[Advaita-l] Tripura Samhar

[V Subrahmanian]

On Thu, Jun 21, 2018 at 5:48 PM, Kartik Vashishta via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> OM
> OM NAMAH SIVANANDAYA
>
> Revered Self,
>
> Sadar Pranam,
>
> Is there an analytical interpretation of the destruction of the three
> cities by lord Shiva? I am looking for an explanation as to what is meant
> by "lord Shiva made the Earth with her forests and oceans his battle car"
> and other descriptions of the Tripura Samhar.
>

The 'samhara' is to be seen as an allegorical depiction of the annihilation
of samsara, characterized by three states of waking, dream and sleep.  The
three 'pura-s, cities' are these three states. It requires daiva shakti to
accomplish the samhara. The deployment of the Shakti is not without the aid
of all other resources at one's disposal. Hence, the 'earth, etc.' signify
those resources.  In the Lalith Sahasra Nama one will see many shakti-s in
great numbers like 'koTi koTi', accompanying the Mother to fight the evil
forces.

regards
subrahmanian.v

>
> I am below pasting the description of the Tripura Samhar from the Sri
> Mahabharata:
>
>