Lalitā Sahasranāma — Part XVI — Nāmas 590–689 (Ślokas 119–134): The Heart-Cave, the Triads, and the One Without a Second

Part XVI — Nāmas 590–689 (Ślokas 119–134): The Heart-Cave, the Triads, and the One Without a Second

ॐ श्रीमात्रे नमः · oṃ śrīmātre namaḥ

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The heart-cave, the triads, and the One without a second

Part XVI is the largest single movement of this edition — one hundred names in one sweep, and among the most concentrated in doctrine. It opens with the Goddess located in the body and the Śrī Cakra at once: seated in the head, the heart, the point within the triangle — the meditative stations where she is found. From the heart-lotus the hymn names her Daharākāśa-rūpiṇī, the subtle ether of the heart-cave that the Chāndogya Upaniṣad declares as vast as the outer sky and holding all within it. Then come the great metaphysical names: she is the primordial Power, the immeasurable, the Self, the supreme; the bearer of the klīṃ seed and the giver of kaivalya, absolute aloneness-in-freedom; Tripurā, the three-cited, and the goddess of every sacred triad — three letters, three powers, three worlds, three states. She is the union of the individual and the Absolute (Brahmātmaikya-svarūpiṇī); she is the Chāndogya's bhūman, the Plenum-Vast in which alone is joy; she is the Non-dual, in whom duality is left behind. And she is the single Śakti whose threefold face is will, knowledge, and action — by which the worlds are willed, known, and made. The movement closes in the royal names: the Empress of emperors, giver of dominion, in whom the seeker's own sovereignty is found. Through it all the apavāda holds: she is located only to be known as unlocatable, named as triad only to be known as the One the triads point to, the One without a second.

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॥ श्रीललितासहस्रनामस्तोत्रम् ॥

The Thousand Names — Ślokas 119–134 (Nāmas 590–689)

Śloka 119

कटाक्ष-किङ्करी-भूत-कमला-कोटि-सेविता ।
शिरःस्थिता चन्द्रनिभा भालस्थेन्द्र-धनुःप्रभा ॥ ११९॥

kaṭākṣa-kiṅkarī-bhūta-kamalā-koṭi-sevitā |
śiraḥsthitā candra-nibhā bhālasthendra-dhanuḥ-prabhā ǁ 119 ǁ

After the three Vidyās, the hymn places the Goddess in the meditative body and the Śrī Cakra: served by myriad Lakṣmīs, she is seated in the head (the crown), shining like the moon; on the brow, radiant as the rainbow. The names that follow (in the next śloka) continue the placing — in the heart, sun-bright, the lamp within the triangle. This is the contemplative geography: where, in the subtle body and the Śrī Cakra, the meditator finds her.

590. कटाक्षकिङ्करीभूतकमलाकोटिसेविता — Kaṭākṣa-kiṅkarī-bhūta-kamalā-koṭi-sevitā

Translation: Served by myriad Lakṣmīs (kamalā-koṭi) who have become servants (kiṅkarī) at a mere sidelong glance (kaṭākṣa).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “served by ten-million Lakṣmīs made her handmaids by a glance.” The apavāda: Lakṣmī, goddess of all fortune, is here multiplied into millions — and all of them are her attendants, made so by a single sidelong look; the supreme wealth-of-the-worlds waits on her as servant (recall Bhakta-nidhiḥ, the treasure). Her mere glance commands all fortune; she is that of which Lakṣmī herself is a servant — the source from which all auspiciousness flows. (And her kaṭākṣa, her grace-glance, is itself the maker of fortune.)

Śrī Vidyā: Kaṭākṣa-kiṅkarī-bhūta-kamalā-koṭi-sevitā is served by millions of Lakṣmīs made her handmaids by a glance; the Goddess whose grace-glance commands all fortune, source of what Lakṣmī bestows.

591. शिरःस्थिता — Śiraḥsthitā

Translation: Seated in the head (śiras) — the crown-centre.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “seated in the head” — at the crown, the sahasrāra (recall Sahasradala-padmasthā). The apavāda: this name begins a series placing her at the meditative stations of the subtle body and the Śrī Cakra; the head is the highest seat, where the realised consciousness abides. She “is seated” there not as confined but as the awareness found at the summit of the contemplative ascent — the same one Goddess, indicated here by her highest station.

Śrī Vidyā: Śiraḥsthitā is seated in the head (the crown-centre, sahasrāra); the first of the meditative body-locations where the Goddess is found.

592. चन्द्रनिभा — Candra-nibhā

Translation: Radiant like the moon (candra).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She shines “like the moon” — cool, white, luminous. The apavāda: at the crown, where the moon of the sahasrāra sheds its nectar (recall Sudhā-sārābhivarṣiṇī, the nectar-raining), she is moon-bright — the cool radiance of the realised state, the lunar light of pure sattva (recall the autumn-moon face). The hue of the summit is the white moonlight of peace.

Śrī Vidyā: Candra-nibhā is radiant like the moon; the cool lunar light of the Goddess at the crown, the nectar-shedding moon of the sahasrāra.

593. भालस्था — Bhālasthā

Translation: Seated on the brow/forehead (bhāla) — at the Ājñā / brow-region.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “seated on the brow.” The apavāda: continuing the placing, she abides at the forehead — the region of the Ājñā and the inner eye (recall Ājñā-cakrābja-nilayā); the brow is the seat of command and direct vision, and she is found there as the discerning awareness. Another station of the contemplative geography: the Goddess at the brow.

Śrī Vidyā: Bhālasthā is seated on the brow (the forehead, Ājñā-region); the Goddess found at the centre of inner vision.

594. इन्द्रधनुःप्रभा — Indra-dhanuḥ-prabhā

Translation: Whose radiance is like the rainbow (indra-dhanus, “Indra's bow”).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her radiance is “like Indra's bow” — the rainbow. The apavāda: where the crown was moon-white, the brow shines with the rainbow's many colours (recall Sarva-varṇopa-śobhitā, radiant with all colours, at the crown) — the spectrum arching at the brow, the play of all hues in the one light. The rainbow, brief and luminous, is an image of the many colours of manifestation arching out of and back into the one white light. (Read together, bhālasthā + indra-dhanuḥ-prabhā: her brow shines like a rainbow.)

Śrī Vidyā: Indra-dhanuḥ-prabhā is radiant like the rainbow; the many-coloured light at the Goddess's brow, the spectrum within the one light.

Śloka 120

हृदयस्था रविप्रख्या त्रिकोणान्तर-दीपिका ।
दाक्षायणी दैत्यहन्त्री दक्षयज्ञ-विनाशिनी ॥ १२०॥

hṛdayasthā ravi-prakhyā trikoṇāntara-dīpikā |
dākṣāyaṇī daitya-hantrī dakṣa-yajña-vināśinī ǁ 120 ǁ

The placing continues — in the heart, sun-bright, the lamp within the triangle — and then turns to her form as Dākṣāyaṇī (Satī, daughter of Dakṣa), the slayer of demons and the destroyer of Dakṣa's sacrifice. The contemplative geography (head, brow, heart, the triangle of the Śrī Cakra) gives way to the mythic, but the thread holds: she is found within, at the heart's triangle, as the light.

595. हृदयस्था — Hṛdayasthā

Translation: Seated in the heart (hṛdaya).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “seated in the heart” — the hṛdaya, the heart-centre, the cave of the Self. The apavāda: the heart is, in the Upaniṣads, the very seat of the Ātman (“in the lotus of the heart he dwells”); she abides there as the indwelling Self (recall Anāhatābja-nilayā, and the daharākāśa to be named next) — the One found not far off but in the innermost cave of one's own heart. Of all the stations, this is the dearest: she is seated in the heart.

Śrī Vidyā: Hṛdayasthā is seated in the heart; the Goddess as the indwelling Self in the heart-cave, the Upaniṣadic seat of the Ātman.

596. रविप्रख्या — Ravi-prakhyā

Translation: Sun-bright (ravi-prakhyā), shining like the sun.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She shines “like the sun” in the heart. The apavāda: where the crown was moon-cool, the heart is sun-bright — the blazing light of consciousness in the heart-cave (recall the three orbs: moon, sun, fire; the sun in the heart). The Self in the heart is self-luminous (Svaprakāśā), shining by its own light like a sun that needs no other to be seen. The heart's light is the sun of awareness.

Śrī Vidyā: Ravi-prakhyā is sun-bright; the self-luminous light of the Goddess in the heart, blazing like the sun (recall the three orbs).

597. त्रिकोणान्तरदीपिका — Trikoṇāntara-dīpikā

Translation: The lamp (dīpikā) within the triangle (trikoṇa) — the central triangle of the Śrī Cakra.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the lamp within the triangle” — the flame at the centre of the innermost triangle of the Śrī Cakra (and of the heart). The apavāda: the central triangle, just around the bindu, is the most secret heart of the Śrī Cakra; she is the light burning within it (recall Bindu-maṇḍala-vāsinī) — the steady flame of awareness at the very centre, the lamp by which the inmost shrine is lit. The geography of head, brow, heart now narrows to the point: the lamp within the triangle, the Self at the centre of all the diagrams.

Śrī Vidyā: Trikoṇāntara-dīpikā is the lamp within the central triangle of the Śrī Cakra; the flame of awareness at the innermost triangle around the bindu — the light of the secret heart of the yantra.

598. दाक्षायणी — Dākṣāyaṇī

Translation: Dākṣāyaṇī — the daughter of Dakṣa (Satī, Śiva's first consort).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Dākṣāyaṇī — Satī, daughter of Dakṣa, Śiva's first consort, who cast off her body at her father's insult to her Lord. The apavāda: as with her other great forms (Pārvatī, Umā, Kātyāyanī), Dākṣāyaṇī is the one Goddess in a beloved mythic form; and Satī's story — the body given up for love of Śiva, to be reborn as Pārvatī and reunited with him — is itself a figure of the jīva's return to its source. The one reality, here as the faithful Satī.

Śrī Vidyā: Dākṣāyaṇī is Satī, daughter of Dakṣa, Śiva's first consort; the one Goddess in the form of the faithful Satī, whose self-offering and rebirth as Pārvatī figure the return to the source.

599. दैत्यहन्त्री — Daitya-hantrī

Translation: Daitya-hantrī — the slayer of the demons (daityas).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the slayer of the daityas” — destroyer of the demon-hordes. The apavāda, as with Bhaṇḍāsura's slaying (Parts IV–V): the “demons” are, within, the dark forces of the lower nature — the impulses that oppose the light; she slays them as the power that clears the inner field for realisation (recall Mahiṣāsura-mardinī among the great Goddess's deeds). The outer demon-slaying mirrors the inner: she destroys what obstructs the Self.

Śrī Vidyā: Daitya-hantrī is the slayer of the demons; the Goddess who destroys the demon-hordes (and, within, the dark forces opposing the light).

600. दक्षयज्ञविनाशिनी — Dakṣa-yajña-vināśinī

Translation: The destroyer (vināśinī) of Dakṣa's sacrifice (dakṣa-yajña).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the destroyer of Dakṣa's sacrifice” — the great rite from which Śiva was excluded and at which Satī gave up her body; in wrath, the sacrifice was destroyed (by Vīrabhadra, born of Śiva's anger). The apavāda: the destroyed sacrifice is the rite that scorned the supreme — worship that omits the Lord is no worship, and is undone; she destroys the “sacrifice” that excludes the very reality it should honour. A teaching in mythic form: no offering avails that leaves out the One. (As the 600th name, it marks the wrathful side of the grace that will tolerate no slighting of the truth.)

Śrī Vidyā: Dakṣa-yajña-vināśinī is the destroyer of Dakṣa's sacrifice; the Goddess who undoes the rite that scorned Śiva — a figure that no worship omitting the supreme can stand.

Śloka 121

दरान्दोलित-दीर्घाक्षी दर-हासोज्ज्वलन्-मुखी ।
गुरुमूर्तिर् गुणनिधिर् गोमाता गुहजन्मभूः ॥ १२१॥

darāndolita-dīrghākṣī dara-hāsojjvalan-mukhī |
guru-mūrtir guṇa-nidhir go-mātā guha-janma-bhūḥ ǁ 121 ǁ

A śloka pairing the lovely-form and the great-relation names: her long eyes faintly swaying, her face bright with a slight smile; then she is the form of the Guru, the treasury of virtues, the Mother of the cow (and of the senses/Vedas), and the womb from which Guha (Skanda) was born. The intimate beauty and the cosmic motherhood stand side by side.

601. दरान्दोलितदीर्घाक्षी — Darāndolita-dīrghākṣī

Translation: Whose long eyes (dīrgha-akṣī) sway faintly/gently (dara-andolita).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her long eyes “sway a little” — moving gently, with a faint tremor of feeling. The apavāda, as with the doe-eyes and the love-filled glance: the long, gently moving eyes are grace in motion, the tenderness of the gaze that takes in the world with love (recall the kaṭākṣa, the grace-glance, that makes Lakṣmīs of millions). The slight sway is the living warmth of her looking — not a fixed stare but a tender, moving regard.

Śrī Vidyā: Darāndolita-dīrghākṣī has long eyes that sway gently; the tender, living grace of the Goddess's moving gaze.

602. दरहासोज्ज्वलन्मुखी — Dara-hāsojjvalan-mukhī

Translation: Whose face is bright (ujjvala) with a slight smile (dara-hāsa).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her face is “bright with a faint smile.” The apavāda: the slight smile (recall Manda-smita, the gentle smile that drowns Kāmeśa's mind; the smile that overwhelmed the Lord) — the barest curve of the lips, lighting the whole face; grace at its most understated and most radiant. The faint smile is the overflow of inner bliss, lighting the countenance without a word. The supreme reality smiling, just barely, in love.

Śrī Vidyā: Dara-hāsojjvalan-mukhī has a face bright with a slight smile; the gentle radiant smile of the Goddess, the overflow of her inner bliss.

603. गुरुमूर्तिः — Guru-mūrtiḥ

Translation: Guru-mūrtiḥ — whose form is the Guru; she who embodies the teacher.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the form of the Guru” — the very embodiment of the teacher. The apavāda: the Guru is the one who dispels darkness (gu-ru, “darkness-remover”) and reveals the Self; she is that — the inner teacher, the grace that awakens knowledge (recall Jñāna-dā, giver of knowledge; the Vidyā she is). The true Guru is finally her own self-revealing power; to receive the teaching is to receive her. (And in the Śrī-Vidyā, the line of Gurus is her own descent of grace — Dakṣiṇāmūrti, the silent teacher, is yet to come.)

Śrī Vidyā: Guru-mūrtiḥ is of the form of the Guru; the Goddess as the inner teacher, the grace that reveals the Self — the true Guru being her own self-revealing power.

604. गुणनिधिः — Guṇa-nidhiḥ

Translation: Guṇa-nidhiḥ — the treasury (nidhi) of all virtues/excellences (guṇa).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the treasure-hoard of virtues” — the store of all excellences. The apavāda: every good quality (compassion, wisdom, power, beauty) is hers without limit; she is the nidhi, the inexhaustible treasury, from which all virtue is drawn (recall Bhakta-nidhiḥ, the devotee's treasure). Yet she is also beyond the guṇas (Nirguṇā) — the treasury of all qualities is herself quality-less, the ground in which all excellences inhere. Full of every virtue, and beyond all.

Śrī Vidyā: Guṇa-nidhiḥ is the treasury of all virtues; the inexhaustible store of every excellence — yet herself beyond the guṇas (Nirguṇā).

605. गोमाता — Go-mātā

Translation: Go-mātā — the Mother of the cow (Kāmadhenu); and of the senses, words, and rays of light (go).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “Mother of the go.” The apavāda: go means cow (and she is mother of Kāmadhenu, the wish-cow, source of all nourishment) — but go also means the senses, the words (speech), the rays of light, the very earth; she is mother of them all (recall Veda-jananī, mother of the Vedas; Go is also the cow as the sacred sustainer). She is the source of nourishment, of the senses by which we know, of the words by which we speak, of the light by which we see. The one Mother of all the “rays” — sensory, verbal, luminous.

Śrī Vidyā: Go-mātā is the Mother of the cow (Kāmadhenu) and of the go — the senses, words, rays of light, and earth; the source of nourishment, perception, speech, and light.

606. गुहजन्मभूः — Guha-janma-bhūḥ

Translation: The birth-ground (janma-bhū) of Guha (Skanda / Kārttikeya).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the birthplace of Guha” — the womb from which Guha (Skanda, Kārttikeya, the war-god) was born. The apavāda: as Kumāra-gaṇanāthāmbā (mother of Skanda and Gaṇeśa, Part XIII), she is the mother of the divine son; guha means “the hidden, the cave-dweller” (Skanda born in the reed-thicket, dwelling in the secret place) — and so the name also whispers that she is the birth-ground of the hidden, the source of what dwells in the secret cave (the heart, the guhā). Mother of the divine child, and of the indwelling secret.

Śrī Vidyā: Guha-janma-bhūḥ is the birth-ground of Guha (Skanda); the Mother of the divine son — and, by guhā (“cave”), the source of the hidden, the indwelling secret of the heart.

Śloka 122

देवेशी दण्डनीतिस्था दहराकाश-रूपिणी ।
प्रतिपन्मुख्य-राकान्त-तिथि-मण्डल-पूजिता ॥ १२२॥

deveśī daṇḍa-nīti-sthā daharākāśa-rūpiṇī |
pratipan-mukhya-rākānta-tithi-maṇḍala-pūjitā ǁ 122 ǁ

At the heart of this śloka is one of the supreme Upaniṣadic names: Daharākāśa-rūpiṇī, “of the form of the small ether of the heart-cave.” The Chāndogya teaches that within the heart's lotus is a tiny space (dahara-ākāśa), and within that tiny space is contained the whole of heaven and earth — for the space within the heart is as vast as the space without, and the Self that dwells there is all. She is named here as that heart-ether: the infinite hidden in the innermost small. Around it stand the names of her sovereignty and her worship by the lunar days.

607. देवेशी — Deveśī

Translation: Deveśī — the sovereign Lady of the gods (deva-īśī).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the ruler of the gods” — their sovereign lady (echoing Suranāyikā, Nikhileśvarī). The apavāda: the gods, the shining powers, are governed by her — she is their īśī, their controller, the one supremacy above all the divine functions; the powers of the cosmos are her ministers. Lady of the very gods, because she is the reality of which they are aspects.

Śrī Vidyā: Deveśī is the sovereign lady of the gods; the Goddess who rules the divine powers, the supremacy above all the gods.

608. दण्डनीतिस्था — Daṇḍa-nīti-sthā

Translation: Established in (the form of) the science of governance/justice (daṇḍa-nīti).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She “abides in daṇḍa-nīti” — the rule of law, the science of just governance (the “law of the rod,” the order that restrains wrong and upholds right). The apavāda: as Niyantrī, the ordainer, she is the very principle of cosmic and social order — the ṛta, the dharmic law by which the worlds and societies are justly held (recall Daṇḍa-nīti as the king's science). Justice and right order are her own form; she is the law that upholds the good.

Śrī Vidyā: Daṇḍa-nīti-sthā abides in the science of just governance; the Goddess as the principle of right order and law (daṇḍa-nīti, ṛta) upholding the worlds.

609. दहराकाशरूपिणी — Daharākāśa-rūpiṇī

Translation: Whose form is the dahara-ākāśa — the subtle ether of the small space within the heart-cave.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the form of the dahara-ākāśa” — the tiny ether-space within the lotus of the heart. The apavāda quotes the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (VIII.1): within this city of Brahman (the body) is the heart-lotus, and within it a small space (dahara), and “as great as is this outer space, so great is this space within the heart — within it are contained both heaven and earth, sun and moon, all that is and is not.” She is that heart-ether: the infinitesimally small that holds the infinitely vast, the cave in which the whole cosmos and its source are found. The deepest of the heart-names: the Self in the heart-cave is not a speck within the body but the boundless within the boundless-seeming-small. To enter the heart's tiny space is to find all. (This is the apavāda's perfection: the located heart-point is the unlocated all.)

Śrī Vidyā: Daharākāśa-rūpiṇī is the subtle ether of the heart-cave; the Chāndogya's dahara-ākāśa (VIII.1) — the tiny space within the heart-lotus that contains heaven, earth, and all, the infinite hidden in the innermost small.

610. प्रतिपन्मुख्यराकान्ततिथिमण्डलपूजिता — Pratipan-mukhya-rākānta-tithi-maṇḍala-pūjitā

Translation: Worshipped by the circle (maṇḍala) of lunar days (tithi) from the first (pratipad) to the full-moon's end (rākā-anta).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “worshipped by the circle of the fifteen lunar days, from the first (pratipad) to the full moon (rākā).” The apavāda: the fifteen tithis are the fifteen Nityā-devīs, the eternal goddesses of the lunar fortnight, who attend her (recall Nityā-ṣoḍaśikā-rūpā, the sixteen Nityās; the moon's digits as her retinue) — the waxing fortnight's fifteen days, each a goddess, worship her who is the sixteenth, the never-waning. Time itself, in its lunar measure, is her worshipper; the days of the moon are her attendant deities. (The fifteen + herself = the sixteen Nityās.)

Śrī Vidyā: Pratipan-mukhya-rākānta-tithi-maṇḍala-pūjitā is worshipped by the circle of the fifteen lunar days; the fifteen Nityā-devīs of the waxing fortnight (pratipad to full moon) who attend her, the never-waning sixteenth.

Śloka 123

कलात्मिका कलानाथा काव्यालाप-विनोदिनी ।
सचामर-रमा-वाणी-सव्य-दक्षिण-सेविता ॥ १२३॥

kalātmikā kalā-nāthā kāvyālāpa-vinodinī |
sacāmara-ramā-vāṇī-savya-dakṣiṇa-sevitā ǁ 123 ǁ

611. कलात्मिका — Kalātmikā

Translation: Whose very self is the kalās — the arts, and the digits/phases.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the nature of the kalās” — the arts (the sixty-four), and the digits or phases (of the moon, of sound). The apavāda: kalā is both the fine arts and the subtle fractions or phases; she is the animating essence of all art (the beauty and skill in every made thing) and the very phases of the moon and of manifestation (recall Catuḥ-ṣaṣṭi-kalā-mayī, made of the sixty-four arts; the kalās of the moon). All art and all measured phases are her self-expression. She is the artistry within the cosmos and the phasing by which it unfolds.

Śrī Vidyā: Kalātmikā is of the nature of the kalās (the arts and the phases/digits); the Goddess as the animating essence of all art and the phasing of manifestation (recall Catuḥ-ṣaṣṭi-kalā-mayī).

612. कलानाथा — Kalā-nāthā

Translation: Kalā-nāthā — the mistress of the kalās; and the lord of the digits (the moon).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “mistress of the kalās” — sovereign of the arts and phases; and kalā-nātha is a name of the moon (lord of the digits), so she is also “she who is the moon” or “consort of the moon-crested Śiva.” The apavāda: as kalātmikā she is the arts' very substance; as kalā-nāthā she is their sovereign — and, as the moon of digits, the cool fullness whose phases are the dance of manifestation (recall Candra-maṇḍala-madhyagā). Both the essence and the sovereign of all phased beauty.

Śrī Vidyā: Kalā-nāthā is the mistress of the arts and phases (and the moon, lord of digits); the sovereign of all phased beauty, consort of the moon-crested Śiva.

613. काव्यालापविनोदिनी — Kāvyālāpa-vinodinī

Translation: Who delights (vinodinī) in the discourse of poetry (kāvya-ālāpa).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She “takes delight in poetic discourse” — in the recitation and converse of poetry. The apavāda: she who is the inmost essence of the arts (Kalātmikā) and the form of the letters (Mātṛkā-varṇa-rūpiṇī) delights in beautiful speech — for poetry, at its height, is the play of the Word (Vāc) that she is (recall Vāg-vādinī; the four levels of speech). Her delight in kāvya is awareness rejoicing in its own self-expression as beauty in language. The supreme reality enjoys the play of poetry as its own.

Śrī Vidyā: Kāvyālāpa-vinodinī delights in poetic discourse; the Goddess rejoicing in beautiful speech, the play of the Word (Vāc) that she is.

614. सचामररमावाणीसव्यदक्षिणसेविता — Sacāmara-ramā-vāṇī-savya-dakṣiṇa-sevitā

Translation: Attended on left (savya) and right (dakṣiṇa) by Ramā (Lakṣmī) and Vāṇī (Sarasvatī) bearing fly-whisks (cāmara).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “served, on her left and right, by Ramā and Vāṇī wielding cāmaras (fly-whisks).” The apavāda: Lakṣmī (Ramā, fortune) and Sarasvatī (Vāṇī, wisdom) — the two great goddesses, sought by all the worlds — stand as her attendants, fanning her with whisks; the powers of wealth and of knowledge wait upon her (recall the Lakṣmīs as her handmaids). She is the supreme of whom even Lakṣmī and Sarasvatī are servants — the one reality that fortune and wisdom both adore and attend. (The royal image: the Empress flanked by the two goddesses as her fan-bearers.)

Śrī Vidyā: Sacāmara-ramā-vāṇī-savya-dakṣiṇa-sevitā is attended on left and right by Lakṣmī (Ramā) and Sarasvatī (Vāṇī) bearing fly-whisks; the Goddess whom wealth and wisdom both serve as handmaids.

Śloka 124

आदिशक्तिर् अमेया आत्मा परमा पावनाकृतिः ।
अनेककोटि-ब्रह्माण्ड-जननी दिव्यविग्रहा ॥ १२४॥

ādi-śaktir ameyā''tmā paramā pāvanākṛtiḥ |
aneka-koṭi-brahmāṇḍa-jananī divya-vigrahā ǁ 124 ǁ

A śloka of supreme metaphysical names. She is the primordial Power before all powers; the immeasurable; the Self itself; the supreme; the form of purity. And she is the mother of countless millions of universes, of divine form. From the intimate (the smiling face, the swaying eyes) the hymn now lifts to the absolute: Ādi-śakti, Ātmā, Paramā — the first Power, the Self, the highest.

615. आदिशक्तिः — Ādi-śaktiḥ

Translation: Ādi-śakti — the primordial Power, the first Energy before all.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Ādi-śakti — “the primordial Power,” the original energy from which all forces and forms proceed. The apavāda: before any manifestation, before the gods, before time, there is the one power — and she is it (recall Parā-śaktiḥ, the supreme power; Mūla-prakṛti, the root-nature); ādi, “first,” names her as the beginningless beginning, the Śakti that is the very capacity-to-be of all that is. The first Power, because she is power itself, prior to all its expressions. (Adi-Parāśakti, as the Lalitopākhyāna names her.)

Śrī Vidyā: Ādi-śaktiḥ is the primordial Power; the original Energy before all (Adi-Parāśakti), from which all forces and forms proceed — the beginningless Śakti.

616. अमेया — Ameyā

Translation: Ameyā — the immeasurable, beyond all measure.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Ameyā — “immeasurable,” that which no measure can compass (echoing Aprameyā). The apavāda: every measure measures one finite thing against another, but she is the infinite, the measurer of all and measured by none (recall Niḥsīma-mahimā, of boundless greatness); a-meyā, “not-measurable,” names the boundlessness of the One. She cannot be measured, for she is that within which all measuring takes place.

Śrī Vidyā: Ameyā is the immeasurable; the boundless Goddess beyond all measure, the measurer measured by none.

617. आत्मा — Ātmā

Translation: Ātmā — the Self; the very Self of all.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Ātmā — “the Self,” the innermost reality of all that is. The apavāda: this is the central name of the whole non-dual teaching, sounded here in a single word — she is not a deity apart from oneself but the very Self, the “I” at the root of every “I” (recall Vimarśa-rūpiṇī, the supreme “I”-awareness; Pratyak-citī-rūpā, the inward consciousness). To say “she is the Ātman” is to say that what one most truly is, is she; the Goddess and the Self are one. The whole hymn turns on this word: she is the Self one already is, waiting to be known. (This is the heart of Ātma-vidyā, just named in Part XV.)

Śrī Vidyā: Ātmā is the Self; the Goddess as the very Self (Ātman) of all — not a deity apart but the “I” at the root of every “I,” the One that one already is.

618. परमा — Paramā

Translation: Paramā — the supreme, the highest.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Paramā — “the supreme,” the highest, than which there is nothing beyond (echoing Anuttamā, Parā). The apavāda: parama is the utmost, the final; she is the supreme reality, the highest term of all seeking — and, joined to Ātmā just named, she is the Paramātman, the Supreme Self. The Self (Ātmā) and the Supreme (Paramā) named together: the individual self's own depth is the supreme reality. She is the highest, and the highest is one's own Self.

Śrī Vidyā: Paramā is the supreme, the highest; joined to Ātmā, the Paramātman — the Supreme Self, highest term of all seeking, one's own innermost depth.

619. पावनाकृतिः — Pāvanākṛtiḥ

Translation: Of purifying form (pāvana-ākṛti); whose very form sanctifies.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her form is pāvana — purifying; her very shape sanctifies. The apavāda: to behold her, to remember her, to come near her is to be made pure (recall Puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanā, her hearing itself merit; Kali-kalmaṣa-nāśinī); her form is not merely beautiful but cleansing — the sight of the holy purifies the seer. She is the purity that purifies, the sacred whose nearness makes sacred.

Śrī Vidyā: Pāvanākṛtiḥ is of purifying form; the Goddess whose very form sanctifies, the purity that makes pure all who behold or remember her.

620. अनेककोटिब्रह्माण्डजननी — Aneka-koṭi-brahmāṇḍa-jananī

Translation: The mother (jananī) of countless millions (aneka-koṭi) of universes (brahmāṇḍa).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “mother of many-millions of cosmic eggs” — of countless universes. The apavāda: not one world but innumerable brahmāṇḍas, each a whole cosmos with its own creator-gods, are born of her (recall Viyad-ādi-jagat-prasūḥ; Sṛṣṭi-kartrī); the scale is staggering — universes beyond counting, all her offspring. She is Mother on a scale the mind cannot hold: the source of not one but endless cosmoses, all arising in her as her own self-display. (This vast cosmology serves the apavāda: even endless universes are her appearance, not a second reality.)

Śrī Vidyā: Aneka-koṭi-brahmāṇḍa-jananī is the mother of countless millions of universes; the Goddess as source of innumerable brahmāṇḍas, each arising in her as her own self-display.

621. दिव्यविग्रहा — Divya-vigrahā

Translation: Of divine form/body (divya-vigraha).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of divine form” — her body (vigraha) is divine, not made of the mortal elements. The apavāda: though named formless (Nirākārā) in her essence, she wears, for love and for worship, a divine form — radiant, deathless, made of consciousness and bliss (recall the dhyāna-form, the body of light); divya-vigraha is the luminous form she assumes, not a limitation but a grace, the formless taking shape that the heart may love her. The supreme, formless in itself, gives itself a divine form for the devotee.

Śrī Vidyā: Divya-vigrahā is of divine form; the luminous, deathless body of consciousness the Goddess assumes for worship — the formless taking divine shape out of grace.

Śloka 125

क्लींकारी केवला गुह्या कैवल्य-पददायिनी ।
त्रिपुरा त्रिजगद्वन्द्या त्रिमूर्तिस् त्रिदशेश्वरी ॥ १२५॥

klīṅkārī kevalā guhyā kaivalya-pada-dāyinī |
tripurā trijagad-vandyā tri-mūrtis tridaśeśvarī ǁ 125 ǁ

This śloka joins the supreme bīja to the supreme goal, and opens the great series of triads. She is Klīṅkārī, the bearer of the klīṃ seed (the kāma-bīja, the very heart of her mantra); the Alone (kevalā); the Secret (guhyā); the giver of kaivalya, the absolute aloneness-in-freedom that is liberation. Then the triads begin: she is Tripurā — “the three-citied,” the goddess of the threefold — worshipped in the three worlds, the form of the three (Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Rudra), the sovereign of the gods (tridaśa).

622. क्लींकारी — Klīṅkārī

Translation: Klīṅkārī — the maker/bearer of the syllable klīṃ (the kāma-bīja).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “she of klīṃ” — the bearer of the klīṃ seed-syllable, the kāma-bīja, the seed of desire-and-attraction that is the very heart of her mantra and of the Śrī-Vidyā. The apavāda: as Hrīṅkārī (she of hrīṃ, Part X) and Aiṃ (the vāgbhava seed), so here klīṃ — the kāma-bīja by which the supreme draws all to itself; she is that very sound (recall Kāma-kalā). The seed-syllable is not a mere sound but her sonic body; to utter klīṃ is to invoke the attracting grace that is herself. (Its full power belongs to the initiate; the name declares the bīja is the Goddess.)

Śrī Vidyā: Klīṅkārī is the bearer of the klīṃ seed (the kāma-bīja, heart of the Śrī-Vidyā mantra); the Goddess as that seed-syllable, the attracting grace in sonic form — its power held in the parampara.

623. केवला — Kevalā

Translation: Kevalā — the Alone, the absolute, the pure-and-simple One.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Kevalā — “the Alone,” the absolute One, pure and without a second. The apavāda: kevala is the unmixed, the sole, the one-only (recall Ekākinī, to come; Advaitā); she is the reality that alone is, with nothing beside it to dilute or oppose it — the “One without a second” of the Upaniṣad. Her aloneness is not loneliness but the fullness of the sole reality, beside which nothing else finally stands. (And kevala is the state of the liberated: she is both the Alone and, in the next name but one, the giver of that aloneness.)

Śrī Vidyā: Kevalā is the Alone, the absolute One without a second; the sole reality (recall Advaitā), whose aloneness is the fullness of non-duality.

624. गुह्या — Guhyā

Translation: Guhyā — the secret, the hidden, the mystery.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Guhyā — “the secret,” the hidden mystery. The apavāda: she dwells in the guhā, the cave of the heart (recall Daharākāśa-rūpiṇī; Guha-janma-bhūḥ), hidden from the outward-looking senses and the surface mind; she is the secret not because withheld but because subtle — the most intimate reality, hidden by its very nearness, found only by the inward turn. The open secret: nearer than all, and so unseen. (And the Śrī-Vidyā is the guhya-vidyā, the secret knowledge, guarded in the parampara.)

Śrī Vidyā: Guhyā is the secret, the hidden mystery; the Goddess concealed in the heart-cave (guhā) by her very nearness — the open secret of the Śrī-Vidyā, found by the inward turn.

625. कैवल्यपददायिनी — Kaivalya-pada-dāyinī

Translation: The giver (dāyinī) of the state (pada) of kaivalya — absolute aloneness-in-freedom, liberation.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She “gives the state of kaivalya” — the final liberation, the absolute aloneness-in-freedom in which the Self abides as itself alone, freed of all that is not itself. The apavāda: kaivalya (from kevala, the Alone — which she just was named) is the goal of all paths, the standing-alone of pure consciousness in its own nature, untouched by the world it has transcended; she, the Kevalā, is the giver of kaivalya — for she gives her own nature, makes the liberated one share her aloneness-in-fullness. She bestows the very being she is: to be liberated is to be made one with the Alone. (The supreme gift: not a heaven but the Self's own absolute freedom.)

Śrī Vidyā: Kaivalya-pada-dāyinī is the giver of kaivalya — absolute aloneness-in-freedom, the final liberation; the Kevalā who bestows her own nature, making the liberated one share her aloneness-in-fullness.

626. त्रिपुरा — Tripurā

Translation: Tripurā — the “three-citied,” the goddess of the threefold; the supreme as transcending the three.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Tripurā — “the three-citied,” her very name (and the root of Tripura-sundarī). The apavāda: the “three cities” are read on many levels — the three states (waking, dream, sleep) over which she is the fourth (Turīya); the three bodies (gross, subtle, causal); the three guṇas, three worlds, three fires, three powers; she is the deity presiding over every triad, and the supreme that transcends all three as their ground (recall the threes throughout — and Turīyā, the fourth beyond). She is named for the threefold because she is the One in and beyond every three. This name opens the great triad-series that follows.

Śrī Vidyā: Tripurā is the “three-citied,” the goddess of every triad (three states, bodies, guṇas, worlds) and the supreme transcending them as Turīyā; the root of Tripura-sundarī, opening the triad-series.

627. त्रिजगद्वन्द्या — Trijagad-vandyā

Translation: Worshipped (vandyā) by the three worlds (tri-jagat).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “worshipped by the three worlds” — heaven, earth, and the netherworld (or the three lokas) bow to her. The apavāda: the whole of the triple cosmos adores her (recall Hari-brahmendra-sevitā; the gods at her feet); there is no realm whose beings do not, knowingly or not, depend on and reverence the one reality. The three worlds worship her because she is the being of all three.

Śrī Vidyā: Trijagad-vandyā is worshipped by the three worlds; the Goddess adored throughout the triple cosmos, the reality on which all three realms depend.

628. त्रिमूर्तिः — Tri-mūrtiḥ

Translation: Tri-mūrtiḥ — of threefold form; the form of the trinity (Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Rudra).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Tri-mūrti — “of threefold form,” the very form of the trinity (Brahmā the creator, Viṣṇu the preserver, Rudra the dissolver). The apavāda: the three great gods are her three functions (recall Sṛṣṭi-kartrī / Goptrī / Saṃhāriṇī, the creator-preserver-destroyer names of Part IX; Pañca-kṛtya); she is the one power appearing as the three cosmic offices — not three gods over her, but her own threefold acting. The trinity is her single self in three works.

Śrī Vidyā: Tri-mūrtiḥ is of threefold form, the trinity (Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Rudra); the one Goddess as the three cosmic functions (creation, preservation, dissolution) — her single power in three works.

629. त्रिदशेश्वरी — Tridaśeśvarī

Translation: Tridaśeśvarī — the sovereign (īśvarī) of the gods (tridaśa, “the thirty,” the celestials).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “sovereign of the tridaśa” — of the gods (the “thirty,” a traditional reckoning of the celestials). The apavāda, echoing Deveśī, Suranāyikā: she rules the gods, who are her powers and ministers; the celestials, for all their splendour, are subjects of the one Goddess. Lady of the gods, because she is the reality the gods themselves embody. (Closing the triad-rich śloka, she is again named as the supreme above all the divine powers.)

Śrī Vidyā: Tridaśeśvarī is the sovereign of the gods (the tridaśa, the celestials); the Goddess who rules the divine powers, supreme above all the gods.

Śloka 126

त्र्यक्षरी दिव्य-गन्धाढ्या सिन्दूर-तिलकाञ्चिता ।
उमा शैलेन्द्रतनया गौरी गन्धर्व-सेविता ॥ १२६॥

tryakṣarī divya-gandhāḍhyā sindūra-tilakāñcitā |
umā śailendra-tanayā gaurī gandharva-sevitā ǁ 126 ǁ

630. त्र्यक्षरी — Tryakṣarī

Translation: Tryakṣarī — of three syllables; the three-syllabled mantra-goddess.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of three syllables” — the three-lettered. The apavāda: continuing the triads (Tripurā, Tri-mūrti), she is the three-syllabled mantra — read variously as the three bījas of the Pañcadaśī's three kūṭas, or the three sounds of auṃ (a-u-m), or three seed-syllables of her vidyā; she is the sacred triad of sound (recall Tri-kūṭā, the three-peaked). The mantra in its threefold sonic form is herself. (The precise three syllables belong to the initiate's transmission.)

Śrī Vidyā: Tryakṣarī is of three syllables; the three-lettered mantra-goddess (the three bījas / the three sounds of auṃ), the sonic triad — its precise form held in the parampara.

631. दिव्यगन्धाढ्या — Divya-gandhāḍhyā

Translation: Rich (āḍhyā) with divine fragrance (divya-gandha).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “rich with divine fragrance” — wrapped in celestial scent. The apavāda: as the divine form (Divya-vigrahā) is luminous, so it is fragrant — the sweetness of her presence sensed as heavenly perfume (recall the sandal-anointed limbs, the campaka-fondness); fragrance, the subtlest of sense-objects, fittingly attends the subtle Goddess. Her nearness is known as a divine sweetness in the air. (The inner “fragrance” is the savour of her presence in the heart.)

Śrī Vidyā: Divya-gandhāḍhyā is rich with divine fragrance; the celestial sweetness of the Goddess's presence, sensed as heavenly perfume.

632. सिन्दूरतिलकाञ्चिता — Sindūra-tilakāñcitā

Translation: Adorned (añcitā) with a vermilion (sindūra) mark (tilaka) on the brow.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “graced with a vermilion tilaka” — the red mark of the auspicious married woman on her brow. The apavāda: the sindūra at the brow (recall the red marks, the kumkum of the dhyāna) is the sign of saubhāgya, the auspicious wifely state — she is ever the cherished consort of Śiva, marked with the red of union and good fortune; the mark at the brow (the Ājñā) is also the sign of the awakened inner eye. Beauty, auspiciousness, and the awakened brow in one red mark.

Śrī Vidyā: Sindūra-tilakāñcitā is adorned with a vermilion brow-mark; the sign of the Goddess's auspicious union with Śiva (saubhāgya) and of the awakened inner eye.

633. उमा — Umā

Translation: Umā — the great Goddess Umā, consort of Śiva (Pārvatī).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Umā — one of the most beloved names of the consort of Śiva (Pārvatī, daughter of the mountain). The apavāda: Umā is traditionally glossed in the Kena Upaniṣad as Umā Haimavatī, who appears to teach the gods that their power is Brahman's — she who reveals the Self to the seeking gods; so the name carries not only the beloved consort but the very revealer of supreme knowledge (recall Ātma-vidyā). Umā is the Goddess as both Śiva's love and the teacher of the highest truth.

Śrī Vidyā: Umā is the great consort of Śiva (Pārvatī); and, as the Kena Upaniṣad's Umā Haimavatī, the revealer of Brahman-knowledge to the gods — the Goddess as both Śiva's love and the teacher of truth.

634. शैलेन्द्रतनया — Śailendra-tanayā

Translation: The daughter (tanayā) of the lord of mountains (śailendra, Himavān).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “daughter of the king of mountains” — Pārvatī, child of Himavān, the Himālaya. The apavāda: born (in the myth) of the great mountain, she is rooted in the high, the firm, the enduring (recall Vindhyācala-nivāsinī, her mountain-abodes); the mountain-daughter is the Goddess descended into the world's holiest height to be Śiva's bride and the world's mother. The supreme, born as the mountain's daughter for love. (And the mountain is the steadfast — she is daughter of the unshakable.)

Śrī Vidyā: Śailendra-tanayā is the daughter of Himavān, lord of mountains (Pārvatī); the Goddess as the mountain-king's daughter, rooted in the high and enduring.

635. गौरी — Gaurī

Translation: Gaurī — the fair-complexioned, the radiant white/golden Goddess; Pārvatī.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Gaurī — “the fair one,” of radiant white-golden complexion, a great name of Pārvatī (who won her fairness by austerity). The apavāda: gaura is the bright, the luminous, the pure-white (recall Śukla-varṇā, the white at the brow; the moon-white); Gaurī is the Goddess as radiant purity, the shining fairness of the realised. And by tradition Gaurī is the consort who, by tapas, transformed herself — an image of the jīva purified into light. The fair, luminous Goddess of purity.

Śrī Vidyā: Gaurī is the fair, radiant-white Goddess (Pārvatī); the luminous purity of the Goddess, the shining fairness won by tapas.

636. गन्धर्वसेविता — Gandharva-sevitā

Translation: Served/attended by the Gandharvas (the celestial musicians).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “served by the Gandharvas” — the celestial musicians, masters of divine song. The apavāda: the heavenly singers attend her with music (recall Kāvyālāpa-vinodinī, delighting in poetry; the Goddess as Nāda, sound) — the most beautiful of celestial arts, song, is offered in her worship; she who is the source of all sound (Nāda-rūpā, Mātṛkā-varṇa-rūpiṇī) is fittingly attended by the singers of heaven. All beautiful sound rises to her as worship.

Śrī Vidyā: Gandharva-sevitā is attended by the Gandharvas (celestial musicians); the Goddess worshipped with divine song, source of all sound (Nāda-rūpā).

Śloka 127

विश्वगर्भा स्वर्णगर्भाऽवरदा वागधीश्वरी ।
ध्यानगम्याऽपरिच्छेद्या ज्ञानदा ज्ञानविग्रहा ॥ १२७॥

viśva-garbhā svarṇa-garbhā'varadā vāg-adhīśvarī |
dhyāna-gamyā'paricchedyā jñāna-dā jñāna-vigrahā ǁ 127 ǁ

A śloka of names of the cosmic womb and of knowledge. She holds the universe in her womb; her womb is golden (the Hiraṇyagarbha, the golden germ of creation); she is the sovereign of speech. And she is reached by meditation, yet uncircumscribed by any bound; the giver of knowledge, and knowledge embodied. The movement turns decisively toward jñāna — the knowledge that the whole hymn serves.

637. विश्वगर्भा — Viśva-garbhā

Translation: Viśva-garbhā — in whose womb (garbha) the universe (viśva) is held.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “she whose womb holds the universe” — the cosmos is contained within her. The apavāda: the whole viśva, all that is, is held in her womb as a child before birth (recall Aneka-koṭi-brahmāṇḍa-jananī; the daharākāśa that holds heaven and earth); she contains the universe not as a vessel holds water but as consciousness holds its own dream — the all is within her, of her, and never apart from her. The cosmos dwells in the womb of the Goddess.

Śrī Vidyā: Viśva-garbhā holds the universe in her womb; the Goddess containing all that is, as consciousness holds its own self-display.

638. स्वर्णगर्भा — Svarṇa-garbhā

Translation: Svarṇa-garbhā — of the golden womb/germ (the Hiraṇyagarbha).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the golden womb” — the Hiraṇyagarbha, the golden germ or cosmic egg from which creation unfolds (named in the Ṛg Veda's hymn of origins). The apavāda: the Hiraṇyagarbha is the first-born totality, the cosmic intelligence that is the seed of the manifest worlds; she is its womb and its very being (recall Brahmāṇḍa, the cosmic egg) — the golden source-point glowing at the origin of things. The radiant germ of all creation is hers, is she. (Hiraṇyagarbha is also the subtle-body totality, the cosmic dreamer — and she is that.)

Śrī Vidyā: Svarṇa-garbhā is of the golden womb (Hiraṇyagarbha); the Goddess as the golden germ of creation, the cosmic egg and first-born totality of the Veda.

639. अवरदा — Avaradā

Translation: Avaradā — bestower of boons (varada); (the initial vowel-sandhi joins “varadā,” boon-giver).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the “boon-giver” (varadā; the form avaradā arises by the joining of vowels in the verse, and is read as varadā, “granting boons,” or with a-vara-dā, “giver of the unsurpassed”). The apavāda: she grants the boons her devotees seek (recall Varadā among her weapons-and-gestures, the boon-giving hand) — and the supreme boon she gives is herself, the knowledge of the Self about to be named (Jñāna-dā); all lesser boons are her grace, the highest is her own nature. The hand ever-open to give.

Śrī Vidyā: Avaradā (varadā) is the bestower of boons; the boon-giving Goddess, whose supreme gift is the knowledge of the Self (Jñāna-dā, named just below).

640. वागधीश्वरी — Vāg-adhīśvarī

Translation: Vāg-adhīśvarī — the supreme sovereign (adhīśvarī) of speech (vāc).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the over-sovereign of speech” — the supreme ruler of all vāc, the Word. The apavāda: she is the source and ruler of the four levels of speech (Parā, Paśyantī, Madhyamā, Vaikharī, Part XII) and the form of the letters (Mātṛkā-varṇa-rūpiṇī); as Sarasvatī attends her (Sacāmara-...-vāṇī), so speech itself is her domain — every word spoken anywhere draws on her. The mistress of the Word, from which all language and all mantra flow. (She is Vāc, and the ruler of Vāc.)

Śrī Vidyā: Vāg-adhīśvarī is the supreme sovereign of speech; the Goddess ruling all vāc (the four levels of speech, the mātṛkā), from whom all language and mantra flow.

641. ध्यानगम्या — Dhyāna-gamyā

Translation: Dhyāna-gamyā — attainable/reached through meditation (dhyāna).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “reached through meditation” — found by the inward gathering of dhyāna. The apavāda: not by the outward senses nor by mere ritual but by meditation — the still, one-pointed dwelling of awareness on its own depth — is she approached (recall Maitryādi-vāsanā-labhyā, reached by the purified heart; Acintya-rūpā, beyond thought yet not beyond meditation). She is gamyā, “to be gone-to,” by the inward path; meditation is the road to the One who is the meditator's own Self. (And being one's own Self, she is reached by the turning-within that is meditation.)

Śrī Vidyā: Dhyāna-gamyā is attained through meditation; the Goddess found by the inward gathering of dhyāna, the still dwelling of awareness on its own depth.

642. अपरिच्छेद्या — Aparicchedyā

Translation: Aparicchedyā — uncircumscribed, not to be bounded or divided off.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “not to be circumscribed” — beyond all limitation of space, time, or thing. The apavāda: pariccheda is the cutting-off, the bounding that makes a thing finite (this and not that); she is a-paricchedyā, not so cut off — the infinite that no boundary divides from anything (recall Ameyā, immeasurable; Niḥsīma, boundless; the daharākāśa that is as vast within as the sky without). Though reached by meditation, she is not thereby confined to the meditator's small focus — she is the boundless found within the bound. Limitless by space, time, and substance alike.

Śrī Vidyā: Aparicchedyā is uncircumscribed, unbounded by space, time, or thing; the infinite Goddess no boundary can divide — boundless even as she is found within (recall the daharākāśa).

643. ज्ञानदा — Jñāna-dā

Translation: Jñāna-dā — the giver of knowledge (jñāna).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the giver of knowledge” — bestower of jñāna, the liberating wisdom. The apavāda: the supreme boon (Avaradā/Varadā) she gives is knowledge — not information but the saving recognition of the Self (recall Ātma-vidyā, Vidyā, Guru-mūrtiḥ, the inner teacher); she gives knowledge because she is knowledge (Jñāna-vigrahā, next), and to give it is to give herself. The grace that awakens wisdom in the ready heart. The supreme gift, named plainly.

Śrī Vidyā: Jñāna-dā is the giver of knowledge; the Goddess who bestows liberating jñāna — the supreme boon, which is herself (recall Ātma-vidyā, Guru-mūrtiḥ).

644. ज्ञानविग्रहा — Jñāna-vigrahā

Translation: Jñāna-vigrahā — whose very form/body (vigraha) is knowledge (jñāna).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the form of knowledge” — her very body is jñāna. The apavāda: she does not merely give knowledge or possess it; she is it — consciousness-knowledge is her substance (recall Cic-chakti, the power of consciousness; Vijñāna-ghana, Prajñāna-ghana, the mass of consciousness); her “form” (Divya-vigraha) is, in essence, knowing itself. Knowledge is not her attribute but her being — so that to know truly is to be of her substance, and the knower, the knowing, and the known resolve in her. The Goddess as Knowledge embodied.

Śrī Vidyā: Jñāna-vigrahā is of the form of knowledge; the Goddess whose very body is jñāna (recall Cic-chakti, Prajñāna-ghana) — knowledge not as her attribute but as her being.

Śloka 128

सर्ववेदान्त-संवेद्या सत्यानन्द-स्वरूपिणी ।
लोपामुद्रार्चिता लीला-क्लृप्त-ब्रह्माण्ड-मण्डला ॥ १२८॥

sarva-vedānta-saṃvedyā satyānanda-svarūpiṇī |
lopāmudrārcitā līlā-klṛpta-brahmāṇḍa-maṇḍalā ǁ 128 ǁ

A śloka of the highest Vedāntic and Śrī-Vidyā import. She is to be known through all the Vedānta (the Upaniṣads); her very nature is Being-Bliss (satya-ānanda, echoing sat-cit-ānanda); she was worshipped by Lopāmudrā (the sage-queen who gave her name to a great lineage of the Śrī-Vidyā); and she fashions the orb of countless universes as effortless play (līlā).

645. सर्ववेदान्तसंवेद्या — Sarva-vedānta-saṃvedyā

Translation: To be known (saṃvedyā) through all the Vedānta (the Upaniṣads).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “knowable through all Vedānta” — the one truth toward which every Upaniṣad points. The apavāda: the Vedānta, the “end of the Veda,” the Upaniṣads, have one supreme subject — the identity of the Self and the Absolute (recall Tat-tvam-ayi, Ātmā, Brahmātmaikya to come); she is that very truth, the single reality all the Upaniṣads seek to convey (recall Nijājñā-rūpa-nigamā, the Veda her command). To understand Vedānta truly is to know her; she is what the whole revelation is about. The supreme purport of all scripture is the Goddess-as-Self.

Śrī Vidyā: Sarva-vedānta-saṃvedyā is to be known through all the Vedānta; the Goddess as the one supreme truth of the Upaniṣads (the Self-Absolute identity) — what all revelation is about.

646. सत्यानन्दस्वरूपिणी — Satyānanda-svarūpiṇī

Translation: Whose essential nature (svarūpa) is Being-Bliss (satya-ānanda).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her own-nature is satya-ānanda — Truth/Being and Bliss. The apavāda: this is the Upaniṣadic definition of Brahman — satyaṃ jñānam anantam, and sat-cit-ānanda, Being-Consciousness-Bliss (recall Cinmayī, Paramānandā, Sat-cit-ānanda named in Part IX); here, joined with the knowledge-names just given (Jñāna-vigrahā), the triad is complete — she is Being (satya), Consciousness (jñāna), and Bliss (ānanda). Her very svarūpa, her essential nature, is the sat-cit-ānanda that the Vedānta names as the Absolute. Not three things but one reality, named from three sides — and that reality is she, and is the Self.

Śrī Vidyā: Satyānanda-svarūpiṇī is of the nature of Being-Bliss (satya-ānanda); with the knowledge-names just given, the full sat-cit-ānanda — the Goddess as the Absolute's own essential nature (recall Cinmayī, Paramānandā).

647. लोपामुद्रार्चिता — Lopāmudrārcitā

Translation: Worshipped by Lopāmudrā (the sage-queen, consort of Agastya).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She was worshipped by Lopāmudrā — the learned queen, consort of the sage Agastya (to whom, in the frame-story, this very hymn is taught). The apavāda: Lopāmudrā is one of the great founders of the Śrī-Vidyā lineages — the Lopāmudrā-vidyā (Hādi-vidyā) is named for her, one of the principal recensions of the supreme mantra; to name her worshipper is to honour the parampara, the line of realised devotees through whom the knowledge descends (recall the Vāg-devīs who composed the hymn). She is worshipped by the greatest seers; the lineage of her worship is itself sacred. (The specific Lopāmudrā recension belongs to the initiate.)

Śrī Vidyā: Lopāmudrārcitā is worshipped by Lopāmudrā (Agastya's sage-queen); the Goddess honoured by a founder of the Śrī-Vidyā lineages — the Lopāmudrā/Hādi recension named for her, held in the parampara.

648. लीलाक्लृप्तब्रह्माण्डमण्डला — Līlā-klṛpta-brahmāṇḍa-maṇḍalā

Translation: By whom the orb (maṇḍala) of universes (brahmāṇḍa) is fashioned (klṛpta) as effortless play (līlā).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She “fashions the orb of countless universes as līlā” — as play, effortlessly. The apavāda: the creation of the worlds (Aneka-koṭi-brahmāṇḍa-jananī) costs her nothing — it is sport, the free overflow of bliss, not labour or need (recall the name Lalitā itself, “she who plays”; the worlds as her self-display); the cosmos arises as a child's game arises, from sheer joy, with no motive but delight. This is the deepest answer to “why is there a world?” — not necessity, not lack, but līlā, the play of the full. The endless universes are her game, spun and dissolved in joy. (And being play, they bind her not at all — the player is free of the game.)

Śrī Vidyā: Līlā-klṛpta-brahmāṇḍa-maṇḍalā fashions the orb of universes as effortless play; the Goddess (Lalitā, “she who plays”) creating the cosmos as līlā — sport from the overflow of bliss, binding her not at all.

Śloka 129

अदृश्या दृश्यरहिता विज्ञात्री वेद्यवर्जिता ।
योगिनी योगदा योग्या योगानन्दा युगन्धरा ॥ १२९॥

adṛśyā dṛśya-rahitā vijñātrī vedya-varjitā |
yoginī yoga-dā yogyā yogānandā yugandharā ǁ 129 ǁ

This śloka names the Goddess as the ultimate Subject — the Knower who can never be made an object. She is the unseen and devoid of the seen; the Knower, yet devoid of any knowable; she cannot be witnessed because she is the witness of all. Then the yoga-names: the Yoginī, the giver of yoga, the worthy, whose bliss is yoga's fruit, the bearer of the ages.

649. अदृश्या — Adṛśyā

Translation: Adṛśyā — the unseen, that which cannot be seen.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the unseen” — that which cannot be made an object of sight. The apavāda: she is the seer, never the seen (recall Svaprakāśā, self-luminous; Dṛk, the seeing principle); the eye cannot see her, for she is the seeing behind the eye — to look for her as an object is to overlook the looker, which is she. Unseen, because she is the one who sees. (As the Kena says: “that which the eye does not see, but by which the eye sees — know that alone as Brahman.”)

Śrī Vidyā: Adṛśyā is the unseen; the Goddess who is the seer never the seen — the seeing behind the eye, which no eye can make its object (cf. Kena Upaniṣad).

650. दृश्यरहिता — Dṛśya-rahitā

Translation: Dṛśya-rahitā — devoid of (rahita) the seen/the object (dṛśya).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “devoid of the seen” — without any object. The apavāda: deepening Adṛśyā — not only unseen, she is free of the whole category of the “seen,” the object-world; for in her, the pure Subject, there is no object standing over against a subject (recall the witness beyond the three states, Turīyā). When the seer is known as the sole reality, the “seen” drops away as a separate thing — there is only the seeing. She is pure subjectivity, with no object to limit it. (The dissolution of the seer-seen duality in the one Seer.)

Śrī Vidyā: Dṛśya-rahitā is devoid of the seen; the Goddess as pure Subject, free of all object — in whom the seer-seen duality dissolves into the one seeing.

651. विज्ञात्री — Vijñātrī

Translation: Vijñātrī — the Knower, the conscious knowing subject.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the Knower” — the conscious subject that knows. The apavāda: she is the eternal vijñātṛ, the knower of all that is known (recall the Bṛhadāraṇyaka: “the unseen seer, the unheard hearer, the unthought thinker, the unknown knower — there is no other knower but he”); she is that knower, the witnessing consciousness present in all knowing. The one Knower in every act of knowledge, herself known by none — for who could stand outside her to know her? She is the knowing itself.

Śrī Vidyā: Vijñātrī is the Knower; the eternal knowing subject (the Bṛhadāraṇyaka's “unknown knower”) present in all knowledge, herself knowable by none.

652. वेद्यवर्जिता — Vedya-varjitā

Translation: Vedya-varjitā — devoid of (varjita) any knowable object (vedya).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “devoid of the knowable” — without any object-to-be-known. The apavāda, parallel to Dṛśya-rahitā: as the pure Knower (Vijñātrī), she has no vedya, no object set over against her; for the supreme knowing is not knowledge of something but knowing itself, self-luminous, objectless (recall Prajñāna-ghana, the mass of consciousness without inner/outer). The duality of knower-and-known dissolves in her, the sole Knowing in which there is finally nothing other to know. Pure knowing, without a second. (She can be realised — as one's own Self — but never “known” as an object.)

Śrī Vidyā: Vedya-varjitā is devoid of the knowable object; the Goddess as objectless pure Knowing, in whom the knower-known duality dissolves — realised as the Self, never known as an object.

653. योगिनी — Yoginī

Translation: Yoginī — the Goddess as the supreme practitioner and embodiment of yoga (union).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Yoginī — the great yoginī, the embodiment of yoga, union. The apavāda: yoga is the joining of the individual with the supreme — and she is both the power that effects it and the union itself (recall the yoginīs of the cakras in Part XIV, all forms of her); she is the supreme Yoginī in whom the seeker's yoga is consummated, the union that is the goal. The one who unites, and the union.

Śrī Vidyā: Yoginī is the supreme practitioner and embodiment of yoga; the Goddess as both the power effecting union and the union itself (recall the cakra-yoginīs).

654. योगदा — Yoga-dā

Translation: Yoga-dā — the giver of yoga (union).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the giver of yoga” — bestower of union with the supreme. The apavāda: as she gives knowledge (Jñāna-dā) and the state of aloneness (Kaivalya-pada-dāyinī), so she gives yoga — the actual joining of the self to its source; the seeker's effort opens the way, but the union itself is her gift of grace (recall Maitryādi-vāsanā-labhyā). She grants the very union she is.

Śrī Vidyā: Yoga-dā is the giver of yoga; the Goddess who bestows union with the supreme as grace, granting the very yoga she is.

655. योग्या — Yogyā

Translation: Yogyā — the worthy, the fit; she who is the proper object of yoga, and the capacity for it.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Yogyā — “the worthy / the fit.” The apavāda: she is the worthy one, the fitting goal of all yoga (the only object truly worth the union); and yogyā is also “capability, fitness” — she is the very capacity by which yoga becomes possible, the latent fitness for union present in all (recall Yogānandā, next). The worthy goal, and the worthiness for it — both are she. (She makes the seeker fit for the union she is.)

Śrī Vidyā: Yogyā is the worthy and the fit; the Goddess as the worthy goal of yoga and the very capacity for union present in the seeker.

656. योगानन्दा — Yogānandā

Translation: Yogānandā — whose bliss is yoga; the bliss that is yoga's fruit.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Yogānandā — “the bliss of yoga,” the joy that union yields. The apavāda: the fruit of yoga is ānanda, the bliss of the Self resting in itself (recall Satyānanda-svarūpiṇī, Paramānandā); she is that very bliss — not a reward given for union but the union experienced as bliss, awareness delighting in its own undivided being. The joy of yoga is herself, savoured. (Union and the bliss of union are not two: she is both.)

Śrī Vidyā: Yogānandā is the bliss of yoga; the Goddess as the ānanda that is union's fruit — awareness delighting in its own undivided being (recall Satyānanda-svarūpiṇī).

657. युगन्धरा — Yugandharā

Translation: Yugandharā — the bearer/upholder of the yugas (the world-ages).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the bearer of the yugas” — she who upholds and bears the ages of the world (the great cycles of time). The apavāda: as Kāla-hantrī (slayer of time) she is beyond time, yet as Yugandharā she bears time's vast cycles — holding the ages as their unmoving support, the timeless ground on which the procession of yugas turns (recall Mahā-pralaya-sākṣiṇī, witness of the dissolution that ends the cycles). She carries the ages without being carried by them; time rests on her, the timeless. (The unmoving axis around which the ages wheel.)

Śrī Vidyā: Yugandharā is the bearer of the world-ages; the timeless Goddess who upholds the cycles of the yugas as their unmoving ground (recall Kāla-hantrī, Mahā-pralaya-sākṣiṇī).

Śloka 130

इच्छाशक्ति-ज्ञानशक्ति-क्रियाशक्ति-स्वरूपिणी ।
सर्वाधारा सुप्रतिष्ठा सदसद्रूप-धारिणी ॥ १३०॥

icchā-śakti-jñāna-śakti-kriyā-śakti-svarūpiṇī |
sarvādhārā supratiṣṭhā sad-asad-rūpa-dhāriṇī ǁ 130 ǁ

The śloka opens with one of the great Śrī-Vidyā and Śaiva names — she is of the form of the three śaktis: will (icchā), knowledge (jñāna), and action (kriyā). These are the three powers by which the supreme moves from pure being into manifestation: first the will to become, then the knowing of what is to be, then the act of making. They are the three corners of the central triangle of the Śrī Cakra, and the inner meaning of the triads. She is then the support of all, the firm foundation, and the bearer of both being and non-being.

658. इच्छाशक्तिज्ञानशक्तिक्रियाशक्तिस्वरूपिणी — Icchā-śakti-jñāna-śakti-kriyā-śakti-svarūpiṇī

Translation: Whose form is the three powers: will (icchā-śakti), knowledge (jñāna-śakti), and action (kriyā-śakti).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the form of the powers of will, knowledge, and action.” The apavāda: these three śaktis are the supreme's own movement from being into manifestation — icchā, the first stir of will-to-become; jñāna, the knowing of what is to be; kriyā, the act that makes it so (recall Vimarśa, the self-awareness, of which these are the unfolding; the three corners of the Śrī Cakra's central triangle). All willing, knowing, and acting anywhere — in gods, in beings, in oneself — are rays of these three, which are her single power in three motions. The inner truth of every triad named before (Tripurā, Tri-mūrti, Tryakṣarī) is here: the one Śakti as will, knowledge, and act. And these three, undivided in their source, are her very form. (In the Śrī Cakra, the three śaktis are the three lines of the innermost triangle around the bindu.)

Śrī Vidyā: Icchā-śakti-jñāna-śakti-kriyā-śakti-svarūpiṇī is of the form of the three powers — will, knowledge, action; the one Śakti's threefold movement from being into manifestation (the three corners of the Śrī Cakra's central triangle), the inner meaning of every triad.

659. सर्वाधारा — Sarvādhārā

Translation: Sarvādhārā — the support (ādhāra) of all (sarva); the substratum of everything.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the support of all” — the ground on which everything rests. The apavāda: every existing thing requires a substratum, and the final substratum of all is she (recall Adhāra-śakti; the support of the worlds) — not a support among things but the one ground in which all things inhere, as ornaments in their gold, waves in their water. The all rests on her; she rests on nothing, being the ground of grounds. The ultimate substratum, the bottom of all being. (The rope on which the snake-world is superimposed — the adhiṣṭhāna of the whole appearance.)

Śrī Vidyā: Sarvādhārā is the support of all; the Goddess as the one substratum (adhiṣṭhāna) in which all things inhere — the ground of grounds, herself groundless.

660. सुप्रतिष्ठा — Supratiṣṭhā

Translation: Supratiṣṭhā — the firm foundation, the well-established ground.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the firm foundation” — the secure, well-established base. The apavāda: deepening Sarvādhārā, she is not a precarious support but the utterly firm one — the unshakable ground (recall Niṣṭhā, Parā-niṣṭhā, the supreme ground); su-pratiṣṭhā, “well-established,” names the rock-firm stability of the Real beneath all the flux of the unreal. On her, all stands secure; she is the steadfast foundation that never gives way, the one stable amid all change. (The 660th name: the firm ground at the centre of the hundred.)

Śrī Vidyā: Supratiṣṭhā is the firm foundation; the unshakable, well-established ground (cf. Parā-niṣṭhā) — the steadfast Real beneath all flux, on which all stands secure.

661. सदसद्रूपधारिणी — Sad-asad-rūpa-dhāriṇī

Translation: Bearer (dhāriṇī) of the forms (rūpa) of both being (sat) and non-being (asat).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She “bears the forms of both sat and asat” — of being and non-being, the manifest and the unmanifest, cause and effect. The apavāda: she holds both the real (sat, the existent, the manifest effect) and the “non-existent” (asat, the unmanifest cause, or the not-yet and no-longer); recall Vyaktāvyakta-svarūpiṇī, the manifest-and-unmanifest. In her, being and non-being are not two opposed realms but two aspects she bears — for the One is beyond the very distinction of existent and non-existent (the Nāsadīya hymn: “then was neither being nor non-being”). She bears both forms, herself beyond both — the reality in which the categories of is and is-not arise and are transcended.

Śrī Vidyā: Sad-asad-rūpa-dhāriṇī bears the forms of both being and non-being (sat and asat, manifest and unmanifest); the Goddess holding both aspects, herself beyond the distinction of existent and non-existent (cf. the Nāsadīya hymn).

Śloka 131

अष्टमूर्तिर् अजाजैत्री लोकयात्रा-विधायिनी ।
एकाकिनी भूमरूपा निर्द्वैता द्वैतवर्जिता ॥ १३१॥

aṣṭa-mūrtir ajā-jaitrī loka-yātrā-vidhāyinī |
ekākinī bhūma-rūpā nirdvaitā dvaita-varjitā ǁ 131 ǁ

This śloka rises to the summit of the non-dual teaching. After the eight-formed Goddess, the conqueror of the unborn (or of ignorance), the ordainer of the world's course, comes a sequence that states non-duality four times over: she is the Alone (ekākinī); she is the Bhūman, the Chāndogya's Plenum-Vast, the Infinite in which alone is joy; she is the Non-dual (nirdvaitā); she is devoid of all duality (dvaita-varjitā). The hymn could hardly be more explicit: the supreme is one, without a second.

662. अष्टमूर्तिः — Aṣṭa-mūrtiḥ

Translation: Aṣṭa-mūrtiḥ — of eightfold form (the eight forms, as of Śiva: the five elements, sun, moon, and the sacrificer).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of eight forms.” The apavāda: the aṣṭa-mūrti is classically Śiva's eightfold form — the five elements (earth, water, fire, air, ether), the sun, the moon, and the sacrificing self (or yajamāna) — the whole visible and ritual cosmos in eight aspects; she, one with Śiva (Mṛḍānī, Ardha-nārī), is that eightfold form, the supreme appearing as the eight constituents of the manifest order. The one reality as the eight pillars of the cosmos. (The eight are also the eight matrikas, the eight Vasus, etc. — the manifold held in an eight.)

Śrī Vidyā: Aṣṭa-mūrtiḥ is of eightfold form; the Goddess (one with Śiva) as the eight aspects of the cosmos — the five elements, sun, moon, and sacrificer (the classic aṣṭa-mūrti).

663. अजाजैत्री — Aja-jaitrī

Translation: Aja-jaitrī — conqueror (jaitrī) of the unborn (ajā: the beginningless prakṛti / māyā); (or: the unconquered victorious one).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “conqueror of ajā.” The apavāda: ajā (“the unborn, the she-goat”) is, in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad, a figure for prakṛti / māyā — the beginningless principle of manifestation (red, white, and black, the three guṇas); she is its “conqueror,” the master of māyā who is not bound by what binds all else (recall Viṣṇu-māyā, Mohinī — she wields it, is not caught by it). To conquer ajā is to be the lord of the very power of illusion — and she gives that mastery to those who reach her. The wielder of māyā, unconquered by it. (Some read aja-jaitrī as “victorious over the unborn Brahmā” or simply “ever-victorious.”)

Śrī Vidyā: Aja-jaitrī is the conqueror of ajā (the beginningless prakṛti/māyā of the Śvetāśvatara); the Goddess as master of the power of illusion, wielding māyā unbound by it.

664. लोकयात्राविधायिनी — Loka-yātrā-vidhāyinī

Translation: The ordainer (vidhāyinī) of the course/procession (yātrā) of the world (loka).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She “ordains the course of the world” — the ongoing procession of worldly life. The apavāda: the loka-yātrā is the “journey of the world,” the continuous running of affairs — birth, livelihood, society, the whole movement of life; she ordains and sustains it (recall Niyantrī, Daṇḍa-nīti-sthā) — the same power that is beyond the world keeps its order running. She maintains the world's going-on even as she transcends it; the play (līlā) is also a lawful order, and she is its lawgiver. The world's procession is hers to direct.

Śrī Vidyā: Loka-yātrā-vidhāyinī ordains the course of the world; the Goddess who sustains and directs the ongoing procession of worldly life, its order and movement.

665. एकाकिनी — Ekākinī

Translation: Ekākinī — the Alone, the sole One (existing without a second).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Ekākinī — “the Alone,” the sole one (echoing Kevalā). The apavāda: she alone is, with no second beside her (recall the Chāndogya: “Being alone was this in the beginning, one only, without a second”); her aloneness is the fullness of the one reality, not a solitude within a crowd but the truth that there is, finally, only One. This name opens the fourfold declaration of non-duality that crowns the śloka. She is alone because she is all.

Śrī Vidyā: Ekākinī is the Alone, the sole One without a second (cf. Chāndogya “one only, without a second”); opening the fourfold non-dual declaration — alone because she is all.

666. भूमरूपा — Bhūma-rūpā

Translation: Bhūma-rūpā — whose form is the Bhūman, the Plenum-Vast, the Infinite (of the Chāndogya).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the form of the bhūman” — the Plenum, the Infinite Vast. The apavāda quotes the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (VII.23–24): “The bhūman (the infinite, the plenum) alone is bliss; there is no bliss in the small (alpa). Where one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, knows nothing else — that is the bhūman; where one sees, hears, knows another — that is the small.” The Bhūman is the Infinite in which there is no other, the fullness that alone is joy; she is that — the boundless Plenum where all otherness ceases, the only true happiness (recall Pūrṇā, the Full; Niḥsīma, boundless). Joy is only in the Infinite, and the Infinite is she. The most affirmative of the non-dual names: not bare negation of duality but the positive Vast-Fullness in which alone is bliss.

Śrī Vidyā: Bhūma-rūpā is of the form of the bhūman — the Chāndogya's Plenum-Vast (VII.23) in which one sees, hears, knows no other, and which alone is bliss; the Goddess as the Infinite Fullness where all otherness ceases.

667. निर्द्वैता — Nirdvaitā

Translation: Nirdvaitā — the Non-dual, without duality.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Nirdvaitā — “the non-dual,” free of all twoness. The apavāda: this is the word advaita in another form — she is the reality in which there is no second, no division into this-and-that, knower-and-known, self-and-other (recall Dṛśya-rahitā, Vedya-varjitā; Ekākinī, the Alone). The whole burden of the edition's reading is sounded plainly: she is non-dual, the One without a second. After the positive Bhūman, the precise term: nirdvaita.

Śrī Vidyā: Nirdvaitā is the Non-dual, without a second; the Goddess as advaita itself — the reality in which no duality (knower/known, self/other) stands.

668. द्वैतवर्जिता — Dvaita-varjitā

Translation: Dvaita-varjitā — devoid of (varjita) duality (dvaita).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “devoid of duality” — utterly free of all that is two. The apavāda: the fourth and clinching statement of non-duality (Ekākinī, Bhūma-rūpā, Nirdvaitā, and now Dvaita-varjitā) — lest there be any doubt, the hymn says it once more, from the side of negation: in her there is no duality whatsoever. Why the repetition? Because this is the heart of the matter, and the mind, habituated to twoness, must hear it again and again until it yields (this is the apavāda itself, the patient stripping-away of the superimposed second). She is the One; there is no other; and that truth, four times told, is the summit of the hymn's teaching. (Bhūman-affirmation and dvaita-negation together: the full adhyāropa-apavāda — the positive Infinite and the denied duality are one realisation.)

Śrī Vidyā: Dvaita-varjitā is devoid of duality; the fourth and clinching non-dual name (after Ekākinī, Bhūma-rūpā, Nirdvaitā) — the One without a second, the truth told fourfold so the dualistic mind may yield.

Śloka 132

अन्नदा वसुदा वृद्धा ब्रह्मात्मैक्य-स्वरूपिणी ।
बृहती ब्राह्मणी ब्राह्मी ब्रह्मानन्दा बलिप्रिया ॥ १३२॥

annadā vasudā vṛddhā brahmātmaikya-svarūpiṇī |
bṛhatī brāhmaṇī brāhmī brahmānandā bali-priyā ǁ 132 ǁ

At the centre of this śloka is the name that states the goal of the entire Vedānta and of this edition: Brahmātmaikya-svarūpiṇī, “whose very nature is the oneness (aikya) of Brahman and the Self (ātman).” This is the meaning of the great sayings — ayam ātmā brahma, “this Self is Brahman”; tat tvam asi, “that thou art.” Around it stand the giver of food and wealth, the Ancient, and a garland of Brahman-names: the Vast, the power of Brahman, the Brahmic, the bliss of Brahman, the lover of offerings.

669. अन्नदा — Annadā

Translation: Annadā — the giver of food (anna); she who bestows nourishment.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the giver of food” — bestower of anna, nourishment (a great name, as of Annapūrṇā). The apavāda: anna, food, is in the Taittirīya the first and outermost sheath, the support of bodily life, and indeed “all this is food”; she gives it, the sustainer of all creatures' lives (recall Go-mātā, the nourishing cow; Vasudā, next). And inwardly, the true “food” she gives is herself, the nourishment of the Self that ends all hunger (recall the offering, the secret tarpaṇa). She feeds all beings, in body and in spirit.

Śrī Vidyā: Annadā is the giver of food; the Goddess as bestower of nourishment (Annapūrṇā), sustainer of all creatures' lives — and giver of the inner food, the Self that ends all hunger.

670. वसुदा — Vasudā

Translation: Vasudā — the giver of wealth (vasu); bestower of riches.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the giver of wealth” — bestower of vasu, riches (recall the Lakṣmīs as her handmaids; Bhakta-nidhiḥ). The apavāda: she grants the legitimate wealth her devotees need (the Śrī-Vidyā fulfills the four aims, including artha) — and the supreme “wealth” is the Self, the treasure beyond loss (recall Mahā-sāmrājya, the great empire of inner sovereignty). She gives outer riches in grace, and the inner riches as the true gift.

Śrī Vidyā: Vasudā is the giver of wealth; the Goddess bestowing riches (the legitimate artha of the Śrī-Vidyā) — and the supreme wealth, the Self, the treasure beyond loss.

671. वृद्धा — Vṛddhā

Translation: Vṛddhā — the Ancient, the eldest; mature, full-grown, venerable.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Vṛddhā — “the Ancient,” the eldest and most mature. The apavāda: though ever-young (Nitya-yauvanā), she is also the most ancient — older than all, the beginningless (Anādi-nidhanā); vṛddhā is the eldest, the “grown,” the venerable in wisdom and being. The seeming paradox (ever-young yet most ancient) is the mark of the timeless: she is before all, yet never ages — the Ancient of Days who is forever fresh. Eldest and youngest at once, because beyond time. (And vṛddha is the “increased, full-grown” — she is the fully-grown plenitude.)

Śrī Vidyā: Vṛddhā is the Ancient, the eldest and most mature; the beginningless Goddess (Anādi-nidhanā) who is yet ever-young (Nitya-yauvanā) — eldest and youngest at once, beyond time.

672. ब्रह्मात्मैक्यस्वरूपिणी — Brahmātmaikya-svarūpiṇī

Translation: Whose essential nature (svarūpa) is the oneness (aikya) of Brahman and the Self (ātman).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the nature of the identity of Brahman and the Self.” The apavāda: here, plainly, is the goal of all Vedānta and the whole purport of this edition — the aikya, the absolute oneness, of brahman (the supreme Absolute) and ātman (the innermost Self), declared by the great sayings: ayam ātmā brahma (“this Self is Brahman”), tat tvam asi (“that thou art”), aham brahmāsmi (“I am Brahman”). She is not merely Brahman, nor merely the Self, but the very identity of the two — the truth that the Self one is, is the Absolute (recall Ātmā + Paramā = Paramātman; Tat-tvam-ayi; Sarva-vedānta-saṃvedyā). To realise her is to realise that one's own Self is the supreme reality, without difference. This is the summit toward which every name has pointed: the Goddess as the lived oneness of Self and Absolute. (The whole hymn, read as adhyāropa-apavāda, exists to bring the hearer to this single recognition.)

Śrī Vidyā: Brahmātmaikya-svarūpiṇī is the very nature of the oneness of Brahman and the Self; the Goddess as the identity declared by the mahāvākyas (ayam ātmā brahma, tat tvam asi) — the summit of Vedānta, that one's own Self is the Absolute.

673. बृहती — Bṛhatī

Translation: Bṛhatī — the Vast, the Great (the very root of the word brahman); also a Vedic metre.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Bṛhatī — “the Vast,” the Great. The apavāda: bṛhat, “vast, to grow great,” is the very root of the word brahman — that which is vast beyond all bound (recall the Bhūman, the Plenum; Niḥsīma); she is the Vastness that brahman names, the boundless greatness itself. (And bṛhatī is a Vedic metre, so she is also the sacred measure of the chant — the Vast as the rhythm of the Veda.) The Great, in whom the very word for the Absolute is rooted.

Śrī Vidyā: Bṛhatī is the Vast (the root bṛhat of the word brahman) and a Vedic metre; the Goddess as the boundless greatness that brahman names, and the sacred measure of the chant.

674. ब्राह्मणी — Brāhmaṇī

Translation: Brāhmaṇī — the power/consort of Brahmā; the energy of the creative principle.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Brāhmaṇī — the śakti of Brahmā, the creative principle (one of the Mātṛkās, the mother-energies). The apavāda: as the power of the creator, she is the creative energy itself (recall Sṛṣṭi-kartrī; Tri-mūrti, the trinity that is her threefold form) — Brahmā creates only by her, his consort-power. The creative function of the trinity, named as hers.

Śrī Vidyā: Brāhmaṇī is the power/consort of Brahmā (a Mātṛkā); the creative energy by which Brahmā creates — the Goddess as the creative function of the trinity.

675. ब्राह्मी — Brāhmī

Translation: Brāhmī — pertaining to Brahman/Brahmā; the sacred, the Brahmic; also Sarasvatī and the Brāhmī script.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Brāhmī — “the Brahmic,” pertaining to Brahman and to Brahmā; a name of Sarasvatī (goddess of the sacred word), and of the ancient Brāhmī script. The apavāda: brāhmī is the holy, that which belongs to the Absolute and to the sacred Word (recall Vāg-adhīśvarī, sovereign of speech; Brāhmī the script in which the Word is written); she is the sacredness of the Absolute and of its self-expression in holy speech and letter. The Brahmic power, in word and writ. (Brāhmī is also a healing/wisdom herb — she is the wisdom-bestowing.)

Śrī Vidyā: Brāhmī is the Brahmic, the sacred (a name of Sarasvatī and of the ancient script); the Goddess as the holiness of the Absolute and its expression in sacred word and letter.

676. ब्रह्मानन्दा — Brahmānandā

Translation: Brahmānandā — the bliss of Brahman (brahma-ānanda).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Brahmānandā — “the bliss of Brahman,” the supreme beatitude. The apavāda: the Taittirīya measures all joys and finds them fractions of the one brahmānanda, the bliss of the Absolute, which is infinite (recall the bliss-measure, Svātmānanda-lavī-bhūta…, Part XII; Yogānandā, Satyānanda); she is that bliss — not a happiness she has, but the beatitude she is, the ānanda of sat-cit-ānanda in its fullness. The supreme bliss of the Absolute is herself. To know her is to be that bliss.

Śrī Vidyā: Brahmānandā is the bliss of Brahman; the Goddess as the supreme beatitude (the ānanda of sat-cit-ānanda) which the Taittirīya measures as infinite — the bliss she is, not has.

677. बलिप्रिया — Bali-priyā

Translation: Bali-priyā — fond of offerings (bali); to whom oblations are dear.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “fond of bali” — of offerings, oblations. The apavāda: the bali she loves is, outwardly, the worshipper's offering — and inwardly, the supreme offering is the self, the surrender of the separate “I” (recall Rahas-tarpaṇa, the secret oblation; the self as the true sacrifice). What is “dear” to her is not the substance offered but the love and surrender it carries; the highest bali is the ego laid down. She delights in the gift of the heart, and most in the gift of the self. (Closing the Brahman-garland: the way to the bliss of Brahman is the offering of the self.)

Śrī Vidyā: Bali-priyā is fond of offerings; the Goddess to whom oblations are dear — most of all the supreme offering of the self (the surrendered “I,” recall Rahas-tarpaṇa), the way to the bliss of Brahman.

Śloka 133

भाषारूपा बृहत्सेना भावाभाव-विवर्जिता ।
सुखाराध्या शुभकरी शोभना सुलभा गतिः ॥ १३३॥

bhāṣā-rūpā bṛhat-senā bhāvābhāva-vivarjitā |
sukhārādhyā śubha-karī śobhanā sulabhā gatiḥ ǁ 133 ǁ

678. भाषारूपा — Bhāṣā-rūpā

Translation: Bhāṣā-rūpā — whose form is language/speech (bhāṣā); the form of all tongues.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the form of language” — all speech, all tongues, are her form. The apavāda: as Mātṛkā-varṇa-rūpiṇī (the letters) and Vāg-adhīśvarī (sovereign of speech), she is now named as bhāṣā itself, the living languages by which beings communicate (recall the four levels of speech, Part XII); every tongue spoken on earth or in heaven is her self-expression. The whole of language, in all its forms, is the Goddess as Word. She speaks in every speech.

Śrī Vidyā: Bhāṣā-rūpā is of the form of language; the Goddess as all speech and tongues (recall Mātṛkā-varṇa-rūpiṇī, Vāg-adhīśvarī) — every language her self-expression.

679. बृहत्सेना — Bṛhat-senā

Translation: Bṛhat-senā — of a vast army (bṛhat-senā); commander of mighty hosts.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the vast army” — possessed of a mighty host. The apavāda: recall the great war on Bhaṇḍāsura (Parts IV–V), where she commanded the armies of the Śaktis (Śakti-senā-samanvitā); her “vast army” is the totality of her powers, the innumerable Śaktis, Nityās, Yoginīs arrayed as her forces — all the energies of the cosmos are her legions. The supreme commands an endless host: every power that is, is a soldier in her army. (The same powers that war on the inner demons.)

Śrī Vidyā: Bṛhat-senā is of the vast army; the Goddess commanding the innumerable Śaktis, Nityās, and Yoginīs as her hosts (recall the war on Bhaṇḍāsura) — all cosmic powers her legions.

680. भावाभावविवर्जिता — Bhāvābhāva-vivarjitā

Translation: Free of (vivarjita) both existence (bhāva) and non-existence (abhāva).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “free of both existence and non-existence.” The apavāda, deepening Sad-asad-rūpa-dhāriṇī: she bears both being and non-being, yet is herself beyond both — neither “existent” (as things are, finitely) nor “non-existent” (as the unreal is), but the reality that transcends the very pair (recall the Nāsadīya hymn: “then was neither sat nor asat”; Acintya, beyond thought). The categories of is and is-not apply to things within manifestation; she, the ground of manifestation, is beyond their reach. Not a third thing between being and non-being, but that which both presuppose. (This pairing — like Tat/Tvam, Vidyā/Avidyā — is one of the hymn's signature opposite-transcending names.)

Śrī Vidyā: Bhāvābhāva-vivarjitā is free of both existence and non-existence; the Goddess transcending the very pair bhāva/abhāva (cf. the Nāsadīya hymn, Acintya) — beyond the categories of is and is-not.

681. सुखाराध्या — Sukhārādhyā

Translation: Sukhārādhyā — easily worshipped (ārādhyā) with ease/happiness (sukha).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “easily worshipped” — her worship is full of ease and joy. The apavāda: though the supreme reality, she is not hard to approach — she is pleased by simple love, the offering of the heart (recall Dadhyannāsakta-hṛdayā, fond of curd-rice; the foods of devotion); her worship asks not great wealth or harsh austerity but sincere love, and is itself a joy (sukha). The highest is reached by the gentlest means: she is worshipped with ease, by whoever loves. A word of grace and reassurance.

Śrī Vidyā: Sukhārādhyā is easily worshipped, with joy; the Goddess approached not by harsh means but by sincere love — the supreme reached by the gentlest worship.

682. शुभकरी — Śubha-karī

Translation: Śubha-karī — the maker of good/auspiciousness (śubha).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the maker of good” — bringer of śubha, auspiciousness and welfare. The apavāda: she works the good of her devotees (recall Śivaṅkarī, the maker of good; Bhadra-mūrtiḥ); to turn to her is to have the auspicious set in motion in one's life, the inward and outward welfare that flows from alignment with the Real. She makes good; her presence is benediction. (The auspiciousness she makes is finally the supreme good — liberation.)

Śrī Vidyā: Śubha-karī is the maker of good and auspiciousness; the Goddess who works the welfare of her devotees (recall Śivaṅkarī), her presence a benediction.

683. शोभना सुलभा गतिः — Śobhanā-sulabhā-gatiḥ

Translation: The radiant (śobhanā), easily-attained (sulabhā) Goal/Refuge (gati); the auspicious and readily-reached supreme state.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the radiant, easily-attained Goal” — read as a single compound naming her as the supreme refuge, beautiful and readily reached. The apavāda: śobhanā is the shining-beautiful that is also the good (recall the same word at nāma 462; Sundarī, Kalyāṇī) — her radiance is the visible face of her benevolence; and sulabhā-gatiḥ is the “easily-attained Goal,” the gati (final refuge, destination) that is sulabha, near to hand. Together, the name declares: the supreme destination is at once the most beautiful and the most accessible — not because the goal is small, but because she is one's own Self, nearer than near (Guhyā, hidden by nearness), reached not by going far but by ceasing to overlook what one already is. The hardest-seeming goal is the easiest, being already attained — one need only recognise it. (A word of supreme reassurance, fittingly closing this stretch: the One without a second is the most accessible of all, being one's own being.)

Śrī Vidyā: Śobhanā-sulabhā-gatiḥ is the radiant, easily-attained Goal and Refuge (canonical Bhāskararāya compound); the Goddess as the supreme destination that is at once beautiful and sulabha — easy because she is one's own Self, reached not by going far but by recognising what one already is.

Śloka 134

राजराजेश्वरी राज्यदायिनी राज्यवल्लभा ।
राजत्कृपा राजपीठ-निवेशित-निजाश्रिता ॥ १३४॥

rāja-rājeśvarī rājya-dāyinī rājya-vallabhā |
rājat-kṛpā rāja-pīṭha-niveśita-nijāśritā ǁ 134 ǁ

The hundred-name movement closes in the royal names — the “Rā-” garland of sovereignty. She is the Empress of emperors, the giver of kingdoms, the beloved sovereign of the realm; her compassion shines forth, and she establishes her devotees upon the royal throne. The royalty is, at every level, hers and her gift: outer dominion in grace, and the inner sovereignty — self-rule, the kingdom of the Self — bestowed on those who take refuge in her.

684. राजराजेश्वरी — Rāja-rājeśvarī

Translation: Rāja-rājeśvarī — the supreme sovereign (īśvarī) of kings of kings (rāja-rāja); the Empress of emperors.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the sovereign of the king-of-kings” — Empress above all emperors (a supreme name, Rājarājeśvarī, by which she is widely worshipped). The apavāda: above every earthly and heavenly ruler stands one supreme sovereignty, and it is hers (recall Mahā-sāmrājya-śālinī, holder of the great empire; Sāmrājya-dāyinī); even Kubera (the king-of-kings of wealth) and Indra (king of the gods) are her subjects. The ultimate sovereignty, of which all rule is a faint reflection — the Empress whose realm is all that is. This is one of her highest and most worshipped names.

Śrī Vidyā: Rāja-rājeśvarī is the supreme sovereign of kings-of-kings, the Empress of emperors; the ultimate sovereignty of which all rule is a reflection — one of the Goddess's highest names.

685. राज्यदायिनी — Rājya-dāyinī

Translation: Rājya-dāyinī — the giver of kingdom/dominion (rājya).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the giver of kingdom” — bestower of dominion (echoing Sāmrājya-dāyinī). The apavāda: she grants sovereignty — outwardly the rule her devotees may receive in grace, and inwardly the true kingdom, the self-rule of the realised, mastery over one's own being (recall Mahā-sāmrājya, the inner empire). The supreme Empress gives kingdoms because all kingdoms are hers to give; and the kingdom worth having is the dominion of the Self over itself. She enthrones her own.

Śrī Vidyā: Rājya-dāyinī is the giver of kingdom and dominion; the Goddess who bestows sovereignty — outer rule in grace, and the inner kingdom of self-mastery (Mahā-sāmrājya).

686. राज्यवल्लभा — Rājya-vallabhā

Translation: Rājya-vallabhā — the beloved sovereign of the realm; she who is dear to / presides over the kingdom.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the beloved of the realm” — the cherished sovereign, dear to the kingdom and presiding over it. The apavāda: the true ruler is loved, not feared; she presides over her domain (all that is) as its beloved queen, holding it not by force but by love (recall Vandāru-jana-vatsalā, tender to her devotees). The realm of being is governed by a sovereign who is its very heart's-love; her rule is the rule of grace. The kingdom's beloved.

Śrī Vidyā: Rājya-vallabhā is the beloved sovereign of the realm; the Goddess who presides over her domain as its cherished queen, ruling by love (recall Vandāru-jana-vatsalā).

687. राजत्कृपा — Rājat-kṛpā

Translation: Rājat-kṛpā — whose compassion (kṛpā) shines forth (rājat); resplendent in mercy.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “shining with compassion” — her kṛpā, her grace, radiant and manifest. The apavāda: the sovereignty just named is no cold power but a throne of mercy — her rule shines with compassion (recall Dayā-mūrtiḥ, compassion embodied; Sāndra-karuṇā); the Empress of all reigns by grace, her majesty and her mercy one light. The resplendence of the sovereign is the shining of her compassion. Power and grace, in her, are the same radiance.

Śrī Vidyā: Rājat-kṛpā is resplendent in compassion; the Goddess whose sovereign majesty shines as grace (recall Dayā-mūrtiḥ) — her power and her mercy one light.

688. राजपीठनिवेशितनिजाश्रिता — Rāja-pīṭha-niveśita-nijāśritā

Translation: By whom those who take refuge in her (nija-āśrita) are established (niveśita) on the royal throne (rāja-pīṭha).

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She “seats her own refuge-takers upon the royal throne.” The apavāda: those who take refuge in her (nijāśrita, “her own dependents”) she raises to royalty — establishes them on the very throne of kings; outwardly the grace that exalts her devotees, and inwardly the truth that the one who surrenders to her is enthroned in the kingdom of the Self, made sovereign over their own being (recall Rājya-dāyinī; Mahā-sāmrājya). The refuge offered to her is repaid with a crown — the seeker who lays down the small self is seated on the throne of the Self. Fittingly closing the hundred names: she who is the Empress of all makes emperors of those who take refuge in her. The way ends not in servitude but in sovereignty — the devotee enthroned in the kingdom that is the Self, which is she.

Śrī Vidyā: Rāja-pīṭha-niveśita-nijāśritā establishes her refuge-takers on the royal throne; the Goddess who enthrones those who surrender to her — outwardly exalting her devotees, inwardly seating them in the sovereignty of the Self (Mahā-sāmrājya), making emperors of her own.

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Devanagari per the sanskritdocuments.org recension (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Uttarakhaṇḍa; Hayagrīva–Agastya saṃvāda); numbering per the arunachala/standard recension. Transliteration, translation, and commentary original to this edition. — End of Part XVI.