SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 67

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

VERSE 67

THE FATHER'S TOUCHING OF THE DEVI'S CHIN IS STATIC
THE HUSBAND'S TOUCH IS A DYNAMIC FIGURE-8
 
करग्रेण स्पृष्टं तुहिनगिरिणा वत्सलतया
गिरिशेनो-दस्तं मुहुरधरपानाकुलतया ।
करग्राह्यं शम्भोर्मुखमुकुरवृन्तं गिरिसुते
कथङ्करं ब्रूम-स्तव चुबुकमोपम्यरहितम्
 
karagrena sprstam tuhinagirina valsalataya
girisenodastam muhur adhara panakulataya
kara grahyam sambhor mukhamukura vrntam girisute
katham karam brumas tava cubukam aupamya rahitam
 
Affectionately touched by the tip of the hand of the Mountain king,
And lifted again and again by that Shiva out of desire
To drink of the lips thereof, that which makes the handle
For Your face-mirror, how could we ever speak of it, Your peerless chin.
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In Verse 67 the beauty of the chin of the Goddess is the central locus. This region of the face has an appeal both to the father of Parvati as well as to her beloved husband. Her father is referred to here as touching the chin with tender parental affection. The husband, although he is interested in the more erotic act of kissing the Goddess on her lips to enjoy the bliss it can give him, is here referred to as treating the face of the Goddess as a mirror, for which her chin is something like a handle. He lifts this handle so that it could assume a verticalized position as he approaches the face, which is only a reflection of his own face in essence. As he looks into it to enjoy the counterpart, as it were, of his own beauty, the reflected version is essentially the same Absolute Beauty. The duality of husband and wife is thus seen to be abolished, and herein lies the Advaitic doctrine hidden from superficial view. The touch of the father gives the chin a hypostatic dignity. The lifting of the “handle of the mirror” gives it a status of equality or parity of subject and object, one of which alone could be real, in keeping with the Advaitic doctrine. The reflection is just an appearance derived from the real. The resultant beauty, however, is not vitiated by any unilateral consideration of reality, but is the “Real of reals” as a value, and thus becomes unique, as stated in the last line.
 
The first half of this verse contrasts the way in which the father and the husband touch the chin of their beloved. We notice that what is lost in actuality is gained in virtuality. The father only touches the daughter with the tip of his fingers. While this actual contact is minimal, the contact made by the husband is only figurative and thus there is no actual contact at all, in principle. What is underlined here is Shiva´s intention to drink of the lips. There is no actual contact here, either. Even if it had been depicted, it would only have been contact with the mirror surface intervening between them. Thus the union of Shiva and Parvati is fully real but not physical in the factual everyday sense. Dialectical counterparts can operate only on a ground which knows no duality between subject and object.

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

 

WORD FOR WORD
Kara grena sprshtam - touched by the tip of the hand
Tuhina girina - by the high mountain lord
Vatsalataya - by affection.
Giri Shena dastam muhuh - lifted again and again by the mountain lord
Adhara pana kulataya - by the painful yearning for the drinking of lips
Kara grahyam shambhoh - by the lord capable of being held
Mukha mukura vrantam - handle of the mirror of the face
Giri sute - o daughter of the mountain
Katham karam brumah - how can we say
Tava cubukam aupamya rahitam - your lower face (or kiss) without compare.
 

(We may note that in this verse, Shiva is not called, as previously, "The Lord of Beasts" but Shambho, often taken to mean "Abode of Joy" or "Giver of Joy" , but here translated as "The Lord capable of being held." ED)

An alternative version:
 
TRANSLATION:
1) Touches with the tip of the hand
2) By the...Mountain Lord (Illegible)
3) By affection
4) Again and again by the Mountain Lord
5) By the painful yearning for the drinking,
or: of lips I desire to kiss, Goddess
6) By the Lord capable of being held
7) The handle of the mirror of the face
8) O Daughter of the Mountain (Suté means" Goddess")
9) Katham = how. How to describe the Absolute Value
10) Of one lower face (a lot of this is ILLEGIBLE. ED )

Length, breadth, thickness, make a pyramid. (This is unclear. ED)
This is Protolinguistics without using the name of a colour.
The colour-solid is to be used as a frame of reference.
 
 
 
Concepts are in the upper cone of the structure - percepts in the lower cone.
Cancellation between the two is the subject of this verse.
 
This god, the Lord of the Himalayas, the Devi's father, touches the handle of the mirror.
This is a pure vertical motion - it is electromagnetic.
Why move the handle up and down?
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.
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This is an incomparable Absolute.
An indirect contact, such as that between the Devi and Shiva, means "spiritual".
(They cancel out through the mirror. ED).
 

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When a woman looks into a mirror she sees God.
 
 
 

 

 

 

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THE COLOUR SOLID

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PROTOLINGUISTICS - THE COLOUR SOLID IS THE FRAME OF REFERENCE
Pure motion is vertical as opposed to mere horizontal movement, which is vulgar.
Shiva lifts the mirror but does not hold it - this is pure motion.

The principle of Absolute Beauty for wisdom seekers is the fourth dimension of the space-time continuum (see Bergson's "Durée et Simultanéité").
 
(Einstein’s theory of special relativity created a fundamental link between space and time. The universe can be viewed as having three space dimensions — up/down, left/right, forward/backward — and one time dimension. This 4-dimensional space is referred to as the space-time continuum.
 
Space-time is usually interpreted with space as existing in three dimensions and time playing the role of a fourth dimension that is of a different sort from the spatial dimensions. From a Euclidian perspective, the universe has three dimensions of space and one of time. Time can devour space and space time, both according to Descartes as well as in the overall context of Einsteinian space-time relationships. ED)


 
(THESE PAGES OF THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT IN THE GURU'S HAND HAVE TO BE REPRODUCED FACSIMILE AS THEY ARE AMBIGUOUS AND WE WOULD HESITATE TO GIVE MORE THAN TENTATIVE EXPLANATIONS. ED.)
 
"Your kiss cannot be compared to anything because of being Absolute".

"Where Shiva touches the handle of thy face -the mirror used for..."
 
 
"Your face is a mirror...". When Shiva touches the handle, it is to participate in the denominator beauty of the Devi.
 
The poet says there is no figure of speech to describe the chin, because the meeting point between Numerator and Denominator - the handle of the mirror, the Devi's face, in which He sees a reflection of Himself - is too ineffable.

Shiva takes the trouble of descending the vertical axis and touching the Denominator.
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The handle of the face is touched by the finger of Shiva.
Thus they must have the same epistemological status.
The chin of Her face is the handle and the lower lip is what Shiva wants to kiss.
 
"Again and again the Mountain Lord lifts..." - this is pure vertical motion.
"And how can we describe this ineffable participation between the Numerator and the Denominator?"
(Or try to describe the "parts" which participate.)
 

 

We have here complete Vedanta, structurally understood: the father sees his daughter in the normal, horizontal way; but Shiva sees his own Self reflected in her face, vertically.
 

One is static, the other dynamic.
The Devi is the Denominator side of Shiva, as he recognizes.
This is complete cancellation of Numerator and Denominator.

 

There are two levels to a woman, inner and outer: rejection outside, enjoyment inside.
This is the paradox in religion.