Śrī Lalitā Sahasranāma — Article 10 of 20
The Centres of the Body (I) — Ascending the Inner Temple
Nāmas 452–498 · Ślokas 95–102
ॐ श्रीमात्रे नमः · oṃ śrīmātre namaḥ
A guided tour through the centres of the body begins. At each centre lives a goddess-power with her own colour and gifts. The body is a temple of many floors, and the Mother lives on every floor.
Part XIII — Nāmas 404–458 (Ślokas 88–95): Beyond Mind and Speech; the Consciousness and the Inert
In simple words. Beyond mind and speech. Words point at her and fall back. The hymn carefully separates the conscious from the inert: awareness is one thing, matter another — and she is the awareness. What sees can never be the thing seen.
(Part XIII began in Article 9; the names below continue it.)
Śloka 95
तेजोवती त्रिनयना लोलाक्षी-कामरूपिणी ।
मालिनी हंसिनी माता मलयाचल-वासिनी ॥ ९५॥
tejovatī trinayanā lolākṣī-kāmarūpiṇī |
mālinī haṃsinī mātā malayācala-vāsinī ǁ 95 ǁ
452. तेजोवती — Tejovatī
Translation: Tejovatī — full of radiant energy and splendour (tejas).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “possessed of tejas” — radiant fiery energy, splendour. The apavāda: tejas is the blazing power of light and energy (recall the fire-orb, Vahni-maṇḍala-vāsinī); she is full of it — the brilliance of consciousness, the energy that both illumines and burns away the dark. Her splendour is the heat and light of pure awareness.
Śrī Vidyā: Tejovatī is full of radiant energy; the splendour (tejas) of the Goddess, the fiery brilliance of consciousness.
453. त्रिनयना — Trinayanā
Translation: Trinayanā — the three-eyed (whose three eyes are sun, moon, and fire).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is three-eyed, as Śiva is — her three eyes being, traditionally, the sun, the moon, and fire. The apavāda: the three eyes are the three lights (recall the three orbs — lunar, solar, fiery — in which she was seated); to be three-eyed is to be the seer through all three luminaries, the one vision that is sun and moon and fire at once, surveying past, present, and future, the outer and the inner. Her three eyes are the three lights of the cosmos, and the single seeing behind them. (Sharing Śiva's three eyes — again, one form with him.)
Śrī Vidyā: Trinayanā is three-eyed, her eyes the sun, moon, and fire; sharing Śiva's three eyes, the Goddess as the seer through the three luminaries.
454. लोलाक्षीकामरूपिणी — Lolākṣī-kāmarūpiṇī
Translation: Whose restless, playful eyes embody love (and who can take any form at will — kāma-rūpiṇī).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her eyes move playfully, restlessly, full of love; and she takes whatever form she wills (kāma-rūpiṇī). The apavāda: the lola, restless eye is the glance of love and play (recall the merciful, world-creating glance); and kāma-rūpiṇī, “of form-at-will,” names her freedom to assume any form — for she who is formless (Nirākārā) and all-formed (Vividhākārā) wears forms freely, as the play of love. Her playful eyes and her freedom of form are one freedom: love at play, taking shape as it wishes.
Śrī Vidyā: Lolākṣī-kāmarūpiṇī has playful, love-filled eyes and assumes forms at will; the Goddess free in form (kāma-rūpa), the play of love taking shape as it pleases.
455. मालिनी — Mālinī
Translation: Mālinī — the garlanded; she who wears the garland of the fifty letters (mātṛkā).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the garlanded” — wearing a garland, and esoterically the garland of the fifty (or fifty-one) letters of the alphabet, the mātṛkā. The apavāda: the garland of letters is the whole of speech worn as an ornament — she who is the four levels of speech (Parā… Vaikharī) and the source of the alphabet (Nāda-rūpā) wears the letters as a garland about her; all language is her adornment, the varṇa-mālā she bears. The letters that compose every word and mantra are her necklace.
Śrī Vidyā: Mālinī is the garlanded Goddess, wearing the mālā of the fifty letters (the mātṛkā-varṇas); the alphabet-garland, source of all mantra — a name central to the Mālinī-tradition of the tantras.
456. हंसिनी — Haṃsinī
Translation: Haṃsinī — she of the haṃsa (the swan; the so'haṃ / haṃsa breath-mantra).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the haṃsa” — the swan, and the haṃsa-mantra that breathes in every breath. The apavāda: the haṃsa (recall Bhakta-mānasa-haṃsikā) is the swan of discernment and the natural mantra haṃsa / so'ham (“I am That”) that sounds, unspoken, in every inhalation and exhalation; she is haṃsinī as that ceaseless breath-prayer — the “I am That” that the breath itself repeats, the ajapā-japa, the unrecited recitation sounding in all who breathe. With every breath, she affirms the identity the whole hymn teaches.
Śrī Vidyā: Haṃsinī is she of the haṃsa; the haṃsa/so'haṃ breath-mantra (the ajapā-gāyatrī) sounding in every breath, and the swan of the discerning spirit.
457. माता — Mātā
Translation: Mātā — the Mother.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is, simply, Mātā — “Mother.” The apavāda: the tenderest and most complete of names, sounded again (recall Ambikā); she is the Mother of all (Ābrahma-kīṭa-jananī), and to call her so is to know oneself her child, of her own substance, never apart. After the cosmic and esoteric heights, the one word that says everything: Mother. (She is also the source — mātṛ — of all, and the mātṛkā she wears.)
Śrī Vidyā: Mātā is the Mother; the universal Mother of all beings, the most intimate name of the Goddess.
458. मलयाचलवासिनी — Malayācala-vāsinī
Translation: Who dwells on the Malaya mountain (the sandal-wood range).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She dwells on the Malaya mountain — the southern range famed for its sandalwood and cool, fragrant breezes. The apavāda, as with her other mountain-abodes (Vindhyācala, the Meru-peak): the sacred mountain is a focus for devotion, and its cool, sandal-scented air is an image of the refreshing peace of her presence; she “dwells on Malaya” as the cool, fragrant grace met at a holy height (recall the sandal-anointed limbs). The omnipresent, localised for love on the sweet-aired mountain.
Śrī Vidyā: Malayācala-vāsinī dwells on the Malaya mountain (the sandalwood range); a sacred southern abode of the Goddess, fragrant and cool.
Part XIV — Nāmas 459–541 (Ślokas 96–110): The Seven Yoginīs of the Cakras
In simple words. A guided tour of the energy centres (cakras) of the body. At each centre lives a Yoginī — a goddess-power — with her own colour, faces and offerings. The body is a temple of seven floors, and the Mother lives on every floor.
Śloka 96
सुमुखी नलिनी सुभ्रूः शोभना सुरनायिका ।
कालकण्ठी कान्तिमती क्षोभिणी सूक्ष्मरूपिणी ॥ ९६॥
sumukhī nalinī subhrūḥ śobhanā sura-nāyikā |
kāla-kaṇṭhī kānti-matī kṣobhiṇī sūkṣma-rūpiṇī ǁ 96 ǁ
Before the cakra-ascent begins, this śloka completes a garland of names of grace and beauty — the lovely face, the lotus-likeness, the fair brows, the radiance, the leadership of the gods, the dark-throated (as Śiva), the lustrous, the stirrer of creation, and the subtle-formed. The last name, Sūkṣma-rūpiṇī, “of subtle form,” turns the gaze inward just as the procession of the subtle centres is about to open: she who is too subtle for the senses is the very one met, in the ascent that follows, at each station of the subtle body.
459. सुमुखी — Sumukhī
Translation: Sumukhī — of a beautiful, gracious face (su-mukha).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of a lovely face” — beautiful, and gracious of countenance. The apavāda: the su-mukha, the “good face,” is the face turned kindly toward the devotee — beauty that is also benevolence (recall the autumn-moon face, the gracious smile); her lovely face is grace looking upon the world with favour. To behold her face is to be met with kindness.
Śrī Vidyā: Sumukhī is of a beautiful, gracious face; the lovely, benevolent countenance of the Goddess turned toward her devotees.
460. नलिनी — Nalinī
Translation: Nalinī — lotus-like (whose form has the loveliness of the lotus).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “lotus-like” — her form having the delicate loveliness of the lotus. The apavāda: the lotus, recurring throughout the hymn (lotus eyes, lotus seat, the heart-lotus), is the image of purity unfolding from the depths toward the light; to be nalinī, lotus-like, is to be that pure, opening loveliness — beauty rooted in the depths yet unstained, turned wholly toward the light. Her whole form is a lotus, opening to the sun of consciousness.
Śrī Vidyā: Nalinī is lotus-like in form; the Goddess of lotus loveliness, pure and unfolding — the recurring lotus, emblem of unstained beauty opening to the light.
461. सुभ्रूः — Subhrūḥ
Translation: Subhrūḥ — of beautiful eyebrows (su-bhrū).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “fair-browed” — her eyebrows lovely (recall the bow-like brows of the earlier form-description, the brows as Kāma's bow). The apavāda: the beauty of the brow, like every feature praised, is the loveliness of the one form in which awareness shows itself; a particular grace named, pointing past itself to the beauty that is the overflow of bliss.
Śrī Vidyā: Subhrūḥ has beautiful eyebrows; a feature of the Goddess's lovely dhyāna-form.
462. शोभना — Śobhanā
Translation: Śobhanā — radiant, all-beautiful, auspicious.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Śobhanā — radiant with beauty, all-lovely, and auspicious. The apavāda: śobhanā gathers loveliness and auspiciousness in one word (recall Kalyāṇī, Sundarī); she is the radiantly beautiful whose beauty is also blessing — the splendour that is the visible face of the good. Beauty and auspiciousness are one in her.
Śrī Vidyā: Śobhanā is radiant and all-beautiful; the Goddess whose loveliness is also auspiciousness.
463. सुरनायिका — Suranāyikā
Translation: Suranāyikā — the leader (nāyikā) of the gods (suras).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the leader of the gods — their commander and guide. The apavāda: the gods themselves look to her as their head (recall Devarṣi-gaṇa-saṃghāta-stūyamānātma-vaibhavā, hymned by the host of gods); she is suranāyikā as the supreme that all the divine powers serve and follow — the one sovereignty above all the gods, who are her ministers and her army. (Recall Bhaṇḍāsura's defeat: the gods' cause was hers to lead.)
Śrī Vidyā: Suranāyikā is the leader of the gods; the supreme commander whom all the divine powers serve, the sovereign of the celestials.
464. कालकण्ठी — Kālakaṇṭhī
Translation: Kālakaṇṭhī — the dark-throated; the consort of Kālakaṇṭha (Śiva, the blue-throated).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “dark-throated,” and the consort of Kālakaṇṭha — Śiva, whose throat is dark-blue from the poison he held there. The apavāda: as the power of the poison-holding Lord, she shares his very throat (recall Śrīkaṇṭhārdha-śarīriṇī, the half-body) — one form with him who drank the world's poison for its sake; the dark throat is the mark of that saving act, and it is hers as much as his. She and Śiva, again, of one body. (Kāla also is time; she is the throat that holds even time.)
Śrī Vidyā: Kālakaṇṭhī is dark-throated, consort of the blue-throated Śiva (Kālakaṇṭha); sharing the throat that held the world-poison — the Goddess one with the saving Lord.
465. कान्तिमती — Kānti-matī
Translation: Kānti-matī — full of loveliness and radiant lustre (kānti).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “possessed of kānti” — full of radiant loveliness (recall Kāntiḥ among the quality-goddesses, Kāntā). The apavāda: kānti is the glow of the beautiful, and she is full of it — the lustre that is the visible shining of consciousness (Prabhā-rūpā); radiance and beauty, once more, as the overflow of the Self's own light.
Śrī Vidyā: Kānti-matī is full of radiant loveliness; the Goddess replete with kānti, the lustre of beauty.
466. क्षोभिणी — Kṣobhiṇī
Translation: Kṣobhiṇī — she who stirs (kṣobha) creation into motion.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the stirrer” — she who agitates, sets in motion. The apavāda: kṣobha is the first stir that disturbs the primordial equilibrium and sets creation moving — the initial perturbation of the unmanifest (Mūla-prakṛti) by which the worlds begin to unfold; she is that stirring power, the impulse that rouses the latent into the manifest. The one who, undisturbed herself, stirs all into being. (Recall the unmeṣa, the “opening of the eyes,” by which the worlds appear.)
Śrī Vidyā: Kṣobhiṇī is she who stirs creation into motion; the agitating power (kṣobha) that rouses the unmanifest into manifestation.
467. सूक्ष्मरूपिणी — Sūkṣma-rūpiṇī
Translation: Sūkṣma-rūpiṇī — of subtle form, too fine for the senses to grasp.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of subtle form” — so fine that the senses cannot grasp her. The apavāda: the sūkṣma, the subtle, is what lies beyond the reach of the gross organs (recall Bisatantu-tanīyasī, finer than a lotus-fibre; Aṇīyasī); she is subtler than the subtlest, the awareness that no instrument can catch because it is the catcher of all. Fittingly, this name closes the garland just before the ascent of the subtle centres opens — she who is too subtle for the senses is the very one to be found, within, at each subtle station. The turn from the outer beauty to the inner subtlety.
Śrī Vidyā: Sūkṣma-rūpiṇī is of subtle form, beyond the senses' grasp; the Goddess subtler than the subtlest — closing the garland of grace as the ascent of the subtle centres begins.
Śloka 97
वज्रेश्वरी वामदेवी वयोऽवस्था-विवर्जिता ।
सिद्धेश्वरी सिद्धविद्या सिद्धमाता यशस्विनी ॥ ९७॥
vajreśvarī vāmadevī vayo'vasthā-vivarjitā |
siddheśvarī siddha-vidyā siddha-mātā yaśasvinī ǁ 97 ǁ
Before the procession of the cakra-Yoginīs begins, a śloka of names of power and accomplishment: she is the lady of the adamantine, the consort of Vāmadeva, beyond all the changes of age; the sovereign of the Siddhas, the perfected knowledge itself, the mother of the accomplished, the glorious. These set the key — for the ascent that follows is the path of the Siddhas, and she is its sovereign, its very knowledge, and its goal.
468. वज्रेश्वरी — Vajreśvarī
Translation: Vajreśvarī — the lady of the vajra (adamant / thunderbolt); a Nityā-Śakti.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “lady of the vajra” — the adamant, the diamond-thunderbolt that is unbreakable and that breaks all else. The apavāda: the vajra is the indestructible (recall Nirnāśā, Nirupaplavā) — that which nothing can cut, which cuts through all; she is its sovereign, the unbreakable reality whose knowledge shatters the seemingly solid bondage. Hard as diamond against the unreal, she cannot herself be touched.
Śrī Vidyā: Vajreśvarī is the lady of the adamant and one of the Nityā-devatās; the diamond-power of the Goddess, indestructible and all-piercing.
469. वामदेवी — Vāmadevī
Translation: Vāmadevī — the consort of Vāmadeva (a form of Śiva); the lovely goddess.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Vāmadevī — power of Vāmadeva, one of the five faces of Śiva (the face of grace and beauty); and vāma is “lovely.” The apavāda: as the power of the gracious-beautiful face of Śiva, she is grace and loveliness itself, named again as one with the Lord whose face she is (recall the five Brahmās, the faces of Śiva); the beautiful aspect of the one reality.
Śrī Vidyā: Vāmadevī is the consort/power of Vāmadeva, the gracious south-facing aspect of Śiva; the lovely Goddess, one with the beautiful face of the Lord.
470. वयोऽवस्थाविवर्जिता — Vayo'vasthā-vivarjitā
Translation: Free of the conditions/changes of age (vayas).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “free of the states of age” — beyond childhood, youth, and old age. The apavāda: the stages of age are the body's changes in time; she, the timeless (Nityā, Nitya-yauvanā), passes through none of them — ever the same, neither growing nor aging, for the changeless does not move through the phases of the changing. She is beyond the very succession of life-stages.
Śrī Vidyā: Vayo'vasthā-vivarjitā is beyond the changes of age; the ageless Goddess, untouched by the stages (avasthā) of bodily time.
471. सिद्धेश्वरी — Siddheśvarī
Translation: Siddheśvarī — the sovereign of the Siddhas (the perfected adepts).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is sovereign of the Siddhas — the perfected ones, the accomplished adepts. The apavāda: the Siddhas are those who have attained, and she is their lord — the goal and ground of all attainment (recall Mahā-siddhiḥ, Mahā-yogeśvareśvarī); the accomplished are accomplished by her, and bow to her as the perfection they reached. She rules the perfected because she is their perfection.
Śrī Vidyā: Siddheśvarī is the sovereign of the Siddhas; the Goddess presiding over the perfected adepts, the lady of attainment.
472. सिद्धविद्या — Siddha-vidyā
Translation: Siddha-vidyā — the perfected knowledge; the efficacious wisdom that liberates.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the “perfected knowledge” — the wisdom that is accomplished, complete, and unfailing in its fruit. The apavāda: the siddha-vidyā is knowledge that liberates without fail, the realised wisdom that is its own accomplishment; she is that knowledge (recall Vidyā, Tat-pada-lakṣyārthā) — not a learning to be perfected, but perfection-as-knowing, the liberating wisdom itself.
Śrī Vidyā: Siddha-vidyā is the perfected, efficacious knowledge; the Śrī Vidyā as the accomplished wisdom that surely liberates.
473. सिद्धमाता — Siddha-mātā
Translation: Siddha-mātā — the mother of the Siddhas (and of all perfection).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the “mother of the Siddhas” — she from whom the perfected are born into their perfection. The apavāda: as Mother of all (Ābrahma-kīṭa-jananī), she is mother of the accomplished too — they are reborn into siddhi from her, of her own being; the perfected are her children, perfected by drawing on the perfection that she is. (And mother of the siddhas, the efficacious mantras.)
Śrī Vidyā: Siddha-mātā is the mother of the Siddhas and of the perfecting mantras; the source from which all attainment is born.
474. यशस्विनी — Yaśasvinī
Translation: Yaśasvinī — the glorious, the renowned.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “the glorious” — full of yaśas, renown, splendid fame. The apavāda: the glory that is hers is the splendour of the supreme (recall Mahā-vaibhava, Bhagavatī) — the renown not of a great being among others but of the one reality whose glory is its very being; she is glorious because she is the glory in which all that is glorious shines.
Śrī Vidyā: Yaśasvinī is the glorious and renowned Goddess; full of yaśas, the splendour of the supreme.
Śloka 98
विशुद्धिचक्रनिलयाऽऽरक्तवर्णा त्रिलोचना ।
खट्वाङ्गादि-प्रहरणा वदनैक-समन्विता ॥ ९८॥
viśuddhi-cakra-nilayā''rakta-varṇā tri-locanā |
khaṭvāṅgādi-praharaṇā vadanaika-samanvitā ǁ 98 ǁ
The ascent of the Yoginīs begins at the Viśuddhi, the throat-centre, where the Goddess presides as Ḍākinī. Each cakra-section will follow the same pattern: the centre named, then the Yoginī's colour, eyes, faces, weapons, the bodily tissue (dhātu) she governs, the food she favours, the attendant śaktis about her, and her name. Here at the throat: deep-red of hue, three-eyed, bearing the club and other arms, single-faced.
475. विशुद्धिचक्रनिलया — Viśuddhi-cakra-nilayā
Translation: Whose abode is the Viśuddhi cakra (the throat-centre).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She dwells in the Viśuddhi, the throat-centre — the cakra of purity (viśuddhi) and of space and sound. The apavāda: the throat-centre is the place of purification and of the element ether, the seat of speech; she “dwells” there as the ruling awareness of that level (recall the kūṭa-transition at the throat, Part II), present at the centre of purity as fully as anywhere. The first station of the ascent: the Goddess at the throat.
Śrī Vidyā: Viśuddhi-cakra-nilayā resides in the Viśuddhi (throat) cakra, the sixteen-petalled centre of ether and sound; the first of the seven Yoginī-seats named here, presided by Ḍākinī.
476. आरक्तवर्णा — Ārakta-varṇā
Translation: Of a deep-red (ārakta) colour.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her colour here is deep red. The apavāda: each Yoginī has her hue, and at the throat it is the warm red (recall Aruṇā, the dawn-red, the ruby) — the colour of life, of energy, of the rising warmth; the red of the Goddess as the vivifying power at this centre. (The colours are meditative, marking each level's quality.)
Śrī Vidyā: Ārakta-varṇā is of deep-red hue; the meditative colour of the Ḍākinī-Yoginī at the Viśuddhi centre.
477. त्रिलोचना — Tri-locanā
Translation: Three-eyed (tri-locana).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is three-eyed, as before (Trinayanā) — her three eyes the sun, moon, and fire. The apavāda: the three-eyed gaze surveys the three times and the three lights; the Yoginī at the throat shares the three eyes of the supreme, for she is that supreme at this station — the one seer through the three luminaries, here presiding at the centre of purity.
Śrī Vidyā: Tri-locanā is three-eyed (sun, moon, fire); the Ḍākinī-Yoginī sharing the three eyes of the supreme Goddess and of Śiva.
478. खट्वाङ्गादिप्रहरणा — Khaṭvāṅgādi-praharaṇā
Translation: Whose weapons are the skull-staff (khaṭvāṅga) and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She bears the khaṭvāṅga, the skull-topped staff, and other weapons. The apavāda: the fierce weapons of the Yoginī are the instruments of dissolution — the powers that destroy the gross attachments; the skull-staff, emblem of the cremation-ground and of death-conquered, marks her as the force that consumes what binds. The weapons are not for terror but for the cutting-away of bondage at this level. (The fierce form is the dissolving grace.)
Śrī Vidyā: Khaṭvāṅgādi-praharaṇā wields the skull-staff and other weapons; the Ḍākinī's fierce arms, the instruments of dissolution at the Viśuddhi.
479. वदनैकसमन्विता — Vadanaika-samanvitā
Translation: Endowed with a single face (vadana-eka).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is single-faced here. The apavāda: the number of faces will vary as the procession ascends (two at the heart, three at the navel, four, five, six), marking the differentiation of power at each level; at the throat she is one-faced — the singleness of the purified, the one presence at the centre of viśuddhi. The faces are the powers of perception articulated at each station.
Śrī Vidyā: Vadanaika-samanvitā has a single face; the Ḍākinī at the Viśuddhi, one-faced, as the iconography of this Yoginī prescribes.
Śloka 99
पायसान्नप्रिया त्वक्स्था पशुलोक-भयङ्करी ।
अमृतादि-महाशक्ति-संवृता डाकिनीश्वरी ॥ ९९॥
pāyasānna-priyā tvak-sthā paśu-loka-bhayaṅkarī |
amṛtādi-mahāśakti-saṃvṛtā ḍākinīśvarī ǁ 99 ǁ
480. पायसान्नप्रिया — Pāyasānna-priyā
Translation: Fond of pāyasa (sweet milk-rice).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: At each centre the Yoginī favours a particular food; here it is pāyasa, sweet milk-rice. The apavāda: the food-offerings mark the savour of each level — and read inwardly, the “food” of the Goddess is finally the offering of the self (recall the secret oblation, Rahas-tarpaṇa); the particular dish names the flavour of devotion proper to this centre. What truly nourishes her is the worship offered there.
Śrī Vidyā: Pāyasānna-priyā is fond of milk-rice; the offering-food of the Ḍākinī at the Viśuddhi, marking the savour of worship at this centre.
481. त्वक्स्था — Tvak-sthā
Translation: Who abides in the skin (tvak) — governs the dermal tissue.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She governs the tvak, the skin — the first of the seven bodily tissues (dhātus). The apavāda: each Yoginī presides over one tissue of the body, and here it is the skin, the outermost; the teaching is that the Goddess pervades even the bodily tissues — she is no less present in the flesh than in pure awareness (recall Jaḍātmikā, the inert too is she). She abides in the very skin, the most external layer of the embodied being.
Śrī Vidyā: Tvak-sthā presides over the skin (the first dhātu); the Ḍākinī governing the dermal tissue, the Goddess present in the body's outermost layer.
482. पशुलोकभयङ्करी — Paśu-loka-bhayaṅkarī
Translation: Terrible to the world of the fettered (paśu-loka).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “terrible to the world of the paśu” — fearsome to the realm of the bound creatures. The apavāda: the paśu, as before (Paśu-pāśa-vimocinī), is the fettered self; she is “terrible” to the world of bondage not from cruelty but because her dissolving power is the very end of that bound condition — the bondage trembles before the force that frees, as darkness “fears” the light. She is fearsome only to the fetters, never to the one who would be free.
Śrī Vidyā: Paśu-loka-bhayaṅkarī is fearsome to the realm of the fettered; the Ḍākinī's dissolving force, terrible to bondage, liberating to the seeker.
483. अमृतादिमहाशक्तिसंवृता — Amṛtādi-mahāśakti-saṃvṛtā
Translation: Surrounded by the great śaktis Amṛtā and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is encircled by the great śaktis — Amṛtā (“the deathless”) and the others of the Viśuddhi's band. The apavāda: each Yoginī is surrounded by her attendant powers (here the sixteen śaktis of the throat-cakra's sixteen petals); these are her own energies arrayed about her, as the yoginīs and Nityās attend the centre. The one Goddess at this station, ringed by her own articulated powers.
Śrī Vidyā: Amṛtādi-mahāśakti-saṃvṛtā is surrounded by the great śaktis (Amṛtā etc.); the sixteen attendant powers of the Viśuddhi's sixteen petals, encircling the Ḍākinī.
484. डाकिनीश्वरी — Ḍākinīśvarī
Translation: Ḍākinīśvarī — the Goddess in her form as the Yoginī Ḍākinī (presiding at the Viśuddhi).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The first Yoginī named: she is Ḍākinī, the presiding power of the Viśuddhi. The apavāda: Ḍākinī is not a separate deity but the one Goddess in her form as ruler of the throat-centre — the same supreme reality, here wearing this name and this fierce form; “Ḍākinīśvarī” gathers the foregoing details (red, three-eyed, skull-staff, skin, the band of śaktis) into the single presiding power. The Goddess as the Yoginī of the throat.
Śrī Vidyā: Ḍākinīśvarī is the Goddess as Ḍākinī, presiding Yoginī of the Viśuddhi cakra; the first of the seven, the one Śakti in her throat-centre form.
Śloka 100
अनाहताब्ज-निलया श्यामाभा वदनद्वया ।
दंष्ट्रोज्ज्वलाऽक्ष-मालादि-धरा रुधिर-संस्थिता ॥ १००॥
anāhatābja-nilayā śyāmābhā vadana-dvayā |
daṃṣṭrojjvalā'kṣa-mālādi-dharā rudhira-saṃsthitā ǁ 100 ǁ
The ascent rises to the Anāhata, the heart-centre, where the Goddess presides as Rākiṇī. The same pattern unfolds — abode, colour (dark), two faces, gleaming fangs and the rosary and other emblems, the bodily tissue (blood), the attendant band, the favoured food — naming the one Goddess at the second station of the ascent.
485. अनाहताब्जनिलया — Anāhatābja-nilayā
Translation: Whose abode is the Anāhata lotus (the heart-centre).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She dwells in the Anāhata, the heart-lotus — the centre of air and of the “unstruck” sound. The apavāda: the heart-centre is the seat of the unstruck sound (anāhata-nāda, recall Nāda-rūpā), the inner sound that arises without striking; she dwells there as the ruling awareness of the heart-level, the place of feeling and of the subtle sound. The second station: the Goddess at the heart.
Śrī Vidyā: Anāhatābja-nilayā resides in the Anāhata (heart) cakra, the twelve-petalled centre of air and the unstruck sound; presided by Rākiṇī.
486. श्यामाभा — Śyāmābhā
Translation: Of a dark (śyāma) lustre.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her colour here is śyāma, dark — the deep blue-black of the rain-cloud, of the infinite night-sky. The apavāda: where the throat was red, the heart is dark — the colour of depth, of the fathomless (recall Nīla-cikurā, the dark hair); the dark lustre of the Goddess as the deep, cool mystery at the heart's centre. The hue marks the quality of this level: depth.
Śrī Vidyā: Śyāmābhā is of dark lustre; the meditative colour of the Rākiṇī-Yoginī at the Anāhata, the deep blue-black of the heart-centre.
487. वदनद्वया — Vadana-dvayā
Translation: Two-faced (vadana-dvaya).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is two-faced here. The apavāda: the faces increase by one as the procession rises (one at the throat, two at the heart) — marking the unfolding articulation of power; the two faces at the heart may be read as the doubling of the breath, the in-and-out, or the pair of the heart's movements. The differentiation grows as the ascent proceeds.
Śrī Vidyā: Vadana-dvayā is two-faced; the Rākiṇī at the Anāhata, two-faced as her iconography prescribes.
488. दंष्ट्रोज्ज्वला — Daṃṣṭrojjvalā
Translation: Daṃṣṭrojjvalā — gleaming with fangs (daṃṣṭra).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She gleams with fangs. The apavāda: the fangs are the fierce, dissolving aspect (as the skull-staff before) — the power that consumes the gross attachments; the gleaming tusks mark the Rākiṇī as the force that devours what binds. The fierce form is, as ever, the dissolving grace, terrible only to bondage.
Śrī Vidyā: Daṃṣṭrojjvalā gleams with fangs; the Rākiṇī's fierce aspect, the consuming power that dissolves attachment at the Anāhata.
489. अक्षमालादिधरा — Akṣa-mālādi-dharā
Translation: Bearing the rosary (akṣa-mālā) and other emblems.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She bears the akṣa-mālā, the rosary, and other emblems. The apavāda: the rosary is the emblem of japa, the unbroken count of the Name; set beside the fangs just named, it holds the double work — the fierce consuming of bondage (fangs) and the gentle telling of the Name (rosary), destruction and remembrance in one form. She both devours the unreal and counts the Name that frees.
Śrī Vidyā: Akṣa-mālādi-dharā bears the rosary and other emblems; the Rākiṇī's devotional aspect (the akṣa-mālā of japa), paired with the fierce fangs.
490. रुधिरसंस्थिता — Rudhira-saṃsthitā
Translation: Who abides in the blood (rudhira) — governs the blood-tissue.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She governs the rudhira, the blood — the second of the seven tissues. The apavāda: the Yoginī of the heart presides over the blood, fitly, for the heart is the seat of the blood's coursing; the Goddess is present in the very blood (recall Tvak-sthā, the skin) — pervading the body's vital fluid as fully as the subtlest awareness. She abides in the blood, the life-stream of the embodied being.
Śrī Vidyā: Rudhira-saṃsthitā presides over the blood (the second dhātu); the Rākiṇī governing the blood-tissue, the Goddess in the body's life-stream.
Śloka 101
कालरात्र्यादि-शक्त्यौघ-वृता स्निग्धौदनप्रिया ।
महावीरेन्द्र-वरदा राकिण्यम्बा-स्वरूपिणी ॥ १०१॥
kālarātryādi-śaktyaugha-vṛtā snigdhaudana-priyā |
mahāvīrendra-varadā rākiṇyambā-svarūpiṇī ǁ 101 ǁ
491. कालरात्र्यादिशक्त्यौघवृता — Kālarātryādi-śaktyaugha-vṛtā
Translation: Surrounded by the host of śaktis Kālarātri and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is encircled by the host of śaktis — Kālarātri (“the night of time,” of dissolution) and the others of the heart-cakra's band. The apavāda: the attendant powers here include Kālarātri, the dark night of cosmic dissolution — fierce energies of the heart-centre, the twelve śaktis of its twelve petals; her own powers arrayed about her, here in their dissolving aspect. The one Goddess ringed by the energies of this level.
Śrī Vidyā: Kālarātryādi-śaktyaugha-vṛtā is surrounded by the host of śaktis (Kālarātri etc.); the twelve attendant powers of the Anāhata, encircling the Rākiṇī.
492. स्निग्धौदनप्रिया — Snigdhaudana-priyā
Translation: Fond of snigdhaudana (rich, ghee-laden rice).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her favoured food here is snigdhaudana, rich rice cooked with ghee. The apavāda, as with the milk-rice before: the food marks the savour of devotion at this centre; the “rich” food of the heart-level is the unctuous sweetness of the heart's offering. What nourishes her is the love offered at the heart.
Śrī Vidyā: Snigdhaudana-priyā is fond of ghee-rich rice; the offering-food of the Rākiṇī at the Anāhata.
493. महावीरेन्द्रवरदा — Mahāvīrendra-varadā
Translation: Bestower of boons on the great heroes (mahā-vīra) and their lords.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She grants boons to the “great heroes” — the mahā-vīras, the valiant. The apavāda: the “heroes” are, inwardly, the courageous seekers — those bold enough to undertake the inner ascent (the vīra, in the tantric sense, is the brave aspirant); she is “boon-giver to the heroes” as the grace that rewards spiritual courage. The heart-centre is the seat of courage, and she blesses the brave of heart.
Śrī Vidyā: Mahāvīrendra-varadā grants boons to the great heroes; the Rākiṇī favouring the valiant aspirants (vīras) of the heart-centre.
494. राकिण्यम्बास्वरूपिणी — Rākiṇyambā-svarūpiṇī
Translation: Who is of the very form of Mother Rākiṇī (presiding at the Anāhata).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The second Yoginī named: she is Rākiṇī, presiding power of the Anāhata. The apavāda: as with Ḍākinī, Rākiṇī is the one Goddess in her form as ruler of the heart-centre — “Rākiṇyambā-svarūpiṇī” gathers the heart-section's details (dark, two-faced, fanged, the blood, Kālarātri's band) into the single presiding Mother. The Goddess as the Yoginī of the heart. (The recurring -ambā, “Mother,” marks each as a face of the one Mother.)
Śrī Vidyā: Rākiṇyambā-svarūpiṇī is the Goddess as Mother Rākiṇī, presiding Yoginī of the Anāhata; the second of the seven, the one Śakti in her heart-centre form.
Śloka 102
मणिपूराब्ज-निलया वदनत्रय-संयुता ।
वज्रादिकायुधोपेता डामर्यादिभिरावृता ॥ १०२॥
maṇipūrābja-nilayā vadana-traya-saṃyutā |
vajrādikāyudhopetā ḍāmaryādibhir āvṛtā ǁ 102 ǁ
The ascent rises to the Maṇipūra, the navel-centre, the place of fire, where the Goddess presides as Lākinī. Three-faced now, bearing the thunderbolt and other arms, encircled by the śaktis Ḍāmarī and the rest; and (in the next śloka) red of hue, governing the flesh, fond of jaggery-rice, the giver of joy to all devotees.
495. मणिपूराब्जनिलया — Maṇipūrābja-nilayā
Translation: Whose abode is the Maṇipūra lotus (the navel-centre).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She dwells in the Maṇipūra, the navel-lotus — the centre of fire (recall Maṇipūrāntar-uditā, where the kuṇḍalinī dawned, Part V). The apavāda: the navel-centre is the seat of the transformative fire, the place of digestion and of inner heat; she dwells there as the ruling awareness of the fire-level, the power of transformation. The third station: the Goddess at the navel-fire.
Śrī Vidyā: Maṇipūrābja-nilayā resides in the Maṇipūra (navel) cakra, the ten-petalled centre of fire; presided by Lākinī.
496. वदनत्रयसंयुता — Vadana-traya-saṃyutā
Translation: Endowed with three faces (vadana-traya).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is three-faced here. The apavāda: the faces continue to increase (one, two, now three) as the procession ascends — the three faces at the navel perhaps marking the three guṇas or the three fires; the articulation of power grows richer at each level. The increasing faces trace the unfolding of the one into the many as the centres are surveyed.
Śrī Vidyā: Vadana-traya-saṃyutā is three-faced; the Lākinī at the Maṇipūra, three-faced as her iconography prescribes.
497. वज्रादिकायुधोपेता — Vajrādikāyudhopetā
Translation: Equipped with the thunderbolt (vajra) and other weapons.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She bears the vajra, the thunderbolt, and other weapons. The apavāda: the thunderbolt is the adamantine force (recall Vajreśvarī) — the irresistible power that shatters; at the fire-centre, the weapons are the burning, breaking energies that consume the gross. The arms of the Yoginī are the instruments by which bondage is destroyed at this level.
Śrī Vidyā: Vajrādikāyudhopetā is armed with the thunderbolt and other weapons; the Lākinī's arms at the Maṇipūra, the breaking-burning powers of the fire-centre.
498. डामर्यादिभिरावृता — Ḍāmaryādibhir āvṛtā
Translation: Surrounded by the śaktis Ḍāmarī and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is encircled by the śaktis Ḍāmarī and the others of the navel-cakra's band. The apavāda: the attendant powers here are the ten śaktis of the Maṇipūra's ten petals; her own energies arrayed about her at this level, as at each. The one Goddess ringed by the powers of the fire-centre.
Śrī Vidyā: Ḍāmaryādibhir āvṛtā is surrounded by the śaktis Ḍāmarī etc.; the ten attendant powers of the Maṇipūra's ten petals, encircling the Lākinī.
Part XIV continues in Article 11.
Śrī Lalitā Sahasranāma — Article 10 of 20 · Nāmas 452–498.
Devanagari per the sanskritdocuments.org recension (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Uttarakhaṇḍa; Hayagrīva–Agastya saṃvāda); numbering per the Bhāskararāya canonical 1000-count. Transliteration, translation, and commentary original to this edition.
