[Advaita-l] Hreem and Purusha Suktam

[V Subrahmanian]

The features of '1000 heads, eyes....etc' in the Purusha Suktam are there
for Shiva too, for example, in the Sri Rudram ('sahasrAkShAya mIDhuShE..'
shiva Sahasranama.  Some puranas have said Shiva is praised through the
Purusha suktam by devas/rishis. For Devi too, in the Lalita Sahasra Nama,
we have 'saharAkShI sahasrapAt..' That the Purusha Suktam is a hymn in
praise of the Para Brahman is beyond doubt and any entity that is seen by
someone as the Supreme Brahman will see the Suktam as depicting his ishta
devata as the subject of the Suktam.

In the Sayana bhashya for the words 'Hrii' and Srii' is it said: Hree is
lajjaabhimaaninii devataa and srih is  dhanaabhimanini devataa (Hree = the
deity presiding over lajjaa, shame (modesty is another meaning) and Sree =
wealth).

regards
subbu

On Thu, May 2, 2019 at 11:20 PM Sriram Sankaranarayanan via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaskarams all
>
>
> I have heard the following contradicting statements in informal
> discussions with Namboothiris in Kerala and Iyers in Tamil Nadu. Can
> somebody explain where the shastras are on?
>
>
> The question is - "Whom does the beejaakshara 'hreem' refer to?"
>
>
> I have heard Iyers says that it refers to Goddess Lakshmi, due to Devi
> Mahatmyam. Here the first charitam (for Kali) is ended with chanting "aim
> om", second charitam (for Lakshmi) is ended with chanting "hreem om" and
> the third charitam (for Saraswathi) is ended with chanting "kleem om".
>
>
> Quite contrary to that, the namboothiris seem to be of the opinion that
> all three beejakshara refer primarily to kaali (As in the consort of
> Shiva). So much so that they even chant "Om hreem Namashivaya"! I even
> heard a namboothiri saying that Purushasuktam line "Hree: cha te Lakshmee:
> cha patnyau" - where Hree refers to Kali, and Lakshmi to Lakshmi herself.
> Thus Purusha Suktam, which is a hymn to parabrahman, accepts both Shiva and
> Vishnu as parabrahman.
>
>
> But, should we adopt the argument I heard from the Tamil community,
> doesn't it somehow fix Purusha Suktam as a Vishnu stuti? And what is the
> standard rebuttal to that?
>
>
> Namaskarams
> Sriram
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