[Advaita-l] Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari(DPDS-20)

[V. Krishnamurthy]

Namaste.
FOR NEW READERS of this series, it may be worthwhile to go back
to  the Introduction  about the objective of this Digest and the
Note on the Organization (both at advaitin Message No.18425;
ambaa-L message no.5273; advaita-L message No.14046;
Sadhana_shakti message no.334). 
Let us recall that  the entire contents of the Digest are from
the Paramacharya’s ideas and words, including the first person
reference to himself,  except for my English rendering. Wherever
he uses specific English words himself, I have drawn the
attention of the reader to that fact. Recall particularly that
‘our Acharya’ or ‘The Acharya’ in the discourses, means ‘Adi
Sankaracharya’.
V. Krishnamurthy
------------------------------------------------------------
A Digest of Paramacharya’s Discourses on Soundaryalahari -  20
(Digest of pp. 831-836 of Deivathin Kural Vol.6, 4th imprn)

Even if millions of people do not go the right way what is of
significance is that one of them will see the difference between
good and bad and make the total surrender to Her and get Her
shower of Grace for him to see that he (the jIva) and the
Ultimate are one. Not all the seeds of the fruits of a tree grow
into a full tree. In the whole world of living beings even if
one in a million achieves that Infinite fullness of Man the
purpose of Creation is fulfilled. That  probably is ambaal’s
idea of Creation.

But again, those who do not so achieve the Fullness are not to
be considered wasted or damned. There is no eternal damnation in
our scriptures.  Acharya Madhva propagated that idea. Maybe he
thought that at least the dread and fear of eternal damnation
would motivate people into reforming themselves to be good. Even
an extremely sinful person has a way of ultimate redemption  --
that is the creed of our religion.

Once there was  a king. An ordinary commoner was told by him, on
an important mission,  to come and see him in his camp. But the
commoner entreated the king to give him some kind of an
authentification, like a ring or something, which would gain him
the entry to the king’s presence when he presented himself at
the camp. The king gave him such a ring; but the ring did not
have his (the king’s) seal. It had the seal of the enemy king.
The commoner was perplexed. Why is this king giving him a ring
which would only  be identified as the enemy’s? The king himself
removed his doubt by saying: “There are so many of my own
couriers and courtiers who have obtained from me my authentified
ring so that they can meet me any time they like. The line of
such people would be so large at any time, that you would not
get anywhere near me  when you come to meet me. But if they see
the seal of the enemy king in your hands they would take you to
be a spy and would present you before me in no time !”

This perhaps is the strategy of ambaal ! Desire, Anger and the
whole gang of bad things are Her own Grace to us in the form of
authentified ‘rings’, so that we may go to Her soon. Once Kunti,
the mother of the Pandavas, asked Krishna to keep giving her
difficulties and miseries all the time so that she will never
forget the Lord ! In other words, in the mystery of creation, 
unhappiness  itself is a divine blessing in disguise.

 Again, the opportunity of showering Grace on an individual does
not stop with that person. It continues to pour on all the
offsprings of that person in the same way. At this point one is
tempted to say that, in spite of the general Hindu prayer that
there should be no more births, the very fact that there are
offsprings is itself a shower of Her Grace.  How else can the
balance of karma of jIvas be exhausted? If there was no ‘kAma’
in the world those who die with a large balance of karma would
have to go unredeemed. Thus it is ambaal’s grace that there is
‘kAma’ as one of the four objectives or purposes of life.

 And the scriptures come to our help by earmarking four stages
of life in which one of the stages, namely, grihastAshrama (the
householder-stage) is set apart for giving vent to our
legitimate desires.  Just as there are exceptions to every rule,
for this general rule of creation also there are certain
exceptions in the form of a few, - very few -, who take to the
fourth ashrama (sannyasa) without having to go through the
second ashrama of a householder. 

Another final point. Whoever has the power and the means to
create should have also the power and the means to bring the end
to  creation and the created. The ambaal has the power to create
and spark the desire in us; and therefore She has also the power
to free us from that creation and release us from the desire
that overpowered us.  The obverse of a coin has always a
reverse. So the same (obverse) power which originates ‘kAma’ in
human beings, has also the (reverse) power to say, in respect of
certain blessed individuals,  to that ‘kAma’, “Don’t go near
such and such persons” ! 

So Manmatha, the God of all sensualities, who overpowers us by
the power which he got from ambaal, has however to obey Her when
She says: “Thus far and no further”.  The slokas 5 and 6 which
talk of the power of Manmatha has this implication for the
devotees of ambaal, though the slokas do not say so; they only
talk of the obverse of the coin, not its reverse ! And that, the
unsaid reverse, is  the significance of those two slokas,
especially for those of us who can surrender to Her through
recitation of these slokas. Her leelA is: From advaita through
‘desire’ to dvaita; and then, ultimately,  to advaita through
Her Grace and Compassion!

Now we shall go over to sloka 7. Here comes, for the first time,
a graphic description of the form of Kameshvari 
(Raja-rajeshvari, LalitA-tripura-sundari), the deity of praise
in Soundaryalahari. Even here, no name is mentioned; in fact,
throughout the hymn, the name does not occur. 
(To be continued)

PraNAms to all advaitins and devotees of Mother Goddess
profvk



=====
Prof. V. Krishnamurthy
My website on Science and Spirituality is http://www.geocities.com/profvk/
You can  access my book on Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought Vision and Practice,  and my father R. Visvanatha Sastri's manuscripts from the site.

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