Soundarya Lahari

By Uday Shreyas

Composing a hundred shlokas, four lines each, each of them following the exact same rhythm to the very last syllable, might not be deemed a difficult task for an accomplished Sanskrit scholar. But an ascetic, expounding the physical beauty of the feminine form, exceeding the poetic prowess of the likes of kAlidAsa and mAgha, is no small feat. Add to that, embedding some of the most potent secrets of tantra-vidyA into the very words of such poetry... Now, that is the work of a true master of multiple disciplines!

Adi shankarAchArya’s soundarya-laharI, in my humble opinion, is the greatest work of poetry ever penned down. In any language. Across all time.

While I am guilty of a bias towards Sanskrit language and literature, I do not claim this without reason. I also do not want to start a futile exercise of analysing a poetic work, or worse, compare one piece of art to another. So what I shall do, is present to you some of the mindboggling levels of detail woven into this work of art, in a crisp four points.

POETIC METER

First, and the simplest, is the poet's choice of the poetic meter itself! soundarya-laharI is composed in a Chandas called as shikhariNI, which means a hillock. shikhariNI also means the daughter of a mountain, shikhara. The praise of Lord Shiva's consort, and the daughter of parvata, pArvatI, is being done in a poetic meter which refers to her very own name!

Adi Shankara as painted by Ravi Varma

WORDPLAY

Second, the fantastic wordplay employed by Shankara to convey multiple layers of meanings through the same words.

For example, the twenty-second shloka starts with the words 'bhavAni tvam dAse mayi vitara dRShTim sakaruNAm.' These words literally mean, 'O Goddess, you bestow upon this servant of yours, your compassionate glance!' And in the next few lines, Shankara says, 'tadaiva tvam tasmai dishasi nija sAyujya padavIM.' Through these words, Shankara insinuates the Goddess of being too generous. He says, 'To someone who chants thus, you immediately grant unity with your own self!'

While the sentiment that depicts the seeking of a devotee and the generosity of the deity are all quite beautiful, true brilliance lies within the words themselves! The very first words of this shloka are 'bhavAni tvam.' While tvam, which means you, is very clear in its meaning, the word bhavAni has two possible meanings in Sanskrit grammar.

It is the sambodhana-vibhakti, or the form of addressal, of the word bhavAnI, which means 'O Goddess'!It is also a kriyA-padam, or a verb in the first person, of the word bhavAmi, which means 'I must become' So apart from the usual meaning of prayer as we've seen before, the very first words could also be construed to mean that the devotee said, 'bhavAni tvam,' 'I must become You!' And deftly in the next few lines, Shankara elevates the generosity of the Goddess who granted a devotee union with her very own self, when they just sought her compassion! This is but one small example of such wordplay. The one hundred shlokas are filled with many such layered usages that feed a reader's intellectual curiosity.

EMOTION

Third, the kind of emotional connect that Shankara evokes through his descriptions of the Goddess! From the very first words of the very first shloka, Shankara keeps the emotional quotient dialled up to a hundred. From the longing that Lord Shiva feels for her as her husband, the love that gaNesha and kumAra have for her as her children, to the reverence indra and other devatAs have for her as her subjects, these descriptions connect a devotee towards the divine feminine in all her wonderful manifestations!

SPIRITUALITY

Finally, and most importantly, I want to present to you the spiritual possibilities that have been embedded into the very words of the shlokas. For example, the fifteenth shloka describes the Goddess in the form of devI saraswatI. The first line of the shloka says 'sharad-jyotsnA shuddhAm shashi-yuta jaTAjUTa-makuTAm.'

At a lyrical level, these words describe the Goddess as being 'as pure as the autumnalmoon', and as having 'the moon decorating her locks of hair that she ties up as a crown.' At a deeper level, these very words hold other meanings too. One of the bIja-mantras corresponding to devI's worship is 'shrIM.' If we look carefully at the first line, the word 'sharad' has the syllables 'sha' and 'ra.' In the Sanskrit alphabet, the vowel 'I' is referred to as a makuTa or a crown, as its shape extends above the head of the alphabet. These three syllables make the sound 'shrI.' And finally, the word 'shashi-yuta,' which literally means 'attached with a full-moon', adds an extra circle, representative of the fullmoon, completing the bIjAkShara 'shrIM'!

This is not a one-off occurrence in soundarya-laharI. Multiple shlokas have such descriptions which, when looked at closely, reveal mantras and geometrical forms which correspond to what is being described in the shloka through its meaning. Many eminent Sanskrit scholars like lakShmIdhara and bhAskara have written extensive commentaries exploring such intricate details within these shlokas, and the kind of sAdhana and siddhi that they correspond to.

Sri Chakra

Image credit: N.Manytchkine

ESSENCE

In conclusion, not only do these shlokas tickle the mind and tug at the heart, but they also enrich the very life of those who lay their eyes on them. All these unique traits together make soundaryalaharI a true treat to relish, both for a casual reader and a serious spiritual aspirant alike!