1
(Digest of pp.915-920 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume, 4th
imprn.)
The power of speech is endowed by parA-shakti
only to the human species. As a special gift from Her
it must be really important for us. If we have any good sense in us we would
use it only for noble purposes. The shakti of speech
that She has given us should be used only to reach Her again.
The greatness of the
power of speech lies in this. Its greatness lies in using it, not just to get
great experiences for oneself
but for further transmitting them
to others also. This can be done only by the faculty of speech. It is
for such sharing that the parA-shakti has given us, Her
children, this unique faculty. What greater benefit could there be in life for
the power of speech?
When a Guru teaches a
certain path of sAdhanA,
he appends to it a number of strict injunctions to be followed. On the other hand a poet
perhaps is able to give a similar thing in the form of pleasing enjoyable
music. It is the Grace of ambaal that has made such a thing possible by
endowing us all with the faculty of speech. That is why we praise vAk-Shakti. It
is LalitAmbika who graces us thus and this shloka says She
does it in the form of vAg-devi, that is
Sarasvati. Just once if we bow down to Her, good souls
get the excellence of the faculty from Her.
Note however that ‘satAm’
is the word used. Not everybody but only those noble souls who can be
classified as ‘sAdhu’ would be endowed. The excellence of speech is compared to the
excellence of sweetness of three kinds: honey, milk and grapes. They can be
easily swallowed and
digested. On the spiritual
side, the speech faculty would help them receive messages full of sense and
assimilate them in their innermost hearts; and all this by just one
prostration. Instead of saying in prosaic words that ‘they will be endowed with
such faculties’ the poet in the Acharya says: Why would not they be endowed
with such faculties?’
Just a
word about the play with the sound of the word ‘natvA’.
It is used two times. One time to mean ‘natvA’, that is, (having) prostrated; and another
time to mean ‘na tvA’
meaning, ‘not – You’. Here it is two words ‘na’ and ‘tvA’ . The word ‘na’ goes with ‘sannidadhe’ (endowed, graced) so
that it gives the meaning: (Why would they) be not endowed. The ‘You’ goes with
the earlier word ‘natvA’ thus meaning prostrated to You.
kavIndrANAM cetaH
kamala-vana-bAlAtapa-ruciM
bhajante ye
santaH katicid-aruNAm-eva bhavatIM /
virinchi-preyasyAs-taruNatara-sRGgAra-laharI-
gabhIrAbhir-vAgbhir-vidadhati
satAM ranjanam-amI // 16 //
ye katicit santaH
: Those few righteous persons who
bhajante
: worship
aruNAm eva bhavatIM: You who are nothing but aruNA ,
that is, the colour of crimson personified
bAlAtapa-ruchiM:
(and) who are the rising Sun to
kavIndrANAM cetaH kamala-vana: the forest of lotuses (in the
form of) the minds of great poets,
amI : they
ranjanaM vidadhati: give rapturing excitement
satAM ; to the noble souls
gabhIrAbhir-vAgbhiH: by
majestic and profound words
taruNa-tara-sRGgAra-laharI : that is
a flood of love which is youthfully fresh
virinchi-preyasyAH : from the beloved of Brahma,
i.e., from Sarasvati.
In the previous shloka the talk
was about the all-white vAgdevI. The same Sarasvati is now talked about in
her dynamic (rajo-guNa) form. Just before sunrise, it is all crimson in the
east and we call it the rising of aruNa. The word aruNa means ‘crimson-red’. The
charioteer of the Sun is of that colour; so he is called aruNa. Here aruNA is the personification of the
crimson colour and this is
Sarasvati in Her rajo-guNa form. When She
is meditated in this form She gives the speech-excellence, where love is
dominant. Love belongs to rajo-guNa. It is therefore usually symbolised as
crimson. So it is quite fitting that aruNA-devi graces one with Love.
But mark it. It is not the usual
natural romantic love of the worldly kind. It is the esoteric Love of the
partnership of Kameshvara and Kameshvari.
Those who can comprehend it in that light are the righteous ones (santaH).
In the previous
shloka, one is said to obtain poetic excellence by worshipping the all-white
pure Sarasvati. The poetry that springs out of this grace would also be white,
sAtvic and would have the consequence of giving wisdom and dispassion. Such a wisdom and dispassion can be
experienced as an expression of Love. That occurs only to the noble souls (satAM) . It is to their satisfaction that the devotees of
Sarasvati sing. It is these noble souls who were said (in the previous shloka)
to obtain the sweetness of speech, equal in sweetness to madhu (honey), kshIra (milk) and drAkshA
(grapes). And in this shloka the same noble souls are being joyfully
entertained by the worshippers of Sarasvati, the Crimson (aruNA): ‘vidadhati satAm ranjanam amI’. Those who were ‘poets’ in the previous
shloka, have now become ‘connoisiurs’ !
The poets of the previous shloka
were those noble persons who obtain the proficiency for poetry from ambAL.
Among those noble persons those who reach the nAyikA-bhava (attitude of the
beloved) towards the Almighty are only a few (‘katicit’); these are the ones who
can sing of Her Love in the proper manner.
The ecstasy they enjoy and give in singing is
called ‘ranjanaM’.
There is a pun on this word here. It is made up of two words ‘ram’ and
‘janam’.
The consonant ‘ra’
itself denotes ‘red’. It stands for two kinds of fires. One is the ordinary
one; and the other is the fire of love (kAmAgni). ‘ram’ + ‘janam’ means that which causes red.
It means ‘to cause love that is red’. The redness here indicates ripeness. When
a fruit is ripe it is deep red. The ‘reddening’ of the mind is to make it fully
mature and ripe for receiving the Fullness that is God. The
noble persons who are now singing by the Grace of ambaal in the form of arunA
(red Sarasvati), are mature enough to produce the esoteric ‘redness’ of ‘ram’.
So the poetry comes out of them in a wave of Love (ShRngAra-lahari). They are actually deep and
profound words (gabhIrAbhir-vAgbhIh).
On the surface they appear to be love and romance. But deep within it, there are gems of
philosophy there.
Goddess Kameshvari has herself
the name ‘aruNA’.
Recall Her dhyAna-shloka: ‘aruNAM karuNA-tarangitAkshhIM’. Here our Acharya is actually
invoking the eight armed Goddess: with bow, arrow, noose and spear (that go with Kameshvari) in four of
the hands and with varam, abhayam, aksha-mAlA and book (that go with Sarasvati) in the
other four hands. This is the aruNa-Sarasvati with eight hands, talked about by
our elders.
32
(Digest of pp.921-924 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume, 4th
imprn.)
In the next shloka (#17)
the talk is about
the unique ‘sArasvata-siddhi’
(the siddhi of all Speech and Learning) obtained by the contemplation of LalitA-Tripurasundari
surrounded by the vAg-devatAs (the Gods of speech). The name ‘vAg-devatA’,
if used in the singular,
denotes Sarasvati Herself. When it is used in the plural, it
denotes eight divinities. They are assigned as follows to the various aksharas (letters
of the alphabet):
One for the sixteen vowels;
One for the five letters starting with ka;
Similarly one for each set of five letters starting respectively with cha, Ta, ta, and pa;
One for ya,
ra, la and va;
One for sha,
shha, sa, ha, La, kshha.
Thus there are eight vAg-devatAs for the 51 letters of
the Sanskrit alphabet.The first of these is called ‘vashinI’. Therefore all the eight
are called ‘vashinI,
etc. devatAs’
(vashinyAdi
devatAH) or simply, ‘vashinI devatAs’. These are the ones who sang
the Lalita-sahasranAma at the behest of ambaal Herself.
In the seventh AvaraNa
(always you count from outside) of the ShrI Chakra, there are eight
triangles; that is where these eight devatAs are seated, surrounding ambaaL.
(Unfortunately for us the Paramacharya does
not quote
the shloka #17 and give his word-by-word
meanings,
though he explains most of it
For
the sake of completeness I give below
the shloka and supply a word-by-word meaning
from what I understand from His Holiness’s
discourse
and from other sources. VK)
savithrIbhir-vAcAM shashi-maNi-shilA-bhanga-rucibhiH
vashinyAdyAbhis-tvAM saha janani samcintayati yaH /
sa kartA
kAvyAnAm bhavati mahatAM bhangi-rucibhiH
vacobhir-vAg-devI-vadana-kamalA-moda-madhuraiH // 17 //
yaH
samcintayati : He who reflects on
tvAM : You
janani : Oh Mother,
vashinyAdyAbhiH saha : along with the vashinI-devatAs
vAcAM
savithrIbhiH : who are the Generators of Speech
shashi-maNi-shilA-bhanga-rucibhiH : who have
the colour of the broken moonstone gem,
saH : he
mahatAm kAvyAnAM kartA bhavati : becomes the author of
great poetic compositions
vacobhiH ; through words
bhangi-rucibhiH : (which have) the taste of art
and wit
vAgdevI-vadana-kamalA-moda-madhuraiH : (and
which have) the sweet fragrance of the lotus face of vAg-devI (Sarasvati).
(I now continue the Paramacharya’s comments
– VK)
These eight vAg-devatAs constitute the Mothers
of speech. That is why the shloka No.17 which prays for excellence in speech
begins with ‘savithrIbhir
vAcAM’ .
In traditional literature there is a gem known as ‘chandrakAnta gem’ which is
crystal-like and which will melt in
moonlight. The vAg-devatAs
have that kind of crystal colour in which moon reflects in a dazzling manner.
In one shloka ambaal was depicted as pure white like the moonlight (sharat-jyotsnA
shuddhAm - #15). In another She is aruNA,
red (#16). In this shloka (#17) the aruNa, that is ambaal, is sitting
surrounded by the vAg-devatAs, majestically like a Queen with all Her attendants. Whoever can meditate on this scene (sancintayati yah)
gets the literary capacity and competence to compose great epic poems. In fact
he gets the fluency and the power of speech which only great writers have.
And
the shloka uses a specific word here: ‘mahatAm
bhangi rucibhiH’ .
The word ‘ruci’
means ‘taste’, or ‘flavour’. ‘Taste’ certainly has an association with the
tongue and the food which it ‘tastes’.
But the shloka adds on to this the ‘flavour’ by the nose also. The food
‘taste’ was indicated
by the last line of shloka (#15) where it was said that the
speech prompted by ambAL has the taste of ‘honey, milk and grapes’. Now in this
shloka that speech is likened to a profound flavour, not of any ordinary one,
but of that which emanates from the
lotus face of Her who is the single vAgdevI integrating all the eight vAgdevIs! Not only that. We can infer from this that it
is not simply the speech that emanates through the poetry of the devotee has the divine flavour; the people who read
and recite that poetry would also get that divine flavour.!!
The fact that ambaaL graces and bestows the
faculty of speech is mentioned in the latter part of Soundaryalahari several
times. Shloka #75 says that, fed by Her breast milk one is endowed with magnificient poetic capabilities.
Shloka 99 says that the SArasvata-Grace that She endows makes even Brahma, the pati of
Sarasvati, envious. The holy water that washes Her
feet can make even the dumb to sing poems (Shloka 98). Obviously our Acharya
takes pleasure in talking about this aspect of ambaaL’s Grace. Maybe he wants
us all to read and recite his stotras, thereby get the Grace of the Mother and
also get the vAk-siddhi
(speech excellence) that She will certainly grant.
That is why, it appears,
he is never tired of repeating this.
The word ‘shashi-maNi-shilA’
means ‘moon-gem-stone’ literally. Because of the fact that the dark patch on the moon appears like a
rabbit (‘shasha’
in Sanskrit), the moon is known by the word ‘shashi’. The word ‘hima-kara’
also denotes the moon, meaning thereby that there flows icy water from the
moon. So ‘hima-kara-shilA’
also represents the same moonstone gem , known as ‘chandrakAnta stone’ in Tamil. ‘sudhA’
is nectar and ‘sudhAkara’
is also the name of the moon, because it is also said that there flows nectar
from it. Just as it was said that the attendants of ambaal have the colour of
the moonstone (#17: shashi-maNi-shilA), it is said in shloka #20, that he who can meditate on
ambaal Herself in the form made up of the moonstone (hima-kara-shilA), She who is the
daughter of hima-giri (Himalayas) and is
therefore ‘hima-giri-sutA’,
will pour ‘sudhA’
on him, ‘sudhA’
meaning nectar and ‘sutA’ meaning daughter. In fact it says more.
33
(Digest of pp.925-929 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume, 4th
imprn.)
kirantIm-angebhyaH
kiraNa-nikurumbA-mRta-rasaM
hRdi
tvAm-Adhatte hima-kara-shilA-mUrtim-iva yaH /
sa sarpANAM darpaM
shamayati shakuntAdhipa iva
jvara-plushhTAn dRshhTyA
sukhayati sudhA-dhAra-sirayA // 20 //
saH yaH
: He who
Adhatte : establishes
tvAM : You
hRdi : in (his) heart
hima-kara-shilA-mUrtim-iva: as the form made of moonstem gem
kirantIM : which
shoots forth
angebhyaH : from all its parts
kiraNa-nikurumbA-mRta-rasaM : the nectar essence through clusters of its rays,
shamayati : cools down
sarpANAM darpaM : the energy of snakes
shakuntAdhipa iva : like Garuda
sukhayati : (and) relieves
dRshhTyA : by just an eye-glance
sudhA-dhAra-sirayA : (that is) full (as it were) of
the flow of nectar
jvara-plushhTAN : those who are suffering the
deadly heat of fever.
The importance of this shloka is in its
impact on the eradication of disease. All kinds of diseases afflict people.
People who come to those of us like me, mostly come to
pray to us for removal of this sickness or that. In fact that tells me how many
different kinds of illnesses and afflictions are there in the world. Our
Acharya certainly would know all that and for sure he would have known the
remedies for all of them. But he must
have thought of posterity on these lines: “They cannot think of me as God. Even
those who grant the avatarhood, would think of me only
as a jnana-avatar and so would think of praying to me only for jnAna and
vairagya
(dispassion)”.
When people of modern times physically see
a spiritually great person, they get to know many of his characteristics and
activities. So, in addition to thinking of him as a jnAni or saint, they also think of
him as father, as mother, child, doctor, a go-getter for a job or a marriage
alliance, and what not; they pray for all these and get the anugraha. But when one is no more, he is only thought of as a jnAni and
only as a benefactor of enlightenment and nothing more. Of course, if he is
considered a siddha, he is prayed to for material welfare even after his
physical frame is no more. And we think of our Acharya only as a jnAni. So he must have naturally thought “Let me
leave some stotras for posterity so that they get their sicknesses removed by
recitations of these”. He left behind him a ‘Subrahmanya bhujangam’ for this very
purpose. And in this Soundarya lahari
too, there are several shlokas mainly for eradication of disease.
The whole of Soundaryalahari, as I already
said, is a mantra-shAstra. Each of its shlokas can give certain specific
results when it is used for a mantra-japam. For instance, there are shlokas for
Learning and Education (Sarasvati’s Grace
of VidyA) : Shloka nos. 3, 12, 15, 16, 17, 60, 64, 75,
96, 98, 99;
Wealth and Prosperity (lakshmi’s Grace) : Shloka nos.23, 45, 71, 91,99;
Grace of both Sarasvati and Lakshmi: 96,
99;
Proficiency in music: 66, 69
Being blessed with a son
: 6, 11, 46, 98
A long-gone relative to return from his
journeys: 9
parakAya-pravesham (to jump into another body) : 30, 84
Warding off evil spirits: 24, 37, 85, 90
To counter the bad influence of planets: 48
jnAna, mukti
and sac-chid-Ananda:
27, 63, 73, 84, 97, 99.
[Please let it be noted that the
Paramacharya
only listed the various results that accrue from the
shlokas.
Specific numbers of shlokas associated with
the specific results
are reproduced here from a note
appended by Ra. Ganapathi.—VK]
If one does a recitation
(pArAyaNam)
of the shlokas without desiring any particular favour, one gets the realisation
of either the saguNa-brahman or the nirguna-brahman,
depending on the attitude of the devotee. Even if one has a desire to be
fulfilled, each shloka will give its own reward. The first shloka and the last
shloka are known to be ‘sarva-siddhi-pradam’ and they will fulfill all one’s desires.
Some shlokas, by their
very meanings, allow us to infer what results will accrue from reciting them. I
say ‘infer’ because, they may not bluntly say what results will accrue. Shlokas
which bluntly say so are few, like the ones we saw
earlier (shloka 17) and the present shloka (#20). Even here, the statement is
only that if such and such an upAsanA is done such and such a result will accrue. Only later commentators, who came in the sishya-paramparA
(lineage of disciples) of our Acharya have listed the specifications of the upAsanA,
how they should be done, what yantra to be used, how many days the pUjA or japam
should be done and similar requirements.
I was saying that we
could infer from the meanings of certain shlokas the results that will accrue.
Ashamed at the
excellence of speech of ambaal Herself
Sarasvati winds up Her play on
the VINA
(# 66). The three lines on the neck of ambaal are the boundary lines between
the three kinds of rAga-categories, so that they may not mix with
each other, says Shloka 69. It is clear
that a japam of either of these two shlokas will
result in proficiency of music.
Shloka #28 has the
thought that even after drinking the nectar the divines do not live beyond the
deluge (pralaya),
whereas Lord Shiva, even after drinking the deadly poison, continues to live.
It is easy to infer that by doing a mantra japam of this shloka, one gets a long life,
poison or no poison.
But there are many more
shlokas where we cannot in any way infer what results will accrue from a mantra-japam
of the shloka.
34
(Digest of pp.929-935
of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume, 4th imprn.)
I was saying that there are many shlokas where we
cannot in any way infer what results will accrue from a mantra-japam of the shloka. Shloka
35, for instance, says
that ambaal lives in the six chakras as the five elements and the mind. It is
said that this shloka has the effect of curing tuberculosis. Obviously there
seems to be no connection. Like this there are several shlokas where the
meaning and the results said to accrue from it are totally disconnected. It all means that the vibrations of the sounds
created,the words themselves, not their meanings, have
that effect. We may make a doll in the shape of a red chili, with sugar as the
material base; the outer will look like a hot chili, whereas the whole material
is sweet. In the same way the meanings
of the words may be something, but the power of the words as a mantra may be
something else.
Also, the same shloka may give different,
almost contradictory, results for different persons. Shloka no.84 (ShrutInAM mUrdhAno)
has been said to give the power of leaving one’s own body and getting into the
body of another. But the same shloka has
also been earmarked as a sAdhaNA for moksha!. One
has to remember, in such cases, it is the attitude of the devotee in question
that comes into play. The attitude of
the upAsakA (the
practitioner of the sAdhanA) has a value. Depending on the needs and
desires of the upAsaka,
the results will vary. Honey can induce sleep in some one who is habitually a
non-sleeper; and the same honey, in the case of a lazy and constant dozer, may
produce wakefulness and alertness. Thus
the same shloka might give different results depending on the mental make-up of
the user. Shloka 63 (“smita-jyotsnA-jAlaM”) is a
sAdhanA
shloka for the merging of jIva in brahman; but if
one does not want this high noble effect, it will give the other effect of
attracting people to oneself! Again, Shloka 73 which talks about the breast
feeding of ambaal’s milk and the consequent effects on Ganesha and Subrahmanya
can lead to two different results: if the goal is jnAna, the mantra-japam
of this shloka with that as goal, will lead step by step from the blessedness
of celibacy all the way up to the obtaining of brahma-jnAna; on the other hand
if the same shloka is used as a mantra by a lactating mother who is lacking the
necessary breast-milk, she will have her problem solved.
Here is a lemon. It has several uses. It
can be used in a garland of lemons for the Goddess. It can be used to give a
lemonish touch to an edible combination of vegetables. It can be used as dirt
remover while cleaning vessels. It can be used for a medicinal purpose. It may
also be used in occult practices. In the same way, the effect of a word or
word-vibrations can vary over a wide spectrum. That is why,
the ideal way is to have the attitude: “I don’t want this or that. Whatever you
think as good for me, Oh Mother, give me that. Even if you don’t want to give
anything, let me do the recitation for just the love of it”.
Whether you want it or not, there are
effects of such recitation. For instance, the shloka #44 beginning with “tanotu kshhemaM
nas-tava vadana soundaryalahari” gives
a general cure for all ailments and sicknesses. Specific cures for specific
diseases of the body have also been noted for several shlokas. Each of these
only trumpets the power of shabda ( sound ). There
is a shloka for the cure of diseases of the eye and the ear. “Your eyes have an
extent up to the ears” says the shloka (#52) “gate karNApyarNam ... ime netre”.
Just by thinking that ambaal’s eyes extend up to the ears, the power of sound
is so much that the diseases of both the eyes and ears are cured! Here it
appears there is some kind of correlation between the effects of sound and the
meanings of the words which make the sound.
In another shloka (#58), though both these (eyes and ears) are mentioned,
the effect is said to be ‘cure of all diseases’. What is the logic behind this? You cannot
answer the question. We have only to say “Sound value is such”!
We started all this account from Shloka #20
which contains the mantra for two kinds of ailment – one, a poisonous
bite and two, fever.Let us go to that shloka now.
AmbaaL is thought of as having a form that
shoots forth amRita-rasa
(nectar essence) through the rays emanating from every part of Her body. Hers is that kind of form which is crystal-like in
colour that reflects
moonlight with a cool and delightful shine; it is a colourless
colour. And nectar springs forth from every spot of that form. The very thought
of this divine feat gives us a cooling effect. One who meditates on this
himself gets the qualities of nectar. What is the opposite of nectar? Poison. That is why no poison, no snake can touch him!.
Poison is the opposite of nectar. The
opposite of snakes is Garuda. Actually there are two opposites of a snake. One
is Garuda; the other is a peacock. Lord Vishnu has Garuda as his vehicle and
Lord Subrahmanya has peacock as his vehicle.
But the same Vishnu is also reclining on the snake. And Subramanya is
Himself called Nagaraja (the King of snakes). All this looks
self-contradictory.
The snake has two facets. When it sleeps as
the kundalini shakti in a person it only promotes
lust. Even the little prANic energy in them is lost in that lust.
Therefore the snake in that situation is said to be poisonous and evil. It is this poison
that Garuda and the peacock destroy. When the poison is eradicated, the same
snake of the kundalini, when it rises to the sahsrAra cakra, it pours forth
nectar! Now it is a ‘good’ snake - not the corresponding Tamil word,
which means a deadly snake! The fact that energy is lost
because of lust is accepted by all. But the same energy becomes immortal energy
(nectar-flow) by yoga is not generally accepted by people; and that too, by the
people, who have never done the experiment!
- 35
(Digest of pp.935-942
of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume, 4th imprn.)
I was saying that the same human energy
that is wasted by lust becomes the powerful nectar by yoga. Whereas the former
is understood by every one easily, the latter fact is always questioned and
debated. The difficulty in the belief comes from the observation that even great yogis that
we hear about, ultimately, maybe after a few hundreds of years, die. What is
missed in the
understanding here is the
fact that the nectar-flow that yoga talks about and the nectar-drink that the
divines are said to have partaken are both different, totally different. That
divine drink of ‘amRit’
has nothing to do with any spiritual uplift or the progress of the soul.
The divine drink of nectar that emanated
from the churning of the milk ocean is just like one more medicine. It has no
power to take care of the resident of the body, the Atman. It only takes care
of the body and protects it from becoming old and from decaying. Have you ever
heard that the devas like Indra and others who drank that amRit have become Realised Souls? Their only goal
has been endless sensual enjoyment. At least for the human
species, sensual enjoyment tires one out after some time since the body ages;
so a human being has every chance of turning to something more permanent,
something spiritual. The devas on the other
hand have no way of learning by experience that sensual enjoyment is not the
end of it all.
If the nectar-flow at the apex of the
Kundalini yoga could only cause the non-decay of the body and nothing more, I
am sure real
yogis would not have gone the path of the kundalini yoga. After all they were
after an eternal bliss, not an eternal body. The flow of amRit from the thousand petalled
lotus seat in the sahasrAra-chakra is just a step
prior to the Realisation of advaita. In addition to that it
certainly can give to the body, so long as it lasts, an enviable health. But it
is mainly intended to shower the divine unlimited bliss. A yogi devoted to the
ShAkta tradition may not discard the body and the universe as mAyA, in the same way as a jnAni would do. He would only look
at everything as the leelA of ambaal. Therefore so long as he wants it,
he is given the power to watch this leelA of ambaal. But in due course of time, maybe
several hundreds of years, it will strike him to want to merge with that
Ultimate. And at that time his body will also fall.
I told you of two kinds of serpent: the good one
and the bad one. The former is what
gives the nectar. The latter gives only poison. It is this latter one that is
destroyed by the peacock of Lord Subrahmanya and the Garuda-vehicle of Lord
Vishnu. When the former (the good one, the nectar-showering serpent) is the
form of Subrahmanya, we say He is nAga-rAja, the King of snakes. It is the same one
that Lord Vishnu is having as his bed-rest. It is the same one that Lord
Nataraja is having around his raised foot. And it is the same one who came as
Patanjali and taught the yoga-shAstra, where, even if the kundalini yoga is
not particularly mentioned, the kundalini that arises out of that yoga is of
the serpent form.
Besides the peacock and Garuda, there is
one more enemy of snakes. That is the ‘nakulam’ or mongoose. One of the names of ambaal
is ‘nakuleshvari’.
It is actually the name of ‘MantriNI’ the chief Minister in the universal
Of the three enemies of the serpent, Garuda
is important; because he is also the one who brought the amRit to the serpents after fighting
even the King of the divines, Indra. That the serpents could not partake of the
amRit,
is a different story. The fact that Garuda is the opposite of the serpent and
of its poison and
has connections with the story of the divine nectar is what is made capital of
in #20 of Soundaryalahari.
He who meditates on ambaal in Her moonstone form which radiates rays of amRit, can conquer
the poison of the serpent like Garuda, the King of birds. Not only that; by his
very look, such a person eradicates, in anybody else, the poison of an extreme
fever. By meditating on the Goddess as the One who pours amRit, his own body system gets the amRta-nADI,
perhaps from the sahasrAra-chakra
and so his glance, his sight, itself is enough of a cure for the poison of the
fever.
The eight vAg-devatAs are themselves of the
moonstone colour. Their seat is in the eight triangular portions of the
eight-sided AvaraNa
in the ShrI-chakra. This AvaraNa is itself called ‘sarva-roga-hara-chakram’, that is,
the chakra that eradicates all diseases. All of this is due to the effect of
mantras.
Though the crystal colour of the moonstone
is what is praised above as the colour of ambAL to be meditated upon, the
colour of the devatA
of ShrI-vidyA mantra
is red or crimson. This colour of the Goddess has been praised, two slokas
earlier (#18) but
since it talks of ‘vashIkaram’ (captivation into submissiveness) I
did not want to mention it. But still I want to tell you how the redness is
important.
Thus
spake the Paramacharya.
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DPDS
Acknowledgement of Source Material:
Ra. Ganapthy’s ‘Deivathin Kural’ (Vol.6) in Tamil published
by Vanathi Publishers, 4th edn. 1998
Copyright of English Summary
© V. Krishnamurthy
Nov.18, 2003