Sunday, October 11, 2015

SSB — Part 17: The Moving Feet, the Swan-Gait, and the Crimson Perfection (Nāmas 46–50)

 


46) Siñjāna-maṇi-mañjīra-maṇḍita-śrīpadāmbujā

Her lotus feet are adorned with jingling jeweled anklets.

Lotus feet decorated by jingling anklets.

Anklets jingle only when the feet are moving. As the story goes, Manmatha, the God of amoral love was burnt to ashes by Śiva when he opened his fiery eye of knowledge. Pārvatī, one of the manifestations of Śrī Lalitā, gave back life to Manmatha at the entreaties of all gods and Ratī Devi, wife of Manmatha. The gods argue that without amoral love, all life will have to come to an end, and without it, even the existing life forms would not be worth living. Manmatha, a great devotee of Lalitā, gets a boon from Her to reside in Her jingling anklets so that he can have his sweet revenge on Śiva whenever Śakti is on top of Śiva in amorous play. Since then, the jingling of Her anklets due to the submission of Śiva has never stopped, proclaiming the supremacy of Manmatha.


47) Marālī-manda-gamanā

She moves slowly and majestically like a female swan (Haṁsa).

She is the Haṁsa, the female swan, moving majestically and slowly.

Haṁsa means the life breath, which gets slowed down deep meditation. It also means the Sun, who majestically strides the skies removing the darkness of this world. Hamsa is the Ajapa Gāyatrī mantra. It also means the deity. It is also a symbol for an ascetic sage of a high order, as for instance Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṁsa. Her movements are graceful and harmonious, full of bliss, unlike the fast tempo of rajasic and tamasic qualities.


48) Mahā-lāvaṇya-śevadhiḥ

She is the great treasure-house of unsurpassed beauty.

She is the supreme treasure trove of unsurpassed beauty.

There is none more beautiful, none more graceful than Her. She has created all the beauties of this and other worlds. The world lāvaṇya means the glow surrounding a mass of pearls. The word mahā signifies a bodyless experience of being the cosmos.


49) Sarvāruṇā

She is entirely crimson—clothed in red, adorned in red, radiant with red.

She wears red clothes, red jewels, red flowers, is red in colour Herself and has a red glow about Herself. Her preference for red colour indicates Her passion for enjoyment and harmony and love. Her nature is śṛṅgāra, erotic love; the colour which best supports this sentiment is red. Note that red also is the colour of love which can turn into anger. She is angry when Her scheme of continuous creative bliss is interrupted by ignorance masquerading as all knowing dogma. She is angry at the six internal enemies of godly bliss, the ariṣaḍvarga, namely, unthinking and blind and hurting lust, anger, greed, illusion, pride of ownership, envy. Note that while She is against lust, She is all for amorous love which does not beget possessiveness.


50) Anavadyāṅgī

She whose limbs are faultless.

She has faultless limbs. Every limb of Her is a state of perfection. Her creation is faultless.

The reason for describing Her limbs, or Her creations as being faultless in the negative sense rather than as being perfect in the positive sense is this. In our ignorance we sometimes tend to classify some creations of God as good and others as evil. But God himself is beyond all such classifications. There is no such thing as being bad, or faulty in His view. He is the sinner and He is the saint. He is the God and He is the devil too. A picture cannot be made with white paint only. Contrast of some sort is needed to make any picture, including this world picture. The volcanos creating earthquakes killing millions of people are required to create the life forms on this earth in the first instance. If death and destruction was not there, the earth would be a totally un-inhabitable place full of old useless life forms unable even to move.

It is important to realise that evil is as necessary as good is necessary. In fact, God needs the devil to appear godly. The saint needs the sinner to appear saintly. This world picture needs both. Maybe, a little less of this or, a little more of that. The waking state of mankind is the dream of God. He or His perfection is totally and unconditionally untouched by whatever he dreams.

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