Advaita Vedanta

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

WORD-FOR-WORD
Tvadiyam saundaryam = your beauty
Tuhina-giri-kanye = o maiden of the high peak
Tulayitum = in order to estimate (the value of Your beauty)
Kavindrah = the best among poets
Kalpante = they imagine (exercise their fancy)
Katham api = somehow or other
Virinchi prabhrtaya = Virinchi and others
Yad-alokaut-sukyad = out of curiosity for seeing which
Amara lalanah = heavenly maidens
Yanti manasa = mentally attain to
Tapobhir = by men of austerity (renunciation)
Dush prapam api = even what is difficult (for them to attain)
Girisha-sayujya-padavim = the state of union with Shiva

Another version:

The munis (ascetics) are peripheral.
The girls are negative vertical.

 

 

 

The girl has just to think of herself; she does not have to do penance like the ascetics, she is promoted on a course natural to any woman.
Woman is naturally innocent.

 

(During one of the study sessions on this subject the Guru remarked:

"All women are enlightened."

A student asked; "All women?"

The Guru replied: "Yes, all women")

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Poets create demiurges to represent values which approximate to the beauty of the Goddess.
The girls are promoted "manasa" (through their minds) by themselves.
Tribal girls and heavenly damsels are the same - but one is more rarefied.

 

A woman looking at the mirror and looking at the Goddess is the same.

 

 

See "Kabuli Wallah" by Tagore and the story of Iole and Hercules.

The Devi's attendants are able to merge with the Devi's personality because they already have an ontological relationship with her on the negative side.

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The Devas (gods) are hypostatic, on the positive side, and have a tendency to diffuse away from the vertical axis and thus do not accomplish this merging with the Devi by their austerities or tapas.
The gods are created by the poets, who were trying to describe Absolute Beauty.
The Devi's servants are closer to being fused with Her than the gods are.

It is Absolute Beauty which is important.
The negative females are closer to the Devi than the poets who create numerator gods.

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Neither poets nor austere men realize that neither austerity beauty nor luxury beauty is the same as Absolute Beauty.

Ontology is better than Teleology,
or Double Negation is better than Double Assertion.

 

 

Women know the Goddess very easily.
Then by tapas (austerities) there are men who try to get the same thing.

 

Another version:

TRANSLATION
Your beauty, which
O maiden of the high peak
In order to weigh ( to estimate the value of Your beauty)
The best among poets (Kavindraha)
(they) imagine (kalpanti) (exercise their fancy)
Somehow or other (kathamapi)
Brahma and others (refers to the Trinity)
(note theory of ensembles)
out of curiosity for seeing (Your beauty)
Heavenly maidens
mentally attain to
by men of austerity
even what is difficult (for them) to attain
the state of union with Shiva

In the matter of attaining unity with Shiva, the maidens are at an advantage

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These tapasvis (performers of austerities) try to build up a Numerator, but the maids get identification with the denominator Devi simply by their sympathy for Her.

 

 

 

Disgruntled ascetics in the Himalayas.

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The young women are able to merge mentally with the vertical axis, at least on the negative side.

To describe the Absolute in terms of the positive side of the  Numerator one must be a philosopher, it is very difficult.

But it is easy for the maidens to merge into the ontological vertical axis by their sympathy with the Devi.

Vertical beauty is approximated by the poets, but they cannot escape the fact that they are still dealing with the pluralistic world of many (Vedic) gods and not the one, ontological Devi.

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Your beauty is admired first by women, who appreciate it in such a way as to outwit the Munis (sages) performing Tapas (austerities).

After taking a structural perspective in the second to last verse, as well as in the last, and before going into realistic aspects to be followed by more positively conceived perspectives with Verse 14 and elsewhere, this section terminates only at Verse 41,  keeping up the same attitude; i.e. treating Beauty as an inner experience.

Here, in the present verse, the value implications as between various components or limbs, are meant to be brought into relief.

It should be noted that it is nothing other than the value of Absolute Beauty in the abstract that is the theme here.

Beauty in the abstract is neither wholly schematic nor wholly categorical.

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The items of any imaginable category within the scope of the Absolute have one-to-one correspondance with structural aspects considered schematically. Both of them could refer to the Self or the Non-Self at one and the same time and need not be separated into subjective individuation of the Absolute Self or its objective individuation, implying introversion or extroversion, as some recent writers belonging to the Analytical School of psychology seem to suggest.

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Terms like "Saguna Brahman" and "Nirguna Brahman", "Apara Brahman" and "Para Brahman", "Jivatama", "Paramatma", even "Atma" and "Unatma" are applied to epistemological aspects of the same Brahman according to the prakarana (chapter) context in question.

 

(Saguna means “with attributes”. The term “Saguna Brahman” implies that the Absolute has a name and form and other attributes. “Nirguna Brahman” implies that the Absolute has no name and form or attributes. The pair Para and Apara Brahman refers to a higher and lower or transcendant and immanent Absolute. Atman refers to the soul. These are all technical terms of Indian Philosophy which need to be studied in depth to be understood. The reader is referred to the website's search engine for further information. ED)

Thus there are other grades and subdivisions of the notion of the individual or the self, such as: "Pratyagatma", "Sutratma", "Vaishvanara", "Taijas", etc. etc. These terms have to be referred correctly to their positions, both structurally and categorically. The categories afford the symbols or monomarks, while the structural aspects fix the signs in relation to each.

 

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When they tally, they explain one in the light of the other. We can use such explanations for the psychological, cosmological or theological clarifications for ourselves according to need, as they arise when the subject unravels itself verse by verse in the order conceived by the author himself. To follow the workings of the mind of the author is the primary task of the critical reader and it is the claim made here - for the first time perhaps - of following such a line of critical scrutiny in respect of these verses whose meanings have intrigued scholars for over a thousand years.

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Now this justifies the other most natural claim that Sankara, as an Advaitin, could not have been thinking of any Godhead or deity whatsoever, other  than the Absolute itself, viewed under the aegis of the one Absolute Value, both real and abstract at once, which is the aesthetic content here alluded to as a sheer or overpowering sense of beauty.

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The Upanishads underline many times that Ananda or joy is to be recognised by intelligent men as representing the final content of the Absolute (anandam brahmano vidvan). This does not, however, exclude the possibility of the same Brahman being understood under the other two perspectives of psychology or cosmology.

Ananda, Atman or Brahman ("Bliss, the Self and the Absolute) are always interchangeable terms of equal dignity. Brahman could be rich in ontology without it contradicting the idea of its having a high intensity of value or bliss. Brahman is something Great, Adorable and Existent, and these epithets have to be pressed together into one sheer experience in terms both of understanding as well as aesthetic sense.

 

In Chapter VIII of Narayana Guru's Darsana Mala we read:

 

"Bliss, the Self and the Absolute
Are said to be the names of this alone.
In whom there is such sure awareness,
He as a contemplative is well known. 

 

"I am Bliss, I am the Absolute, I am the Self."
In whom, in such forms,
There is always creative imagination,
As a contemplative he is well known."

 

What is implied in Sat (Existence) is to be neutralized by what is implied as different from it in the term Chit (Subsistence) or what might be suggested by the term Ananda (Bliss) which necessarily refers to a value judgement.

 

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Whether we call Brahman Sat-Cit-Ananda or describe it as Satyam (existence), Jnanam (subsistence), Anantam (infinite), as is sometimes done in Upanishadic texts, each of these terms is explained by Sankara as having the effect of neutralising or countering any vestige of perfect unity suggested by any other of them, so that they add up to a perfect unity of content which melts or fuses them together into one non-dual Reality, Truth or Value.

The Good, the True and the Beautiful, as in Western parlance, have to refer to the same Absolute. It is Absolute Beauty with which we are concerned in the present as in all the verses of this work. Neither Tripurasundari nor Parvati need be necessarily presupposed, except by way of some latitude or condescension made to religious-minded or pious upasakas such as the Shaktyas, Samayins or even Kaulins. The jnani, or man of jnana, (wisdom) is always superior to the man of mere piety or works.

 

( An actual Goddess such as Tripurasundari or Parvati, to be worshipped by religious people, is to be understood as inferior to the Absolute Beauty which the Vedantin experiences and becomes. ED)

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This is stated in the Bhagavad Gita (VII, 16).

"Four kinds of the (doers of the) good are intent on
Me, Arjuna; the distressed, the seeker of
knowledge, the seeker of the goods of life, and the
wise, 0 Leader of the Bharatas (Arjuna)." 

 

Sankara would be the last philosopher to minimise the efficiency of wisdom by itself for the purpose of appreciating the aesthetic values that he wishes to bring into evidence here in a manner consistent with his own philosophy, as expounded elsewhere in his writings. Therefore, no question of upasana or worship arises here. Those who use this text as a form of religious observance rather than in terms of understanding, pure and simple, are likely to miss its best message, as intended by Sankara. The Upanishads boldly assert that a knower of Brahman can, without any further factor intervening, attain the Absolute: "Brahmavit apnoti param". ("The knower of the Absolute obtains the Ultimate")

 

(There is also the Mahavakya (great saying): "Brahmavit Brahmeva Bhavati" - "The knower of the Absolute becomes the Absolute". ED)

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Devotional attitudes or practices such as Yoga or Brahmacharya are only the lower rungs of a ladder, to be discarded when surmounted. This does not, however, mean that they have to be left out of consideration and have no place. When spiritual progress is so looked upon, with all the steps or rungs of the ladder that must necessarily belong to it, it is thus that even the Upanishads refer to the Vedas: "Vedah sarvagani satyam ayatana." The meaning of this verse will become clear to the reader in the light of what we have just said. It only remains to be put together so as to tally the structural with the categorical elements in order to make the meaning emerge to view.

There are the following factors involved in this verse:
1) Estimating the beauty-value of the Absolute;
2) The question of describing it in literature;
3) How the appreciation of Beauty is easier from the negative ontological side of the psyche as represented by heavenly damsels;
4) How it is not so easy through austerities.

Now let the reader scrutinize the text, word by word, and see that the top half of the circle is to be filled by values that are hypostatic and Vedic.

 

The bottom half is to be similarly filled by the values within easy grasp of the heavenly damsels. Now place the men of austerities on the right or plus sector above the horizontal line, and the damsels themselves on the minus left sector.

 

 

Appreciation consists of abolishing horizontal as well as the vertical duality. The total implication thus arrived at will be sufficiently clear to the reader. Similar verses will be found to have more than just curiosity about beauty; such as the next one where heavenly damsels are again referred to, which will have other values more realistic or more abstract than what is implicit in the curiosity about beauty here.

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Beauty can be appreciated as within itself from the ontological rather than the teleological side. Ascetics represent the latter. The inter-subjective and trans-physical relationship on a homogeneous basis should be kept in mind in order to appreciate the contrast involving the two sets of value appreciations under reference here.

 

 

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS FOR MAKING A FILM:

The above figure taken together with the comments will suffice for a structural analysis of the content and purpose of this verse. In an over-all form the intention of the author is to say that celestial maidens, being vertical minus in status, understand the value of the Goddess by direct participation, which the ascetics can only attain indirectly.

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The positive numerator side of the Goddess can be created by the poets.

The heavenly maidens understand that side automatically.
They also want to be in union with a husband on the numerator side.
Ascetics are outside the picture completely and have to supply both Numerator and Denominator by abstraction and generalization; it is difficult for them to visualize.

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Heavenly maidens supply the Denominator, poets supply the Numerator.

Beautiful maidens have verticality in their own beauty, poets have verticality in their imagination.

 

 

 

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The Ascetics are disgruntled people whose family lives are broken up.

 

 

 

 

Some disgruntled ascetics.

The girls on the Numerator side quickly appreciate the Denominator and cancel out.
The poets, who are ordinary men on the Denominator, fill the Numerator side with beautiful gods, and somehow make the cancellation.

 

 

 

 

The Poets Create Beautiful Gods.

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Ascetics have to meditate 10 hours a day. They have to supply both sides of the equation and cancel them out with each other.

 

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Use the Heuristic method for arousing interest in the students: ask the most important questions at the beginning of the tape, then answer them all in the lesson portion. Isolate the Karuna (kindness) and the Aruna (magenta): make the people fall down and say their prayers. Rake up the problems at the beginning of each videotape, but save the synergetic cinema for later. They will not be able to understand it anyway, but it will leave an impression.

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Sankara is an akrta punya, a man of ungained merit, because the way of Vedanta is the negative path (nivritti marga) where merit has no place.

Say "neti, neti" ("not this, not this") until you get the square root of minus one, then everything takes place in a kind of negative or Lobachevskian space, like the fallopian tubes or the womb.

 

 

 

 

Lobachevskian Space.

 

 

 

Fallopian Tubes.

 

The empty part of a woman's body is like an oven; it is a mysterious space belonging to the whole universe, containing electricity and magnetism which will polish the skin of the baby and give it colour.

 

This is all done by a tremendous fire burning at the negative pole of the Kundalini which takes the form of eroticism - however the spermatozoon is still needed.

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"I am a Vedantin: I like the negative side and take the side of the servant-girl". (See Verse 93, where the Guru writes:

"Sankara gives the servant girl the last of glorious places as the Absolute Goddess.

She is a plain girl, no flourishes or decoration: Sankara should be worshipped for saying this."

 

"Fill your mind completely with overwhelming Absolute Beauty and you are a mystic".

 

"All appreciation of beauty and all mysticism is erotic."

 

"There is nothing closer to the Absolute than a sixteen-year-old girl".

 

"A woman is a complete psyche."

 

"Biologically, the female is the type, the male a sub-type."

 

"All aesthetics is erotic."

 

 In his commentary, Sankara says you can study Vedanta if you are curious, you do not have to be a Brahmin: the barrier of caste is abolished. Atato Brahma Vijnasa...

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"Let me start with ontology, pass through the tube, come up at the Omega Point and transcend."

 

THE PSYCHE, THE SOUL INSIDE YOU, IS A WOMAN.

Understand the structure of a woman.
Yoga consists of recognizing the servant girl.

Do not have a God; give beauty the central place and give it to a woman.
If you deal with theologies you have a problem of one being superior or inferior to another: "is Trinitarianism better or worse than Unitarianism etc?".

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