56
(Digest of pp.1091- 1098 of Deivathin Kural, 6th
volume, 4th imprn.)
“VaidarbhI
rIti” and “GaudI rIti” are two styles in Sanskrit poetry. The
former conveys delightful thoughts by very gentle words, flowing like a river of honey. The latter, which originated
in
The subject is the description of ambaal’s head. We see in the shloka
the dazzling shine of the bright hot sun and the cooling comfort of gentle
moonshine, through the poet’s imagination and his language.
Gatair-mANikyatvaM
gagana-maNibhis-sAndra-ghaTitaM
kirITaM te
haimaM himagiri-sute kIrtayati yaH /
sa
nIDeyac-cchAyAc-cchuraNa-shabalaM chandra-shakalaM
dhanuH-shaunAsIraM kim-iti
na nibadhnAti dhishhaNAM // 42 //
himagiri-sute :
Oh Daughter of the snow-capped mountain
yaH : Whoever
kIrtayati : describes
te : your
haimaM kirITaM:
golden crown
sAndra-ghaTitaM: studded densely with
mANikyatvaM gataiH
gagana-maNibhiH: the (twelve) suns that have become the precious ruby stones (on the crown)
kim saH na nibadhnAti
dhishhaNAM: why would he not record the idea (that)
chandra-shakalaM: the crescent moon (on the crown)
nIDeyac-cchAyAc-cchuraNa-shabalaM :
(bird’s nest –shadow –reflected shine – enveloped - variegated colour) which reflects the
variegated colours from the shadows of the (gems) in that nest (of the crown)
dhanuH-shaunAsIraM iti : is
(nothing but) Indra’s bow (rainbow)?
The whole metaphor pours like a torrent from the heavens as
The use of the word ‘hima-giri-sute’ is significant. ‘hima’ means ‘snow’. So ‘hima-giri-sutA’
means ‘the daughter of the snow-capped mountain. The first line has brought the heat of twelve suns in the
picture. As a contrast the second line cools it off and brings in the coolness
of ‘hima-giri’.
Also the daughter of ‘hima-giri’ that is Parvati is said to be of cool greenish
colour. It is Sati, the daughter of Daksha who immolated herself in the Fire of
Daksha-yajna; and the same Sati, immediately after that heat of the immolation, was born in Her
next birth as the daughter of the
The crown on the head of Devi is made of gold. ‘hema’
means gold. ‘haimam’ means ‘made of gold’. In
Kenopanishat, the Goddess appears as Brahma VidyA and teaches the divines led by
Indra. There the word used for the
Goddess is ‘haimavatI
’. Our Acharya interprets it in two ways: one, as ‘hima-giri-sutA’,
namely Parvati and the other as, the One who shines with the shine of ‘hema’,
that is ‘a golden shine’. It is perhaps
his intention to show the connection with the Upanishad that the Acharya in the very first shloka of the Anandalahari
portion, uses both the words ‘hima-giri’ and ‘hema’. To boot, let us remember
that in the Upanishad, Her disciple was Indra; and here also ‘Indra-dhanus’
is mentioned as ‘dhanuH
shaunAsIraM’, the rainbow.
The golden crown is studded with ‘suns’ as gems. So the ‘suns’ are
specks on the crown; but on the crown there is the big crescent moon. In the
real world the Sun is far far bigger than the Moon. Here it is the other way.
The moon pours out nectar as well as the cool snow. So its
cool downpour from the moon are the snowflakes on the crown. The bright
light from the sun-gems falls on them and gets refracted as a multi-coloured
rainbow: This is the ‘nIDeyac-chAyAcchuraNa-shabalam’. This
extraordinary poetic imagination -- that the self-effulgent moon’s rays receive the
sun’s light and thereby the rainbow appears
-- beats all scientific understanding. That, of course, is the privilege of poetic
liberty.
In the very first shloka that starts describing the beauty of ambaaL,
the idea of white light being refracted into the several constituent colours of
the rainbow is brought in, as if to indicate esoterically that the nirguNa brahman
manifests itself as the varied multipliciy of the universe by the magic of parAshakti.
But why imagine refraction? One can also imagine it to be
reflection. Instead of taking that the
light of the Sun falls on the cool rays of the moon and in that flow of cool snow it becomes the
multicoloured rainbow, one can also imagine that there are several suns whose
lights are in various colours and they get reflected in the mirror-like
crescent moon and produces the rainbow effect.
In fact the poet here implies that it is not just his imagination; this
is what anybody would say if he wants to describe the multicoloured radiance from
the gems of the golden crown on the head of the Goddess.
Another point which comes out here is the modesty of the Acharya in
underplaying himself and speaking so highly of others who might be in his position of
describing the Devi’s glory. The modesty
with which he begins this very first shloka of the Soundarylahari part goes on till the
very end.
57
(Digest of pp.1107- 1114 of
Deivathin Kural, 6th volume, 4th imprn.)
tanotu kshhemaM
naH tava vadana-soundarya-laharI
parIvAha-srotaH
saraNiriva sImanta-saraNiH /
vahantI sindUraM
prabala-kabarI-bhAra-timira-
dvishhAM bRndaiH
bandhIkRtam-iva navInArka-kiraNaM //44//
[Since the word-by-word meaning is
automatically coming out of
the Paramcharya’s explanations,
it is not given here separately. VK]
This shloka has an added significance since it has contributed to the
title of the stotra ‘soundarya-laharI’.
“naH kshhemaM tanotu” : Let there devolve
auspiciousness on all of us. Thus begins the shloka auspiciously. What is
supposed to devolve the auspiciousness?
“sImanta-saraNiH” : The line of the parting of hair (on the
head). ‘SImanta’
is the parting of hair. ‘saraNiH’ means path, route, line, wave,
flow. The particular meaning will depend on the context. Here it is ‘line’. The
word ‘SImanta-unnayanaM’
denotes a special ritual that is done for pregnant women for the benefit of
the foetus. The ritual consists of drawing a line along the sImantaM of
the woman with the chanting of certain mantras. This is good for the foetus.
The word sImantaM is a union of ‘sImA’ and ‘antaM’. SImA
means boundary, here, the boundary that parts the two sides of the hair. Its ‘antam’ is
the end of that boundary. Technically it should have been ‘sImAntaM’ but the middle long ‘a’ has
been shortened. This is actually an exception to the usual grammatical rule. A
similar exception, but in the opposite direction, takes place in the name ‘VishvAmitra’
where it should have been only ‘Vishvamitra’, thus meaning, friend of the world.
On the other hand as ‘VishvAmitra’ (‘Vishva’ + ‘amitra’) it now means ‘the enemy of the
world’. Again this is an unusual
grammatical exception.
So ‘SImantaM’
means ‘the end of the boundary or border’. Of what is it the border or
boundary? For a human body there are two
boundaries. One is the foot and the other is the head. In the boundary that is the head, the line of
parting of the hair goes up to the position of ‘brahmarandra’ and ends there. So it
is called ‘the end of the boundary’ or ‘sImantaM’.
Goddess Mahalakshmi permanently resides in five places. A lotus, the
frontal lobe of an elephant, the hind part of a cow, the spine on the back of a bilwa
leaf, and the sImantaM
of a sumangali.
It is interesting to note that the Acharya has used “vadana-soundarya-laharI’
(waves of beauty of the face) in this shloka and this has become the title of
the whole stotra. We do not know who made it the title, but what we may
conclude is that it is quite apt. What is further interesting is the fact that
this beauty-wave occurs in the shloka where the sImanta of the Devi is talked
about. It is this flood of facial beauty that should bring us the
auspiciousness that we need. ‘tanotu kshhemaM naH tava vadana-soundarya-laharI’.
Now let us find out what is so special about the sImanta here. “vahantI sindUraM”
: It (the sImantaM
: the parting in the hair) bears the vermilion. The word ‘sindUraM’ also means ‘red lead’
which is used for medicinal purposes in Siddha medicine. In
In traditional books, kumkumaM is spoken of as sindUraM. The Veda-mAtA (Mother Goddess representing Shruti)
bows down in obeisance to ambaa. It is the kumkumaM from the sImantam of Veda-mAtA that has
sprinkled itself on the feet of ambaa. This idea occurs in LalitA-sahasranAma.
‘SImanta-sindUri’
is the expression there. It is in the parting of the hair that kumkumaM
is applied. On the forehead however, that is, between the eyebrows where one
applies the ‘tilakam’
what is applied is ‘kastUri-tilakam’
-- this is what one gathers from the sahasranAma. Recall the name: “mukha-chandra-kaLankAbha-mRga-nAbhi-visheshhakA”.
It says, just as there is a spot (kaLanka) on the disc of the moon, so also is the kastUri-dot
on the face of ambaa. This name occurs (in the sahasranAma) between the name that
describes the forehead
(aLika-sthala)
and the name that describes the eyebrows (cillikA). Therefore it is clear that the name ‘mukha-chandra-
kaLankAbha- ...’
describes the centre of the eyebrows. So kumkumaM at the parting of the hair (SImanta-sindUri)
as well as the kumkumaM
at the centre of the eyebrows – both are called ‘sindUraM’ by the Acharya.
According to the shAstras, the place where sumangalis (women with
living husbands) have to adorn the kumkumaM is the parting of the hair, at the place
where it starts from the forehead. The
practice of adorning the centre of the eyebrows is only a cosmetic addition. It
is at the centre of the eyebrows where one concentrates the Supreme. It is in that manner one wears the vibhUti or
sandal-paste, etc. at that spot; so also kumkumaM is also applied there. Whatever it be, the characteristic of a sumangali is only the kumkumaM
at the parting of the hair. Women of olden days applied the kumkumaM
first at the parting of the hair and then only on the forehead between the
eyebrows.
The location of the central parting of the hair is a kind of
residential address of the Goddess Bhagya-lakshmi of Prosperity. Goddess ambaa
has the kumkumaM
along the entire parting of the hair. That is what this shloka says. ‘SImanta-saraNI’
means only that. In fact as the shloka goes, it appears that there is a round
spot of kumkumaM
at the point where this ‘saraNI’ (the path) starts at the top of the
forehead and thereafter along the path of the parting, it goes as a streak of
red. There is no greater bliss than the pleasure of visualising ambaa with this
SImanta-sindhuram. In other words the place of residence of mahAlakshmi has
been decorated with kumkumaM. In fact there is much more in this.
58
(Digest of pp.1115 -1119 of Deivathin Kural, 6th
volume, 4th imprn.)
[Note by VK: The
delightful commentary in Tamil
of the Paramacharya on this shloka, #44,
has been really a difficult one for
me
to present in English (in DPDS – 57, 58 and 59).
The superb majesty of his discourse
should be enjoyed in the original]
In the Assembly of ambaa, on both sides of Her, Lakshmi and Saraswati
are said to be fanning Her. This is what the name “sa-cAmara-ramA-vANI-savya-dakshhiNa-sevitA”
says in the Lalita-sahasranAma. Instead of having them as Her assistants, She has them
both as Her very eyes – this is what the name “kAmAkshhi” means. “kA”
means Saraswati and “mA” means Lakshmi. And “akshha” means ‘eye’. So “kAmAkshhi” is the One who has ‘kA’ and ‘mA’ as Her eyes!
Later, shloka
64 says that Saraswati dwells in Her tongue. In fact, the grace of ambaa in bestowing power of
expression to devotees is well known. That is why Saraswati is spoken of as
dwelling in Her own tongue. And the poet in the
Acharya plays gymnastics with the word japa in that shloka, where it says: Your
tongue defies the japa (hibiscus) flowers in its redness because it is
constantly engaged in the Japa (mantra-repetition) that gives expression to the
glories of Lord Shiva; the redness of Her tongue is so intense that the Goddess
of Speech, Saraswati, who dwells therein, gets Her crystal-like white complexion
changed into the colour of a ruby (noted for its reddishness). We already saw
in Shloka 16 that poets have spoken of Her as ‘shRngAra-laharI’
in Her form as the ‘red’ Saraswati (aruNa-saraswati).
Thus, of the two fanning divines, one of them, Saraswati, is elevated
to the position of residing in the divine tongue of ambaa. So, the other of
them, namely Lakshmi, is now elevated in this shloka (#44), to even a higher
position, namely, the top of the divine head itself. Lakshmi resides in the sImanta
of ambaa; and it is that Lakshmi who is decorated with the
kumkuma-ornamentation of redness.
So the parting of the hair goes like a white streak amidst the jet
black forest of hair (‘cikura-nikurumbaM’
of shloka 43) which looks like waves of
blue-black on either side of it. It is the whiteness of the sImanta (parting
line) that is usual; but here ambaa’s sImantaM has been made reddish by the sindUraM.
So the blackness of the locks of hair on either side and the redness of the
parting line make the imagination of the poet run riot. Many of us do not
appreciate such poetic licence, because of our preoccupation with the
utilitarian value of everything we see or experience. But a poet does not just
see beauty; he invents original analogies and that is what makes us enjoy both
the poetry and the devotional sentiment built into it.
‘prabala-kabarI-bhAra-timira-dvishhAM bRndair-bandhIkRtaM
iva navInArka-kiraNaM’ --
these are the words.
‘arka’ is the Sun. ‘arka-kiraNaM’ means the Sun’s ray. ‘navIna’ is new. So ‘navIna-arka-kiraNaM’ means the rays
of the rising Sun. Certainly it is reddish. Only when
the Sun comes up higher and higher it loses its redness of appearance and
becomes pure white. But at the point of rising it is
red. The Acharya sees the sImanta-sindUraM on the divine head as one of the red rays
of the rising Sun. At the beginning of the parting, namely at the top of the
forehead, the sindUraM
is a big dot (red) and so is the Sun itself (rising) and the saraNi,
namely the line of parting, is the red ray emanating from that Sun.
‘prabala-kabarI-bhAra-timira-dvishhAM
bRndair-bandhIkRtaM’. Does this not sound like a cluttering chatter
of teeth? Why this hard construction ? The very words
speak of a thunderous noise of battle. Who is battling with whom? The talk is
about the sImanta-saraNi.
Then who is warring with it?
‘kabarI-bhAra-timiraM’
means the darkness shown by the jet black dense hair. The adjective ‘prabala’
prefixed to it, indicates a further strength to that darkness. When something
is ‘strong’ it can be expected to be aggressive also, in the worldly ways of
thinking. So whom will this darkness challenge or contest? Only Light. What is
opposed to darkness is light. It is the sun which dispels the darkness of the
night and brings the day. It is not even
just the sun; it is the morning sun that night considers as the harbinger of its doom. Because darkness never ‘sees’ the full Sun. As soon as
the first ray of the morning sun appears, darkness has to wind up and run.
And here, while darkness is in the form of ambaa’s hair, the morning
sun has appeared in the form of the sindUraM on the top of the forehead. It is the crimson ray of the morning sun that
is represented by the sindUraM-coloured parting of the hair. And it is
this parting that prevents the darkness on either side to become one large mass
of darkness. Further, it is the darkness of the hair that has been pampered by
oil, shampoo, and flowers – as has been indicated by the words ‘ghana-snigdha-shlakshhNaM’
(luxuriant, soft and oily) in shloka #43.
Because it has been ‘pampered’ it has become ‘prabala’ (exceedingly strong) now.
And that gives it the courage to dare challenge the redness of the sImantaM!
59
(Digest of pp.1122 -1128 of Deivathin Kural, 6th
volume, 4th imprn.)
Darkness of night is the dominating factor all night. But the moment
the rising sun with its crimson rays shows up, darkness has to flee. It has always
been the unfulfilled ambition of ‘darkness’ to settle this score with the young sun. And here is
ambaa having all the world’s darkness, as it were, collected in her hair. But She
has also brought the young sun in the form of the sindUra-spot right in the midst of
this dark forest of hair. It is a life-time opportunity for darkness. With
gusto it swallows all the rays emanating from that sun, for once. But still
there is one single ray of crimson which goes straight across the centre of all
this dark hair. It is that crimson which gives a decorating hue to the black
hair. And it is the jet black background which brings out the majesty of the
crimson parting of hair.
Thus we can see darkness having vanquished all but one ray of the
bright rising sun. Why did it not go all the way by its challenge and overpower
that one remaining ray also? But for that single ray remaining in its place,
how would it be established that darkness had vanquished the bright sun and its
rays? It is the one remaining ray of the sun that tells us that the other rays
have been vanquished.
[Note by VK: Though the Paramacharya did not say this,
I can hear him saying: “Don’t you remember,
in the Sundara Kanda, every time
Hanuman vanquishes
an entire army, he spares one person,
so that he may go back to Ravana
and say what happened in the battle”!]
“dvishhAM bRndaiH” means ‘by the gangs of enemies’. It is from the root ‘dvishh’
that the word ‘dveshha’,
meaning ‘hate’ is derived. “bRndaM”
means a crowd, a gang. The crowd of hair on ambaa’s head flows wave after wave
and so looks like armies of black ready for fight. “bandIkRtam-iva” means ‘as if
imprisoned’. It is the rising sun in the form of the sImanta-sindUraM that is imprisoned
here by the armies of black hair.The word “bandIkRtaM” is significant. Not only have all the
crimson rays of the rising sun been
vanquished, but even that one remaining ray has been imprisoned by the dark
army surrounding it on either side so densely that it cannot move this way or
that way!
Incidentally, if one wants divine presence, the parting of the hair has
to be straight in the centre – not this side or that side – of the hair on the
head. And the sindUraM
has to come from pure turmeric, not from any other artificial source.
Among the many meanings of “bandhaM” one is ‘imprisonment’. The meaning of “bandIkRtaM”
is ‘be
imprisoned’. The difference is between
the active and the passive. So here ‘bandIkRtaM iva’ means ‘as if imprisoned’.
Well, what has all this – fight between darkness and light -- to do in the devotional
stotra “soundarya-laharI”?
In shloka 43, it was said that Her black braid of luxuriant locks of hair
itself will eradicate the
dense darkness of ignorance in us. In the same way he says in this shloka that the sImantaM
(parting of hair) which in a sense has
been imprisoned by the black forest of hair on either side, will grace us with
all prosperity. In fact the sImantam is the residence of Lakshmi the Goddess of
Prosperity. Its ‘imprisonment’ is only an imagination; ‘bandIkRtam-iva’ – as if imprisoned –
is the word. Now we shall see the other side of this sImantaM. We shall indeed
see its greatness. I began with what
appeared to be its negative side because I wanted to end up this shloka with
the positive side. The Acharya of course begins this shloka only with the
positive.
Now look at the first two lines:
tanotu kshhemaM
naH tava vadana-soundarya-laharI
parIvAha-srotaH saraNiH
iva sImanta-saraNiH /
Great poets do not waste their words. So when our Acharya uses ‘laharI’,
‘parIvAhaM’, ‘srotas’ and ‘saraNI’, which all convey more or less the same
meaning ‘flood’, there should be something deeper in it. Yes, there is a deeper
point. There are shades of differences in the meaning. ‘laharI’
is the bubbling, wavy and noisy
water-flow. ‘parIvAhaM’ is the real flood of water which
simply marches forward. ‘srotas’ could even be a silent rivulet. ‘saraNI’
is a straight flow of water, like that in an artificial canal. What starts as a
‘laharI’
, widens up into a ‘parIvAhaM’ and then flows like a controlled river
‘srotas’
between two banks and finally is channelised into a canal ‘saraNI’.
This is how ambaaL’s beauty starts from Her
face as a laharI and spreads like a pravAha. When it touches the top of the
forehead it becomes a srotas. The banks on either side of
this srotas is the hair on either side of the sImantaM. Actually the flood of
beauty cannot be dammed by the forest of hair. What is the greatness of
ambaaL’s beauty if one can dam it by holding it between two banks? ‘vaktra-lakshmI-parIvAhaM’ (the flood of
beautiful brilliance) says lalitA-sahasranAmaM. The brilliance starts from
the face and overflows as a flood into the locks of hair on the head but is
contained in the form of a ‘saraNi’ – sImanta-saraNi – between the dense forest of hair on either side. It is this brilliance (lAvaNya) of the Mother Goddess that bestows prosperity
and happiness to all Her devotees. And since it all starts from the face, he
calls it ‘vadana-soundarya-laharI’. And legitimately, the whole work has been
named – we do not know by whom – Soundarya-laharI.
This shloka ‘tanotu kshhemaM naH’ properly meditated on, will bring us
divine help in controlling our mind and all its evil tendencies – ‘dvishhAm bRndaiH’
– by which we are all imprisoned – ‘bandIkRtaM’.
60
(Digest of pp.1130 -1140 of Deivathin Kural, 6th
volume, 4th imprn.)
Here comes one shloka (#46) where the Acharya has done delightful
innovation with the simple idea of the ‘moon-like divine face’.
lalATaM
lAvaNya-dyuti-vimalaM AbhAti tava yat
dvitIyaM
tan-manye makuTa-ghaTitaM candra-shakalaM /
viparyAsa-nyAsAd-ubhayam-api sambhUya ca mithaH
sudhA-lepa-syUtiH
pariNamati rAkA-himakaraH // 46 //
‘lalATaM’ is the forehead. ‘lAvaNya-dyuti’
is the beautiful Light. ‘vimala’ means faultless. “AbhAti”,
shines. So the first two lines mean: The forehead that shines in the pure
brilliance of its divine
beauty may be thought of (‘manye’ – I think) as the second form of the
crescent moon of your crown. ‘makuTa-ghaTitam candra-shakalaM’ means the
crescent moon that ornaments the crown. In other words what is said is that
there is the cresecent moon on ambaa’s head.
Traditionally, we all know that both Ishvara and Ambaa have only the
third day moon on their head, not the half moon or ashhTamI-candra.In all images of
both these deities we could have noticed that the third day moon (the figure of the moon on the third
day of its appearance) embedded in their head, would be showing the sharp
corners of the curves on both sides as
two dots. If it is the ashhTamI-candra (the half moon )
that is depicted, we would also see the diameter joining those end points. In a crescent moon this diameter would
not show nor would the remaining
portions of the moon – though we can imagine the full figure of the moon by
mentally completing the crescent into a full moon. It requires quite an
imagination to visualise this. But the key to this is the pair of sharp corners
in which the crescent ends.
On the other hand the semi-circular forehead of Ambaa is actually a
half-moon. No portion of the half-moon is missing here. In the sahasranAma also
it is said of her forehead (aLika-sthala) : “ashTamI-candra-vibhrAjad-aLika-sthala-shobitA”.
Thus we have a cresent moon above, and also below it in the form of the
forehead the half moon. Now comes the fun in the third
and fourth lines:
“ubhayam api” – these two. The half moon
in the crown and the half moon in the forehead.
“mithaH” – mutually, with respect to each
other.
“viparyAsa-nyAsAt”
– joined in the reverse order. “viparyAsa” means ‘the
opposite order’.
They have to be joined in the reverse order because, the half moon in
the crown is in the form of the lower half of a full moon and the half moon of
the forehead is of the form of the upper half of a full moon.
So we have to join them in the reverse order. “sambhUya”
means ‘attached’. What is the means of attaching them? It is the “sudhA-lepa-syUtiH” of the moon
itself. “sudhA” means ‘nectar’. “lepa”
is ‘paste’ or ‘gum’. “syUtiH” means stitching or sewing. In fact
the English word ‘sew’ comes from ‘syUtiH’ of Sanskrit. Thus if one attaches the half
moon on the head of ambaa and the half moon of her forehead, with the former as
the lower part and the latter as the upper part, and use the nectar which oozes
out of the moon for pasting them then the full moon itself shines! “rAkA himakaraH
pariNamati”!
The next shloka (#47) is more complicated. But it is the complication and the poetic
inventiveness that make us stay long at the shloka and therefore longer in
the thought of ambaa.
Bhruvau
bhugne kimcit bhuvana-bhaya-bhanga-vyasanini
tvadIye
netrAbhyAM madhukara-rucibhyAM dhRta-guNaM /
dhanur-manye
savyetara-kara-gRhItaM ratipateH
prakoshhTe mushhTau
ca sthagayati nigUDhAntaram-ume // 47 //
“bhruvau kimcit bhugne”
: ‘frowning a little’. ‘bhruvau’ means the pair of eyebrows. When the eyebrows
are contracted either in anger or in thought, we are said to frown. Incidentally, the Sanskrit word ‘bhrU’ must have originated the English word
‘brow’ and also the tamil word ‘puruvaM’, all meaning ‘eyebrow’! Here we are
talking about the eyebrows of ambaa. If the frowning is complete, the natural
bend in the eyebrows disappears and they align themselves in a straight line.
Here ambaaL’s eyebrows are not contracted in anger, but they are more ‘bent’
than normal; that is why, the word ‘kimcit’ is used. She is frowning in the thought of
encountering a fear for Her children, namely, us, the people of the world.
The words ‘bhuvana-bhaya-bhanga-vyasanini’
mean ‘sorrowed (by compassion) with the worry
of the need to destroy the fear (of samsara) of all the world’. She is a flood
of bliss, certainly – Ananda-lahari. But She is
constantly thinking about how to redeem this world from its endless misery of
ignorance and consequent suffering in samsara. It was Her snap-of-the-finger
decision once that created the five Cosmic functionaries for the
good of the world; cf. “kshhaNa-calitayoH bhrU-latikayoH” - ‘by a movement of Thy creeper-like
brows’ - of shloka #24.
Of course it is not explicitly stated that Her
frowning is because of Her worry about the world. It could even be because of Her alertness at
the onset of a ‘bhaya’,
danger to Her beloved children of the world. If She is intending to eradicate
the fear from people even before the danger occurred, then ‘bhuvana-bhaya-bhanga-vyasanini’
does not fit here. Only when the situation is confronted with a danger, and a
consequent fear in the people, only then the ‘bhanga’ (destroying) of that ‘bhaya’
makes sense. We can go on analysing the verse-line in this manner endlessly.
That is the beauty of the poetry in this shloka!
But note, whether it is sorrow or anger that
is the cause of the frowning, it is not a thing for enjoyment; on the other
hand, the Acharya here seems to be enjoying the scene with all his heart. So
the contracting of the eyebrows is not the usual kind. It is more profound than
that. And that is the content of the other three lines of the shloka. In short, the words ‘dhanur-manye’
of the third line are the key to this puzzle. ‘I think it is the bow’, says he.
That is, the two eyebrows are thought of as one bow. But the wonder here is
that both the eyebrows are considered not as two bows but one single bow. ‘dhanur-manye’
–in the singular. Then what about the
gap between the two eyebrows, where there is no growth of hair? Actually there
should not be; for, as a Tamil preoverb goes, if the brows meet, it harbingers
destruction of everything – “kUDina puruvam kuDiyaik-keDukkuM”.
So then how come, the two eyebrows are compared to a single bow? Whose
bow? Is it just a comparison? What is great about all this except some poetic
gymnastics? We shall see.
Thus spake the
Paramacharya
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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
Mar.11, 2004