Śrī Lalitā Sahasranāma — Article 13 of 20
The One Without a Second — the Great Triads
Nāmas 601–648 · Ślokas 121–128
ॐ श्रीमात्रे नमः · oṃ śrīmātre namaḥ
The One without a second. The great triads of the world are named and then gathered back into unity. Everything that seems to be three is, at its root, one.
Part XVI — Nāmas 590–688 (Ślokas 119–134): The Heart-Cave, the Triads, and the One Without a Second
In simple words. The heart-cave. The Highest dwells in the small space inside the heart — and that small space is vaster than the sky. The great triads appear, and the One without a second. Do not search far: the Infinite hides at the centre of your own chest.
(Part XVI began in Article 12; the names below continue it.)
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.
Part XVI continues in Article 14.
Śrī Lalitā Sahasranāma — Article 13 of 20 · Nāmas 601–648.
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.
