SAUNDARYA LAHARI

Details: Written by Patrick Misson; Parent Category: Content; Published: 20 October 2008; Created: 20 October 2008; Last Updated: 12 July 2016; Hits: 14258

VERSE 96

THE ULTIMATE CONSTANCY OF PARVATI CAN KNOW
NO HORIZONTAL OR VERTICAL

कलत्रं वैधात्रं कतिकति भजन्ते न कवयः
श्रियो देव्याः को वा न भवति पतिः कैरपि धनैः ।
महादेवं हित्वा तव सति सतीना-मचरमे
कुचभ्या-मासङ्गः कुरवक-तरो-रप्यसुलभः

kalatram vaidhatram kati kati bhajante na kavayah
sriyo devyah ko va na bhavati patih kairapi dhanaih
mahadevam hitva tava sati satinamacarane
kucabhyam asangah kuravaka taror apy asulabhah

The wife of Brahma, how many poets does she not woo?
How many are there not, who, by having some wealth, can claim Lakshmi's hand?
O constancy's ultimate meaning, outside Shiva
The contact with Your breasts is hard even to a favourite garden tree

In this verse, 96, Sarasvati, Lakshmi, and Parvati are discussed together to underline that the former two, who belong to the context of relativism and hedonism, cannot be of the same order as Parvati in her relation with Shiva. Vedic learning and wealth are still mundane considerations, tending to have a horizontal reference. Only in the case of Parvati and Shiva is the relation of a pure and disinterested vertical order. Even thus fully verticalized, fulfilling the requirements of constancy between husband and wife as understood in the human context, the last line wishes to emphasize the unique superiority of Parvati's constancy, to the exclusion, not only of rivals to Shiva, but also excluding anything extraneous to the wholehearted self-sufficiency of their intimate union, in which they are locked in each other's arms. One might suggest that, when sitting in her garden, Parvati might have some kind of innocent pleasure in embracing her favourite garden tree. However, even this kind of innocent pleasure does not come to her mind, because the bipolarity involved in her relation with Shiva is so intense that it cannot tolerate any factor not strictly belonging to the same level of bipolarity. The union of Shiva and Parvati, in order to be fully absolute, has to exclude all duality as between two classes which are different, or two classes which belong to the same side, or between two levels within the same class - without violation of parity or identity vertically or horizontally. The reference to the tree here is to underline the wholehearted nature of the absolute union of Shiva and Parvati, and the perfect parity between them.

The Absolute is without difference: as between two classes, as between the same class and as between itself and another aspect of itself (sajatiya - vijatiya - svagata - bheda - sunyatta). The reference in the last line to a tree is to underline the last-mentioned requirement for any value to be treated as absolute. Parvati is a constant wife, not only in the human sense but in a sense more ultimate and comprehensive, by which the constancy is totally self-sufficient. It is constancy for itself, by itself, through itself, in itself. Thus, as specifically indicated here, the ultimate meaning of constancy is recognized and complied with by Parvati in this verse.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.

EDITORIAL NOTE: THERE HAS RECENTLY APPEARED A PROBLEM WITH THE UPLOADING OF IMAGES TO VERSES 96 TO 100. WE HOPE TO RESOLVE THIS PROBLEM SOON. WE ARE SORRY FOR THIS GLITCH

No duality whatever is tolerated in Vedanta.

WORD FOR WORD
Kalatram vaidhatram - wifehood in the context of Brahma
Kati kati bhajante na kavayah - how many poets do not pray for
Sriyo devyah ko va na bhavati patih - who is it that cannot become the husband of the goddess of wealth (Sri = wealth)
Kair api dhanaih - by having some sort of wealth
Maha devam hitva - outside Shiva (omitting Shiva)
Tava - Your
Sati - o true wife
Satinam acharane - ultimate meaning of constancy
Kucha bhyam asangah - the contact with the breasts
Kuravaka taroh api - even for the Asoka tree
Asulabhah - not easy

The Devi represents ultimate verticality and constancy, inside.
This is the final, ultimate meaning of constancy (sati).
Constancy is a vertical axis. "Peripherally, you can go on flirting with others".

Anybody with wealth must be considered symbolically as the possessor of Lakshmi - the Goddess of Wealth. How is it that Hindus are not shocked?

How many poets do not woo Saraswati, the Goddess of Poetry and Music?

The meaning of the word "constancy" results from the cancellation between husband and wife.

Everything is relative, except for the bi-polar relationship between Alpha and Omega. That is absolute - it is the relationship between Numerator and Denominator - Shiva and the Devi - husband and wife.

Produce the vertical line upwards to the moon and downwards to plant life.

Understand this cancellation of two principles united by a parameter; understand it philosophically - without cosmology, theology or any conditions.

You have to say "Allah, al rahman, al rahim" (the merciful, the compassionate): cancel them out and you get the great God, beyond all representations.

Her bi-polarity is so strict that she will not even embrace a favourite garden tree.
All other pairs are inferior, the Devi's constancy passes through heaven and earth.

Do not make any compromise at any level.
The Devi has no reciprocity with anything besides Shiva, not even with a garden tree - that relationship is horizontal - Shiva and Parvati can only be cancelled by a pure vertical mathematical parameter.

Contact with your breasts is contact at the horizontal level, the last vestige of eroticism is cancelled.

What is left is almost nothing, but still something: keep some link of interest, as thin and fine and living as a lotus-stalk thread (mrinala tantu); do not abolish the living link.

You can see the Absolute with bare eyes in the uncompromising love of a wife for her husband, even when he hates her and is cruel to her.

Show Lakshmi being nice to a money-lender, and Saraswati to a poet.

Then show Shiva's descent as a Sanyasin, bad-rapping Shiva, and Parvati will not stay around to hear it.

You can put structural references from bottom to top; if you do not like breasts at such a low level, just put a dot there and say it is the point of insertion of the vertical into the horizontal.

Contact with the breasts is the most intimate pleasure that departs only with death.

The Guru has eliminated all sex but this.