Discourses on the Soundaryalahari

BHAGAVADPADA SANKARA'S SOUNDARYALAHARI: An exposition by Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam; Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kulapati Munshi Marg, Mumbai-400007. Rs. 600.ADI SANKARA Bhagavadpada was perhaps the world's greatest philosopher mastermind. As a mere child, he displayed quite astonishing powers of mind so much so that he was hailed as a child prodigy. He mastered the Vedas and the Sastras with avidity altogether extraordinary.

He became a sanyasin at an unusually young age and traversed the length and breadth of India on foot, discoursing on the sacred scriptures, which had yielded to his unusual power of apprehension, a whole system of Vedanta affirming the relative unreality of the phenomenal universe and the exclusive Reality of Para Brahman.

He was a great poet and mystic. His poetic vision was sustained by an amazingly acute imaginative sensibility. His vision embraced the whole gamut of Hindu deities and other sacred entities like the rivers Ganga and Yamuna.

The hymns to the various deities and other sacred entities have a transcendent philosophic content, an ineffable affirmation of vital truth, which takes various forms to delight and transport the human ear and eye.

Among the greatest of these hymns are two - Sivanandalahari and Soundaryalahari - one evoking Lord Siva and the other the Universal Mother, Sri Jagadambi, Sarada, Lalitha, Maha Tripurasundari.

These hymns are classics of their kind and they evoke a rapturous admiration, which thrills and stimulates not merely the poet in each of us but also the mystic in each one of us. The second work is a rapturous evocation of Jaganmatha in all Her varied forms and moods, while the first does the same with reference to Lord Siva.

Needless to say, the hymns have evoked illuminating commentaries. Soundaryalahari has more than 10 commentaries, which have been published under the auspices of the Kanchi Kamokoti Sankara Pitha, edited by Rajarama Sastri and A. Kuppusami Sastri.

Two rare commentaries are based on the still incompletely explored resources of the Royal Library of Nepal. Among the better known are commentaries by Lakshmidhara, Arunamodini, Sowbagyavardhini and Dindima.

To the impressive body of commentaries on this great hymn, we have now to add the transcendental exposition of Soundaryalahari by the great saint, sage and mystic, Sri Chandrasekherandra Saraswati Swamigal.

His 100 years of spiritual ministry on our planet constitute a glorious chapter in the spiritual history of mankind. Spanning the whole of the 20th century as he did, he became a fount of wisdom and compassion to all mankind.

In the book under review, we have a world of delight and aesthetic insight.

The sage discourses with effortless ease and grace on the manifold forms of the Devi, the Divine Consort of Lord Siva, whose functioning is entirely dependent on Her sakti, the dutiful wife whose "Tatanka mahima'' kept Siva unharmed by the "Kalakuta" poison which He had swallowed out of compassion for mankind.

The Mahaswamigal dwells lovingly and long, on the sheer beauty of the Devi, the uncapturable essence of which the Paramacharya reveals to us with a joyous sense of ilan, such ineffable beauty becomes Truth, the Advaitic Truth. The Devi and the Lord are Para Brahman in the Ardanareeswara form.

The sage deals with the intriguing reference to "Dravida sisu'' in the poem. He points out very gently that it could hardly be a reference to the 6th century A.D. saint Gnanasambandar.

The reference here is to Sankara himself, who as Lakshmidara points out as deputising for his father at the family temple to the Devi.

This is further confirmed by a hymn discovered by the scholar, Dr. C. R. Swaminathan.

In concluding his discourses, the Swamiji deals most wonderfully with the very last "Pradipajwalabi'' verse as a conclusive manifestation of a modesty truly divine.

The gifted translator has provided us with a brief sketch of Sri Sankara's life, which is most satisfying. We must however point out that the story of Ubhaya Bharati challenging Sankara on Kamasutra is utterly baseless and improbable.

Would a Sanyasini - she had become that, after her husband Mandana Misra had taken to sanyasa - have so far deviated from sheer propriety as to challenge a sanyasin on a topic which sanyasins should not even dream about?

We accord a most hearty welcome to this third instalment of English translation of the glorious discourses of the great sage of Kanchi.

S.R.

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