Soundarya Lahari

Exploring philosophical depths of

Soundarya Lahari

Soundarya Lahari is a treatise that unravels the ultimate truth about the life and its spiritual journey. Many commentaries are written about it each interpreting it in a different way. Some call it a treatise on bhakti, some say it is all about Jnana; some others show the tantrik powers of the verses for achieving worldly wants. Some recite it purely for its lyrical quality. Many have exhibited their scholarship in writing the interpretations.

I think the truth lies somewhere else, hidden in the at once apparent meaning. What it appears is not what it is trying to convey. Suppose if we give a coconut kernel (కొబ్బరి బోండా) to a group of children who never saw or ate coconut before. One would say it is heavy, one would say it is like a rugby ball, one would lick it and say it is tasteless, one would use it as a missile to hit the others. Each of them, based on their experience, come out with their explanation as to how & what it is. But the truth of it lies concealed deep within. We need to pull out the protective gear (పీచు) to discover the kernel, break it, to get to the actual fruit. A very difficult process indeed! But you NEED to do it if you want to experience how coconut fruit is.

Many questions

The very title of the verse raises many questions: Soundarya (beauty) Lahari (wave/flow). I find that if we interpret this “‘Waves of Beauty describing how Goddess looked like”, (as most of the people understand it) it is utterly illogical. When Sankara believed in seamless unity of atma and the paramatma, where is the scope to treat ‘Mother’ and being an external phenomenon? Many doubts arise:

‘Beauty’ is how we describe a physical body or the effects on a physical body. But God(dess) cannot be a physical body, because physical body perishes whereas God is permanent (otherwise He cannot be a God). We all agree that God is formless, timeless & imperishable. So, how can we attribute a physical description to a force that is formless?

Besides, ‘beauty’ is true at a particular point of time. It is a snapshot view of a physical body or the effect on it. If it is a snapshot, how can it be a Lahari (wave/flow)?

Sankara, the master advaita philosopher, who advocated the oneness of the body and the soul, the ultimate jnana, could not have preached worship of Goddess as being separate and outside of the human body.

So, he must have meant something else when he named the treatise ‘Soundarya Lahari’.

What could it be?

Let us read the verse number 9 & 10. There he is describing how the shakti is moving up and down the body in a constant flow, energizing the various chakras in the body. Each movement of this energy from Muladhara chakra to Sahasrara chakra constitutes a ‘wave’. Then it moves from sahasrara chakra back to muladhara chakra: this constitutes another ‘wave’. These waves are occurring ALL the time. When you experience this movement, these waves give indescribable bliss – ‘ananda’. That is why it is called the ‘Ananda Lahari’ – the waves of bliss.

Beautiful waves, not waves of beauty

So, what are being described are the - waves (‘lahari’) that bring immense happiness when they pass through every cell of the body. When we experience immense happiness, we involuntarily exclaim ‘beautiful’ (Soundarya)! So, Soundarya Lahari is actually, is a description of ‘beautiful waves’ rather than ‘waves of beauty’. The ‘waves’ that occur with the flow of cosmic force from bottom to top; and top to bottom – relentless, unending, immeasurable & immensely pleasing.

Once we understand this actual meaning, we should be able to unravel the secret meaning of the whole verse.

Let us go a little deep and see..

Soundarya Lahari is an ultimate treatise on how cosmic energy manifests itself in inert physical bodies, propelling them forward on a spiritual journey. I have said in the past how the cosmic energy released from the ‘source’ traverses through the physical world using the body(ies) as a vehicle(s) to reach the ‘destination’.

Before the cosmic energy entered the physical body, this is an inert lifeless entity. As the energy enters, this entity comes to life, every cell of it body comes to life – running the cycle of life and death in all its cells, all the time. Each cell of a body which has been inert, seeks the cosmic energy to come alive, to become active and to reproduce. Coming of this energy into the cell is crucial for it to come alive– therefore it craves for it, and courts it. Once the energy comes in, the inert body is transformed into a vehicle for a spiritual journey.

The code for the spiritual energy is ‘shakti’ and the code for the inert body is ‘shiva’. Shiva is not the form of God that we assume in the shape of shiva linga..it is the inert body and the trillions of cells that form it.. it is the code word for the physical body that comes to life with birth and perishes with the death. Similarly, shakti is not the female form of goddess that we assume, but the cosmic energy that is in transit through a physical world, enlivening the physical bodies by entering them and using them as vehicles for performing the spiritual journey.

Why the description of female form

If Shakti is the formless energy which is the source of all the life & the movement, and that is what is described in this treatise, let us understand why there is such graphic description of female body and its beauty, esp in the verses from 42 onwards?

The inert physical form is craving for the entry of the cosmic energy for it to come alive, to propagate & to progress. The cosmic energy is using the body to perform its spiritual journey. There is mutual dependence. But let us understand that out of countless trillions of particles of physical matter in the universe, life exists only in some. We don’t see life in other planets, at least so far. So, it will be correct to state that for the physical bodies to propagate they need the cosmic energy; and only some of them get it.

Therefore the craving and the endless effort to attract the same.

The apparent, restless, explicit description of ‘shakti’ as being the desired goal of ‘shiva’.

What is apparently ‘physical’ is actually ‘metaphysical’

Once we understand SL in this light, we realize that every physical form that has been presented, is actually an esoteric code word. It is an intellectual challenge to unravel the true meaning of each verse and use it in real life.

Just for example, I present the verse (number 13), which talks about the power of Goddess supposed to bestow powers of attracting women:

Naram varshiyamsam nayana virasam narmasu jadam,
Thava panga loke pathitha manudhavanthi sathasa
Gala dweni bhandha kuch kalasa visthrutha sichaya
Hatath thrudyath kanchyho vigalidha dhukoola yuva thaya.

(With disheveled hair,
With upper cloths slipping from their busts,
With the lock of the golden belt getting open due to the haste,
And with saris slipping away from their shoulders,
Hundreds of young lasses,
Run after the men,
Who get your sidelong glance,
Even though they are very old,
Bad looking and not interested in love sports)

Would it not be ridiculous to believe that Sankara, the ascetic, is actually talking about the power to attract women? The woman here is the cosmic force, the person calling it is the cell of our own body. The allusion is about the movement of the cosmic force through the cells of the body at speeds unthinkable. When this flow occurs, what we call the movement of the kundalini, the physical matter gets greatly energized. It is only by invoking this power that a jnani is differentiated from an ajnani. This cosmic energy is inherent in each one of us. Only when we invoke it, we see the result.

Some commentaries foolishly interpret this verse as one which would give enormous powers to attarct women; and even prescribed methods of invoking the tantra behind the verse, using a mantra (beejaksharas) and a chakra – to achieve this physical goal. What can be greater fallacy than interpreting this most esoteric knowledge in crude physical terms?

To the beginning.. of understanding

With this understanding, let us read the SL again.

Start from the beginning Verse No: 1:

Shivah shakthya yukto yadi bhavati shaktah prabhavitum
Na chedevam devo na khalu kusalah spanditumapi;
Atas tvam aradhyam Hari-Hara-Virinchadibhir api
Pranantum stotum vaa katham akrta-punyah prabhavati

Lord Shiva, only becomes able to do creation in this world.
along with Shakthi Without her, Even an inch he cannot move,
And so how can, one who does not do good deeds, Or one who does not sing your praise, Become adequate to worship you, Oh , goddess mine, Who is worshipped by the trinity.

Isn’t it clear that what Sankara is talking about is the play of cosmic energy on the physical matter that creates a life?

Conclusion

Soundarya Lahari, like many of Sankara’s earlier works is also to be unraveled to get to the actual meaning of it. That is the ‘secret’ in Sankara’s works. People who failed to get this meaning of ‘secret’ tried to interpret it as ‘it should never be told to others’. Actually, the ‘secret’ is here is: what it appears is not what it says; unravel this to arrive at what it is saying. So you want to really experience Soundarya Lahari, you should try to understand the inner esoteric meaning of it.

This effort is only to give you all a framework to explore this most esoteric verse of all times. It is not my aim to give interpretation of all the verses. It has to be done by

oneself.

This is not a knowledge that can be explained, it can only be experienced..on every cell of the body & in the mind.

All the best.

RS

14^th Jan 2011