DEIVATHIN KURAL # 134 (Vol # 6) Dated 27 Feb 2013

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 134 (Vol # 6) Dated 27 Feb 2013

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by PeriyavaaL of Kanchi Kaamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are going ahead from the last paragraph on page No 917 of Volume 6 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein ‘man/he’ includes ‘woman/she’ too mostly. These e-mails are all available at   http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated consonantly)

524.  In Sanskrit if the words have to be in an order in prose, as in any other languages too, in poetry, especially in Sanskrit there is greater freedom in changing the order in which the words occur.  By changing the order the poet may claim varying interpretations, to be equally applicable as meanings, some evident, some not so very apparent and some deeply imbedded!  What happens when people prostrate before AmbãL and do Namaskãra to her, is described in the next sloka, (Sloka No 16) as I told you that all your doubts will be removed:-

"कवीन्द्राणां चेत: कमलवनबाला तप रुचिं

"kaveendrãNãm cheta: kamala-vana bãlã tapa ruchim

भजन्ते ये संत: कतिचिद अरुणामेव भवतीम् |

bhajante ye santa:katichid aruNãmeva bhavateem |

विरिञ्चि प्रेयस्यास्तरुणतर स्रिन्गारलहरी-

virinchi  preyasyãstaruNatate sringãralaharee

गभीराभिर्वाग्भिर्विदधति सतां रन्जनममी ||"

gabheerãvirvãgbhirvidadhati satãm ranjanamami ||"

525.  [कवीन्द्राणां = 'Poet's, चेत: कमलवन = mind which is like a forest of lotuses, (the thing that makes them bloom) बाल आतप रुचिं – who is like the light of a young Sun in the morning; अरुणाम् भवतीम् – you who are so red that could be called as 'AruNa'; ये कतिचिद् संत: – some good people, because of  worshipping you; अमी – they, विरिञ्चि प्रेयस्या – (are enabled) by Brahma's love that is, Saraswathi's grace;  तरुणतर गभीराभि: वाग्भि: – by words that are both youthful and deeply meaningful; सतां रन्जनम् विदधति – give a lot of pleasure to discerning audience.]

526.  Immediately after describing the all pure white Vãk Devi as an embodiment of Satva GuNa, in the very next sloka the poet is describing the crimson red Swaroopa of AmbãL representative of the Rajo GuNa.  In the early morning the eastern sky becomes red with the indications of the arrival of Sunlight.  The Charioteer of Sun is known as AruNa of that crimson red colour.  First he is visible and that is, AruNodayam and then the Sun sitting in the chariot is seen and that is, Suryodayam.  Here the poet is alluding to the variation of the red complexion of Saraswathi Devi, who grants the special ability to her devotees, to pour out beautiful, decorative and amorous flow of words of Sringãra.  For people who worship her in these reddish hues, are automatically endowed with such powers of expression more related to the thrill of decorations, cosmetic make-up, trills and frills.

527.  But this is not just the worldly ways of love, lust, hankering, jealousy and one-up-man-ship.  This is more on spiritual principles of the natural beauty of attraction and togetherness of Kãmeswara and Kãmeswari.  The ones to correctly understand such union of divine beings are those who are pious and saintly beings themselves.  In the previous sloka, the poet said that Sãdhus by doing namaskãr to the fair hued Saraswathi clad in all white, even once, become capable of composing such songs which are also of the fair variety that will fetch the devotees and aspirants to Gnãna.  There is one stage in the mental and spiritual development of the aspirants, when their clarity of existence itself can be titillating, exciting and invigorating!  This is a special attribute of such Sãdhus.  For their thrill, the devotees of this red hued Saraswathi compose and sing.  In the previous sloka, the poet had spoken about how they have been endowed with such voice as being equal to, 'madhu, ksheera and draksha' – 'honey, milk and grapes'!  Now in this sloka, these devotees of this red hued Saraswathi, 'vidhadati satãm ranjanam amee' – by their poetry thrill those 'Sãdhu Jana', which means that – the poets of the previous sloka are the fans – Rasikãs here.

528.  So, the poets here are – what can be called – super refined Sãdhus.  From the fair and white hued Saraswathi, those who obtain the literary abilities are the generally good people referred in the previous sloka as, 'satãm'.  From within them – that general lot – when it comes to some who sing with the slant on 'Sringãra' – are 'katichit santã:' – some rare saintly persons.  That is, from within those saintly persons, those who have reached the Nayaki bhãva – those who have started loving God – uncaring for all views, opinions, status and identities; but Love God for the sake of Love alone!  There is rhyme, reason and logic in calling their pleasure as 'ranjanam'.  The letter 'R' here is indicative of the colour 'red', the redness of fire and the heat of love!  So, 'rum + janam = ranjanam' means to cause the sense of satisfaction in people that is said in Tamil as, 'ஜன ரஞ்ஜனமாக இருந்தது' and in English we refer to our Love as, 'My flame'!  It is the redness of maturity and ripening.  We note that a ripened fruit is red in colour, isn't it?

529.  To bring forth maturity means repair, refurbishing and refinement.  The poetry by devotees of this red-hued Saraswathi, enable other Sãdhus to enjoy the pleasure of refinement and self-improvement.  Their poetry is also full of red hue, as it is about the love between the devotee as the Love and God as the Lover!  Such poems of passion are, ' गभीराभि: वाग्भि:' the poet says, meaning that 'they are poems with a depth of inner purport'.  On a cursory glance, they will seem to be only amorous and sensuous – a Sringãra Lahari.  But on deeper analysis, they will be seen to be full of hidden gems of wonderful principles!  Kãmeswari herself has a name as AruNa, as her Dhyãna sloka itself starts off with, "अरुणां करुणा-तरङ्गिताक्षीं"!  But here the poet is describing the eight armed 'AruNa Saraswathi', who is having Kãmeswari's 'Dhanur, BhãNa, Pãsa and Ankusa', and Saraswathi's 'Aksha mala, Pustaka, Varada and Abhaya' mudras and is thus called as 'AruNa Saraswathi'!

530.  In the next sloka (Sloka No 17), the poet talks about the sort of benefits (சாரஸ்வதமான சித்திகள் – the sort of endowments as one would relate to Saraswathi, in terms of their being oriented towards brain, knowledge, intelligence, intuition and Gnãna), that will be accruing to the devotees who worship, Lalitha Tripura Sundari herself!  When we refer to Saraswathi in the singular as 'Vãk Devi', then it refers to only Saraswathi.  But in the plural the Vãk Devatãs are eight in numbers.  Those eight are known as, 'वसिन्यादि वाक्देवता:' – 'Vasinyãdi Vãk Devatãs', meaning eight such deities starting from Vasin, who on orders of AmbãL are said to have sung the famous Lalitha Sahasranãma.  From 'अ' the 16 vowels have one Devata, 'क, ख, ग, घ, ज्ञ' the second; 'च, छ, ज, झ, ञ' the third; 'ट, ठ, ड, ढ, ण' the fourth; 'त, थ, द, ध, न' the fifth; 'प, फ, ब, भ, म' the sixth; 'य, र, ल, व' the seventh; and 'श, ष, स, ह, क्ष' the eighth;  thus there are  totally eight 'Vasinyãdi Vãk Devatãs'.  In the Sri Chakra, in the seventh ÃvaraNa, these Vasinyãdi Vãk Devatãs will be seated in the eight directions around AmbãL.

531.  Since they are the Mothers of Speech, the next sloka is started with the words, 'savithreebhi: vaachaam' – "सवित्रीभिर्वाचां".  There is a type of Sphatika Crystal stone known as 'Chandra Kãnta' on which when the moon light falls it oozes some water like fluid.  (KTSV adds:- I have noticed  that in Goa there is a Siva Temple where the Siva Ling is made of such a stone and have literally seen the phenomena of the stone melting as though when the moon light happened to fall on the Siva Ling statue in the city of Marmagoa.)  In that Sphatika stone the Vãk Devatas are located.  In one sloka (the 15th), the poet said, 'sharat jyotsnã shuddhãm' and then in another he said 'aruNãm'.  But here AmbãL is in the red hue of 'AruNãm' seated in the centre like the Queen that she is, while being surrounded by all fair white hued Vãk Devatas like the 'sharat jyotsna shuddham'.  The devotee who virtually gets immersed in visualization of such a scenery – 'sanchintayati ya:' – 'संचिन्तयति य:' inheres such poetical brilliance to be author of epic poems – 'महतां भङ्गिरुचिभि:', 'mahataam bhnagi ruchibhi:' 'பெரியவர்களின் சொல் ஒட்டத்துக்கு உள்ள சுவை'; automatically accrues!  Words of appreciation in culinary expertise such as 'Ruchi – रुचि', taste and 'சுவை', have been uniformly used for literature also, since 'if one is food for the stomach and tongue, the other is food for thought and mind', I suppose!

532.  Instead of the taste recognizable by the tongue only, here the poet is also including the fragrance and smell recognizable by the nose too.  As he had earlier said that the Vãk is as sweet as the 'honey, milk and grapes', he mulled over which smell to compare with.  If AmbãL as Saraswathi is surrounded by the Vãk Devatas, what will be the sort of smell arising from the lotus of her face, he must have wondered.  Then the poet decided that it is better to do the comparison in reverse instead of comparing the divine fragrance from Mother's breath with anything of the world!  So he ended up saying, "the fragrance of the words of devotees of AmbãL by her Anugraha will be as divinely fragrant as Mother's breath – "वचोभि: वाक्देवी वदन कमला मोद मधुरै:" – 'vachibhi: vãkdevi vadana kamalã modha madhurai:'!  Saraswathi is Suddha Satva Murthy as a refuge of all education, knowledge, arts, crafts including literature and culinary expertise!  Without any 'Jintan' tablet or mouth wash or any such contrivance; her breath will be naturally fragrant.  Her hair without flowers will be full of fragrance.  In fact in a subsequent sloka (the 43rd) he touches this very aspect as to how the flowers of heaven look forward to at least a transitory stay in her hair, so that some of the fragrance of AmbãL's hair will rub off on them!  So the natural fragrance of the breath of AmbãL and the smell from her mouth will get reflected in all the writings of her devotees, as the fragrance of Saraswathi's Aksharãs will be in every letter of her devotee's writings!.  Even the readers of such poems will be entitled to enjoy that fragrance by inference!  In the process their mouth and breath will also smell sweet and nice! That is how a poet cum devotee known as VaLLalãr has sung about his God, "வள்ளால்! உன்னைப் பாடப் பாட வாய் மணக்குதே", meaning, "You giver of boons, as I keep singing about you, I notice that my speech, mouth and breath are all becoming fragrant!'

533.  That AmbãL sanctions your power of expression has also been mentioned in many other places in the later Soundarya Lahari portion also.  Being breast fed by her imparts a tremendous literary power of expression is quoted in Sloka No 75.  This actually happened in the case of Thiru Gnãna Sambandar as a baby was crying for milk on the banks of the temple pond when the father had gone in the water to bathe when he was only three years of age and was breast fed by AmbãL the Mother of the whole world!  Later he went on to make a mark as one in the holy trinity of Appar, Sambandar and Sundarar!  In another sloka, Sloka No 98, it is said that even a dumb from birth gets the power to compose and write poems!  This happened in the case of Mooka, who was deaf and dumb from birth, by the Grace of Kãmãkshi AmbãL, that he went on to sing 500 poems of exceptional beauty and intensity of devotion, known as Mooka Panchasatee, songs from which have been quoted in this narrative before this.   Then in 99th Sloka the poet says that even Brhma becomes jealous of the recipient of AmbãL's Grace that he has been showered with more of Saraswathi's Katãksha, though Saraswathi is his own wife!

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva