SAUNDARYA LAHARI
VERSE 81
A SUMMARY OF STRUCTURAL DETAILS ON THE ONTOLOGICAL LEVEL
PRIMACY FOR THE ONTOLOGICAL ABSOLUTE
A FIGURE-8 CIRCULATION BETWEEN EXISTENCE AND SUBSISTENCE
PRIMACY FOR THE ONTOLOGICAL ABSOLUTE
A FIGURE-8 CIRCULATION BETWEEN EXISTENCE AND SUBSISTENCE
गुरुत्वं विस्तारं क्षितिधरपतिः पार्वति निजात्
नितम्बा-दाच्छिद्य त्वयि हरण रूपेण निदधे ।
अतस्ते विस्तीर्णो गुरुरयमशेषां वसुमतीं
नितम्ब-प्राग्भारः स्थगयति सघुत्वं नयति च
नितम्बा-दाच्छिद्य त्वयि हरण रूपेण निदधे ।
अतस्ते विस्तीर्णो गुरुरयमशेषां वसुमतीं
नितम्ब-प्राग्भारः स्थगयति सघुत्वं नयति च
gurutvam vistaram kshitidhara patih parvati nijan-
nitambad acchidya tvayi harana rupena nidadhe
ataste vistirno gurur ayam asesam vasumatim
nitamba pregbharah sthagayati laghutvam nayati ca
nitambad acchidya tvayi harana rupena nidadhe
ataste vistirno gurur ayam asesam vasumatim
nitamba pregbharah sthagayati laghutvam nayati ca
Ponderability and extensiveness Shiva once bestowed on You as dowry
Cutting them off from his own hips; thus these,
Yours here, both weighty and expansive, cancel out the whole world
And by prior substantiality confer lightness on it too.
Cutting them off from his own hips; thus these,
Yours here, both weighty and expansive, cancel out the whole world
And by prior substantiality confer lightness on it too.
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There are many theories for slimming known to beauty specialists and physical culturists. Though they are much advertised by those who recommend the regimes or medicaments, there seems to be no agreement about why certain persons are fat and others slim. A certain kind of obesity or fatty degeneracy might result from age. Hormones or enzymes might have their own roles. Sexual dimorphism is noticeable in certain animals. The queen bee tends to be big while the male is relatively small, and in certain varieties of leeches the male is so small that it can permanently find a place inside the sex organ of the female.
A scrutiny of the contents of this verse reveals that it could not be interpreted meaningfully in the light of any of the contexts suggested above. We notice here that it is the father, who is a mountain personified, who confers on his daughter, who is aptly here called Parvati (Daughter of the Mountains), his own “ponderability and extensiveness” in the form a wedding gift, so that her married life could be easier at a later date. A mountain is both massive and peaked. The peak represents the verticalized aspect, while the massiveness represents the extensive and ponderable aspects. If the former is considered, in principle, to belong to the numerator side of the situation; then the latter could belong to the same context while representing, in principle again, the denominator side of the same situation. It is suggested in this verse that the father cut off “ponderability and extensiveness” from himself and gave them as dowry, in the form of a value or wealth, out of concern for his daughter´s welfare later in life.
At the end of the verse, it is suggested that the Goddess became again light and slim by some kind of personal readjustment, which must have taken place after her marriage with Shiva. The high numerator value that Shiva represents must have helped to accentuate the process of verticalization of the heavy and extensive hips of the Goddess, which were so great as to equal in epistemological status the whole world, as indicated in the third line. The idea is that ponderability and extensiveness could be viewed under two conflicting perspectives, as in the case of conjugates like time and space. Time can devour Space and Space Time, both according to Descartes as well as in the overall context of Einsteinian Space-Time relationships. Res cogitans and res extensa are treated by Descartes as correlates which can interact to absorb or abolish each other. Sankara's own philosophy must have had affinities, however vague, with such views which have come into acceptance in the modern world of science. When time is included in the scheme, we get the notion of a continuum in which both time and space enter as equal partners. It would not be reading too much into the meaning of these verses to suggest that all the implications of the inertial or gravitational field of the Restricted Theory of Relativity of Einstein, as well as the fourth-dimensional perspective of the General Theory of Relativity, are known to Sankara and understood or roughly understood, as evidenced this present verse. We have already indicated that axiomatic and experimental disciplines can be expected one day to meet and verify each other. In the case of this particular verse, without being open to the charge of reading into it more than is there, it would still be quite safe to assert that, basically, the intuitions involved in the theories originating in the context of western science and those already present in Vedanta at least cover the same problems, each in its own particular fashion. In fact, there is a growing tendency among modern scientists to suggest a linking bridge between themselves and Vedanta, Zen Buddhism or ancient Chinese thought based on yang and yin. Oppenheimer, Schroedinger and Niels Bohr have indulged in such references from time to time in their writings. Schroedinger even quotes Sankara and suggests that a methodological and epistemological revision must take place if science is to answer such questions as he puts to himself as he watches the alpine glow on Mt. Blanc. He puts a pointed question about his own personal status if his mother had decided to marry another man. The whole question brings us face to face with the grand process of flux or becoming, in which a personal presence is involved. Time and space, quantity and quality, velocity and energy: all such conjugates begin to create a world of uncertainty, or Maya, as those who have correct visions of it, like Sankara, were able to visualize long ago.
This verse contains a challenge which refuses to be met by any point of view less wholesale than the one natural to Advaita Vedanta, which states, as does Bergson, that the whole of reality is a form of flux in terms of an élan vital (vital impetus). The definition of Sankara conforms essentially to the same eternal process of becoming, which is called anadi bhava rupa (of the form of a beginningless becoming). Heraclitus, whom even Bertrand Russell finds acceptable, also accepts such a flux as the basis of his philosophy. The last two lines of Verse 77 underlined the status of the Goddess here as finally conforming to the flux of Maya. We have been obliged to make these bold general remarks in order to give even some kind of barely consistent meaning to the content of the present verse.
“Ponderability” (gurutvam) must refer to the world of inertia or gravitation. “Extensiveness” (vistaram) must refer to the world of Space understood in the abstract. The words of the first line suggesting a dowry given in anticipation, and the regaining of lightness of substance suggested by the words “prior substantiality”, which is our translation of prag bharah (prag means “anterior”, bharah means “weight”), as applied to the hips of the Goddess here, contain prospective or retrospective elements in reference to the dimension called Time. Thus the verse has necessarily to presuppose, in our eyes, a kind of unified field theory, tacitly understood in broad outline at least, by the penetrating minds of philosophers like Sankara, and which perhaps anticipates some of the further developments and connections likely to take place in the formulation of a unified field theory, which it was the unrealized ambition of Einstein to offer to the scientific world before he died. The same could be said, more or less, of the fate of the great dream of Leibniz of presenting a pattern or characteristic based on a universal form or mathematical language. This was another dream of a great genius that was frustrated.
Let us try to go over the actual words of this verse in the light of these general remarks. We could paraphrase the lines as follows: “Being born of the King of Mountains, who possessed the extensiveness of a massive mountain formation, as well as its ponderability, (because all matter must have the quality of weight), you must have inherited, at the time of separation from your family to go to the family of your husband, this kind of wealth in a form which could combine both quantitative and qualitative aspects”. The peak represents kingship as a unique qualitative characteristic, and so the father did not have to depend on more quantitative or inertial aspects of his personality, because, when the daughter went away, he could expect to become more fully qualitative as a king. This explains the suggestion in the second line that he cut off actual “ponderability and extensiveness” from the lower levels of his own schematized personality. After marriage, in middle age, women tend to put on weight, especially in anticipation of childbirth, by virtue of which weightiness of the hips and breasts becomes accentuated. Here, in Verse 81, where we have descended far into the negative ontological side of the totality of what the Goddess represents, it is the ponderability of the hips with which we are more directly concerned. We must think in terms of more quantitative versions of weight, inertia and Space.
There could be Space-like inertia and weighty inertia. When verticalization and horizontalization are neutralized or balanced against each other, the world itself could be treated in the same way as consisting of Time-like Space or Space-like Time. This could be understood in terms of the Lorentz Transformation and the Fitzgerald Contraction. Thus, when such a revision is applied to the Goddess here, it is quite correct to say that the whole world could be cancelled out by its own counterpart, attributed to the person of the Goddess.
The last line refers to the losing of the weight of what was once heavy. This can be explained by a vertical form of cancellation which can be induced by the influence of the highly austere and pure verticalized principle that Shiva represents, influencing the total situation without being directly involved in it. Vedantic logic would permit prior and posterior substantiality to belong together, as in the context of clay being spoken of as representing the anterior non-existence of the pot.
There are four kinds of non-existence acceptable to the Nyaya school of Indian logic, which are:
- Anterior non-existence (pragabhava),
- Mutual non-existence (anyonyabhava)
- Ultimate non -existence (atyantabhava)
- Absolute non-existence after destruction. (pradhvamsabhava).
Non-existence is known in Tantra Sastra as a padartha (“word content” or “substance”). Abhava (non-existence) is one of the seven padarthas (significant substances) categorized by the Nyaya school; negation being considered as real as minus-one is in mathematics. It is as if one were to get ten oranges from a shop on credit, which would not mean that the debt is not real; it is real in a negative sense.
Such are some of the intricacies of Indian logic, tacitly accepted even by Vedanta, on the basis of which alone this verse can make any cogent meaning at all. The confirmation that we could derive from modern scientific theorization lends support to the same, as we have tried to explain above. Two children in different parts of the world could be seen playing the same game of marbles. This does not mean that one set of boys learned it from the other. We need not, therefore, vainly try to establish any extra credit for one side or the other; to do so would be childish.
(According to Descartes, the two different kinds of substance (in spite of having contradictory properties) somehow combine in a human being. A person comprises: 1. Res cogitans: thinking substance (mind or soul or consciousness) 2. Res extensa: extended substance (body). ED)
("Élan vital" was a term coined by French philosopher Henri Bergson in his 1907 book "Creative Evolution", in which he addresses the question of self-organisation and spontaneous morphogenesis of things in an increasingly complex manner. Elan vital was translated in the English edition as "vital impetus", but is usually translated by his detractors as "vital force". It is a hypothetical explanation for the evolution and development of organisms, which Bergson linked closely with consciousness. ED)
(Lorentz Transformations: the transformations describe how measurements of space and time by two observers are related. They reflect the fact that observers moving at different velocities may measure different distances, elapsed times and even different orderings of events. ED)
(The Fitzgerald Contraction is the physical phenomenon of a decrease in length detected by an observer of objects that travel at any non-zero velocity relative to that observer. This contraction (more formally called Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction) is usually only noticeable at a substantial fraction of the speed of light; the contraction is only in the direction parallel to the direction in which the observed body is traveling. ED)
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.
WORD FOR WORD
Gurutvam vistaram - ponderability and extensiveness
Kshiti dhara patih - the earth-supporting Lord
Parvati - o Mountain Daughter
Nijat nitambat acchidya - cutting off from his own proper hips
Tvayi harana rupena - to You by way of dowry
Nidadhe - he bestows
Atah te - this it is (Your)
Vistirno gurur ayam - which is both weighty and expansive
Vishesham - vasumatih - the whole earth
Nitamba pragbarah - by prior substantiality
Sthagayati - cancels
Laghu tvam nayati cha - confers lightness on it also
Gurutvam vistaram - ponderability and extensiveness
Kshiti dhara patih - the earth-supporting Lord
Parvati - o Mountain Daughter
Nijat nitambat acchidya - cutting off from his own proper hips
Tvayi harana rupena - to You by way of dowry
Nidadhe - he bestows
Atah te - this it is (Your)
Vistirno gurur ayam - which is both weighty and expansive
Vishesham - vasumatih - the whole earth
Nitamba pragbarah - by prior substantiality
Sthagayati - cancels
Laghu tvam nayati cha - confers lightness on it also
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Another version:
WORD FOR WORD
Gurutvam vishtaram - heaviness and expansiveness
Kshitidhara patih - the earth-supporting lord
Parvati - O Parvati
Nijat nitambadacchidya - having taken from his own behind part
Tvayi harana rupena - to you as dowry
Nidadhe - gave
Atah te - by reason of this, your
Vistirno gurur ayam - one is expansive and heavy
(Asesam vasumatim - ? not here Nitamba Pragbharah) - the anterior weight of your hips
Sthagayati - is made to shrink
Laghutvam nayati cha - makes it have lightness also.
Gurutvam vishtaram - heaviness and expansiveness
Kshitidhara patih - the earth-supporting lord
Parvati - O Parvati
Nijat nitambadacchidya - having taken from his own behind part
Tvayi harana rupena - to you as dowry
Nidadhe - gave
Atah te - by reason of this, your
Vistirno gurur ayam - one is expansive and heavy
(Asesam vasumatim - ? not here Nitamba Pragbharah) - the anterior weight of your hips
Sthagayati - is made to shrink
Laghutvam nayati cha - makes it have lightness also.
Another version:
TRANSLATION
1 - Heaviness and expansiveness
2 - The earth-supporting Lord, O Parvati
3 - Having taken from his own hind part
4 - To you as dowry
5 - Gave
6 - By reason of this, your
7 - One is expansive and heavy
8 - The anterior weight of your hips (before marriage it is expansive, and after it becomes thin)
9 - Is made to shrink
10 - Make it have lightness also
1 - Heaviness and expansiveness
2 - The earth-supporting Lord, O Parvati
3 - Having taken from his own hind part
4 - To you as dowry
5 - Gave
6 - By reason of this, your
7 - One is expansive and heavy
8 - The anterior weight of your hips (before marriage it is expansive, and after it becomes thin)
9 - Is made to shrink
10 - Make it have lightness also
Eros is a kind of…in this verse..(illegible) the Devi as well as a result of absolute pressure.
The Devi's husband (Shiva) is high Numerator and will not descend.
Eros does the job.
These three bindings are the vertical compensation for the horizontal swelling of the breasts, and prevent the vertical axis from breaking
The Devi's husband (Shiva) is high Numerator and will not descend.
Eros does the job.
These three bindings are the vertical compensation for the horizontal swelling of the breasts, and prevent the vertical axis from breaking
The god gives from his own behind to balance the Denominator (Devi) with the Numerator.
This is like inertia and field quality - like gravitation and the electromagnetic field.
It retains the Numerator for itself and gives also to the Denominator.
By reason of the preciousness of the Devi, Shiva gives the hierophantic, numerator, aspect of himself as dowry - e.g.: the hind part.
This is like inertia and field quality - like gravitation and the electromagnetic field.
It retains the Numerator for itself and gives also to the Denominator.
By reason of the preciousness of the Devi, Shiva gives the hierophantic, numerator, aspect of himself as dowry - e.g.: the hind part.
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The horizontal piece of ground - horizontalized space - has mass and breadth.
That kind of heaviness which is presupposed (like that of a concierge) is taken away.
The Devi becomes slim - by way of the expansiveness supplied by the Numerator, and the abolished Numerator gives mass and weight to the Denominator.
The horizontal piece of ground - horizontalized space - has mass and breadth.
That kind of heaviness which is presupposed (like that of a concierge) is taken away.
The Devi becomes slim - by way of the expansiveness supplied by the Numerator, and the abolished Numerator gives mass and weight to the Denominator.
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The Denominator meditates on the Numerator and expansiveness is eliminated by reciprocation.
The Himalayas have horizontal expansiveness, but also a qualitative dignity, which is the height of the mountains.
This gives a quantitative aspect to the Devi so that She becomes slim and endowed with high value.
The Devi must have a Numerator factor to balance the Denominator.
This is the secret for wisdom and ultimate salvation.
Men think with their heads, women think with their behinds; the women are right.
The ritual of the Devi corresponds to the world of necessities, i.e. as the cook does not put silver knives into hot water so as not to spoil them.
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See the structures dealing with necessity and contingency. (Necessity is Denominator, and Contingency is Numerator)
What can save Her is establishing bipolarity with the Numerator: consolation is a one-one correspondence.
"My husband does not pay me or sleep with me, but he is the father of my children"
You accept everything that is necessity, and cancel it with the corresponding Numerator value.
See the structures dealing with necessity and contingency. (Necessity is Denominator, and Contingency is Numerator)
What can save Her is establishing bipolarity with the Numerator: consolation is a one-one correspondence.
"My husband does not pay me or sleep with me, but he is the father of my children"
You accept everything that is necessity, and cancel it with the corresponding Numerator value.
That which has absolute value falls on the vertical axis.
That which is relativistic falls to one side or the other and is confusing (It is horizontal).
Art and beauty are the consolations for the world of necessities.
There are laws laid down somewhere and they provide one-one correspondence.
The emancipated woman is a myth - unless you put Berna to the sword, like Medea in Greek Tragedy.
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(The Guru refers here to the story of Medea and her husband, Jason. In Corinth, Jason abandoned Medea for the king's daughter, Glauce. Medea took her revenge by sending Glauce a dress and golden coronet, covered in poison. This resulted in the deaths of both the princess and the king when he went to save her. Medea continued her revenge, murdering her two children by Jason. Afterward, she left Corinth and flew to Athens in a golden chariot driven by dragons sent by her grandfather Helios, god of the sun. ED)
(Berna was a female disciple of the Guru's in Belgium. ED)
Vedanta says: "Don't kill anybody - cancel the Numerator and the Denominator.
You can be like Medea, or you can follow the laws of necessity and contingency as laid down in Vedanta.
All necessities vanish when you know the Absolute - "the truth shall make you free" etc.
Proper conduct will often clear confusion.
(Similarly with Feng Shui: improper architecture at the place of business will upset the storekeeper: a Chinese sage will come to the failing business and say: "that door is in the wrong place, let me move it here" and the business succeeds from then on. Every detail must be correct).
All proper meditation is erotic, anyone who says that it is not so does not know what he is talking about
Parvati's hips are heavy - they are like Space or inertia.
Shiva's hips are thin and Time-like.
Shiva's hips are thin and Time-like.
There is transformation and contraction here à la Einstein, Lorentz, Fitzgerald - see the commentary on previous verses.
A certain negativity and heaviness descends here as conferred by the Numerator.
Weight and extensiveness are three-dimensional when they come to Parvati, but they are fourth-dimensional when we are dealing with Shiva.
They are again absorbed into higher mathematics.
The Devi's hips are a greater obstruction and hide the concrete world below: then by meditating on Shiva she ascends and the heavy hips gain a lightness as far as the Devi is concerned.