Part IV — Nāmas 72–83 (Ślokas 28–33): The Battle and the Fall of Bhaṇḍa

ॐ श्रीमात्रे नमः · oṃ śrīmātre namaḥ

The battle joined

Part IV takes up the battle itself. The hosts are arrayed and the fire-rampart drawn; now the demon's army, his sons, his brother-generals, and at last Bhaṇḍa himself are met and undone. Through it all the same fourfold treatment holds, and the same key deepens: the Goddess fights by beholding, her own powers do the work, and the “enemy” — the contraction that calls itself a separate self, together with the void it defends — is not so much defeated as seen through. The campaign that opened with the gods' cry for help closes, six ślokas on, with the gods' song of recognition: what was lost was never lost, and what was rescued was the rescuer.

॥ श्रीललितासहस्रनामस्तोत्रम् ॥

The Thousand Names — Ślokas 28–33 (Nāmas 72–83)

Śloka 28

भण्डसैन्य-वधोद्युक्त-शक्ति-विक्रम-हर्षिता ।
नित्या-पराक्रमाटोप-निरीक्षण-समुत्सुका ॥ २८॥

bhaṇḍasainya-vadhodyukta-śakti-vikrama-harṣitā |
nityā-parākramāṭopa-nirīkṣaṇa-samutsukā ǁ 28 ǁ

The battle is now joined, and the hymn's whole posture toward it is set in this one śloka: She rejoices, She is eager to behold. Through the campaign that follows the Goddess scarcely lifts a weapon until the very end; her Śaktis, her child Bālā, her ministers and commanders, the powers born of her glance and her fingernails — these do the fighting, while she remains the delighted witness. This is the key to reading the war non-dually: the Self acts upon the contraction not by entering the fray as one more combatant, but by the luminous presence in which its own powers move. To behold, here, is to accomplish.

72. भण्डसैन्यवधोद्युक्तशक्तिविक्रमहर्षिता — Bhaṇḍa-sainya-vadhodyukta-śakti-vikrama-harṣitā

Translation: Who delights in the prowess of Her Śaktis, risen up to destroy the army of Bhaṇḍa.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The battle joins, and the first thing named is Her delight — She rejoices to watch Her own powers in action. The apavāda: She does not fight, She watches, and Her watching is itself the deed. Bhaṇḍa's army is the swarm of tendencies, the host of the ego's impulses; the Śaktis are awareness's own faculties. The Self destroys nothing by effort — its mere luminous presence, delighting in itself, is what undoes the contraction. The witness's joy is the destroyer.

Śrī Vidyā: The harṣa of the Goddess is the spanda, the blissful pulse of consciousness that animates the powers of the enclosures; She is the still centre in whom the yoginīs act, the rasa within which the whole campaign unfolds.

73. नित्यापराक्रमाटोपनिरीक्षणसमुत्सुका — Nityā-parākramāṭopa-nirīkṣaṇa-samutsukā

Translation: Eager to behold the surging valor of the eternal Nityā goddesses.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The Nityās display their valor, and She is keen to behold it. The apavāda: again the posture is beholding, not doing. The Nityās are the powers of time itself — eternal, yet ever in motion; the changeless Self watches its own time-bound energies surge, samutsukā, with keen delight — never drawn into the flux it observes, the unmoving awareness savouring the play of its own moving powers.

Śrī Vidyā: The Nityā-devatās are the fifteen lunar Śaktis of the Śrī Vidyā, from Kāmeśvarī to Citrā, identified with the fifteen syllables of the pañcadaśī and the fifteen tithis; their parākrama is the dynamism of the mantra unfolding across time.

Śloka 29

भण्डपुत्र-वधोद्युक्त-बाला-विक्रम-नन्दिता ।
मन्त्रिण्यम्बा-विरचित-विषङ्ग-वध-तोषिता ॥ २९॥

bhaṇḍaputra-vadhodyukta-bālā-vikrama-nanditā |
mantriṇyambā-viracita-viṣaṅga-vadha-toṣitā ǁ 29 ǁ

74. भण्डपुत्रवधोद्युक्तबालाविक्रमनन्दिता — Bhaṇḍa-putra-vadhodyukta-bālā-vikrama-nanditā

Translation: Who rejoices in the prowess of Bālā as she sets out to slay the sons of Bhaṇḍa.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: A child goes to war — Bālā, the girl-form of the Goddess, slays the sons of the demon. The apavāda: the sons of the ego are its progeny, the endless derivative thoughts and identifications spawned by the root I-sense; and what undoes them is Bālā, the principle of innocence, the awareness that is ever-young, prior to all accretion. The freshness that precedes the ego's brood is precisely what dissolves it — the Self meeting its offspring-thoughts with its own original simplicity.

Śrī Vidyā: Bālā Tripurasundarī is the Goddess in her nine-year form, her own bīja a gateway of the vidyā; her slaying of Bhaṇḍa's sons is read as the young, concentrated power of the mantra cutting through the proliferations of the lower mind.

75. मन्त्रिण्यम्बाविरचितविषङ्गवधतोषिता — Mantriṇyambā-viracita-viṣaṅga-vadha-toṣitā

Translation: Gratified by the slaying of Viṣaṅga wrought by Mother Mantriṇī.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The minister-goddess kills the demon Viṣaṅga, and the Goddess is gratified. The apavāda turns on the name Viṣaṅga, “clinging, attachment” (saṅga): what Mantriṇī — the power of mantra and discriminating counsel — destroys is clinging itself, the adhesive by which the mind fastens to its objects. Sacred sound and right discernment loosen the grip of saṅga; awareness is gratified as one of the twin holds of bondage falls away.

Śrī Vidyā: Mantriṇī (Śyāmalā) wields the power of mantra; Viṣaṅga and his brother Viśukra are the pair of obstructive forces, and their fall — to Mantriṇī and to Vārāhī — is the clearing of the inner field by the powers of sound and of disciplined command.

Śloka 30

विशुक्र-प्राणहरण-वाराही-वीर्य-नन्दिता ।
कामेश्वर-मुखालोक-कल्पित-श्रीगणेश्वरा ॥ ३०॥

viśukra-prāṇaharaṇa-vārāhī-vīrya-nanditā |
kāmeśvara-mukhāloka-kalpita-śrīgaṇeśvarā ǁ 30 ǁ

Twice now the obstructing brothers of the demon have fallen — Viṣaṅga, “clinging,” to the power of sacred sound, and Viśukra, the perverse impulse, to the power of disciplined command. And now comes the turning-point of the war: faced with the demon's engine of obstruction, the Goddess does not strike but simply looks at the face of her Lord — and from that glance the remover of obstacles is born. Manifestation here asks no labour, only the loving turn of awareness toward its own ground.

76. विशुक्रप्राणहरणवाराहीवीर्यनन्दिता — Viśukra-prāṇaharaṇa-vārāhī-vīrya-nanditā

Translation: Who rejoices in the heroic might of Vārāhī, the taker of Viśukra's life.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The commander Vārāhī slays Viśukra, and the Goddess rejoices. The apavāda on the name: where Viṣaṅga was clinging, Viśukra is the perverse or distorting impulse, the “ill-bright”; and Vārāhī — Daṇḍanāthā, the rod of command, the boar that roots things up — is the disciplining strength that uproots distortion at its base. The two brothers fall to the two attendant powers: clinging to counsel, distortion to discipline. The faculties of the Self clear the twin obstructions, and the witness looks on with delight.

Śrī Vidyā: Vārāhī's vīrya is the rooting, uprooting force of the senā-nāyikā; with the brother-demons gone, the work of the two flanking goddesses is complete, and the demon-king himself can be reached.

77. कामेश्वरमुखालोककल्पितश्रीगणेश्वरा — Kāmeśvara-mukhāloka-kalpita-śrī-gaṇeśvarā

Translation: Who, merely by glancing at the face of Kāmeśvara, gave rise to the glorious Gaṇeśa.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: At the crisis of the battle She does not strike — She simply looks at Śiva's face, and from that glance Mahā-Gaṇeśa is born. The apavāda: creation here needs no act but a glance between the two who are one — the meeting of Prakāśa (Kāmeśvara's face) and Vimarśa (Her seeing) issues instantly in a new power. The whole secret of manifestation is compressed into a single gesture: awareness, turning toward its own ground in love, spontaneously brings forth whatever the moment requires. The remover of obstacles is born of a look.

Śrī Vidyā: That Gaṇeśa arises from the union of Kāmeśvara's face and Kāmeśvarī's glance sets the Gaṇapati at the very meeting of the two bindus; in the Śrī Vidyā he is honoured at the threshold, the one who clears the way into the worship of the Cakra.

Śloka 31

महागणेश-निर्भिन्न-विघ्नयन्त्र-प्रहर्षिता ।
भण्डासुरेन्द्र-निर्मुक्त-शस्त्र-प्रत्यस्त्र-वर्षिणी ॥ ३१॥

mahāgaṇeśa-nirbhinna-vighnayantra-praharṣitā |
bhaṇḍāsurendra-nirmukta-śastra-pratyastra-varṣiṇī ǁ 31 ǁ

78. महागणेशनिर्भिन्नविघ्नयन्त्रप्रहर्षिता — Mahā-gaṇeśa-nirbhinna-vighna-yantra-praharṣitā

Translation: Greatly delighted when Mahā-Gaṇeśa shattered the obstacle-yantra.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The demon Viśukra had flung down a vighna-yantra, a device of obstruction that froze Her army in disenchantment; Gaṇeśa shatters it, and She is overjoyed. The apavāda: the vighna-yantra is the very mechanism of obstacle — the subtle structure by which the mind manufactures impediment, doubt, the “it cannot be done.” What breaks it is the obstacle-remover just born of the glance: the spontaneous clarity that, once awareness turns toward its source, undoes the apparatus of hindrance. The obstacle was never substantial; it was a contrivance, and clarity un-makes it.

Śrī Vidyā: The breaking of the vighna-yantra is invoked at the opening of every rite as vighna-nivāraṇa, the removal of obstacles; the praharṣa is the joy of the unobstructed field in which the worship — and the war — can go forward.

79. भण्डासुरेन्द्रनिर्मुक्तशस्त्रप्रत्यस्त्रवर्षिणी — Bhaṇḍāsurendra-nirmukta-śastra-pratyastra-varṣiṇī

Translation: Who rained down a counter-weapon for every weapon loosed by the demon-king Bhaṇḍa.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Now the duel itself: Bhaṇḍa looses weapon after weapon, and for each She rains a counter-weapon. The apavāda: every astra of the ego — every assertion, every fearful projection — is met not by some force from outside but by its exact answer arising from the same field; the counter-weapon is the discriminating insight that meets each delusion with its precise undoing. And note that She answers — She does not initiate. The ego's every move calls forth from awareness the very knowledge that cancels it: superimposition met by retraction, weapon by counter-weapon.

Śrī Vidyā: The astra-pratyastra exchange is the play of the mantric powers, each śakti of the Cakra answering a force of the adversary; the Goddess is varṣiṇī, the rainer-down, the inexhaustible source from which every needed power descends.

Śloka 32

कराङ्गुलि-नखोत्पन्न-नारायण-दशाकृतिः ।
महापाशुपतास्त्राग्नि-निर्दग्धासुर-सैनिका ॥ ३२॥

karāṅguli-nakhotpanna-nārāyaṇa-daśākṛtiḥ |
mahā-pāśupatāstrāgni-nirdagdhāsura-sainikā ǁ 32 ǁ

80. कराङ्गुलिनखोत्पन्ननारायणदशाकृतिः — Karāṅguli-nakhotpanna-nārāyaṇa-daśākṛtiḥ

Translation: From the nails of whose fingers sprang the ten incarnate forms of Nārāyaṇa.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: From Her very fingernails She manifests the ten avatāras of Viṣṇu to enter the fray. The apavāda: the ten descents — the long labour of the divine across the ages, from the fish to the age-ending rider — issue here effortlessly from Her fingertips, a mere detail of Her body. What the Vaiṣṇava telling makes the whole history of cosmic rescue is, from Her side, the play of an instant: the great avatāras are Her ornaments, powers latent in Her form, brought forth at need. The Self holds every saving power as the hand holds its nails.

Śrī Vidyā: That the daśāvatāras spring from Her nails subordinates even the great preserving descents to the Śakti at the centre; in the Śrī Vidyā vision all deities are powers of the one Tripurasundarī, emanated and reabsorbed at the bindu.

81. महापाशुपतास्त्राग्निनिर्दग्धासुरसैनिका — Mahā-pāśupatāstrāgni-nirdagdhāsura-sainikā

Translation: Who, with the fire of the great Pāśupata weapon, burned up the soldiers of the demon.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The Pāśupata-astra, Śiva's own supreme weapon, blazes out and consumes the asura host. The apavāda turns on the name — paśu-pati, “lord of the bound creatures” (paśu): the Pāśupata fire is the power of the Lord of all that is bound, and what it burns is the host of bondage. The army of the ego, the multitude of small bound impulses, is reduced to ash by the knowledge that is the Lord-of-the-bound's own — the fire in which everything that binds is consumed without residue.

Śrī Vidyā: The Pāśupata-astra is the supreme astra of Śiva; wielded by the Śakti it marks the non-difference of Śiva's destroying fire and Her own power — the tejas of the central couple turned upon the field of bondage.

Śloka 33

कामेश्वरास्त्र-निर्दग्ध-सभण्डासुर-शून्यका ।
ब्रह्मोपेन्द्र-महेन्द्रादि-देव-संस्तुत-वैभवा ॥ ३३॥

kāmeśvarāstra-nirdagdha-sabhaṇḍāsura-śūnyakā |
brahmopendra-mahendrādi-deva-saṃstuta-vaibhavā ǁ 33 ǁ

With the Kāmeśvara weapon the demon is undone — and with him his city, Śūnyaka, “the place of the void.” The detail is the whole teaching: the ego's stronghold was always a citadel of emptiness, the sense of lack made to seem a fortress; to burn Bhaṇḍa together with Śūnyaka is to dissolve not only the contraction but the very nothing it defended. The demon born of ash returns to ash; and what was rescued, the gods now singing realise, was the rescuer all along. The war ends not in conquest but in a seeing-through, and the fullness that was never truly lost stands alone.

82. कामेश्वरास्त्रनिर्दग्धसभण्डासुरशून्यका — Kāmeśvarāstra-nirdagdha-sabhaṇḍāsura-śūnyakā

Translation: Who with the Kāmeśvara weapon burned the demon Bhaṇḍa, together with his city Śūnyaka, utterly to naught.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The end: She looses the Kāmeśvara weapon and reduces Bhaṇḍa, and his capital Śūnyaka, to ash. The apavāda lives in the name of the city — Śūnyaka, “the place of the void.” The ego's stronghold was always a city of emptiness, a citadel built upon nothing, the sense of lack made to seem a fortress. To burn Bhaṇḍa together with Śūnyaka is to undo not only the contraction but the very void it defended; the demon born of ash returns to ash, and the nothing he ruled is seen to have been nothing all along. The weapon is Kāmeśvara's — the Self's own — for only awareness can dissolve what only awareness ever projected. There is no second thing slain; there is a seeing-through, and the field is clear.

Śrī Vidyā: The Kāmeśvarāstra, the weapon of the Lord at the bindu, is read as the supreme realisation that consumes the last vestige of duality; the burning of Śūnyaka, the void-city, is the dissolution of the principle of negation itself, leaving the pūrṇa, the fullness, alone.

83. ब्रह्मोपेन्द्रमहेन्द्रादिदेवसंस्तुतवैभवा — Brahmopendra-mahendrādi-deva-saṃstuta-vaibhavā

Translation: Whose glory is extolled by Brahmā, Upendra (Viṣṇu), Mahendra (Indra) and the host of gods.

Adhyāropa–Apavāda: With the demon gone and the worlds restored, the great gods themselves rise to hymn Her majesty — the verse closing the war as it opened, with praise. The apavāda: the foremost gods, the very powers of creation, preservation and rule, are here the praisers, not the praised; Her vaibhava is the glory in which they themselves subsist, and their hymn is, once more, the one Self extolling its own restored fullness through the mouths of its highest powers. The war that began in the gods' cry for help ends in the gods' song of recognition — what was lost was never lost, and what was rescued was the rescuer.

Śrī Vidyā: The stuti of Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Indra establishes the supremacy (parā-devatā-tva) of Tripurasundarī over the trimūrti and the lord of the gods; the restored worlds are the re-manifested Śrī Cakra, its order re-established about the bindu.

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