Part XIV — Nāmas 459–541 (Ślokas 96–110): The Seven Yoginīs of the Cakras
ॐ श्रीमात्रे नमः · oṃ śrīmātre namaḥ
The seven stations of the ascent
Part XIV is a single, sustained movement: the procession of the seven presiding Yoginīs of the subtle centres. After the opening names — Vajreśvarī, Vāmadevī, the Siddha-powers — the hymn ascends the cakras one by one, naming at each the Goddess in her form as that centre's ruling Yoginī, with her colour, her faces, her weapons, the bodily tissue she governs, the food she favours, and the band of attendant śaktis about her. The order is an ascent: Ḍākinī at the Viśuddhi (throat), Rākiṇī at the Anāhata (heart), Lākinī at the Maṇipūra (navel), Kākinī at the Svādhiṣṭhāna, Sākinī at the Mūlādhāra, Hākinī at the Ājñā (brow), and Yākinī at the sahasrāra (crown). Read in the non-dual key, the whole procession is the one Goddess seen at every level of the embodied being — she is no less herself at the throat than at the crown, presiding over flesh and marrow as fully as over pure awareness; the seven Yoginīs are not seven deities but the single reality met at the seven stations of the ascent. The fierce iconography — fangs, blood, the cremation-powers — is the tradition's way of naming the dissolving force that, level by level, consumes the gross into the subtle, until at the crown the procession resolves into Yākinī, who is all-faced, all-armed, seated on the thousand-petalled lotus, the totality at the summit. The part closes with the sacred utterances Svāhā and Svadhā, and the powers of knowledge and memory. (A note on numbering: from this part the nāma-numbers follow the standard arunachala recension exactly — the count by which Vajreśvarī is 468 and Anuttamā 541; the few compound names that this recension tells separately, such as Tat-Tvam-Ayi and the fanged-and-rosaried emblems of the Yoginīs, are numbered accordingly.)
॥ श्रीललितासहस्रनामस्तोत्रम् ॥
The Thousand Names — Ślokas 96–110 (Nāmas 459–541)
Śloka 96
सुमुखी नलिनी सुभ्रूः शोभना सुरनायिका ।
कालकण्ठी कान्तिमती क्षोभिणी सूक्ष्मरूपिणी ॥ ९६॥
sumukhī nalinī subhrūḥ śobhanā sura-nāyikā |
kāla-kaṇṭhī kānti-matī kṣobhiṇī sūkṣma-rūpiṇī ǁ 96 ǁ
Before the cakra-ascent begins, this śloka completes a garland of names of grace and beauty — the lovely face, the lotus-likeness, the fair brows, the radiance, the leadership of the gods, the dark-throated (as Śiva), the lustrous, the stirrer of creation, and the subtle-formed. The last name, Sūkṣma-rūpiṇī, “of subtle form,” turns the gaze inward just as the procession of the subtle centres is about to open: she who is too subtle for the senses is the very one met, in the ascent that follows, at each station of the subtle body.
459. सुमुखी — Sumukhī
Translation: Sumukhī — of a beautiful, gracious face (su-mukha).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of a lovely face” — beautiful, and gracious of countenance. The apavāda: the su-mukha, the “good face,” is the face turned kindly toward the devotee — beauty that is also benevolence (recall the autumn-moon face, the gracious smile); her lovely face is grace looking upon the world with favour. To behold her face is to be met with kindness.
Śrī Vidyā: Sumukhī is of a beautiful, gracious face; the lovely, benevolent countenance of the Goddess turned toward her devotees.
460. नलिनी — Nalinī
Translation: Nalinī — lotus-like (whose form has the loveliness of the lotus).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “lotus-like” — her form having the delicate loveliness of the lotus. The apavāda: the lotus, recurring throughout the hymn (lotus eyes, lotus seat, the heart-lotus), is the image of purity unfolding from the depths toward the light; to be nalinī, lotus-like, is to be that pure, opening loveliness — beauty rooted in the depths yet unstained, turned wholly toward the light. Her whole form is a lotus, opening to the sun of consciousness.
Śrī Vidyā: Nalinī is lotus-like in form; the Goddess of lotus loveliness, pure and unfolding — the recurring lotus, emblem of unstained beauty opening to the light.
461. सुभ्रूः — Subhrūḥ
Translation: Subhrūḥ — of beautiful eyebrows (su-bhrū).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “fair-browed” — her eyebrows lovely (recall the bow-like brows of the earlier form-description, the brows as Kāma's bow). The apavāda: the beauty of the brow, like every feature praised, is the loveliness of the one form in which awareness shows itself; a particular grace named, pointing past itself to the beauty that is the overflow of bliss.
Śrī Vidyā: Subhrūḥ has beautiful eyebrows; a feature of the Goddess's lovely dhyāna-form.
462. शोभना — Śobhanā
Translation: Śobhanā — radiant, all-beautiful, auspicious.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Śobhanā — radiant with beauty, all-lovely, and auspicious. The apavāda: śobhanā gathers loveliness and auspiciousness in one word (recall Kalyāṇī, Sundarī); she is the radiantly beautiful whose beauty is also blessing — the splendour that is the visible face of the good. Beauty and auspiciousness are one in her.
Śrī Vidyā: Śobhanā is radiant and all-beautiful; the Goddess whose loveliness is also auspiciousness.
463. सुरनायिका — Suranāyikā
Translation: Suranāyikā — the leader (nāyikā) of the gods (suras).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the leader of the gods — their commander and guide. The apavāda: the gods themselves look to her as their head (recall Devarṣi-gaṇa-saṃghāta-stūyamānātma-vaibhavā, hymned by the host of gods); she is suranāyikā as the supreme that all the divine powers serve and follow — the one sovereignty above all the gods, who are her ministers and her army. (Recall Bhaṇḍāsura's defeat: the gods' cause was hers to lead.)
Śrī Vidyā: Suranāyikā is the leader of the gods; the supreme commander whom all the divine powers serve, the sovereign of the celestials.
464. कालकण्ठी — Kālakaṇṭhī
Translation: Kālakaṇṭhī — the dark-throated; the consort of Kālakaṇṭha (Śiva, the blue-throated).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “dark-throated,” and the consort of Kālakaṇṭha — Śiva, whose throat is dark-blue from the poison he held there. The apavāda: as the power of the poison-holding Lord, she shares his very throat (recall Śrīkaṇṭhārdha-śarīriṇī, the half-body) — one form with him who drank the world's poison for its sake; the dark throat is the mark of that saving act, and it is hers as much as his. She and Śiva, again, of one body. (Kāla also is time; she is the throat that holds even time.)
Śrī Vidyā: Kālakaṇṭhī is dark-throated, consort of the blue-throated Śiva (Kālakaṇṭha); sharing the throat that held the world-poison — the Goddess one with the saving Lord.
465. कान्तिमती — Kānti-matī
Translation: Kānti-matī — full of loveliness and radiant lustre (kānti).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “possessed of kānti” — full of radiant loveliness (recall Kāntiḥ among the quality-goddesses, Kāntā). The apavāda: kānti is the glow of the beautiful, and she is full of it — the lustre that is the visible shining of consciousness (Prabhā-rūpā); radiance and beauty, once more, as the overflow of the Self's own light.
Śrī Vidyā: Kānti-matī is full of radiant loveliness; the Goddess replete with kānti, the lustre of beauty.
466. क्षोभिणी — Kṣobhiṇī
Translation: Kṣobhiṇī — she who stirs (kṣobha) creation into motion.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the stirrer” — she who agitates, sets in motion. The apavāda: kṣobha is the first stir that disturbs the primordial equilibrium and sets creation moving — the initial perturbation of the unmanifest (Mūla-prakṛti) by which the worlds begin to unfold; she is that stirring power, the impulse that rouses the latent into the manifest. The one who, undisturbed herself, stirs all into being. (Recall the unmeṣa, the “opening of the eyes,” by which the worlds appear.)
Śrī Vidyā: Kṣobhiṇī is she who stirs creation into motion; the agitating power (kṣobha) that rouses the unmanifest into manifestation.
467. सूक्ष्मरूपिणी — Sūkṣma-rūpiṇī
Translation: Sūkṣma-rūpiṇī — of subtle form, too fine for the senses to grasp.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of subtle form” — so fine that the senses cannot grasp her. The apavāda: the sūkṣma, the subtle, is what lies beyond the reach of the gross organs (recall Bisatantu-tanīyasī, finer than a lotus-fibre; Aṇīyasī); she is subtler than the subtlest, the awareness that no instrument can catch because it is the catcher of all. Fittingly, this name closes the garland just before the ascent of the subtle centres opens — she who is too subtle for the senses is the very one to be found, within, at each subtle station. The turn from the outer beauty to the inner subtlety.
Śrī Vidyā: Sūkṣma-rūpiṇī is of subtle form, beyond the senses' grasp; the Goddess subtler than the subtlest — closing the garland of grace as the ascent of the subtle centres begins.
Śloka 97
वज्रेश्वरी वामदेवी वयोऽवस्था-विवर्जिता ।
सिद्धेश्वरी सिद्धविद्या सिद्धमाता यशस्विनी ॥ ९७॥
vajreśvarī vāmadevī vayo'vasthā-vivarjitā |
siddheśvarī siddha-vidyā siddha-mātā yaśasvinī ǁ 97 ǁ
Before the procession of the cakra-Yoginīs begins, a śloka of names of power and accomplishment: she is the lady of the adamantine, the consort of Vāmadeva, beyond all the changes of age; the sovereign of the Siddhas, the perfected knowledge itself, the mother of the accomplished, the glorious. These set the key — for the ascent that follows is the path of the Siddhas, and she is its sovereign, its very knowledge, and its goal.
468. वज्रेश्वरी — Vajreśvarī
Translation: Vajreśvarī — the lady of the vajra (adamant / thunderbolt); a Nityā-Śakti.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “lady of the vajra” — the adamant, the diamond-thunderbolt that is unbreakable and that breaks all else. The apavāda: the vajra is the indestructible (recall Nirnāśā, Nirupaplavā) — that which nothing can cut, which cuts through all; she is its sovereign, the unbreakable reality whose knowledge shatters the seemingly solid bondage. Hard as diamond against the unreal, she cannot herself be touched.
Śrī Vidyā: Vajreśvarī is the lady of the adamant and one of the Nityā-devatās; the diamond-power of the Goddess, indestructible and all-piercing.
469. वामदेवी — Vāmadevī
Translation: Vāmadevī — the consort of Vāmadeva (a form of Śiva); the lovely goddess.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Vāmadevī — power of Vāmadeva, one of the five faces of Śiva (the face of grace and beauty); and vāma is “lovely.” The apavāda: as the power of the gracious-beautiful face of Śiva, she is grace and loveliness itself, named again as one with the Lord whose face she is (recall the five Brahmās, the faces of Śiva); the beautiful aspect of the one reality.
Śrī Vidyā: Vāmadevī is the consort/power of Vāmadeva, the gracious south-facing aspect of Śiva; the lovely Goddess, one with the beautiful face of the Lord.
470. वयोऽवस्थाविवर्जिता — Vayo'vasthā-vivarjitā
Translation: Free of the conditions/changes of age (vayas).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “free of the states of age” — beyond childhood, youth, and old age. The apavāda: the stages of age are the body's changes in time; she, the timeless (Nityā, Nitya-yauvanā), passes through none of them — ever the same, neither growing nor aging, for the changeless does not move through the phases of the changing. She is beyond the very succession of life-stages.
Śrī Vidyā: Vayo'vasthā-vivarjitā is beyond the changes of age; the ageless Goddess, untouched by the stages (avasthā) of bodily time.
471. सिद्धेश्वरी — Siddheśvarī
Translation: Siddheśvarī — the sovereign of the Siddhas (the perfected adepts).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is sovereign of the Siddhas — the perfected ones, the accomplished adepts. The apavāda: the Siddhas are those who have attained, and she is their lord — the goal and ground of all attainment (recall Mahā-siddhiḥ, Mahā-yogeśvareśvarī); the accomplished are accomplished by her, and bow to her as the perfection they reached. She rules the perfected because she is their perfection.
Śrī Vidyā: Siddheśvarī is the sovereign of the Siddhas; the Goddess presiding over the perfected adepts, the lady of attainment.
472. सिद्धविद्या — Siddha-vidyā
Translation: Siddha-vidyā — the perfected knowledge; the efficacious wisdom that liberates.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the “perfected knowledge” — the wisdom that is accomplished, complete, and unfailing in its fruit. The apavāda: the siddha-vidyā is knowledge that liberates without fail, the realised wisdom that is its own accomplishment; she is that knowledge (recall Vidyā, Tat-pada-lakṣyārthā) — not a learning to be perfected, but perfection-as-knowing, the liberating wisdom itself.
Śrī Vidyā: Siddha-vidyā is the perfected, efficacious knowledge; the Śrī Vidyā as the accomplished wisdom that surely liberates.
473. सिद्धमाता — Siddha-mātā
Translation: Siddha-mātā — the mother of the Siddhas (and of all perfection).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the “mother of the Siddhas” — she from whom the perfected are born into their perfection. The apavāda: as Mother of all (Ābrahma-kīṭa-jananī), she is mother of the accomplished too — they are reborn into siddhi from her, of her own being; the perfected are her children, perfected by drawing on the perfection that she is. (And mother of the siddhas, the efficacious mantras.)
Śrī Vidyā: Siddha-mātā is the mother of the Siddhas and of the perfecting mantras; the source from which all attainment is born.
474. यशस्विनी — Yaśasvinī
Translation: Yaśasvinī — the glorious, the renowned.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the glorious” — full of yaśas, renown, splendid fame. The apavāda: the glory that is hers is the splendour of the supreme (recall Mahā-vaibhava, Bhagavatī) — the renown not of a great being among others but of the one reality whose glory is its very being; she is glorious because she is the glory in which all that is glorious shines.
Śrī Vidyā: Yaśasvinī is the glorious and renowned Goddess; full of yaśas, the splendour of the supreme.
Śloka 98
विशुद्धिचक्रनिलयाऽऽरक्तवर्णा त्रिलोचना ।
खट्वाङ्गादि-प्रहरणा वदनैक-समन्विता ॥ ९८॥
viśuddhi-cakra-nilayā''rakta-varṇā tri-locanā |
khaṭvāṅgādi-praharaṇā vadanaika-samanvitā ǁ 98 ǁ
The ascent of the Yoginīs begins at the Viśuddhi, the throat-centre, where the Goddess presides as Ḍākinī. Each cakra-section will follow the same pattern: the centre named, then the Yoginī's colour, eyes, faces, weapons, the bodily tissue (dhātu) she governs, the food she favours, the attendant śaktis about her, and her name. Here at the throat: deep-red of hue, three-eyed, bearing the club and other arms, single-faced.
475. विशुद्धिचक्रनिलया — Viśuddhi-cakra-nilayā
Translation: Whose abode is the Viśuddhi cakra (the throat-centre).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She dwells in the Viśuddhi, the throat-centre — the cakra of purity (viśuddhi) and of space and sound. The apavāda: the throat-centre is the place of purification and of the element ether, the seat of speech; she “dwells” there as the ruling awareness of that level (recall the kūṭa-transition at the throat, Part II), present at the centre of purity as fully as anywhere. The first station of the ascent: the Goddess at the throat.
Śrī Vidyā: Viśuddhi-cakra-nilayā resides in the Viśuddhi (throat) cakra, the sixteen-petalled centre of ether and sound; the first of the seven Yoginī-seats named here, presided by Ḍākinī.
476. आरक्तवर्णा — Ārakta-varṇā
Translation: Of a deep-red (ārakta) colour.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her colour here is deep red. The apavāda: each Yoginī has her hue, and at the throat it is the warm red (recall Aruṇā, the dawn-red, the ruby) — the colour of life, of energy, of the rising warmth; the red of the Goddess as the vivifying power at this centre. (The colours are meditative, marking each level's quality.)
Śrī Vidyā: Ārakta-varṇā is of deep-red hue; the meditative colour of the Ḍākinī-Yoginī at the Viśuddhi centre.
477. त्रिलोचना — Tri-locanā
Translation: Three-eyed (tri-locana).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is three-eyed, as before (Trinayanā) — her three eyes the sun, moon, and fire. The apavāda: the three-eyed gaze surveys the three times and the three lights; the Yoginī at the throat shares the three eyes of the supreme, for she is that supreme at this station — the one seer through the three luminaries, here presiding at the centre of purity.
Śrī Vidyā: Tri-locanā is three-eyed (sun, moon, fire); the Ḍākinī-Yoginī sharing the three eyes of the supreme Goddess and of Śiva.
478. खट्वाङ्गादिप्रहरणा — Khaṭvāṅgādi-praharaṇā
Translation: Whose weapons are the skull-staff (khaṭvāṅga) and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She bears the khaṭvāṅga, the skull-topped staff, and other weapons. The apavāda: the fierce weapons of the Yoginī are the instruments of dissolution — the powers that destroy the gross attachments; the skull-staff, emblem of the cremation-ground and of death-conquered, marks her as the force that consumes what binds. The weapons are not for terror but for the cutting-away of bondage at this level. (The fierce form is the dissolving grace.)
Śrī Vidyā: Khaṭvāṅgādi-praharaṇā wields the skull-staff and other weapons; the Ḍākinī's fierce arms, the instruments of dissolution at the Viśuddhi.
479. वदनैकसमन्विता — Vadanaika-samanvitā
Translation: Endowed with a single face (vadana-eka).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is single-faced here. The apavāda: the number of faces will vary as the procession ascends (two at the heart, three at the navel, four, five, six), marking the differentiation of power at each level; at the throat she is one-faced — the singleness of the purified, the one presence at the centre of viśuddhi. The faces are the powers of perception articulated at each station.
Śrī Vidyā: Vadanaika-samanvitā has a single face; the Ḍākinī at the Viśuddhi, one-faced, as the iconography of this Yoginī prescribes.
Śloka 99
पायसान्नप्रिया त्वक्स्था पशुलोक-भयङ्करी ।
अमृतादि-महाशक्ति-संवृता डाकिनीश्वरी ॥ ९९॥
pāyasānna-priyā tvak-sthā paśu-loka-bhayaṅkarī |
amṛtādi-mahāśakti-saṃvṛtā ḍākinīśvarī ǁ 99 ǁ
480. पायसान्नप्रिया — Pāyasānna-priyā
Translation: Fond of pāyasa (sweet milk-rice).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: At each centre the Yoginī favours a particular food; here it is pāyasa, sweet milk-rice. The apavāda: the food-offerings mark the savour of each level — and read inwardly, the “food” of the Goddess is finally the offering of the self (recall the secret oblation, Rahas-tarpaṇa); the particular dish names the flavour of devotion proper to this centre. What truly nourishes her is the worship offered there.
Śrī Vidyā: Pāyasānna-priyā is fond of milk-rice; the offering-food of the Ḍākinī at the Viśuddhi, marking the savour of worship at this centre.
481. त्वक्स्था — Tvak-sthā
Translation: Who abides in the skin (tvak) — governs the dermal tissue.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She governs the tvak, the skin — the first of the seven bodily tissues (dhātus). The apavāda: each Yoginī presides over one tissue of the body, and here it is the skin, the outermost; the teaching is that the Goddess pervades even the bodily tissues — she is no less present in the flesh than in pure awareness (recall Jaḍātmikā, the inert too is she). She abides in the very skin, the most external layer of the embodied being.
Śrī Vidyā: Tvak-sthā presides over the skin (the first dhātu); the Ḍākinī governing the dermal tissue, the Goddess present in the body's outermost layer.
482. पशुलोकभयङ्करी — Paśu-loka-bhayaṅkarī
Translation: Terrible to the world of the fettered (paśu-loka).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “terrible to the world of the paśu” — fearsome to the realm of the bound creatures. The apavāda: the paśu, as before (Paśu-pāśa-vimocinī), is the fettered self; she is “terrible” to the world of bondage not from cruelty but because her dissolving power is the very end of that bound condition — the bondage trembles before the force that frees, as darkness “fears” the light. She is fearsome only to the fetters, never to the one who would be free.
Śrī Vidyā: Paśu-loka-bhayaṅkarī is fearsome to the realm of the fettered; the Ḍākinī's dissolving force, terrible to bondage, liberating to the seeker.
483. अमृतादिमहाशक्तिसंवृता — Amṛtādi-mahāśakti-saṃvṛtā
Translation: Surrounded by the great śaktis Amṛtā and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is encircled by the great śaktis — Amṛtā (“the deathless”) and the others of the Viśuddhi's band. The apavāda: each Yoginī is surrounded by her attendant powers (here the sixteen śaktis of the throat-cakra's sixteen petals); these are her own energies arrayed about her, as the yoginīs and Nityās attend the centre. The one Goddess at this station, ringed by her own articulated powers.
Śrī Vidyā: Amṛtādi-mahāśakti-saṃvṛtā is surrounded by the great śaktis (Amṛtā etc.); the sixteen attendant powers of the Viśuddhi's sixteen petals, encircling the Ḍākinī.
484. डाकिनीश्वरी — Ḍākinīśvarī
Translation: Ḍākinīśvarī — the Goddess in her form as the Yoginī Ḍākinī (presiding at the Viśuddhi).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The first Yoginī named: she is Ḍākinī, the presiding power of the Viśuddhi. The apavāda: Ḍākinī is not a separate deity but the one Goddess in her form as ruler of the throat-centre — the same supreme reality, here wearing this name and this fierce form; “Ḍākinīśvarī” gathers the foregoing details (red, three-eyed, skull-staff, skin, the band of śaktis) into the single presiding power. The Goddess as the Yoginī of the throat.
Śrī Vidyā: Ḍākinīśvarī is the Goddess as Ḍākinī, presiding Yoginī of the Viśuddhi cakra; the first of the seven, the one Śakti in her throat-centre form.
Śloka 100
अनाहताब्ज-निलया श्यामाभा वदनद्वया ।
दंष्ट्रोज्ज्वलाऽक्ष-मालादि-धरा रुधिर-संस्थिता ॥ १००॥
anāhatābja-nilayā śyāmābhā vadana-dvayā |
daṃṣṭrojjvalā'kṣa-mālādi-dharā rudhira-saṃsthitā ǁ 100 ǁ
The ascent rises to the Anāhata, the heart-centre, where the Goddess presides as Rākiṇī. The same pattern unfolds — abode, colour (dark), two faces, gleaming fangs and the rosary and other emblems, the bodily tissue (blood), the attendant band, the favoured food — naming the one Goddess at the second station of the ascent.
485. अनाहताब्जनिलया — Anāhatābja-nilayā
Translation: Whose abode is the Anāhata lotus (the heart-centre).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She dwells in the Anāhata, the heart-lotus — the centre of air and of the “unstruck” sound. The apavāda: the heart-centre is the seat of the unstruck sound (anāhata-nāda, recall Nāda-rūpā), the inner sound that arises without striking; she dwells there as the ruling awareness of the heart-level, the place of feeling and of the subtle sound. The second station: the Goddess at the heart.
Śrī Vidyā: Anāhatābja-nilayā resides in the Anāhata (heart) cakra, the twelve-petalled centre of air and the unstruck sound; presided by Rākiṇī.
486. श्यामाभा — Śyāmābhā
Translation: Of a dark (śyāma) lustre.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her colour here is śyāma, dark — the deep blue-black of the rain-cloud, of the infinite night-sky. The apavāda: where the throat was red, the heart is dark — the colour of depth, of the fathomless (recall Nīla-cikurā, the dark hair); the dark lustre of the Goddess as the deep, cool mystery at the heart's centre. The hue marks the quality of this level: depth.
Śrī Vidyā: Śyāmābhā is of dark lustre; the meditative colour of the Rākiṇī-Yoginī at the Anāhata, the deep blue-black of the heart-centre.
487. वदनद्वया — Vadana-dvayā
Translation: Two-faced (vadana-dvaya).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is two-faced here. The apavāda: the faces increase by one as the procession rises (one at the throat, two at the heart) — marking the unfolding articulation of power; the two faces at the heart may be read as the doubling of the breath, the in-and-out, or the pair of the heart's movements. The differentiation grows as the ascent proceeds.
Śrī Vidyā: Vadana-dvayā is two-faced; the Rākiṇī at the Anāhata, two-faced as her iconography prescribes.
488. दंष्ट्रोज्ज्वला — Daṃṣṭrojjvalā
Translation: Daṃṣṭrojjvalā — gleaming with fangs (daṃṣṭra).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She gleams with fangs. The apavāda: the fangs are the fierce, dissolving aspect (as the skull-staff before) — the power that consumes the gross attachments; the gleaming tusks mark the Rākiṇī as the force that devours what binds. The fierce form is, as ever, the dissolving grace, terrible only to bondage.
Śrī Vidyā: Daṃṣṭrojjvalā gleams with fangs; the Rākiṇī's fierce aspect, the consuming power that dissolves attachment at the Anāhata.
489. अक्षमालादिधरा — Akṣa-mālādi-dharā
Translation: Bearing the rosary (akṣa-mālā) and other emblems.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She bears the akṣa-mālā, the rosary, and other emblems. The apavāda: the rosary is the emblem of japa, the unbroken count of the Name; set beside the fangs just named, it holds the double work — the fierce consuming of bondage (fangs) and the gentle telling of the Name (rosary), destruction and remembrance in one form. She both devours the unreal and counts the Name that frees.
Śrī Vidyā: Akṣa-mālādi-dharā bears the rosary and other emblems; the Rākiṇī's devotional aspect (the akṣa-mālā of japa), paired with the fierce fangs.
490. रुधिरसंस्थिता — Rudhira-saṃsthitā
Translation: Who abides in the blood (rudhira) — governs the blood-tissue.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She governs the rudhira, the blood — the second of the seven tissues. The apavāda: the Yoginī of the heart presides over the blood, fitly, for the heart is the seat of the blood's coursing; the Goddess is present in the very blood (recall Tvak-sthā, the skin) — pervading the body's vital fluid as fully as the subtlest awareness. She abides in the blood, the life-stream of the embodied being.
Śrī Vidyā: Rudhira-saṃsthitā presides over the blood (the second dhātu); the Rākiṇī governing the blood-tissue, the Goddess in the body's life-stream.
Śloka 101
कालरात्र्यादि-शक्त्यौघ-वृता स्निग्धौदनप्रिया ।
महावीरेन्द्र-वरदा राकिण्यम्बा-स्वरूपिणी ॥ १०१॥
kālarātryādi-śaktyaugha-vṛtā snigdhaudana-priyā |
mahāvīrendra-varadā rākiṇyambā-svarūpiṇī ǁ 101 ǁ
491. कालरात्र्यादिशक्त्यौघवृता — Kālarātryādi-śaktyaugha-vṛtā
Translation: Surrounded by the host of śaktis Kālarātri and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is encircled by the host of śaktis — Kālarātri (“the night of time,” of dissolution) and the others of the heart-cakra's band. The apavāda: the attendant powers here include Kālarātri, the dark night of cosmic dissolution — fierce energies of the heart-centre, the twelve śaktis of its twelve petals; her own powers arrayed about her, here in their dissolving aspect. The one Goddess ringed by the energies of this level.
Śrī Vidyā: Kālarātryādi-śaktyaugha-vṛtā is surrounded by the host of śaktis (Kālarātri etc.); the twelve attendant powers of the Anāhata, encircling the Rākiṇī.
492. स्निग्धौदनप्रिया — Snigdhaudana-priyā
Translation: Fond of snigdhaudana (rich, ghee-laden rice).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her favoured food here is snigdhaudana, rich rice cooked with ghee. The apavāda, as with the milk-rice before: the food marks the savour of devotion at this centre; the “rich” food of the heart-level is the unctuous sweetness of the heart's offering. What nourishes her is the love offered at the heart.
Śrī Vidyā: Snigdhaudana-priyā is fond of ghee-rich rice; the offering-food of the Rākiṇī at the Anāhata.
493. महावीरेन्द्रवरदा — Mahāvīrendra-varadā
Translation: Bestower of boons on the great heroes (mahā-vīra) and their lords.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She grants boons to the “great heroes” — the mahā-vīras, the valiant. The apavāda: the “heroes” are, inwardly, the courageous seekers — those bold enough to undertake the inner ascent (the vīra, in the tantric sense, is the brave aspirant); she is “boon-giver to the heroes” as the grace that rewards spiritual courage. The heart-centre is the seat of courage, and she blesses the brave of heart.
Śrī Vidyā: Mahāvīrendra-varadā grants boons to the great heroes; the Rākiṇī favouring the valiant aspirants (vīras) of the heart-centre.
494. राकिण्यम्बास्वरूपिणी — Rākiṇyambā-svarūpiṇī
Translation: Who is of the very form of Mother Rākiṇī (presiding at the Anāhata).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The second Yoginī named: she is Rākiṇī, presiding power of the Anāhata. The apavāda: as with Ḍākinī, Rākiṇī is the one Goddess in her form as ruler of the heart-centre — “Rākiṇyambā-svarūpiṇī” gathers the heart-section's details (dark, two-faced, fanged, the blood, Kālarātri's band) into the single presiding Mother. The Goddess as the Yoginī of the heart. (The recurring -ambā, “Mother,” marks each as a face of the one Mother.)
Śrī Vidyā: Rākiṇyambā-svarūpiṇī is the Goddess as Mother Rākiṇī, presiding Yoginī of the Anāhata; the second of the seven, the one Śakti in her heart-centre form.
Śloka 102
मणिपूराब्ज-निलया वदनत्रय-संयुता ।
वज्रादिकायुधोपेता डामर्यादिभिरावृता ॥ १०२॥
maṇipūrābja-nilayā vadana-traya-saṃyutā |
vajrādikāyudhopetā ḍāmaryādibhir āvṛtā ǁ 102 ǁ
The ascent rises to the Maṇipūra, the navel-centre, the place of fire, where the Goddess presides as Lākinī. Three-faced now, bearing the thunderbolt and other arms, encircled by the śaktis Ḍāmarī and the rest; and (in the next śloka) red of hue, governing the flesh, fond of jaggery-rice, the giver of joy to all devotees.
495. मणिपूराब्जनिलया — Maṇipūrābja-nilayā
Translation: Whose abode is the Maṇipūra lotus (the navel-centre).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She dwells in the Maṇipūra, the navel-lotus — the centre of fire (recall Maṇipūrāntar-uditā, where the kuṇḍalinī dawned, Part V). The apavāda: the navel-centre is the seat of the transformative fire, the place of digestion and of inner heat; she dwells there as the ruling awareness of the fire-level, the power of transformation. The third station: the Goddess at the navel-fire.
Śrī Vidyā: Maṇipūrābja-nilayā resides in the Maṇipūra (navel) cakra, the ten-petalled centre of fire; presided by Lākinī.
496. वदनत्रयसंयुता — Vadana-traya-saṃyutā
Translation: Endowed with three faces (vadana-traya).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is three-faced here. The apavāda: the faces continue to increase (one, two, now three) as the procession ascends — the three faces at the navel perhaps marking the three guṇas or the three fires; the articulation of power grows richer at each level. The increasing faces trace the unfolding of the one into the many as the centres are surveyed.
Śrī Vidyā: Vadana-traya-saṃyutā is three-faced; the Lākinī at the Maṇipūra, three-faced as her iconography prescribes.
497. वज्रादिकायुधोपेता — Vajrādikāyudhopetā
Translation: Equipped with the thunderbolt (vajra) and other weapons.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She bears the vajra, the thunderbolt, and other weapons. The apavāda: the thunderbolt is the adamantine force (recall Vajreśvarī) — the irresistible power that shatters; at the fire-centre, the weapons are the burning, breaking energies that consume the gross. The arms of the Yoginī are the instruments by which bondage is destroyed at this level.
Śrī Vidyā: Vajrādikāyudhopetā is armed with the thunderbolt and other weapons; the Lākinī's arms at the Maṇipūra, the breaking-burning powers of the fire-centre.
498. डामर्यादिभिरावृता — Ḍāmaryādibhir āvṛtā
Translation: Surrounded by the śaktis Ḍāmarī and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is encircled by the śaktis Ḍāmarī and the others of the navel-cakra's band. The apavāda: the attendant powers here are the ten śaktis of the Maṇipūra's ten petals; her own energies arrayed about her at this level, as at each. The one Goddess ringed by the powers of the fire-centre.
Śrī Vidyā: Ḍāmaryādibhir āvṛtā is surrounded by the śaktis Ḍāmarī etc.; the ten attendant powers of the Maṇipūra's ten petals, encircling the Lākinī.
Śloka 103
रक्तवर्णा मांसनिष्ठा गुडान्न-प्रीत-मानसा ।
समस्तभक्त-सुखदा लाकिन्यम्बा-स्वरूपिणी ॥ १०३॥
rakta-varṇā māṃsa-niṣṭhā guḍānna-prīta-mānasā |
samasta-bhakta-sukhadā lākinyambā-svarūpiṇī ǁ 103 ǁ
499. रक्तवर्णा — Rakta-varṇā
Translation: Of red (rakta) colour.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her colour here is red — the bright red of fire. The apavāda: fitting the fire-centre, her hue is the red of flame (recall Aruṇā, Ārakta-varṇā at the throat); the colour of the burning, transforming power at the navel. The hue marks the quality of this level: fiery transformation.
Śrī Vidyā: Rakta-varṇā is of red hue; the meditative colour of the Lākinī-Yoginī at the Maṇipūra, the red of the fire-centre.
500. मांसनिष्ठा — Māṃsa-niṣṭhā
Translation: Established in the flesh (māṃsa) — governs the muscular tissue.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She governs the māṃsa, the flesh — the third tissue. The apavāda: the Yoginī of the fire-centre presides over the flesh, the body's substance that fire (digestion) builds and sustains; the Goddess is present in the very flesh (recall skin, blood) — pervading the muscular body as fully as the subtle. She abides in the flesh, the solid substance of the embodied being. The teaching repeats: she is no less in the gross than in the subtle.
Śrī Vidyā: Māṃsa-niṣṭhā presides over the flesh (the third dhātu); the Lākinī governing the muscular tissue, the Goddess in the body's flesh.
501. गुडान्नप्रीतमानसा — Guḍānna-prīta-mānasā
Translation: Whose heart delights in guḍānna (jaggery-sweetened rice).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her heart delights in guḍānna, rice sweetened with jaggery. The apavāda, as with the foods before: the offering marks the savour of devotion at the fire-centre; the sweet jaggery-rice is the sweetness of the heart's offering at this level. What gladdens her is the devotion offered there.
Śrī Vidyā: Guḍānna-prīta-mānasā delights in jaggery-rice; the offering-food of the Lākinī at the Maṇipūra.
502. समस्तभक्तसुखदा — Samasta-bhakta-sukhadā
Translation: The giver of happiness to all (samasta) her devotees.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She gives joy to all her devotees, without exception. The apavāda: at the fire-centre — the place of vitality and power — she is the giver of joy to every devotee (recall Sukha-pradā, Samasta the “all”); the joy she gives is the warmth of her presence, denied to none who turn to her. The fire that transforms is also the warmth that gladdens all. (Set in the midst of the fierce Yoginī-iconography, this gentle name reminds that the fierce form is wholly for the devotee's joy.)
Śrī Vidyā: Samasta-bhakta-sukhadā gives joy to all devotees; the Lākinī's grace, the warmth of the fire-centre gladdening every devotee.
503. लाकिन्यम्बास्वरूपिणी — Lākinyambā-svarūpiṇī
Translation: Who is of the very form of Mother Lākinī (presiding at the Maṇipūra).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The third Yoginī named: she is Lākinī, presiding power of the Maṇipūra. The apavāda: as before, Lākinī is the one Goddess in her form as ruler of the fire-centre — “Lākinyambā-svarūpiṇī” gathers the navel-section's details into the single presiding Mother. The Goddess as the Yoginī of the navel-fire.
Śrī Vidyā: Lākinyambā-svarūpiṇī is the Goddess as Mother Lākinī, presiding Yoginī of the Maṇipūra; the third of the seven, the one Śakti in her fire-centre form.
Śloka 104
स्वाधिष्ठानाम्बुज-गता चतुर्वक्त्र-मनोहरा ।
शूलाद्यायुध-सम्पन्ना पीतवर्णाऽतिगर्विता ॥ १०४॥
svādhiṣṭhānāmbuja-gatā catur-vaktra-manoharā |
śūlādyāyudha-sampannā pīta-varṇā'tigarvitā ǁ 104 ǁ
The procession comes to the Svādhiṣṭhāna, the centre at the root of the genitals, the place of water, where the Goddess presides as Kākinī. Four-faced and lovely, armed with the trident and other weapons, golden-hued and high in pride; and (in the next śloka) abiding in the fat-tissue, fond of honeyed rice, surrounded by the śaktis Bandhinī and the rest.
504. स्वाधिष्ठानाम्बुजगता — Svādhiṣṭhānāmbuja-gatā
Translation: Who is present in the Svādhiṣṭhāna lotus.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She dwells in the Svādhiṣṭhāna — the centre at the root, the seat of water. The apavāda: the Svādhiṣṭhāna is the centre of the water-element, of taste and of the flowing; she dwells there as the ruling awareness of this level. The fourth station: the Goddess at the water-centre. (The name sva-adhiṣṭhāna, “her own abode,” fits — every centre is her own dwelling.)
Śrī Vidyā: Svādhiṣṭhānāmbuja-gatā resides in the Svādhiṣṭhāna cakra, the six-petalled centre of water; presided by Kākinī.
505. चतुर्वक्त्रमनोहरा — Catur-vaktra-manoharā
Translation: Lovely, with four faces (catur-vaktra).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is four-faced here, and lovely (manoharā, “mind-stealing”). The apavāda: the faces continue to multiply (now four) — and the name adds that she is, with all her faces, beautiful; even in the fierce Yoginī-form the loveliness of the Goddess shows through. The four faces, like Brahmā's, may mark the four directions or the fourfold; the articulation widens, and remains beautiful.
Śrī Vidyā: Catur-vaktra-manoharā is four-faced and lovely; the Kākinī at the Svādhiṣṭhāna, four-faced, beautiful even in her fierce form.
506. शूलाद्यायुधसम्पन्ना — Śūlādyāyudha-sampannā
Translation: Furnished with the trident (śūla) and other weapons.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She bears the śūla, the trident, and other weapons. The apavāda: the trident is Śiva's own weapon, the three-pronged power (of the three guṇas, three times, three states pierced through); at this centre her arms are the trident and the rest, the instruments of dissolution proper to the water-level. The weapons are, as ever, the powers that cut away bondage.
Śrī Vidyā: Śūlādyāyudha-sampannā is armed with the trident and other weapons; the Kākinī's arms at the Svādhiṣṭhāna, bearing Śiva's trident.
507. पीतवर्णा — Pīta-varṇā
Translation: Pīta-varṇā — golden-yellow of hue.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her colour here is golden-yellow. The apavāda: the hue of this centre is gold — the warm yellow of the Svādhiṣṭhāna; each Yoginī has her colour (red, dark, red, and here gold), the meditative hue marking the quality of the level. The gold of the Goddess at the water-centre.
Śrī Vidyā: Pīta-varṇā is golden-yellow; the meditative colour of the Kākinī-Yoginī at the Svādhiṣṭhāna.
508. अतिगर्विता — Atigarvitā
Translation: Atigarvitā — exceedingly “proud” (in the sense of majestic self-assurance).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “exceedingly proud.” The apavāda: her garva is not the ego's vanity (which she is ever beyond — Nirmadā) but the majestic self-assurance of the supreme — the rightful “pride” of the sovereign who knows herself as all (recall the rapture-mada). It is the dignity of the Goddess, the confidence of the one without a second, not the swelling of a separate self.
Śrī Vidyā: Atigarvitā is exceedingly proud; the Kākinī's majestic self-assurance at the Svādhiṣṭhāna — the dignity of the supreme, not the ego's vanity.
Śloka 105
मेदोनिष्ठा मधुप्रीता बन्धिन्यादि-समन्विता ।
दध्यन्नासक्त-हृदया काकिनी-रूप-धारिणी ॥ १०५॥
medo-niṣṭhā madhu-prītā bandhinyādi-samanvitā |
dadhyannāsakta-hṛdayā kākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī ǁ 105 ǁ
509. मेदोनिष्ठा — Medo-niṣṭhā
Translation: Established in the fat (medas) — governs the adipose tissue.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She governs the medas, the fat — the fourth tissue. The apavāda: the Yoginī of the water-centre presides over the fat, the body's unctuous, watery substance; the Goddess is present in the very fat (recall skin, blood, flesh) — pervading even this tissue. The teaching is unwavering: there is no part of the embodied being, however gross, that is not she.
Śrī Vidyā: Medo-niṣṭhā presides over the fat (the fourth dhātu); the Kākinī governing the adipose tissue.
510. मधुप्रीता — Madhu-prītā
Translation: Fond of madhu (honey / sweet mead).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is fond of madhu — honey, the sweet. The apavāda, as with the foods and the kādambarī before: the sweet is the savour of bliss; her fondness for honey is awareness's delight in its own sweetness (recall Kādambarī-priyā, the nectar of bliss). The “honey” she loves is, inwardly, the sweetness of the Self. (Read as offering, not literal intoxicant.)
Śrī Vidyā: Madhu-prītā is fond of honey; the offering-sweet of the Kākinī at the Svādhiṣṭhāna, and a figure for the sweetness of bliss.
511. बन्धिन्यादिसमन्विता — Bandhinyādi-samanvitā
Translation: Accompanied by the śaktis Bandhinī and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is accompanied by the śaktis Bandhinī and the others of the water-cakra's band. The apavāda: the attendant powers here are the six śaktis of the Svādhiṣṭhāna's six petals; her own energies arrayed about her at this level. The one Goddess ringed by the powers of the water-centre.
Śrī Vidyā: Bandhinyādi-samanvitā is accompanied by the śaktis Bandhinī etc.; the six attendant powers of the Svādhiṣṭhāna's six petals, about the Kākinī.
512. दध्यन्नासक्तहृदया — Dadhyannāsakta-hṛdayā
Translation: Whose heart is drawn to dadhyanna (curd-rice).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her heart is fond of dadhyanna, curd-rice. The apavāda, as with the other foods: the offering marks the savour of devotion at this centre — the cooling curd-rice fitting the water-level. What her heart is “drawn to” is the devotion offered here. (This is the five-hundredth name — the midpoint of the thousand, fittingly a name of the Goddess's tender attachment to her devotees' simple offering.)
Śrī Vidyā: Dadhyannāsakta-hṛdayā is fond of curd-rice; the offering-food of the Kākinī at the Svādhiṣṭhāna — and, as the 500th name, the midpoint of the thousand.
513. काकिनीरूपधारिणी — Kākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī
Translation: Who bears the form of Kākinī (presiding at the Svādhiṣṭhāna).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The fourth Yoginī named: she is Kākinī, presiding power of the Svādhiṣṭhāna. The apavāda: as before, Kākinī is the one Goddess “bearing the form” of the ruler of the water-centre — the supreme reality assuming this name and form; “Kākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī” gathers the section's details into the single presiding power. The Goddess as the Yoginī of the water-centre. (Note rūpa-dhāriṇī, “form-bearer” — she who freely assumes the form, as Kāma-rūpiṇī wills her shapes.)
Śrī Vidyā: Kākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī is the Goddess bearing the form of Kākinī, presiding Yoginī of the Svādhiṣṭhāna; the fourth of the seven, the one Śakti in her water-centre form.
Śloka 106
मूलाधाराम्बुजारूढा पञ्च-वक्त्राऽस्थि-संस्थिता ।
अङ्कुशादि-प्रहरणा वरदादि-निषेविता ॥ १०६॥
mūlādhārāmbujārūḍhā pañca-vaktrā'sthi-saṃsthitā |
aṅkuśādi-praharaṇā varadādi-niṣevitā ǁ 106 ǁ
The procession descends to the foundation, the Mūlādhāra, the root-centre at the base, the place of earth, where the Goddess presides as Sākinī. Five-faced now, abiding in the bone, armed with the goad and other weapons, attended by the śaktis Varadā and the rest; and (in the next śloka) fond of millet-rice — the Goddess at the root of the embodied being, the foundation of the whole ascent.
514. मूलाधाराम्बुजारूढा — Mūlādhārāmbujārūḍhā
Translation: Mounted upon the Mūlādhāra lotus (the root-centre).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is established on the Mūlādhāra, the root-lotus — the foundation-centre, seat of earth, where the kuṇḍalinī lay coiled (recall Mūlādhāraika-nilayā, Kula-kuṇḍālayā). The apavāda: the root-centre is the base, the foundation of the whole subtle structure and the seat of the dormant power; she “is mounted” there as the ruling awareness of the foundation — present at the very root as fully as at the crown. The fifth station: the Goddess at the root.
Śrī Vidyā: Mūlādhārāmbujārūḍhā is established on the Mūlādhāra (root) cakra, the four-petalled centre of earth; presided by Sākinī, the seat of the coiled power.
515. पञ्चवक्त्रा — Pañca-vaktrā
Translation: Pañca-vaktrā — five-faced (like the five faces of Sadāśiva).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is five-faced here — as the five faces of Sadāśiva. The apavāda: the faces have multiplied through the ascent (one, two, three, four, and now five), the fullest count before the brow and crown; the five faces may be read as the five elements or the five acts (pañca-kṛtya). At the root-centre, the articulation of power reaches the five-fold, mirroring the five faces of the Lord — she and he, once more, of one form.
Śrī Vidyā: Pañca-vaktrā is five-faced, like Sadāśiva; the Sākinī at the Mūlādhāra, five-faced as her iconography prescribes.
516. अस्थिसंस्थिता — Asthi-saṃsthitā
Translation: Established in the bone (asthi) — governs the skeletal tissue.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She governs the asthi, the bone — the fifth tissue. The apavāda: the Yoginī of the root-centre presides over the bone, the body's hard framework, its very skeleton; the Goddess is present in the bone, the most solid and enduring of the tissues (recall skin, blood, flesh, fat) — pervading even the skeleton of the embodied being. The teaching holds: there is no part of the body, however gross or hidden, that is not she.
Śrī Vidyā: Asthi-saṃsthitā presides over the bone (the fifth dhātu); the Sākinī governing the skeletal tissue, the Goddess in the body's framework.
517. अङ्कुशादिप्रहरणा — Aṅkuśādi-praharaṇā
Translation: Whose weapons are the goad (aṅkuśa) and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She bears the aṅkuśa, the goad, and other weapons. The apavāda: the goad is the instrument that draws and controls (recall the goad among her weapons in the opening dhyāna — the goad of attraction); at the root-centre, the goad is the power that draws the dormant energy upward, that hooks and lifts the coiled Śakti into her ascent. The arms here are the powers that initiate the rising. (The goad that drives the elephant is the grace that drives the seeker Godward.)
Śrī Vidyā: Aṅkuśādi-praharaṇā wields the goad and other weapons; the Sākinī's arms at the Mūlādhāra, the goad that draws the coiled power upward.
518. वरदादिनिषेविता — Varadādi-niṣevitā
Translation: Attended by the śaktis Varadā and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is attended by the śaktis Varadā (“boon-giver”) and the others of the root-cakra's band. The apavāda: the attendant powers here are the four śaktis of the Mūlādhāra's four petals; her own energies arrayed about her at the foundation. The one Goddess ringed by the powers of the root-centre — and fittingly, one of them is Varadā, the boon-giver, for the ascent begins in grace.
Śrī Vidyā: Varadādi-niṣevitā is attended by the śaktis Varadā etc.; the four attendant powers of the Mūlādhāra's four petals, about the Sākinī.
Śloka 107
मुद्गौदनासक्त-चित्ता साकिन्यम्बा-स्वरूपिणी ।
आज्ञा-चक्राब्ज-निलया शुक्लवर्णा षडानना ॥ १०७॥
mudgaudanāsakta-cittā sākinyambā-svarūpiṇī |
ājñā-cakrābja-nilayā śukla-varṇā ṣaḍ-ānanā ǁ 107 ǁ
This śloka completes the Sākinī of the root-centre and at once opens the Ājñā, the centre between the brows, the place of command, where the Goddess presides as Hākinī — white of hue and six-faced. The ascent now nears its summit, having risen through earth, water, fire, air, and ether to the centre of pure command and inner vision.
519. मुद्गौदनासक्तचित्ता — Mudgaudanāsakta-cittā
Translation: Whose mind is fond of mudgaudana (rice cooked with green gram).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her mind is fond of mudgaudana, rice cooked with green gram (mung). The apavāda, as with the other foods: the offering marks the savour of devotion at the root-centre; the simple, wholesome dish fitting the foundation. What her mind is “fond of” is the devotion offered here. The foods, across the centres, are the varied savours of a single love.
Śrī Vidyā: Mudgaudana-āsakta-cittā is fond of green-gram rice; the offering-food of the Sākinī at the Mūlādhāra.
520. साकिन्यम्बास्वरूपिणी — Sākinyambā-svarūpiṇī
Translation: Who is of the very form of Mother Sākinī (presiding at the Mūlādhāra).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The fifth Yoginī named: she is Sākinī, presiding power of the Mūlādhāra. The apavāda: as before, Sākinī is the one Goddess in her form as ruler of the root-centre — “Sākinyambā-svarūpiṇī” gathers the foundation-section's details into the single presiding Mother. The Goddess as the Yoginī of the root.
Śrī Vidyā: Sākinyambā-svarūpiṇī is the Goddess as Mother Sākinī, presiding Yoginī of the Mūlādhāra; the fifth of the seven, the one Śakti in her root-centre form.
521. आज्ञाचक्राब्जनिलया — Ājñā-cakrābja-nilayā
Translation: Whose abode is the Ājñā cakra lotus (between the brows).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She dwells in the Ājñā, the centre between the brows — the place of command (ājñā) and of the inner eye (recall Ājñā-cakrāntarālasthā, Part V). The apavāda: the brow-centre is the seat of the inner command and of direct vision, where the discriminating insight rules; she dwells there as the ruling awareness of this near-summit level — the command-centre, where the will and the inner sight are one. The sixth station: the Goddess at the brow.
Śrī Vidyā: Ājñā-cakrābja-nilayā resides in the Ājñā (brow) cakra, the two-petalled centre of command and inner vision; presided by Hākinī.
522. शुक्लवर्णा — Śukla-varṇā
Translation: Of white (śukla) colour.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her colour here is white. The apavāda: as the ascent nears the summit, the hue grows pure — white, the colour of clarity, of purity, of the moon and of pure sattva (recall the autumn moon, the cleared mind); the Goddess as the clear, pure radiance at the brow-centre. The colours have moved toward light as the centres rose: red, dark, red, gold, and now white — toward the all-colour of the crown.
Śrī Vidyā: Śukla-varṇā is of white hue; the meditative colour of the Hākinī-Yoginī at the Ājñā, the pure white of the near-summit centre.
523. षडानना — Ṣaḍ-ānanā
Translation: Six-faced (ṣaḍ-ānana).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is six-faced here. The apavāda: the faces reach six (as Skanda, the six-faced) — the fullest count, marking the near-complete articulation of power at the brow; the six faces may be read as the six directions or the six cakras now surveyed. At the threshold of the crown, the differentiation is near its fullest — about to resolve into the all-faced totality of the summit.
Śrī Vidyā: Ṣaḍ-ānanā is six-faced (like Skanda); the Hākinī at the Ājñā, six-faced as her iconography prescribes.
Śloka 108
मज्जासंस्था हंसवती-मुख्यशक्ति-समन्विता ।
हरिद्रान्नैक-रसिका हाकिनी-रूप-धारिणी ॥ १०८॥
majjā-saṃsthā haṃsavatī-mukhya-śakti-samanvitā |
haridrānnaika-rasikā hākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī ǁ 108 ǁ
524. मज्जासंस्था — Majjā-saṃsthā
Translation: Established in the marrow (majjā) — governs the marrow-tissue.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She governs the majjā, the marrow — the sixth tissue, hidden deep within the bone. The apavāda: the Yoginī of the brow-centre presides over the marrow, the innermost, most hidden of the tissues — fittingly, for the brow is the centre of the inmost vision; the Goddess is present even in the marrow, the deepest recess of the body (recall skin, blood, flesh, fat, bone). She abides in the very marrow — there is no depth of the embodied being she does not pervade.
Śrī Vidyā: Majjā-saṃsthā presides over the marrow (the sixth dhātu); the Hākinī governing the marrow-tissue, the Goddess in the body's innermost substance.
525. हंसवतीमुख्यशक्तिसमन्विता — Haṃsavatī-mukhya-śakti-samanvitā
Translation: Accompanied by the chief śaktis Haṃsavatī and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is accompanied by the chief śaktis — Haṃsavatī and the other (at the Ājñā, the two śaktis of its two petals). The apavāda: the attendant powers here are the two śaktis of the brow-cakra's two petals — Haṃsavatī (“she of the haṃsa,” the swan, the breath, recall Haṃsinī) chief among them; her own energies, here reduced to a near-unity (only two) as the manifold draws toward the singleness of the crown. The powers grow fewer as the ascent nears the One.
Śrī Vidyā: Haṃsavatī-mukhya-śakti-samanvitā is accompanied by the chief śaktis (Haṃsavatī etc.); the two attendant powers of the Ājñā's two petals, about the Hākinī.
526. हरिद्रान्नैकरसिका — Haridrānnaika-rasikā
Translation: Who relishes haridrānna (turmeric-rice) above all.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She relishes haridrānna, turmeric-rice (golden rice). The apavāda, as with the other foods: the offering marks the savour of devotion at the brow-centre; the golden turmeric-rice, auspicious and pure, fitting this near-summit level. What she relishes is the devotion offered here. (Turmeric, the auspicious golden spice, fits the threshold of the crown.)
Śrī Vidyā: Haridrānnaika-rasikā relishes turmeric-rice; the offering-food of the Hākinī at the Ājñā.
527. हाकिनीरूपधारिणी — Hākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī
Translation: Who bears the form of Hākinī (presiding at the Ājñā).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The sixth Yoginī named: she is Hākinī, presiding power of the Ājñā. The apavāda: as before, Hākinī is the one Goddess bearing the form of the ruler of the brow-centre — “Hākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī” gathers the section's details into the single presiding power. The Goddess as the Yoginī of the brow, the last before the crown.
Śrī Vidyā: Hākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī is the Goddess bearing the form of Hākinī, presiding Yoginī of the Ājñā; the sixth of the seven, the one Śakti in her brow-centre form.
Śloka 109
सहस्रदल-पद्मस्था सर्व-वर्णोप-शोभिता ।
सर्वायुधधरा शुक्ल-संस्थिता सर्वतोमुखी ॥ १०९॥
sahasradala-padmasthā sarva-varṇopa-śobhitā |
sarvāyudha-dharā śukla-saṃsthitā sarvato-mukhī ǁ 109 ǁ
The ascent reaches its summit: the sahasrāra, the thousand-petalled lotus at the crown, where the Goddess presides as Yākinī. Here the differentiation of the lower centres resolves into totality — she is radiant with all colours, bears all weapons, faces all directions, governs the seed-essence (śukla), and favours all foods: the “Sarva-” (“all”) returns, for at the crown the many are gathered back into the all. The seven Yoginīs were the one Goddess at the seven levels; here, at the summit, she is named simply as the All.
528. सहस्रदलपद्मस्था — Sahasradala-padmasthā
Translation: Who is seated on the thousand-petalled lotus (sahasra-dala-padma) at the crown.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is seated on the thousand-petalled lotus — the sahasrāra at the crown (recall Sahasrārāmbujārūḍhā, where the kuṇḍalinī's ascent culminated, Part V). The apavāda: the crown-lotus is the summit, the seat of Śiva, where the risen power is united with its ground; she “is seated” there as the supreme awareness at the highest station — the consummation of the whole ascent. The seventh and final station: the Goddess at the crown.
Śrī Vidyā: Sahasradala-padmasthā is seated on the thousand-petalled lotus (sahasrāra) at the crown; presided by Yākinī, the summit of the ascent, seat of Śiva-Śakti union.
529. सर्ववर्णोपशोभिता — Sarva-varṇopa-śobhitā
Translation: Radiant with all colours (sarva-varṇa).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is radiant with all colours. The apavāda: where each lower Yoginī had her single hue (red, dark, red, gold, white), the Yoginī of the crown shines with all colours together — the white light of the summit containing all the colours, as the manifold is gathered into the one at the crown (recall the petals' thousand). The “all-coloured” marks the return of totality: every hue of the ascent united in the crown's radiance. (And varṇa is also “letter” — she is adorned with all the letters, the whole alphabet, the mātṛkā, recall Mālinī.)
Śrī Vidyā: Sarva-varṇopa-śobhitā is radiant with all colours (and all letters, varṇa); the Yākinī at the sahasrāra, where the single hues of the lower centres unite — the all-coloured summit.
530. सर्वायुधधरा — Sarvāyudha-dharā
Translation: Bearing all weapons (sarva-āyudha).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She bears all weapons. The apavāda: where each lower Yoginī bore particular arms (skull-staff, fangs, thunderbolt, trident, goad), the Yoginī of the crown bears all of them together — the totality of the dissolving powers gathered at the summit; she holds every instrument of liberation at once. The “all-armed” marks, again, the return of totality at the crown.
Śrī Vidyā: Sarvāyudha-dharā bears all weapons; the Yākinī at the sahasrāra, holding the totality of the powers borne severally by the lower Yoginīs.
531. शुक्लसंस्थिता — Śukla-saṃsthitā
Translation: Established in the śukla (the seed-essence / the white vital essence — the seventh dhātu).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She governs the śukla — the seventh and final tissue, the vital seed-essence (śukra), the subtlest distillation of the body. The apavāda: the seven Yoginīs have presided over the seven tissues in ascending subtlety — skin, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow, and now the seed-essence, the finest and most potent, the very sap of life; the Goddess pervades even this, the subtlest bodily substance, the distilled essence (recall the whole series: she is in every tissue). At the crown, she governs the essence of the body as she governs the essence of all. The “white” (śukla) also rejoins the white of the brow and the all-colour of the crown.
Śrī Vidyā: Śukla-saṃsthitā presides over the śukla, the seed-essence (the seventh and subtlest dhātu); the Yākinī governing the vital essence, the finest distillation of the body.
532. सर्वतोमुखी — Sarvato-mukhī
Translation: All-faced (facing in every direction — sarvataḥ-mukha).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “all-faced” — facing every direction at once. The apavāda: where the lower Yoginīs had one, two, three, four, five, six faces in ascending count, the Yoginī of the crown is all-faced — the faces gathered into omnifaciality, looking everywhere, seeing all (recall Sahasra-śīrṣa-vadanā, the cosmic form). The progression of faces (1→2→3→4→5→6→all) reaches its term: at the summit, she faces all ways, for she is the all. The differentiation of the ascent resolves into the total vision of the crown.
Śrī Vidyā: Sarvato-mukhī is all-faced, facing every direction; the Yākinī at the sahasrāra, the culmination of the ascending count of faces — the omnifacial totality of the summit.
Śloka 110
सर्वौदन-प्रीतचित्ता याकिन्यम्बा-स्वरूपिणी ।
स्वाहा स्वधाऽमतिर् मेधा श्रुतिः स्मृतिर् अनुत्तमा ॥ ११०॥
sarvaudana-prīta-cittā yākinyambā-svarūpiṇī |
svāhā svadhā'matir medhā śrutiḥ smṛtir anuttamā ǁ 110 ǁ
The crown-Yoginī, Yākinī, is named — fond of all foods, the totality at the summit — and the long procession of the seven closes. The ascent that began at the throat ends at the crown, the one Goddess having been met at every level of the embodied being, in flesh and blood and bone and the subtlest essence, no less herself in the lowest tissue than on the thousand-petalled lotus. The śloka then turns to the sacred utterances of offering — Svāhā (for the gods) and Svadhā (for the ancestors) — and to the powers of mind: understanding, intelligence, the heard scripture and the remembered, and the unsurpassed.
533. सर्वौदनप्रीतचित्ता — Sarvaudana-prīta-cittā
Translation: Whose heart delights in all kinds of cooked food (sarva-odana).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her heart delights in all foods. The apavāda: where each lower Yoginī favoured a particular dish (milk-rice, ghee-rice, jaggery-rice, curd-rice, green-gram-rice, turmeric-rice), the Yoginī of the crown delights in all of them together — the totality of offerings gathered at the summit; she relishes every offering, for at the crown all the savours of devotion are one. The “all-food” completes the “Sarva-” return: all colours, all weapons, all faces, all foods. Every particular love, gathered into the one.
Śrī Vidyā: Sarvaudana-prīta-cittā delights in all foods; the Yākinī at the sahasrāra, relishing the totality of offerings — the gathering of all the lower Yoginīs' particular foods into the all.
534. याकिन्यम्बास्वरूपिणी — Yākinyambā-svarūpiṇī
Translation: Who is of the very form of Mother Yākinī (presiding at the sahasrāra).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The seventh and final Yoginī named: she is Yākinī, presiding power of the sahasrāra. The apavāda: Yākinī is the one Goddess in her form as ruler of the crown — and being of the summit, she is the most comprehensive, the all-coloured, all-armed, all-faced, all-relishing totality; “Yākinyambā-svarūpiṇī” gathers not only the crown-section but the whole procession into the single presiding Mother. The seven Yoginīs — Ḍākinī, Rākiṇī, Lākinī, Kākinī, Sākinī, Hākinī, Yākinī — were never seven deities but the one Goddess met at the seven levels of the embodied being; here, at the crown, the procession resolves into her, the All. (The seven names, it is said, together yield her secret syllables.)
Śrī Vidyā: Yākinyambā-svarūpiṇī is the Goddess as Mother Yākinī, presiding Yoginī of the sahasrāra; the seventh and culminating Yoginī, in whom the whole procession resolves — the seven Yoginīs being one Śakti at the seven centres.
535. स्वाहा — Svāhā
Translation: Svāhā — the sacred exclamation of oblation to the gods.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Svāhā — the utterance with which oblations are offered into the fire for the gods. The apavāda: after the cakra-ascent, the hymn turns to the sacred utterances of offering; she is Svāhā, the very word that conveys the offering to the divine — and so the power by which every sacrifice reaches its end. She is the offering's efficacy, the “so be it” that completes the oblation. (The fire that receives is hers — the inner fire of the centres just ascended.)
Śrī Vidyā: Svāhā is the sacred exclamation of oblation to the gods; the Goddess as the conveying power of the offering, the consort of Agni in the fire-rite.
536. स्वधा — Svadhā
Translation: Svadhā — the sacred exclamation of oblation to the ancestors (pitṛs).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Svadhā — the utterance with which oblations are offered to the ancestors (pitṛs). The apavāda: as Svāhā conveys the offering to the gods, Svadhā conveys it to the forefathers; she is both — the power by which every offering, to gods or ancestors, reaches its recipient. The two utterances together name her as the efficacy of all oblation, upward and back. She is the sacred word that makes the offering effective.
Śrī Vidyā: Svadhā is the sacred exclamation of oblation to the ancestors; the Goddess as the conveying power of the offering to the pitṛs, paired with Svāhā for the gods.
537. अमतिः — Amatiḥ
Translation: Amati — (read as a-mati) the state beyond discursive thought; or (as the context of mati) understanding itself.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The name is read in two ways. As a-mati: she is “beyond mati,” beyond discursive thought — the awareness prior to the thinking mind (recall Mano-vācām-agocarā). As amati joined to the following Medhā: she is the very power of understanding. The apavāda holds both: she is both the understanding by which we think and that which is beyond all thinking — the ground of mind that mind cannot reach, and the light by which mind operates. (Commentators differ on the parsing; the non-dual sense embraces both.)
Śrī Vidyā: Amatiḥ is read as the state beyond discursive thought (a-mati) or as understanding (amati/mati); the Goddess as both the ground beyond mind and the power of comprehension.
538. मेधा — Medhā
Translation: Medhā — intelligence, retentive wisdom; the power of comprehension.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Medhā — intelligence, especially the retentive, grasping power of wisdom. The apavāda: medhā is the keen, retaining intellect (recall Mati, Mahā-buddhi); she is that power of comprehension — the light of awareness lending the intellect its grasp, the very faculty of understanding personified. (Medhā is also the goddess of intelligence, here a face of the one Goddess.)
Śrī Vidyā: Medhā is intelligence and retentive wisdom; the Goddess as the power of comprehension, and the deity Medhā, a face of the one Śakti.
539. श्रुतिः — Śrutiḥ
Translation: Śruti — the revealed scripture (the Veda, “that which is heard”).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Śruti — the revealed Veda, “that which is heard,” the eternal sacred sound. The apavāda: as the Veda is her command (Nijājñā-rūpa-nigamā) and her child (Veda-jananī), she is the śruti itself — the heard revelation, the eternal Word in its revealed form (recall Nāda-rūpā). She is the scripture that reveals her, being its very substance.
Śrī Vidyā: Śrutiḥ is the revealed Veda (“that which is heard”); the Goddess as the eternal śruti, the heard revelation.
540. स्मृतिः — Smṛtiḥ
Translation: Smṛti — the remembered scripture (the tradition); and memory itself.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Smṛti — the remembered tradition (the secondary scriptures), and memory itself. The apavāda: as śruti is the heard, smṛti is the remembered — the tradition derived from revelation; and smṛti is also memory, the power of retention by which knowledge is held. She is both the remembered scripture and the very faculty of memory — that which holds, and that which is held. (Memory, deepest, is the recollection of one's own true nature — the Self remembering itself.)
Śrī Vidyā: Smṛtiḥ is the remembered scripture (the smṛti tradition) and memory itself; the Goddess as both the derived scripture and the power of recollection.
541. अनुत्तमा — Anuttamā
Translation: Anuttamā — the unsurpassed, than whom there is none higher.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Anuttamā — “than whom there is no higher,” the unsurpassed. The apavāda: an-uttama, “not-surpassed,” names her as the supreme, the highest, beyond which there is nothing greater (recall Samānādhika-varjitā, Nirupamā, Parameśvarī) — the absolute summit, fittingly closing the section that ascended to the crown. There is none above her, for she is the All, met now at the very top of the ascent. The procession of the centres ends in the unsurpassed.
Śrī Vidyā: Anuttamā is the unsurpassed, the supreme; the Goddess than whom there is none higher — fittingly closing the cakra-ascent at the crown.
Devanagari per the sanskritdocuments.org recension (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Uttarakhaṇḍa; Hayagrīva–Agastya saṃvāda). Transliteration, translation, and commentary original to this edition. — End of Part XIV.
