Part XII — Nāmas 353–397 (Ślokas 78–87): The Bond-Loosener, “That Thou Art,” and the Four Voices
ॐ श्रीमात्रे नमः · oṃ śrīmātre namaḥ
Grace, the great saying, and the four voices
Part XII gathers some of the hymn's most explicit teaching. It opens with grace — the wish-granting creeper for the devoted, the loosener of the fetters that bind the creature, the cooling moonlight to those scorched by the threefold fire of suffering. Then come the great Vedāntic names: she is Citi, pure consciousness; she is “the indicated meaning of the word Tat” — the very reality pointed to in the Upaniṣad's “That thou art”; she is one undivided savour of awareness, beside a particle of whose bliss the joys of Brahmā and the gods are mere drops. She is the four levels of speech — Parā, Paśyantī, Madhyamā, Vaikharī — sound descending from the silent source to the spoken word. She is the life-breath of Kāmeśvara, worshipped by desire, brimming with the savour of love; she dwells in the three great seats of the Goddess. She is the witness of all and yet beyond all witnessing; the ever-tender, the matchless, the giver of the bliss of liberation; the sixteen-fold eternal, sharing half of Śiva's body. And she is named, at the last, the root-nature of all, the unmanifest, the very form of knowledge and of ignorance — the one reality that both binds and frees. Throughout, the teaching is single: she is the consciousness the Upaniṣad calls “That,” which the seeker is.
॥ श्रीललितासहस्रनामस्तोत्रम् ॥
The Thousand Names — Ślokas 78–87 (Nāmas 353–403)
Śloka 78
भक्तिमत्कल्पलतिका पशुपाश-विमोचिनी ।
संहृताशेष-पाषण्डा सदाचार-प्रवर्तिका ॥ ७८॥
bhaktimat-kalpa-latikā paśu-pāśa-vimocinī |
saṃhṛtāśeṣa-pāṣaṇḍā sadācāra-pravartikā ǁ 78 ǁ
After the fire-orb, the hymn turns to grace and its work in the seeker. The first name sets the key: to those who love her she is the wish-granting creeper, giving not measured boons but whatever the heart asks — and, at the summit, herself. The names that follow show grace at work: loosening the bonds of the fettered creature, dissolving false and faithless views, and setting the feet on right conduct. The movement is from gift, to release, to the establishing of the seeker on the path.
353. भक्तिमत्कल्पलतिका — Bhaktimat-kalpa-latikā
Translation: The wish-granting creeper (kalpa-latikā) for those full of devotion (bhaktimat).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: To the devoted she is the kalpa-latā, the celestial creeper that yields whatever is wished. The apavāda: where the wish-tree gives objects, the supreme gift of this creeper is herself — for the devotee who has her wants nothing else, and to such a one she withholds nothing, granting at last the only gift that ends all wishing, the Self. She bends, like a vine heavy with fruit, toward the loving heart.
Śrī Vidyā: Bhaktimat-kalpa-latikā is the wish-fulfilling creeper for her devotees; grace that grants both bhukti and mukti to those who love her.
354. पशुपाशविमोचिनी — Paśu-pāśa-vimocinī
Translation: The loosener of the bonds (pāśa) of the fettered creature (paśu).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: A central name of the Śaiva-Śākta vision: she unties the pāśa, the noose, that binds the paśu, the bound creature. The apavāda: the paśu is the self that takes itself to be limited, tethered; the pāśa is the knot of ignorance and its derivatives — the same knots (granthi) the kuṇḍalinī pierced; she “looses the bond” by the rising of knowledge, in which the creature discovers it was never truly tied. The Pāśupata-fire that burnt the demon's host (Part IV) is here the grace that frees the inner creature.
Śrī Vidyā: Paśu-pāśa-vimocinī cuts the bonds of the paśu; in the Śaiva analysis she frees from the three pāśas (the three malas — āṇava, māyīya, kārma), the work of liberating grace (anugraha).
355. संहृताशेषपाषण्डा — Saṃhṛtāśeṣa-pāṣaṇḍā
Translation: Who has dissolved all false and heterodox views (pāṣaṇḍa) — every error contrary to truth.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She withdraws and dissolves all pāṣaṇḍa — false, faithless, deceiving views. The apavāda, read inwardly: the “heretical views” are the mind's wrong convictions about the real — chiefly the great false view that one is a separate, bound self; she “dissolves them all” by the dawn of right knowledge, in which every misconception about the Self is undone. The error destroyed is finally the one error: mistaking the rope for the snake. (No outer sectarian polemic is intended; the apavāda turns the name inward upon the seeker's own false views.)
Śrī Vidyā: Saṃhṛtāśeṣa-pāṣaṇḍā dissolves all false doctrines; read here not as sectarian condemnation but as the inner clearing of every view contrary to the truth of the Self.
356. सदाचारप्रवर्तिका — Sadācāra-pravartikā
Translation: Who sets in motion (pravartikā) right conduct (sad-ācāra).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She establishes sadācāra — right, true conduct. The apavāda: sat-ācāra is conduct grounded in the real (sat); she “sets it in motion” by purifying the heart at its source (recall Durācāra-śamanī), so that right action flows not from imposed rule but from the natural goodness of a self turned toward its ground. True conduct is the spontaneous expression of an inward-turned life.
Śrī Vidyā: Sadācāra-pravartikā founds and promotes right conduct; the grace that orders the devotee's life toward the true, the basis (ācāra) on which the higher path is built.
Śloka 79
तापत्रयाग्नि-सन्तप्त-समाह्लादन-चन्द्रिका ।
तरुणी तापसाराध्या तनुमध्या तमोऽपहा ॥ ७९॥
tāpatrayāgni-santapta-samāhlādana-candrikā |
taruṇī tāpasārādhyā tanu-madhyā tamo'pahā ǁ 79 ǁ
357. तापत्रयाग्निसन्तप्तसमाह्लादनचन्द्रिका — Tāpatrayāgni-santapta-samāhlādana-candrikā
Translation: The cooling moonlight (candrikā) that gladdens those scorched by the fire of the three afflictions (tāpa-traya).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: To those burnt by the three fires of suffering she is cool moonlight, gladdening and soothing. The apavāda: the tāpa-traya — the threefold affliction (from oneself, from other beings, from fate and the elements) — is the heat of saṃsāra; she is the candrikā, the nectar-cool moonbeam that quenches it, not by altering circumstance but by the peace (Śāntā) of the Self, in whose recognition the very ground of suffering is seen through. Her moonlight is the coolness of liberation falling on the fevered world.
Śrī Vidyā: Tāpatrayāgni-santapta-samāhlādana-candrikā is the cooling moonlight to the heat-scorched; the Goddess's grace as the amṛta-cool relief from the threefold misery of existence.
358. तरुणी — Taruṇī
Translation: Taruṇī — the ever-young, eternally fresh.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the young one” — ever fresh, never aging. The apavāda: youth here is not a stage of the body but timelessness wearing the face of freshness; she is taruṇī as the eternally new (Nityā), the consciousness that never grows old because it is never in time — the dawn-fresh awareness, always at its first morning. (Recall Bālā, the girl-form; here the freshness is named directly.)
Śrī Vidyā: Taruṇī is the ever-youthful Goddess, perpetually sixteen; the freshness of the deathless, never touched by age.
359. तापसाराध्या — Tāpasārādhyā
Translation: Who is worshipped (ārādhyā) by the ascetics (tāpasa).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The ascetics — those who have turned from the world to the inner fire — worship her. The apavāda: the tāpasa, having renounced the outer, seeks the inmost; and what such seeking finds, at its end, is she — the Self that austerity was clearing the way toward. She is “worshipped by the ascetics” as the goal toward which all genuine renunciation bends.
Śrī Vidyā: Tāpasārādhyā is adored by the ascetics and sages; the Goddess sought through tapas, the fruit of austerity.
360. तनुमध्या — Tanu-madhyā
Translation: Of slender waist (tanu-madhya).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Slender-waisted — the slim middle, recurring. The apavāda recalls the earlier teaching (Śātodarī, Bisatantu-tanīyasī): the all-but-absent waist is the subtle, scarcely-there centre, the fine thread of the central channel; even in praising the form, the name points to the supreme subtlety at the core. A light touch of beauty that is also a pointer inward.
Śrī Vidyā: Tanu-madhyā has a slender waist; an echo of the earlier form-praise, the subtlety of the central suṣumṇā hinted in the fineness of the middle.
361. तमोऽपहा — Tamo'pahā
Translation: The dispeller of darkness (tamas) — of ignorance and inertia.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She drives away tamas — darkness, both the inertia-guṇa and the dark of ignorance. The apavāda: tamas is the obscuring, the dullness that veils the light; she is its dispeller as the self-luminous awareness before which no darkness can stand — light does not fight the dark, it simply ends it by being. To know her is for the inner darkness to be already gone.
Śrī Vidyā: Tamo'pahā removes darkness and ignorance; the light of consciousness dispelling the tamas of avidyā.
Śloka 80
चितिस्तत्पद-लक्ष्यार्था चिदेकरस-रूपिणी ।
स्वात्मानन्द-लवीभूत-ब्रह्माद्यानन्द-सन्ततिः ॥ ८०॥
citis tat-pada-lakṣyārthā cid-eka-rasa-rūpiṇī |
svātmānanda-lavī-bhūta-brahmādyānanda-santatiḥ ǁ 80 ǁ
This śloka is among the most directly Vedāntic in the hymn. She is Citi, consciousness itself; and then, in a single name, the whole of the great saying is invoked: she is “the meaning indicated by the word Tat” (tat-pada-lakṣyārtha) — for in “tat tvam asi,” “That thou art,” the word “That” (tat) points to the supreme reality, and she is precisely that reality. The “thou” (tvam) is the seeker's own innermost awareness; and the sentence teaches their identity. She is one undivided savour of consciousness; and beside a single particle of her bliss, the joys of Brahmā and all the gods are but scattered drops. The teaching could not be plainer: she is the “That” the Upaniṣad declares the seeker to be.
362. चितिः — Citiḥ
Translation: Citiḥ — pure consciousness itself.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Citi — consciousness, not as an attribute but as the very principle. The apavāda: citi is awareness in its pure, active self-luminosity — not “a” consciousness belonging to someone, but the consciousness by which all is known, prior to the split of knower and known. Echoing Cin-mayī and Cid-eka-rasa, she is named here in a single word as the awareness that is the ground of all. (Distinguished, in the next nāma-pair, from inert matter as its very opposite and source.)
Śrī Vidyā: Citiḥ is pure consciousness, the cit-śakti; the self-luminous awareness that the whole non-dual tradition holds to be the sole reality.
363. तत्पदलक्ष्यार्था — Tat-pada-lakṣyārthā
Translation: The reality indicated (lakṣyārtha) by the word “That” (tat) — as in “tat tvam asi,” “That thou art.”
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The great name: she is “the indicated meaning of the word Tat.” The apavāda makes the hymn's teaching explicit: in the mahāvākya “tat tvam asi” — “That thou art” — the word “That” (tat) does not point to its literal sense (the remote, qualified Lord) but, by implication (lakṣaṇā), to the pure reality behind it; and she is that lakṣyārtha, the implied reality. So too “thou” (tvam) points past the limited self to the same pure awareness within — and the sentence declares their identity. She is the “That,” and the seeker's inmost “thou” is none other; to know her is to know oneself as she. This is the heart of the whole edition's reading.
Śrī Vidyā: Tat-pada-lakṣyārthā is the implied meaning of “That” in the mahāvākya “tat tvam asi”; the supreme Brahman the Upaniṣad identifies with the innermost self of the seeker.
364. चिदेकरसरूपिणी — Cid-eka-rasa-rūpiṇī
Translation: Whose form is the one, undivided savour (eka-rasa) of pure consciousness (cit).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the form of the one savour of consciousness.” The apavāda: eka-rasa, “single-savoured,” means homogeneous, of one uniform taste throughout (as the sea is salt everywhere); she is consciousness of one unbroken savour, without the least internal difference — the vijñāna-ghana named again as a single, seamless relish. There is no second flavour in her, no gap of unconsciousness anywhere: pure awareness, all the way through.
Śrī Vidyā: Cid-eka-rasa-rūpiṇī is of the nature of the one undivided consciousness; the homogeneous cit, of a single savour, without inner division — the seamless awareness of the Upaniṣad.
365. स्वात्मानन्दलवीभूतब्रह्माद्यानन्दसन्ततिः — Svātmānanda-lavī-bhūta-brahmādyānanda-santatiḥ
Translation: Beside a mere particle (lava) of the bliss of whose own Self (svātmānanda), the whole series of the joys of Brahmā and the other gods is but a fraction.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: A sweeping name: the entire range of the joys of Brahmā and the gods is but a tiny fraction of a single particle of the bliss of her own Self. The apavāda: this is the Taittirīya Upaniṣad's “measurement of bliss,” where each higher being's joy is a hundredfold the last, and all of them together are a drop beside the bliss of Brahman; she is that supreme ānanda, beside which even the celestial felicities are scattered droplets. Her bliss is not the greatest among joys but the ocean of which all joys are spray. (Paramānandā, now measured against all lesser bliss.)
Śrī Vidyā: Svātmānanda-lavī-bhūta-brahmādyānanda-santatiḥ is the supreme bliss measured in the Taittirīya's ānanda-mīmāṃsā; the brahmānanda of which all divine joys are infinitesimal fractions.
Śloka 81
परा प्रत्यक्चितीरूपा पश्यन्ती परदेवता ।
मध्यमा वैखरीरूपा भक्तमानस-हंसिका ॥ ८१॥
parā pratyak-citī-rūpā paśyantī para-devatā |
madhyamā vaikharī-rūpā bhakta-mānasa-haṃsikā ǁ 81 ǁ
Here the hymn names the Goddess as the four levels of speech — the Śrī Vidyā's account of how the one silent awareness becomes the spoken word. Parā is the supreme, transcendent sound, speech still one with consciousness at the source; Paśyantī (“the seeing”) is the first stir, the word as undivided vision before it parts into meaning and sound; Madhyamā (“the middle”) is the inner, mental word, thought not yet uttered; Vaikharī is the gross, articulate speech of the tongue. She is all four — the whole descent of the Word from silence to utterance, and the ascent back. Set among them, Pratyak-citī-rūpā, “the inward-turned consciousness,” names the same reality as the indwelling Self, and Para-devatā as the supreme deity; and the verse closes with the tender image of the swan swimming in the lake of the devotee's mind.
366. परा — Parā
Translation: Parā — the supreme; the transcendent level of speech, one with the silent source.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Parā — “the supreme,” and the highest of the four levels of speech. The apavāda: Parā-vāk is the Word at its source, not yet sound or meaning, speech still undivided from the consciousness that is about to speak; she is that supreme, transcendent level — the silence pregnant with all utterance, the Word before the first stir. Parā is also simply “the Highest,” the supreme reality as such.
Śrī Vidyā: Parā is the supreme level of speech (parā-vāk), one with consciousness at the bindu; the transcendent Word, source of the other three, and the supreme Goddess herself.
367. प्रत्यक्चितीरूपा — Pratyak-citī-rūpā
Translation: Whose form is the inward-turned consciousness (pratyak-citi) — the indwelling Self.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the form of the inward consciousness” — pratyak, the inner-facing, the Self that is ever subject and never object. The apavāda: where the world-ward gaze runs outward to objects, pratyak-citi is awareness turned back upon itself, the indwelling seer that cannot be seen because it is the seeing; she is that inmost “I,” the witness that is the “thou” of “That thou art.” To find her is to turn the gaze around.
Śrī Vidyā: Pratyak-citī-rūpā is the indwelling, inward consciousness (pratyag-ātman); the inner Self that is the true referent of “I,” the tvam of the mahāvākya.
368. पश्यन्ती — Paśyantī
Translation: Paśyantī — the second level of speech, the “seeing” word, vision before division.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Paśyantī — “the seeing one,” the second level of speech. The apavāda: at this stage the Word has stirred from the supreme silence but has not yet split into meaning-and-sound; it is a single, undivided “seeing,” the intuition of what is to be said before it parts into parts. She is that first articulation-that-is-not-yet-articulate — vision on the verge of becoming word.
Śrī Vidyā: Paśyantī is the second level of speech, the undivided “seeing” word arising from Parā; the first subtle stir of utterance, still one and whole.
369. परदेवता — Para-devatā
Translation: Para-devatā — the supreme deity.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the supreme deity” — the highest divinity, above all gods. The apavāda: para-devatā names her as the ultimate object of all worship, the one reality of which every deity is a face (recall Mahādevī, Mahā-pūjyā); the supreme godhead that is, in truth, not other than the inward Self just named (Pratyak-citi) — the highest “That” which is the inmost “thou.”
Śrī Vidyā: Para-devatā is the supreme deity, the parā-śakti above all gods; the highest divinity of the Śrī Vidyā, identical with the inmost Self.
370. मध्यमा — Madhyamā
Translation: Madhyamā — the third level of speech, the inner mental word.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Madhyamā — “the middle,” the third level. The apavāda: here the Word has become the inner, mental speech — thought formed and meaningful, but not yet spoken aloud; the silent sentence in the mind, poised between the subtle vision (Paśyantī) and the gross utterance (Vaikharī). She is that intermediate word, speech as inward thinking.
Śrī Vidyā: Madhyamā is the third, intermediate level of speech — the mental word, thought articulated within but unspoken; the link between the subtle and the gross Word.
371. वैखरीरूपा — Vaikharī-rūpā
Translation: Whose form is Vaikharī — the fourth level, gross articulate speech.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the form of Vaikharī” — the fourth and outermost level, the audible speech of the tongue. The apavāda: Vaikharī is the Word fully descended into sound, the spoken language of the world; she is even this — the whole descent complete, the silent source now become the audible word. From Parā to Vaikharī she is the entire ladder of speech; every word spoken anywhere is, at its root, her. (Recall Nāda-rūpā: the one sound unfolding into all.)
Śrī Vidyā: Vaikharī-rūpā is the gross, articulate level of speech, the spoken word; the last of the four vāks, in which the Word becomes audible — the Goddess as the whole spectrum of speech from silence to sound.
372. भक्तमानसहंसिका — Bhakta-mānasa-haṃsikā
Translation: The swan (haṃsikā) that sports in the lake of the devotee's mind (bhakta-mānasa).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: A tender, beautiful image: she is the little swan swimming in the mānasa-lake of the devotee's mind. The apavāda: the swan (haṃsa) is the traditional emblem of the discerning spirit — said to separate milk from water — and of the Self (so'ham / haṃsa); she “sports as the swan in the lake of the devotee's mind” as the indwelling Self gliding in the cleared waters of a heart turned toward her — the discernment (viveka) that parts the real from the unreal, playing in the devotee's own awareness. The supreme reality, at home in the lake of the loving mind. (Mānasa is also the sacred lake; the pun is intended.)
Śrī Vidyā: Bhakta-mānasa-haṃsikā is the swan in the lake of the devotee's mind; the haṃsa (the Self, and the discerning spirit) dwelling and delighting in the purified heart of the devotee.
Śloka 82
कामेश्वर-प्राणनाडी कृतज्ञा कामपूजिता ।
शृङ्गाररस-सम्पूर्णा जया जालन्धर-स्थिता ॥ ८२॥
kāmeśvara-prāṇa-nāḍī kṛtajñā kāma-pūjitā |
śṛṅgāra-rasa-sampūrṇā jayā jālandhara-sthitā ǁ 82 ǁ
373. कामेश्वरप्राणनाडी — Kāmeśvara-prāṇa-nāḍī
Translation: The very life-channel (prāṇa-nāḍī) of Kāmeśvara (Śiva).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the life-vein of Kāmeśvara — the very channel of his life-breath. The apavāda: as breath is to the living body, she is to Śiva — that without which he is the inert “corpse” of the earlier image (Pañca-pretāsanā); she is his life, his very animacy, so intimately one with him that he lives by her as the body lives by breath. The image states the non-difference at its most intimate: not two beside each other, but the one alive only as the other. (Recall: Śiva is Śava, a corpse, without Śakti.)
Śrī Vidyā: Kāmeśvara-prāṇa-nāḍī is the life-current of Śiva-Kāmeśvara; the Śakti as the very life of Śiva, without whom he is inert — the supreme statement of their non-difference.
374. कृतज्ञा — Kṛtajñā
Translation: Kṛtajñā — the all-knowing (knower of all that is done); and the grateful.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Kṛtajñā — literally “knower of what is done,” hence both the omniscient witness of all action and “the grateful.” The apavāda: as the witness (Sākṣiṇī), she knows every deed, for all action happens in her light; and read as “grateful,” the name tells of grace that answers even the smallest offering manyfold — she “knows what is done” for her and returns it boundlessly. The knower of all deeds is also the one who forgets no act of love.
Śrī Vidyā: Kṛtajñā knows all that is done (the witness of every act) and is grateful for the least devotion; the Goddess who remembers and rewards even a little worship.
375. कामपूजिता — Kāma-pūjitā
Translation: Who is worshipped by Kāma (the god of love), and through desire rightly turned.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is worshipped by Kāma — the god of love whom she revived (Part V). The apavāda: Kāma, restored, worships his restorer; desire itself, returned to its source, becomes worship — for kāma turned Godward is bhakti, the longing of the heart for its true beloved. She is “worshipped by desire” when desire, no longer scattered on objects, gathers into love of her. The arc completes: desire burnt, revived, and now offering itself in worship.
Śrī Vidyā: Kāma-pūjitā is worshipped by Kāma; desire itself, revived and consecrated, becomes the worship of the Goddess — the kaula transmutation of kāma into devotion.
376. शृङ्गाररससम्पूर्णा — Śṛṅgāra-rasa-sampūrṇā
Translation: Brimming (sampūrṇā) with the savour of love and beauty (śṛṅgāra-rasa).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is filled to the brim with śṛṅgāra-rasa — the savour of love and beauty, the first and “king” of the aesthetic flavours. The apavāda: śṛṅgāra is the rasa of union and delight, and she is full of it — yet, as Rasyā taught, all rasa is finally the one bliss; her fullness of the love-savour is the ānanda of the Self brimming over, the beauty (saundarya) that is the overflow of bliss. She is replete with the sweetness of love because she is the source of all sweetness.
Śrī Vidyā: Śṛṅgāra-rasa-sampūrṇā is full of the savour of love and beauty; the Goddess as the embodiment of śṛṅgāra-rasa, the aesthetic-erotic delight that the Saundarya-laharī sings.
377. जया — Jayā
Translation: Jayā — the victorious; Victory.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Jayā — “victory,” victorious (and the name of one of her flanking Śaktis, with Vijayā). The apavāda: as Vijayā before, her victory is the assured triumph of the real; Jayā names that conquest sounded again, the victory-power ever at her side — the success that crowns the turning toward her.
Śrī Vidyā: Jayā is victorious, and one of the attendant Śaktis (Jayā and Vijayā); the victory-power of the Goddess.
378. जालन्धरस्थिता — Jālandhara-sthitā
Translation: Who is seated in (presides over) the Jālandhara pīṭha (a great seat of the Goddess).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She abides in Jālandhara — one of the great pīṭhas, the sacred seats of the Goddess. The apavāda: a pīṭha is a place where the divine power is felt concentrated, a focus for the seeker; and in the inner reading the pīṭhas are also centres within the subtle body — Jālandhara associated with the throat. She “is seated” there as the power localised, for love and for yoga, at a sacred point — the omnipresent met at a particular seat. (The three great pīṭhas — Jālandhara, Oḍyāṇa, and the Bindu — are named across this and the next śloka.)
Śrī Vidyā: Jālandhara-sthitā presides over the Jālandhara pīṭha (in the north-west; inwardly associated with the throat centre); one of the principal Śākta seats of power, an abode of the Goddess.
Śloka 83
ओड्याणपीठ-निलया बिन्दु-मण्डलवासिनी ।
रहोयाग-क्रमाराध्या रहस्तर्पण-तर्पिता ॥ ८३॥
oḍyāṇa-pīṭha-nilayā bindu-maṇḍala-vāsinī |
rahoyāga-kramārādhyā rahas-tarpaṇa-tarpitā ǁ 83 ǁ
379. ओड्याणपीठनिलया — Oḍyāṇa-pīṭha-nilayā
Translation: Whose abode is the Oḍyāṇa (Oḍḍiyāna) pīṭha.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She dwells in the Oḍyāṇa pīṭha — another of the great seats. The apavāda: as with Jālandhara, the sacred seat is a concentration of her presence and, inwardly, a centre of the subtle body (Oḍyāṇa associated with the head or the brow); she is met there as the power localised for the seeker, the everywhere-present focused at a holy point. The pilgrimage to the outer seat mirrors the inward ascent to the corresponding centre.
Śrī Vidyā: Oḍyāṇa-pīṭha-nilayā resides in the Oḍḍiyāna pīṭha (inwardly associated with the head/ājñā region); a principal Śākta seat, abode of the Goddess.
380. बिन्दुमण्डलवासिनी — Bindu-maṇḍala-vāsinī
Translation: Who dwells in the bindu-maṇḍala — the central point of the Śrī Cakra.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She dwells in the bindu-maṇḍala — the central point of the Śrī Cakra, the supreme seat at the very centre. The apavāda: the bindu is the point without dimension at the heart of the diagram, the source from which the whole Cakra unfolds and into which it withdraws; to dwell in the bindu is to be the dimensionless centre of all — the still point that is the source of the manifest, the “place” that is no place but the origin of every place. After the outer pīṭhas, the innermost seat: the centre of the centre. (Recall Cakra-rāja-niketanā — here the very bindu.)
Śrī Vidyā: Bindu-maṇḍala-vāsinī dwells in the central bindu of the Śrī Cakra, the supreme seat; the dimensionless point that is the source and centre of the entire yantra — the highest of the seats, the others being its expansions.
381. रहोयागक्रमाराध्या — Rahoyāga-kramārādhyā
Translation: Who is worshipped by the sequence (krama) of the secret rite (raho-yāga).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is worshipped by the raho-yāga — the secret, inner worship, performed in seclusion according to the proper sequence. The apavāda: the truly secret worship is the inmost one — the offering of the self in the privacy of the heart, beyond all outer show; she is worshipped “in secret” because the highest upāsanā is internal and silent (recall Samayāntaḥsthā), seen by none, the self's solitary turning to its source. The secrecy is not concealment but inwardness.
Śrī Vidyā: Rahoyāga-kramārādhyā is adored by the secret rite in its due sequence; the esoteric internal worship of the Śrī Vidyā, performed in seclusion — its detail belonging to the initiate.
382. रहस्तर्पणतर्पिता — Rahas-tarpaṇa-tarpitā
Translation: Who is gratified (tarpitā) by the secret oblation/libation (rahas-tarpaṇa).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is gratified by the secret tarpaṇa — the inner offering, the libation made in secret. The apavāda: tarpaṇa is the satisfying oblation, and the secret one is the offering of the inner nectar, the contemplative pouring-out of the self into her; she is “satisfied by the secret offering” as awareness is fulfilled when the seeker offers, not external substances, but the very sense of being a separate offerer. What satisfies her is the inward gift. (Recall Mahā-yāga-kramārādhyā — the great sacrifice that is the offering of the self.)
Śrī Vidyā: Rahas-tarpaṇa-tarpitā is pleased by the secret oblation; the inner tarpaṇa of the esoteric worship, in which the offering and the offerer are given to the Goddess — disclosed within the parampara.
Śloka 84
सद्यःप्रसादिनी विश्वसाक्षिणी साक्षिवर्जिता ।
षडङ्गदेवता-युक्ता षाड्गुण्य-परिपूरिता ॥ ८४॥
sadyaḥ-prasādinī viśva-sākṣiṇī sākṣi-varjitā |
ṣaḍaṅga-devatā-yuktā ṣāḍguṇya-paripūritā ǁ 84 ǁ
At the centre of this śloka stands a small but complete teaching about the witness. She is Viśva-sākṣiṇī, the witness of all — the one awareness in whose presence the entire world is seen, herself unseen. And then, at once, Sākṣi-varjitā, “devoid of the witness” — for “witness” is a relative term, implying something witnessed; where there is truly no second, the very notion of a witness over against a witnessed falls away. She is the witness of all, and beyond even being a witness: pure awareness, neither subject nor object, when the last duality of seer-and-seen dissolves.
383. सद्यःप्रसादिनी — Sadyaḥ-prasādinī
Translation: Who is swiftly (sadyaḥ) pleased and bestows grace at once.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “instantly gracious” — pleased and bestowing without delay. The apavāda: her grace is immediate because the Self is not far to be reached but ever-present to be recognised; the moment the heart truly turns, the grace is already there — there is no distance for it to travel, no waiting, for she is the seeker's own nearest being. The swiftness is the nearness.
Śrī Vidyā: Sadyaḥ-prasādinī is quickly pleased, granting grace at once; the Goddess swift to favour the sincere devotee.
384. विश्वसाक्षिणी — Viśva-sākṣiṇī
Translation: The witness (sākṣiṇī) of the entire universe (viśva).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the witness of all — the one consciousness in whose light the whole world appears. The apavāda: the sākṣin is the awareness that illumines all experience while itself unaffected, unseen, ever the subject; she is viśva-sākṣiṇī as the single witnessing presence behind every experience in every being — the one seer, never the seen. (Niṣkriyā, the actionless witness, now cosmic in scope.)
Śrī Vidyā: Viśva-sākṣiṇī is the witness-consciousness of the whole cosmos; the sākṣin of Vedānta, illumining all while untouched by all.
385. साक्षिवर्जिता — Sākṣi-varjitā
Translation: Sākṣi-varjitā — devoid even of the status of witness; beyond the witness-witnessed relation.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: And at once the deeper move: she is “without the witness” — beyond even being a witness. The apavāda: “witness” is a relational term — there is a witness only where there is something witnessed; but where there is truly no second (Advaya, Nirbhedā), the very relation collapses, and she is neither witness nor witnessed but pure awareness, prior to that last duality. As Turyā was further stripped by Sarvāvasthā-vivarjitā, so Viśva-sākṣiṇī is here completed by Sākṣi-varjitā: she witnesses all, and is beyond witnessing. The final subtlety — even the witness-stance is transcended.
Śrī Vidyā: Sākṣi-varjitā is beyond the witness-relation; the Absolute in which the duality of seer and seen wholly dissolves — pure consciousness, neither witness nor witnessed.
386. षडङ्गदेवतायुक्ता — Ṣaḍaṅga-devatā-yuktā
Translation: Who is attended by the six limb-deities (ṣaḍaṅga-devatā) of her mantra.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is joined with the six “limb-deities” — the powers of the six aṅgas of her mantra (heart, head, tuft, armour, eye, weapon). The apavāda: the six limbs are the protective and constituent powers invoked in the nyāsa at the outset; she is “joined with” them as a body with its limbs — the one reality articulated into its functional powers, which are not separate beings but her own members. (Recall the opening nyāsa, which placed these very powers upon the body.)
Śrī Vidyā: Ṣaḍaṅga-devatā-yuktā is attended by the six limb-deities of the mantra (the ṣaḍaṅga-nyāsa); the powers of the heart, head, tuft, armour, eye and weapon that constitute the mantra-body.
387. षाड्गुण्यपरिपूरिता — Ṣāḍguṇya-paripūritā
Translation: Perfectly full (paripūritā) of the six divine glories (ṣāḍguṇya).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is filled with the ṣāḍguṇya — the six divine perfections (sovereignty, might, glory, splendour, knowledge, dispassion), the very excellences that make the Bhagavān. The apavāda: the six glories (recall Bhagamālinī, Bhagavatī) are hers in fullness — yet, as Nirguṇā, she is also beyond all guṇa; ṣāḍguṇya-paripūritā names the manifest plenitude of divine excellence, the full bhaga of the supreme, the saguṇa fullness of the attributeless.
Śrī Vidyā: Ṣāḍguṇya-paripūritā is replete with the six bhagas (the divine glories that define bhagavattā); the fullness of divine majesty, as in Bhagamālinī and Bhagavatī.
Śloka 85
नित्यक्लिन्ना निरुपमा निर्वाणसुख-दायिनी ।
नित्या-षोडशिकारूपा श्रीकण्ठार्ध-शरीरिणी ॥ ८५॥
nitya-klinnā nirupamā nirvāṇa-sukha-dāyinī |
nityā-ṣoḍaśikā-rūpā śrīkaṇṭhārdha-śarīriṇī ǁ 85 ǁ
388. नित्यक्लिन्ना — Nitya-klinnā
Translation: Nitya-klinnā — ever-moist (with compassion); ever-tender, melting with grace.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “ever-moist” — perpetually softened, melting with compassion. The apavāda: klinna is the wetness of a heart moved to tenderness; she is nitya-klinnā as compassion that never dries (recall Sāndra-karuṇā, Karuṇā-rasa-sāgarā) — the Mother's heart always melting toward her children, never hardened, never indifferent. Her mercy is not occasional but her very constitution, ever-flowing.
Śrī Vidyā: Nitya-klinnā is the ever-compassionate, ever-tender Goddess (and one of the Nityā-devatās of the same name); the heart perpetually moist with grace.
389. निरुपमा — Nirupamā
Translation: Nirupamā — the incomparable, without likeness (upamā).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “without comparison” — there is no upamā, no simile, for her. The apavāda: as Nistulā before, comparison needs two, and she is the One without a second; nothing can be likened to her because there is no second thing to be the other term of the likeness. The incomparable is non-duality stated as the failure of all simile.
Śrī Vidyā: Nirupamā is the incomparable Absolute, beyond all likeness; matchless because beyond all duality.
390. निर्वाणसुखदायिनी — Nirvāṇa-sukha-dāyinī
Translation: The bestower of the bliss of liberation (nirvāṇa-sukha).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She gives the bliss of nirvāṇa — the felicity of liberation, of the “blowing out” of the separate self. The apavāda: nirvāṇa is the extinction not of being but of the false sense of a bounded self; the sukha of it is the native bliss that shines when that contraction is gone (recall Sukha-pradā, Paramānandā) — and she “gives” it by being it, the liberation-bliss that is the Self's own nature, uncovered. The supreme gift, named directly: the joy of freedom.
Śrī Vidyā: Nirvāṇa-sukha-dāyinī bestows the bliss of liberation; the Goddess as the giver of mokṣa and its ānanda, the supreme felicity of the freed.
391. नित्याषोडशिकारूपा — Nityā-ṣoḍaśikā-rūpā
Translation: Whose form is the eternal Sixteen — the Nityā-Ṣoḍaśī (the sixteenth eternal digit / the Ṣoḍaśī vidyā).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the form of the eternal Sixteen.” The apavāda: the sixteen nityās are the digits of the moon and the sixteen eternal powers, of which the sixteenth is the never-waning digit — the amā-kalā that remains when the other fifteen wax and wane; she is that ever-full sixteenth, the changeless fullness behind all phases (recall Niṣkalā, Pūrṇā). The Sixteen also name the supreme Ṣoḍaśī-vidyā, the crown of the Śrī Vidyā mantra. The fullness that does not wane is her form.
Śrī Vidyā: Nityā-ṣoḍaśikā-rūpā is the form of the sixteen Nityā-devatās and of the Ṣoḍaśī (Mahāṣoḍaśī) vidyā; the never-waning sixteenth digit (amā-kalā), the supreme form of the mantra — a summit of the tradition, its detail held within the parampara.
392. श्रीकण्ठार्धशरीरिणी — Śrīkaṇṭhārdha-śarīriṇī
Translation: Who is the half of the body of Śrīkaṇṭha (Śiva) — the Ardhanārīśvara.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the half of Śiva's own body — the left half of the Ardhanārīśvara, the Lord-who-is-half-woman. The apavāda: the single body, half Śiva and half Śakti, is the very icon of non-duality — not two beings embracing but one being, two-faced; she is “half of Śrīkaṇṭha's body” because she and he are one form, inseparable as a thing and its nature. Not joined, for they were never two; the half-and-half body shows the one reality wearing both faces at once. (Recall Kāmeśvara-prāṇa-nāḍī: she is his very life; here, his very body.)
Śrī Vidyā: Śrīkaṇṭhārdha-śarīriṇī is the half of Śiva's body, the Ardhanārīśvara; the supreme icon of Śiva-Śakti non-difference — one body, inseparably Śiva and Śakti.
Śloka 86
प्रभावती प्रभारूपा प्रसिद्धा परमेश्वरी ।
मूलप्रकृतिरव्यक्ता व्यक्ताव्यक्त-स्वरूपिणी ॥ ८६॥
prabhāvatī prabhā-rūpā prasiddhā parameśvarī |
mūla-prakṛtir avyaktā vyaktāvyakta-svarūpiṇī ǁ 86 ǁ
393. प्रभावती — Prabhāvatī
Translation: Prabhāvatī — the radiant, possessed of effulgence (prabhā).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “possessed of radiance” — luminous, full of prabhā. The apavāda: the radiance she has is the light of consciousness itself (recall Prakāśa, and the dawn-glow of Aruṇā); she is prabhāvatī as awareness shining by its own light, needing no other to illumine it — the self-luminous (svayam-prakāśa) that lights all else.
Śrī Vidyā: Prabhāvatī is the radiant Goddess, full of effulgence; the luminous power of consciousness.
394. प्रभारूपा — Prabhā-rūpā
Translation: Prabhā-rūpā — whose very form is light (prabhā).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the form of light” — radiance itself, not merely possessing it. The apavāda: deepening Prabhāvatī, she is not a luminous thing but luminosity as such — the very stuff of light, the shining that is consciousness; she is prabhā-rūpā as the self-effulgent awareness of which all light, outer and inner, is the expression. Light's own form.
Śrī Vidyā: Prabhā-rūpā is of the nature of light itself; the self-luminous consciousness (prakāśa), the radiance that is the Goddess's very being.
395. प्रसिद्धा — Prasiddhā
Translation: Prasiddhā — the ever-established, the renowned, the self-evident.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the well-established” — renowned, famed, and (in the deeper sense) self-evident, ever-accomplished. The apavāda: prasiddha means both “celebrated” and “already established, self-proven”; she is prasiddhā as the reality that needs no proof, ever-accomplished (Nitya-siddhā), self-evident as one's own being — the most obvious of all, were the gaze not turned away. She is renowned because she is the open secret, hidden only by her very obviousness.
Śrī Vidyā: Prasiddhā is the ever-established, self-evident, renowned Goddess; the reality that is siddha of itself, requiring no establishment.
396. परमेश्वरी — Parameśvarī
Translation: Parameśvarī — the supreme sovereign, the highest Lady.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Parameśvarī — “the supreme Goddess,” the highest sovereign. The apavāda: as Sarveśvarī, Bhuvaneśvarī before, her supreme lordship is not rule over an other but the all-transcending, all-pervading reality that is itself the only sovereign — the parā beyond which there is nothing to be lord of or lorded over. The highest, with none higher and, in truth, none other. (This is the name by which the hymn's own preamble calls her: Śrī-Lalitā-Parameśvarī.)
Śrī Vidyā: Parameśvarī is the supreme sovereign Goddess, the parā-śakti; the highest divinity, named so in the hymn's own viniyoga.
397. मूलप्रकृतिः — Mūla-prakṛtiḥ
Translation: The root-nature (mūla-prakṛti), the primordial source of all.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Mūla-prakṛti — the “root-nature,” the primordial matrix from which all manifestation springs. The apavāda: in the Sāṃkhya scheme mūla-prakṛti is the unmanifest seed-state of the cosmos before it differentiates; she is named so as the root-source — yet, in the non-dual reading, she is not a blind matter separate from spirit but the very power of consciousness in its unmanifest fullness (recall Jagatī-kandā, the root-bulb; the seed-state Prājña). The root of all, prior to all unfolding — and one with the consciousness it unfolds within. (The hymn's own dhyāna calls her mūla-prakṛti.)
Śrī Vidyā: Mūla-prakṛtiḥ is the root-nature, the matrix of manifestation; in the Śrī Vidyā, not inert prakṛti apart from spirit but the supreme Śakti as the root-ground — so named in the hymn's dhyāna.
398. अव्यक्ता — Avyaktā
Translation: Avyaktā — the unmanifest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Avyaktā — “the unmanifest,” the undifferentiated prior to all display. The apavāda: avyakta is the unevolved condition of the root-nature, the cosmos held latent before it unfolds; she is that unmanifest fullness (recall the seed-state Prājña, the causal). Yet, as the next name at once declares, she is not the unmanifest alone — she is the unmanifest that is also the manifest, the latent that is also the displayed. Named apart here only to be rejoined there.
Śrī Vidyā: Avyaktā is the unmanifest, the avyakta condition of the root-nature; the undifferentiated ground, paired in the next name with the manifest.
Śloka 87
व्यक्ताव्यक्त-स्वरूपिणी व्यापिनी विविधाकारा ।
विद्याविद्या-स्वरूपिणी महाकामेश-नयन-कुमुदाह्लाद-कौमुदी ॥ ८७॥
vyaktāvyakta-svarūpiṇī vyāpinī vividhākārā |
vidyāvidyā-svarūpiṇī mahā-kāmeśa-nayana-kumudāhlāda-kaumudī ǁ 87 ǁ
This śloka holds the pairs in which the whole non-dual teaching is gathered. Joining the unmanifest just named (Avyaktā) to the manifest, she is of the form of both at once; the all-pervading and the one of myriad forms; and — most pointedly — she is of the form of both vidyā and avidyā, both knowledge and ignorance. For the one power that veils (the cosmic concealment, Tirodhāna-karī) and the one that reveals (grace, Anugraha-dā) are not two powers but one, hers: avidyā, the ignorance that binds, and vidyā, the knowledge that frees, both arise in her and as her. And the verse closes in beauty: she is the moonlight that, falling, makes the night-lotus of Mahā-Kāmeśa's eyes open in delight — the radiance of the Goddess blossoming the gaze of the Lord.
399. व्यक्ताव्यक्तस्वरूपिणी — Vyaktāvyakta-svarūpiṇī
Translation: Whose form is both the manifest (vyakta) and the unmanifest (avyakta).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the form of both the manifest and the unmanifest. The apavāda: having just been named the unmanifest (Mūla-prakṛtiḥ, Avyaktā), she is now named as both the unmanifest and the manifest — for she is not only the hidden source but also the displayed world (Viśva-rūpā); the seed and the tree, the unexpressed and the expressed, are equally her. She spans the whole — that which has come forth and that from which it comes — and is the one reality in both conditions.
Śrī Vidyā: Vyaktāvyakta-svarūpiṇī is of the form of both manifest and unmanifest; the Goddess as the whole — the displayed cosmos and its hidden source alike.
400. व्यापिनी — Vyāpinī
Translation: Vyāpinī — the all-pervading.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the pervader” — present throughout all, leaving nothing outside her. The apavāda: as space pervades all without being touched, she pervades the whole of existence as its very substance (Sarva-mayī); vyāpinī names the all-pervadingness of the One — not spread thin across many places, but wholly present everywhere, for she is the being of each place. There is no “where” she is not, because there is no “where” that is not she.
Śrī Vidyā: Vyāpinī is the all-pervading Goddess; the omnipresent reality, pervading all as its ground, like space (vyāpaka).
401. विविधाकारा — Vividhākārā
Translation: Vividhākārā — of manifold, diverse forms.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of manifold forms” — assuming the countless shapes of the world. The apavāda: the one pervader (Vyāpinī) appears as the many (Vividhākārā) — the single reality wearing the endless diversity of forms, as the one gold takes a thousand shapes of ornament; she is of myriad forms without ceasing to be one, for the diversity is appearance, the unity is real. The all-pervading One is the all-various many.
Śrī Vidyā: Vividhākārā is of myriad forms; the one Goddess appearing as the endless diversity of the cosmos, unity in multiplicity.
402. विद्याविद्यास्वरूपिणी — Vidyāvidyā-svarūpiṇī
Translation: Whose form is both knowledge (vidyā) and ignorance (avidyā).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: A profound and pivotal name: she is of the form of both vidyā and avidyā — knowledge and ignorance alike. The apavāda: the power that veils the Self (avidyā, the cosmic concealment — Tirodhāna-karī) and the power that unveils it (vidyā, the liberating knowledge — Anugraha-dā) are not two opposed forces but one power, hers, in two motions. Avidyā binds and vidyā frees, but both are she — the single Śakti that hides itself in the many and finds itself again as the One; so that even the ignorance that seems to oppose her is her own play, and bondage and liberation are both her work. There is no second principle of darkness over against her; the veiling and the revealing are one Goddess. This is the non-dual resolution of the problem of ignorance: avidyā is not other than the Self's own power.
Śrī Vidyā: Vidyāvidyā-svarūpiṇī is of the form of both knowledge and ignorance; the one Śakti as both the binding avidyā (the veiling, māyā) and the liberating vidyā — concealment and grace as one power, not two.
403. महाकामेशनयनकुमुदाह्लादकौमुदी — Mahā-kāmeśa-nayana-kumudāhlāda-kaumudī
Translation: The moonlight (kaumudī) that gladdens, like opening night-lotuses (kumuda), the eyes of Mahā-Kāmeśa (Śiva).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The verse closes in an image of exquisite tenderness: she is the moonlight that makes the night-lotuses of Mahā-Kāmeśa's eyes blossom in delight. The apavāda: the kumuda, the night-lotus, opens only to the moon; Śiva's eyes are those lotuses, and she is the kaumudī, the moonlight, whose mere presence opens them in joy. The image says, once more, that he delights only in her — his very seeing blossoms at her radiance; the Lord's gaze comes alive only in the light of his own Śakti. Their union, named not as embrace but as light meeting the eyes it gladdens: she is the radiance in which he delights to see. (Recall Mṛḍa-priyā, Ramaṇa-lampaṭā, Kāmeśvara-prāṇa-nāḍī — the one love, here as moonlight on the eyes.)
Śrī Vidyā: Mahā-kāmeśa-nayana-kumudāhlāda-kaumudī is the moonlight that opens the night-lotus of Śiva's eyes; an image of the Saundarya-laharī's love, the Goddess as the radiance in which Kāmeśvara delights — the ānanda of their union as light meeting sight.
Devanagari per the sanskritdocuments.org recension (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Uttarakhaṇḍa; Hayagrīva–Agastya saṃvāda). Transliteration, translation, and commentary original to this edition. — End of Part XII.
