112. Bhavānī
Devi is called Bhavānī. “Bhavani Bhoda Samāya” so says the śruti. This means the word Bhavānī is used to describe Devi when She is in a state of enjoyment. The nature of this enjoyment is specifically the name itself. The word bhava means this world. The letter ‘ni’ stands negation of this world. So the nature of this enjoyment is in the negation of this world by becoming the world itself. Also, the word Bhavānī can be split up as Bhava + āni. Bhava is the name of Śiva, here the Supreme Brahman. The verb āni means ‘I become’. So Bhavānī means 'I am Brahman' or it is equal to the statement ‘Ahaṁ brahmāsmi’.
Adi Śaṅkarācārya in the sacred text of Soundalya Lahari has spoken the verse starting with 'Bhavāni tvaṁ dāse mayi vitara dṛṣṭiṁ sakaruṇāṁ', which goes like this. The devotee starts praying to the Mother. Oh Bhavānī, please send your gracious look like compassion towards me. The Devi starts hearing this prayer. By the time the devotee has finished saying Bhavānī, Her compassion is such that She has given the devotee an identity with Herself called sāyujya. Śaṅkarācārya uses this Bhavānī very cleverly because the word implies ‘Ahaṁ brahmāsmi’ a Mahāvākya from the Ṛgveda.
The Devi is intimately pleased and assumed an identity with the śiṣya because the śiṣya has made a statement of identity with the Guru. Such is the nature of enjoyment, of becoming identical with the object perceived, where no desire for the object perceived can exist, because it is oneself. It is not natural for anyone to desire oneself.
113. Bhāvanāgamyā
The state of Bhāvanī can be approached through Bhāvana, meaning imagination. The nature of the imagination required to be followed is described in detail in the Bhāvana Upaniṣad. This name clarifies that the approach to the state of thoughtlessness is through the thought only.
Quite often devotees set for themselves the goal of thoughtlessness quite rightly. But they do wrong in assuming that the path is also thoughtlessness. They sit down saying “I will not think of anything”. The mind will not rest however. Some desire or the other suddenly wells up a thought. The moment the devotee realises that he has a thought, he starts worrying why did this thought come to me? He tries to push it away forcibly out of the mind. He may succeed in doing so, but immediately another thought and yet another thought come on like waves of the sea unending. The devotee gets frustrated at his inability to stop thinking. This pattern repeating a few times creates a vicious slope in the mind and he comes to the conclusion that it is impossible to keep the mind at rest. He blames the Guru, blames Patañjali, and teaches, all those who come to him to suppress their thoughts. The vicious circle goes on and on.
Where one is going wrong in this process is in the assumption that meditation means thoughtlessness. Meditation, another word for contemplation, another word for tapas, another word for creating by force of will, does not imply a silent mind but an active mind. The mind is active, thinking a series of thoughts on related subjects, like an evolving story. It may settle down at a particular idea where it finds bliss. That is called dhāraṇa. Jñāna enters when there is an easy uninterrupted flow of thoughts into one particular idea. After some time, in the jñāna, a merger will take place between the object or idea meditated and the object. In this state samādhi ensures with the object disappearing and there is a total loss of distinction between the object and the subject. This is the state, the end state, which is thoughtless point. Up to this point however the thoughts or emotions or feelings do exist.
114. Bhavāraṇyakuṭhārikā
She is the axe that cuts down the forest of the notions of multiplicity presented by the external world. Her tyrant has three components, the subject, the object and the experience. Her axe cuts the ignorance down. Knowledge is considered to be an axe because it cuts, i.e., it separates or discriminates one part from the other. The real knowledge is the knowledge about the real. This cuts across all limitations.
115. Bhadrapriyā
She is fond of safety for Her devotees.
Bhadra also means an elephant besides safety. Śrī Sūktam says of Devi: ‘Hastināda-prabodhinīm’. Awakening the sound of an elephant God, Vinayaka. As we have pointed out earlier, the sound of an elephant is manifested as Parā in Mūlādhāra and Svādhiṣṭhāna, as Paśyanti in the Maṇipūra, as Madhyama in Anāhata and Viśuddhi and as victory in the Laṁbikāgra, the throat center. At Mūlādhāra, She is known as Adi Parāśakti.
The letter Bha means the ākāśa or the space. Dra is a symbol for sound. Sound is the tanmātra or the property of ākāśa. So the word bhadra means all mantras which are sounds capable of traversing the infinite spaces. She is fond of all mantras.
The word bhadra can be interpreted to mean ‘bhāgam drāvayati iti bhadram’. So bhadra means a dissolution of the universe. So She is fond of the process of reestablishing the last Godhood of man which is auspicious.
116. Bhadramūrti
She is auspicious in form.
The Devi has five modes of existence. These are called Asti, Bhāti, Priyām, Nāmam, and Rūpam. The first three mean existence, knowledge and bliss. These are characteristics of the Nirguṇa Parābrahman. The last two, namely name and form, are characteristics of the Saguṇa Brahman. Among such forms She manifests in the more beautiful and aesthetic and auspicious forms more powerfully than in other types of forms.
Although everything that has been given a name or everything that can be seen does not partake of the nature of permanence, in the transcendental view limitation in any form, either in space or in time or in matter, does not distract from the nature of Sat-cit-ānanda. As an example, we might consider that the infinitesimal amount of time called the present includes in it the entire time.
117. Bhaktasaubhāgyadāyinī
She gives marital bliss to Her devotees.
The word saubhāgya means, according to the splitting of Sau + Bhāgya, the bliss of the Śakti as manifested. The word Bhāgya means that belonging to Bhāga. The letter bha stands for space. The letter gha stands for the verb to flow; that which moves in space is the meaning of Bhāga. Time moves in space. It has the characteristic of flow. Interacting with the matter in time, She creates the cosmic drama.
The word Bhāga also means the sixfold aiśvaryas of Devi. These six aiśvaryas are all the experiences through the five channels of communication namely that of: sound, touch, form, taste, and smell and also the sixth channel of communication, the mind.
The mind becomes a channel of communication when it is in the receiving state or in the transmitting state.
In the transmitting state the mind is involved in thinking a thought or in projecting an image.
In the receiving state the mind is necessarily silent. It is rarely that both the functions co-exist in time.
Since Devi is not only the devotee, but also the entire cosmos, She gives the bliss of the experience of the Sadguṇa Brahman to the devotee. That is the meaning of saubhāgya, of communion of the Nirguṇa with the Sadguṇa, of the communion of God with the individual soul.
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