Part XI — Nāmas 305–351 (Ślokas 71–77): Sweetness, the Spark of Desire, and the Field of Knowing
ॐ श्रीमात्रे नमः · oṃ śrīmātre namaḥ
Savour and the field of knowing
Part XI begins in sweetness. After the cosmic vastness and the silence beyond name, the hymn returns to the near and the lovely: she is worshipped by the king of kings, the supreme queen, lotus-eyed, her girdle tinkling with little bells; she is delight and the one who delights, the very rasa, the savour, of all that is enjoyed. From this she passes to the spark of desire — Kāma-kalā, the secret point in which Śiva and Śakti are one; to the moods of love and the “intoxication” of bliss; and then to the great affirmations: she is more than the universe, she is what the Veda is for, the mother of the Veda, the play of the divine. At the last the names turn philosophical again — she is the field and the knower of the field, beyond increase and decrease — and the part closes by seating her, after the moon and the sun, in the orb of fire. Throughout, the savour and the knowing are one: the sweetness the heart tastes and the Self the mind seeks are the single reality, relished and realised at once.
॥ श्रीललितासहस्रनामस्तोत्रम् ॥
The Thousand Names — Ślokas 71–77 (Nāmas 305–351)
Śloka 71
राजराजार्चिता राज्ञी रम्या राजीवलोचना ।
रञ्जनी रमणी रस्या रणत्किङ्किणि-मेखला ॥ ७१॥
rāja-rājārcitā rājñī ramyā rājīva-locanā |
rañjanī ramaṇī rasyā raṇat-kiṅkiṇi-mekhalā ǁ 71 ǁ
305. राजराजार्चिता — Rāja-rājārcitā
Translation: Worshipped by the king of kings (rāja-rāja — Kubera, or sovereign emperors, or Śiva the supreme).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is worshipped by the “king of kings.” The apavāda: the highest sovereign — whether the lord of wealth, the emperor of emperors, or Śiva himself — bows to her; the worshipper here is the very summit of worldly or divine power, and his worship is power doing homage to its own source. The crown of all crowns is laid at her feet.
Śrī Vidyā: Rāja-rājārcitā is worshipped by the supreme sovereigns and by Kubera, lord of treasures; the Goddess (Rājarājeśvarī) before whom the kings of kings perform arcanā.
306. राज्ञी — Rājñī
Translation: Rājñī — the queen (the sovereign consort, Śakti of the Supreme).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the Queen — the empress, consort of the supreme King. The apavāda: as Rājñī she is co-regent with Śiva, the power-side of the one sovereignty; the King and the Queen enthroned together are the one reality in its two faces (recall Mahā-kāmeśa-mahiṣī). Her queenship is not a station beneath a king but the very rulership shared and undivided.
Śrī Vidyā: Rājñī is the sovereign Queen, Śakti enthroned beside Śiva; the imperial consort of the Cakra's centre.
307. रम्या — Ramyā
Translation: Ramyā — the lovely, the delightful to behold.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “lovely” — delightful, beautiful. The apavāda: beauty, freely returned after the negations, is here her simple attribute; ramyā is awareness as the delightful, that in which the eye and heart rest with pleasure — for the Self is not bleak but charming, the most beautiful of all.
Śrī Vidyā: Ramyā is the enchanting beauty of the Goddess, lovely beyond compare; the saundarya the Saundarya-laharī sings.
308. राजीवलोचना — Rājīva-locanā
Translation: Lotus-eyed (rājīva = lotus).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her eyes are lotuses — as Padma-nayanā before. The apavāda: the lotus eye is the gaze that opens, cool and wide, to the light; her eyes are the very openness of seeing, the compassionate regard in which the devotee is held. (The same gaze whose blink is the world's coming and going.)
Śrī Vidyā: Rājīva-locanā has eyes like the lotus; the gracious, wide gaze of the merciful Mother.
309. रञ्जनी — Rañjanī
Translation: Rañjanī — she who delights, who colours the world with joy and beauty.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the colourer,” the one who delights — for rañj means both to please and to tint with colour. The apavāda: she “colours” the world with delight, lending all things their charm; the joy and beauty anything has, it has by her tinting — the rosy glow (recall Aruṇā) that makes the grey world lovely is her delighting presence.
Śrī Vidyā: Rañjanī delights and colours; she who reddens the world with beauty (the dawn-red of the Goddess) and gladdens the heart of the devotee.
310. रमणी — Ramaṇī
Translation: Ramaṇī — the charming one, the beloved who delights.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the charming,” the delighting beloved. The apavāda: ramaṇī is she in whom one delights and who delights — awareness as the source of all delighting, the beloved that the heart seeks in every lesser love. What the lover loves in the beloved is, at root, her.
Śrī Vidyā: Ramaṇī is the delightful beloved; the Goddess as the one in whom all find joy, the ramaṇa of the Self.
311. रस्या — Rasyā
Translation: Rasyā — the savour, the essence of all that is relished (rasa).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: A jewel of a name: she is rasa, the very savour of all that is enjoyed. The apavāda hears the great Upaniṣadic word — raso vai saḥ, “he (the Self) is verily the savour”: she is the relish in every relishing, the sweetness without which nothing could taste sweet, the one delight refracted in every particular pleasure. To taste anything truly is to taste her. (And rasa, gaining her, one becomes blissful.)
Śrī Vidyā: Rasyā is the rasa of the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, the savour that is bliss itself; the Goddess as the essence relished in all enjoyment.
312. रणत्किङ्किणिमेखला — Raṇat-kiṅkiṇi-mekhalā
Translation: Who wears a girdle (mekhalā) of softly tinkling little bells (raṇat-kiṅkiṇi).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: A return to the loved form: her waist-girdle of tiny bells, softly ringing. The apavāda is light and free — the detail of ornament, enjoyed for its sweetness; yet even here the sound is hers (she is Nāda-rūpā), the gentle music that announces the moving grace of the Mother. The tinkling is the play of the manifest about the still centre.
Śrī Vidyā: Raṇat-kiṅkiṇi-mekhalā wears the jewelled girdle of ringing bells; an ornament of the dhyāna-form, the sweet sound of her presence.
Śloka 72
रमा राकेन्दुवदना रतिरूपा रतिप्रिया ।
रक्षाकरी राक्षसघ्नी रामा रमणलम्पटा ॥ ७२॥
ramā rākendu-vadanā rati-rūpā rati-priyā |
rakṣākarī rākṣasaghnī rāmā ramaṇa-lampaṭā ǁ 72 ǁ
313. रमा — Ramā
Translation: Ramā — Lakṣmī; abundance, splendour, the delighting one.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Ramā — a name of Lakṣmī, “she who delights and is delighted in,” the radiant abundance. The apavāda: as Mahālakṣmī before, the fortune she is, is the inner plenitude (Pūrṇā); Ramā names that delighting fullness, the wealth that is one's own being.
Śrī Vidyā: Ramā is Lakṣmī, the consort of Viṣṇu and the power of auspicious abundance; here identified with Lalitā as the totality of śrī.
314. राकेन्दुवदना — Rākendu-vadanā
Translation: Whose face is like the full-moon (rāka-indu) of the full-moon night.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her face is the full moon of the full-moon night — the moon at its perfect roundness. The apavāda: where before her face was the autumn moon and she wore the crescent, here it is the full moon — consciousness at its complete, undimmed fullness, the perfect disc with no waning; the cool, total light of the cleared mind, brimming with nectar. Fullness again (Pūrṇā), now as a face.
Śrī Vidyā: Rākendu-vadanā has the face of the full moon (rākā, the full-moon night); the consummate lunar radiance, brimming with amṛta.
315. रतिरूपा — Rati-rūpā
Translation: Of the form of Rati (the goddess of erotic delight); the very form of love-bliss.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the form of Rati” — Rati being both the consort of Kāma and the principle of delight (rati) itself. The apavāda: rati is the bliss of union, and she is that bliss embodied — not a goddess of a passing pleasure but the ānanda of union as such, the delight in which all loving delight participates. (Mahā-rati, now as form.)
Śrī Vidyā: Rati-rūpā is of the nature of Rati, the bliss of union; the ānanda-form of the Goddess, the delight at the heart of Śiva-Śakti union.
316. रतिप्रिया — Rati-priyā
Translation: Dear to Rati, and fond of delight (rati).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is dear to Rati and loves delight. The apavāda: as she is the form of delight, so delight is dear to her — awareness inclining toward its own joy; the love of rati is the Self's love of its own bliss, not a craving for an outer pleasure but the homing of joy upon itself.
Śrī Vidyā: Rati-priyā is fond of delight and dear to Rati; the Goddess who, having revived Kāma, cherishes the bliss of love restored to its source.
317. रक्षाकरी — Rakṣākarī
Translation: The protectress, the maker of protection (rakṣā).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She makes rakṣā — protection. The apavāda: the deepest protection is not the guarding of the body but the refuge of the Self, in which there is nothing other to fear (Bhayāpahā); she “protects” by being the safe ground, the fortress (Durgā) in which the one who takes shelter is beyond all real harm. She saves, finally, from saṃsāra itself.
Śrī Vidyā: Rakṣākarī is the protectress, granting the rakṣā that wards all ill; the refuge of her devotees, body and being.
318. राक्षसघ्नी — Rākṣasaghnī
Translation: The slayer of rākṣasas (demons, the forces of darkness).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She slays the rākṣasas — the demonic forces. The apavāda: as the war on Bhaṇḍa taught, the demons are the powers of the contracted self — the impulses of darkness and ignorance; she “slays the rākṣasas” by dissolving, through her mere presence, the inner forces that war against the light. The demon-slaying is the clearing of the heart.
Śrī Vidyā: Rākṣasaghnī destroys the demons, the forces of tamas and adharma; the Goddess as the slayer of the inner and outer rākṣasa.
319. रामा — Rāmā
Translation: Rāmā — the beautiful woman; she in whom all delight (rām).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Rāmā — “the lovely woman,” she in whom one delights (from the same root ram). The apavāda: the name gathers the sweetness of this whole sequence — she is the beautiful, the delighting, the beloved; awareness as the wholly delightful, in whom the heart comes to rest. (The yogins, too, “sport” (ram) in the Self — she is that in which they delight.)
Śrī Vidyā: Rāmā is the beautiful, delighting Goddess; she in whom the yogins and devotees take their joy.
320. रमणलम्पटा — Ramaṇa-lampaṭā
Translation: Ardently devoted to her beloved (ramaṇa — Śiva); eager for union with her Lord.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: A bold and tender name: she is “ardent for her beloved,” passionately devoted to Śiva her ramaṇa. The apavāda: the “eagerness for union” is, at the highest, the inseparability of Śakti from Śiva — her longing is the eternal inclining of power toward its ground, which is not a lack seeking fulfilment but the very intimacy of the non-dual, the two who are one ever turned toward each other. Her ardour is the self-love of the One.
Śrī Vidyā: Ramaṇa-lampaṭā is wholly devoted to Śiva, her beloved; the inseparable union of Śiva-Śakti read as the Goddess's own ardent love — the sāmarasya, the single shared savour of the pair.
Śloka 73
काम्या कामकलारूपा कदम्बकुसुमप्रिया ।
कल्याणी जगतीकन्दा करुणारससागरा ॥ ७३॥
kāmyā kāma-kalā-rūpā kadamba-kusuma-priyā |
kalyāṇī jagatī-kandā karuṇā-rasa-sāgarā ǁ 73 ǁ
At the heart of this śloka stands one of the most secret names of the hymn: Kāma-kalā-rūpā, “whose form is the Kāma-kalā.” The kāma-kalā is the supreme point in which Śiva and Śakti, desirer and desired, are a single spark — the bindu at the source of all manifestation, the seed-pulse of the cosmos and of the Śrī Cakra. This commentary keeps the matter sober: the kāma-kalā is, in the non-dual reading, the very first stirring of the One toward self-expression — desire not yet divided into desirer and object, the original self-delight from which the worlds and the letters unfold — and its inner contemplation belongs to the initiate. Around this secret centre the śloka sets the sweetest of her qualities: she is the desirable itself, lover of the kadamba flower, the auspicious, the root of the world, an ocean of the nectar of compassion.
321. काम्या — Kāmyā
Translation: Kāmyā — the desirable, the supremely worthy of being longed for.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the desirable” — that which is to be longed for above all. The apavāda: every desire is, unknowingly, a desire for her — for the fullness and bliss that is the Self; she is kāmyā as the one truly worth desiring, the secret object of all wanting, in attaining whom all other wants are stilled (recall Niṣkāmā — desireless, because she is the desired). She is what every longing is really for.
Śrī Vidyā: Kāmyā is the supremely desirable; the Goddess as the true object of all longing, the parā worth every seeking.
322. कामकलारूपा — Kāma-kalā-rūpā
Translation: Whose form is the Kāma-kalā — the supreme point uniting Śiva and Śakti, the seed of manifestation.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The secret name: her form is the kāma-kalā, the single spark in which desirer and desired, Śiva and Śakti, are not two. The apavāda: read non-dually, the kāma-kalā is the very first stir of the One toward self-expression — kāma, the originless wish-to-be-many, not yet split into a wanter and a wanted; the seed-point (bindu) from which name-and-form, and the very letters of speech, unfold. She is that originating self-delight, prior to all duality, in which the whole manifestation is held as a spark holds the fire.
Śrī Vidyā: Kāma-kalā-rūpā is the kāma-kalā, the supreme bindu uniting Kāmeśvara and Kāmeśvarī — the seed of the Śrī Cakra and of all manifestation; its contemplation is an esoteric heart of the Vidyā, disclosed within the parampara. This commentary defers to the practitioner on its inner detail.
323. कदम्बकुसुमप्रिया — Kadamba-kusuma-priyā
Translation: Fond of the flower of the kadamba tree.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She loves the kadamba blossom — the fragrant orange-globed flower of her own celestial grove. The apavāda is gentle: the dear, particular delight (recall the kadamba-forest of her dwelling) is enjoyed as her own; the love of a flower is awareness delighting in the beauty of its own manifestation, the Self pleased with its own blossoming.
Śrī Vidyā: Kadamba-kusuma-priyā loves the kadamba flower; the tree of her heavenly garden (the kadamba-vana of the earlier dwelling-names), sacred to the Goddess.
324. कल्याणी — Kalyāṇī
Translation: Kalyāṇī — the auspicious, the source of all welfare and blessing.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the auspicious” — welfare and blessing itself. The apavāda: as Sarva-maṅgalā, she is the good wherever it appears; kalyāṇī names her as the blessing that the heart invokes, the auspiciousness that is finally the presence of the Self — for nothing is more auspicious than the recognition of one's own ground.
Śrī Vidyā: Kalyāṇī is the auspicious Goddess, bestower of all welfare; a beloved name of the Mother, invoked for blessing.
325. जगतीकन्दा — Jagatī-kandā
Translation: The root-bulb (kanda) of the world; the source from which the cosmos sprouts.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the “root-bulb of the world” — the tuber from which the whole world springs, as a plant from its bulb. The apavāda: the image is organic and exact — the cosmos is not built by her from outside but grows out of her, as shoot and leaf and flower are already folded in the bulb; she is the seed-source in which the world lies latent and from which it unfolds (recall Mūla-prakṛti, and the navel-lotus). The world is her own sprouting.
Śrī Vidyā: Jagatī-kandā is the root-source of the universe, the kanda from which all worlds grow; the Goddess as the seed-ground of manifestation.
326. करुणारससागरा — Karuṇā-rasa-sāgarā
Translation: An ocean (sāgara) of the nectar (rasa) of compassion (karuṇā).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is a shoreless ocean of the rasa of compassion. The apavāda: her compassion (recall Sāndra-karuṇā) is boundless because there is no other — she has mercy on all as on her own Self, and that mercy is an ocean, fathomless and without farther shore; the whole sea of being is, to the devotee, a sea of her grace. Karuṇā is the form her non-duality takes toward the seemingly separate.
Śrī Vidyā: Karuṇā-rasa-sāgarā is the ocean of compassion's nectar; the limitless karuṇā of the Mother, in which all beings are held.
Śloka 74
कलावती कलालापा कान्ता कादम्बरीप्रिया ।
वरदा वामनयना वारुणीमदविह्वला ॥ ७४॥
kalāvatī kalālāpā kāntā kādambarī-priyā |
varadā vāma-nayanā vāruṇī-mada-vihvalā ǁ 74 ǁ
327. कलावती — Kalāvatī
Translation: Kalāvatī — endowed with all the arts and phases (kalā); rich in every skill and digit.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “possessed of kalā” — of all the arts, and of all the phases (as of the moon). The apavāda: kalā is both art and the lunar digit; she holds all arts (as Catuḥṣaṣṭi-kalāmayī) and all phases — yet, as Niṣkalā, she is finally beyond all parts; kalāvatī names the manifest fullness of skill and phase, the playing-out of the partless in the many.
Śrī Vidyā: Kalāvatī possesses all the kalās — the arts and the lunar digits; the Goddess rich in every skill, the sixteen kalās of the moon her own.
328. कलालापा — Kalālāpā
Translation: Of sweet, artful speech (kala-ālāpa — soft, musical talk).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her speech is sweet and musical — kala, the soft inarticulate sweetness of lovely sound. The apavāda: her “sweet talk” is the gentleness of the Word (she is Vāk); the divine speech, at its source, is not harsh assertion but a melodious murmur, the cooing sweetness of the Mother to her child — sound (Nāda) in its tender, intimate register.
Śrī Vidyā: Kalālāpā is of sweet musical speech; the Goddess whose voice is gentle melody, Vāk in her caressing tone.
329. कान्ता — Kāntā
Translation: Kāntā — the lovely, the radiant; the beloved.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the lovely,” the radiant beloved (kānti is loveliness, lustre). The apavāda: kāntā names beauty as luminous loveliness — the loveliness that is also light, for her beauty is the shining of consciousness; to find her kāntā is to find awareness itself radiant and dear.
Śrī Vidyā: Kāntā is the lustrous, beloved Goddess; the radiant beauty of the Mother, lovely to all.
330. कादम्बरीप्रिया — Kādambarī-priyā
Translation: Fond of kādambarī (the nectar / a flowering, or sweet mead — a symbol of bliss).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is fond of kādambarī — read as the nectar, the sweet mead, the drink of bliss. The apavāda: the “intoxicating drink” she loves is, in the inner sense, the amṛta of bliss — the nectar that floods from the crown (Sudhā-sārābhivarṣiṇī), the ānanda in which the realised “grow drunk”; her fondness for it is awareness's delight in its own intoxicating fullness. The literal mead is a figure for the wine of the Self.
Śrī Vidyā: Kādambarī-priyā is fond of kādambarī, the nectar of bliss; in the kaula register the inner amṛta, the wine of the sahasrāra — read here as the bliss of the Self, not literal intoxicant.
331. वरदा — Varadā
Translation: Varadā — the giver of boons (vara).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She grants boons — the classic gesture of the open, bestowing hand. The apavāda: the boons she gives culminate in the one boon worth all others, the gift of the Self (recall Sad-gati-pradā, Sukha-pradā); she is varadā as the generosity of the Full, which, lacking nothing, freely gives — and whose supreme gift is to give the seeker back to the seeker.
Śrī Vidyā: Varadā is the bestower of boons, hand raised in the varada-mudrā; the Goddess who grants every desire and the supreme attainment.
332. वामनयना — Vāma-nayanā
Translation: Of beautiful eyes (vāma — lovely; nayana — eye).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her eyes are lovely (vāma, “beautiful,” also “left”). The apavāda: again the gracious gaze — beauty of the eye that is the openness of seeing; and vāma, “the left,” faintly sounds the left-hand intimacy of the Mother's regard, the tender rather than the stern look. Her eyes are loveliness looking with love.
Śrī Vidyā: Vāma-nayanā has beautiful eyes; the lovely-eyed Goddess, her glance the grace of the merciful Mother.
333. वारुणीमदविह्वला — Vāruṇī-mada-vihvalā
Translation: Languid (vihvalā) with the joy (mada) of vāruṇī (the nectar / inner bliss).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “overcome with the joy of vāruṇī” — swaying, languid, as if gently intoxicated. The apavāda: vāruṇī is read as the inner nectar, and the “intoxication” (mada) as the rapture of bliss — she is vihvalā, overwhelmed, with the ānanda of her own fullness, as the realised are said to be “drunk” on the Self. Set beside Nirmadā (free of intoxication-pride), this names a different mada entirely: not the swelling of ego but the swooning sweetness of bliss. The literal wine is, again, a figure for the rapture of the Self.
Śrī Vidyā: Vāruṇī-mada-vihvalā is languid with the bliss of vāruṇī, the inner nectar; in the kaula reading the amṛta-rapture of the sahasrāra — the swoon of ānanda, not literal drink, distinguished from the pride (mada) she is ever free of.
Śloka 75
विश्वाधिका वेदवेद्या विन्ध्याचलनिवासिनी ।
विधात्री वेदजननी विष्णुमाया विलासिनी ॥ ७५॥
viśvādhikā veda-vedyā vindhyācala-nivāsinī |
vidhātrī veda-jananī viṣṇu-māyā vilāsinī ǁ 75 ǁ
334. विश्वाधिका — Viśvādhikā
Translation: Viśvādhikā — greater than (transcending) the universe (viśva).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “more than the universe” — exceeding the whole of it. The apavāda: though she is the universe (Viśva-rūpā), she is also greater than it — the cosmic Puruṣa “covered the earth and stood beyond by ten fingers' breadth”; she is at once all this and more than all this, the immanent that overflows its own immanence. The world does not exhaust her; she is its surplus, the transcendent remainder.
Śrī Vidyā: Viśvādhikā transcends the cosmos she pervades; the Goddess as the atiriktam, the “more” beyond the manifest, immanent yet exceeding.
335. वेदवेद्या — Veda-vedyā
Translation: Veda-vedyā — who is to be known through the Veda.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “knowable through the Veda” — the Veda's own object of knowledge. The apavāda: the Veda exists to make her known (recall the pearl in the shell of scripture); she is veda-vedyā as the one truth all genuine knowing is for — yet, being beyond name and form, she is finally known not as an object the Veda describes but as the Self the Veda points the seeker toward. The knowing the Veda gives ends in being.
Śrī Vidyā: Veda-vedyā is to be known through the Veda; the supreme reality the śruti reveals, the vedānta-vedyā of the Upaniṣads.
336. विन्ध्याचलनिवासिनी — Vindhyācala-nivāsinī
Translation: Who dwells on the Vindhya mountain (as Vindhyavāsinī).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She dwells on the Vindhya range — the famed Vindhyavāsinī. The apavāda need not strain: a sacred mountain-abode is a focus for devotion, a place where the formless is met in form; and the heights, traditionally, are where the seeker climbs to meet the divine — she “dwells on the mountain” as the high, set-apart reality sought by ascent (recall her Meru-peak dwelling). The particular shrine localises, for love, the omnipresent.
Śrī Vidyā: Vindhyācala-nivāsinī is Vindhyavāsinī, the Goddess of the Vindhya mountain, a great Śākta seat; the Devī of the Devī-māhātmya enshrined on the heights.
337. विधात्री — Vidhātrī
Translation: Vidhātrī — the ordainer, creatrix and disposer of all.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the “ordainer” — she who arranges, disposes, creates (as Brahmā is Vidhātṛ). The apavāda: she ordains the world-order (recall Varṇāśrama-vidhāyinī, Sṛṣṭi-kartrī) — yet, the actionless witness, she “disposes” all not by labour but as the ground in whose presence the order arranges itself. She is the disposing intelligence that is one with the disposed.
Śrī Vidyā: Vidhātrī is the ordainer and creatrix, the feminine of Vidhātṛ (Brahmā); the Goddess as the disposing power of the cosmos.
338. वेदजननी — Veda-jananī
Translation: Veda-jananī — the mother of the Vedas.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the mother of the Veda. The apavāda: the Veda is her command (Nijājñā-rūpa-nigamā) and her child — born of her as the first sound (Nāda-rūpā) articulates into the sacred word; she “mothers the Veda” as the silent source from which the eternal speech issues. The scripture that reveals her is itself her offspring.
Śrī Vidyā: Veda-jananī is the mother of the Vedas; the source of the śruti, Vāk from whom the sacred word is born.
339. विष्णुमाया — Viṣṇu-māyā
Translation: Viṣṇu-māyā — the divine power of illusion (māyā) wielded by/as Viṣṇu.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Viṣṇu-māyā — the great deluding-power celebrated in the lore as the force by which the Lord casts the world-appearance. The apavāda: as Mahā-māyā, she is the mistress of the cosmic appearance, not its captive; “Viṣṇu's māyā” is the One's own power to seem many — the same śakti that veils (Tirodhāna-karī) and reveals. She is the magic, never the deceived.
Śrī Vidyā: Viṣṇu-māyā is the deluding-revealing power named in the Devī-māhātmya (“yā devī sarvabhūteṣu viṣṇumāyeti…”); the Goddess as the cosmic māyā-śakti.
340. विलासिनी — Vilāsinī
Translation: Vilāsinī — the playful one, she whose nature is divine play (vilāsa).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the playful” — her activity is vilāsa, sport. The apavāda: the whole of creation, preservation and dissolution is her play (līlā) — done not from need (she is Pūrṇā, Niṣkāmā) but from the sheer overflow of self-delight; vilāsinī names the effortless, joyous spontaneity of the One at play in the many, the cosmos as her dance and game. Nothing is at stake in her play but joy.
Śrī Vidyā: Vilāsinī is the Goddess of divine play (vilāsa / līlā); the cosmos as her sportive self-expression, the playful radiance of the Śakti.
Śloka 76
क्षेत्रस्वरूपा क्षेत्रेशी क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञपालिनी ।
क्षयवृद्धि-विनिर्मुक्ता क्षेत्रपालसमर्चिता ॥ ७६॥
kṣetra-svarūpā kṣetreśī kṣetra-kṣetrajña-pālinī |
kṣaya-vṛddhi-vinirmuktā kṣetrapāla-samarcitā ǁ 76 ǁ
This śloka turns to the Gītā's great pair: the kṣetra, the “field” — the body, the world, all that is known and changes — and the kṣetrajña, the “knower of the field,” the conscious witness within it. She is named as both: the field itself, the lord of the field, and the protector of field and field-knower alike — and then, lest she be thought subject to the field's changes, she is declared free of increase and decrease. The teaching is the Gītā's own: the field grows and wanes, but the knower of the field, and she who is both and beyond both, neither grows nor wanes. She is the unchanging in which the changing field and its witness are held.
341. क्षेत्रस्वरूपा — Kṣetra-svarūpā
Translation: Whose form is the kṣetra — the “field” (the body, the world, all that is known).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the field itself — the kṣetra, the whole domain of the knowable: the body, the world, all that changes and is perceived. The apavāda: as Viśva-rūpā she is the manifest, and the manifest is precisely the “field” the Gītā analyses — the object-side of experience; she is “of the form of the field” as the entire content of knowing, the known in its totality.
Śrī Vidyā: Kṣetra-svarūpā is the kṣetra of the Gītā, the field of manifestation; the Goddess as the whole knowable world, the body of the cosmos.
342. क्षेत्रेशी — Kṣetreśī
Translation: Kṣetreśī — the lady/ruler of the field (kṣetra-īśī).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the “lord of the field” — its sovereign. The apavāda: the kṣetra-īśa, the Gītā teaches, is the conscious lord present in the field; she is kṣetreśī as the ruling awareness within the whole domain of the known — the witnessing consciousness that owns and illumines the field without being a part of it. Field and field's-lord are both hers.
Śrī Vidyā: Kṣetreśī is the sovereign of the field; the Goddess as the lord-consciousness presiding over the domain of manifestation.
343. क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञपालिनी — Kṣetra-kṣetrajña-pālinī
Translation: The protectress of both the field (kṣetra) and the knower of the field (kṣetrajña).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She protects both the field and its knower — both the known world and the conscious witness within it. The apavāda: the Gītā's kṣetra (the changing known) and kṣetrajña (the witnessing knower) are the two poles of all experience; she “protects both” as the one reality that sustains each — and, being their common ground, she is finally that in which the very distinction of known and knower dissolves. She upholds the seer and the seen, and is beyond their pair.
Śrī Vidyā: Kṣetra-kṣetrajña-pālinī guards both the field and the field-knower; the Goddess as the ground sustaining both object and witnessing subject.
344. क्षयवृद्धिविनिर्मुक्ता — Kṣaya-vṛddhi-vinirmuktā
Translation: Free of decrease (kṣaya) and increase (vṛddhi).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is free of waning and waxing. The apavāda: increase and decrease belong to the field, which grows and diminishes (as the moon's digits, as all that is born); she, the knower beyond the field, neither gains nor loses — the Full (Pūrṇā), to which nothing can be added and from which nothing taken (recall the pūrṇam invocation). The changeless does not change with what changes in it.
Śrī Vidyā: Kṣaya-vṛddhi-vinirmuktā is beyond increase and decrease; the immutable Absolute, untouched by the waxing and waning of the field.
345. क्षेत्रपालसमर्चिता — Kṣetrapāla-samarcitā
Translation: Worshipped by the Kṣetrapālas (the fierce guardian-deities of sacred fields/places).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is worshipped by the Kṣetrapālas — the guardian powers of holy places. The apavāda: as Bhairava and the great gods worship her, so these fierce guardians do; the protectors of the sacred field themselves revere the lady of the field — the guardians guarding, in the end, the access to her. Their worship is the field's powers turned toward their own ground.
Śrī Vidyā: Kṣetrapāla-samarcitā is worshipped by the Kṣetrapālas, the Bhairava-guardians of sacred sites; the Goddess revered by the protectors of the holy field.
Śloka 77
विजया विमला वन्द्या वन्दारुजनवत्सला ।
वाग्वादिनी वामकेशी वह्निमण्डलवासिनी ॥ ७७॥
vijayā vimalā vandyā vandāru-jana-vatsalā |
vāg-vādinī vāma-keśī vahni-maṇḍala-vāsinī ǁ 77 ǁ
346. विजया — Vijayā
Translation: Vijayā — the ever-victorious; Victory itself.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the victorious” — Victory itself (and a name of her attendant Śakti). The apavāda: the victory she is, is the final one — the conquest of ignorance, the war on Bhaṇḍa won by mere beholding; she is vijayā as the assured triumph of the real over the unreal, a victory never in doubt because the unreal was never truly there to win against. Hers is the victory that was already accomplished.
Śrī Vidyā: Vijayā is the ever-victorious Goddess (and the name of one of her flanking Śaktis, with Jayā); the assured triumph of the Devī.
347. विमला — Vimalā
Translation: Vimalā — the spotless, the perfectly pure (free of mala).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the stainless” — utterly pure (echoing Nirmalā). The apavāda: vimala is without mala, the dross of limitation; she is the ever-pure awareness no impurity ever touched — the clear mirror, the unstained sky. Purity here is not cleansed but innate, recognised rather than achieved.
Śrī Vidyā: Vimalā is the spotless Absolute (and a name of one of her attendant powers); the immaculate purity of consciousness.
348. वन्द्या — Vandyā
Translation: Vandyā — the adorable, worthy of all salutation (vandana).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “to be saluted” — worthy of reverence by all. The apavāda: as Mahā-pūjyā, she is the supreme object of homage; vandyā names her as that before which all bow — and the bowing, rightly understood, is the self bending toward its own source, reverence being the heart's recognition of what is higher, which is finally its own deepest Self.
Śrī Vidyā: Vandyā is the adorable Goddess, saluted by all; worthy of the reverence of gods and seekers alike.
349. वन्दारुजनवत्सला — Vandāru-jana-vatsalā
Translation: Tenderly affectionate (vatsalā) toward those who bow to her (vandāru-jana).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “tender toward the worshipping folk” — full of vātsalya, the cow's love for her calf, toward those who revere her. The apavāda: the maternal tenderness (recall Ambikā) flows to all who turn to her — and the “bowing” that draws her love is simply the turning toward, the heart's inclination homeward; she meets the least movement of devotion with the whole tenderness of the Mother. Her affection answers the first step of return.
Śrī Vidyā: Vandāru-jana-vatsalā is lovingly tender to her devotees; the maternal vātsalya of the Goddess toward all who bow to her.
350. वाग्वादिनी — Vāg-vādinī
Translation: Vāg-vādinī — she who speaks (vāda) as/through speech (vāk); the power of eloquence.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the speaker of the word” — the power of speech and eloquence (akin to Vāgdevī). The apavāda: she is Vāk, the Word, speaking through every speaker; vāg-vādinī is awareness as the speaking-power, the one voice that articulates through all voices — and the eloquence she grants the devotee is her own self-utterance through them. (The eight Vāgdevīs who composed this very hymn are her powers.)
Śrī Vidyā: Vāg-vādinī is the goddess of speech and eloquence; the power of Vāk, source of the inspired word — kin to the Vāg-devatās who uttered the Sahasranāma.
351. वामकेशी — Vāma-keśī
Translation: Vāma-keśī — of beautiful hair (vāma — lovely; keśa — hair).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her hair is lovely (vāma, beautiful). The apavāda is light: a return, for a breath, to the beloved form (recall Nīla-cikurā, the dark locks) — beauty enjoyed in freedom, the gracious form held dear without being mistaken for the whole. The loveliness of her hair is one more delight of the Mother freely given to the eye of love.
Śrī Vidyā: Vāma-keśī has beautiful hair; an aspect of the dhyāna-form, and a name associated with the Vāmakeśvara-tantra, a root text of the Śrī Vidyā.
352. वह्निमण्डलवासिनी — Vahni-maṇḍala-vāsinī
Translation: Who dwells in the orb of fire (vahni-maṇḍala).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The cadence seats her, after the moon and the sun, in the orb of fire. The apavāda: fire (vahni) is the burning light of pure consciousness and the digestive-transformative power within; to dwell in the fire-orb is to be the central flame — the light that both illumines and consumes, burning the fuel of ignorance to ash (recall the Kāmeśvara-fire that burnt Bhaṇḍa). With moon, sun, and now fire, the three inner luminaries are complete, and she is the dweller at the heart of each — the one light in the three lights.
Śrī Vidyā: Vahni-maṇḍala-vāsinī dwells in the fire-circle (agni-maṇḍala) of the inner body; with the lunar and solar seats, she completes the three maṇḍalas of sun, moon, and fire — the agnīṣomātmaka cosmos centred in her.
Devanagari per the sanskritdocuments.org recension (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Uttarakhaṇḍa; Hayagrīva–Agastya saṃvāda). Transliteration, translation, and commentary original to this edition. — End of Part XI.
