[Advaita-l] DSV in Saundaryalahari

[Anand Hudli]

Shri Praveenji,
>>
I saw that the other day in the commentary, but I don't quite understand
alaMkAras. Could you please elaborate utprekShA alaMkAra as to what
Lakshmidhara means in the context?
>>

utprekShA is poetical fancy (imagination) which is a possibility, as per
the definition of mammaTa, "saMbhAvanamathotprekShA prakRtasya samena yat",
meaning the possibility of the thing under consideration (prakRta) being
related (including identity) to the another (aprakRta) is utprekShA.
According to the common view, it is of three types- vastUtprekShA,
hetUtprekShA, and phalotprekShA. In the Saundaryalahari verse cited, there
is a phalotprekShA. The poet's imagination of a phala (result) where there
is no phala according to common knowledge is phalotprekShA. It is known
that devatAs do not blink their eyes, and there is no common knowledge of
the result of such non-blinking. However, the poet imagines a result -
protection and preservation of the world- of non-blinking. Note that there
is a distinction between hetUtprekShA and phalotprekShA. The poet is not
imagining the cause of non-blinking, which would have been hetUtprekShA,
but only the result.

Anand