.
Let the streak of light bless us - why?
Because it is Numerator light.
Because it is Numerator light.
Thus, the parameter is given a logical status, without a horizontal dimension.
The parameter is not a road or path, which simply lies there.
There is water overflowing from below, sunlight overflowing from above.
Then there is the magenta colour.
The parameter is not a road or path, which simply lies there.
There is water overflowing from below, sunlight overflowing from above.
Then there is the magenta colour.
The magenta colour is Eros' colour.
EVEN HERE THE DEVI CRIES FOR ALL BABIES