Advaita Vedanta

SAUNDARYA LAHARI

VERSE 20

KEY VERSE

FINDING THE HEART LOTUS
A NORMAL YOGI - COMPENSATION
THE COMPLEMENTARITY OF PSYCHIC POWERS

 किरन्ती-मङ्गेभ्यः किरण-निकुरुम्बमृतरसं
हृदि त्वा माधत्ते हिमकरशिला-मूर्तिमिव यः ।
स सर्पाणां दर्पं शमयति शकुन्तधिप इव
ज्वरप्लुष्टान् दृष्ट्या सुखयति सुधाधारसिरया

kirantim angebhyah kirana nikurumbamrta rasam
hrdi tvam adhatte himakarasilamurtim iva yah
sa sarpanam darpam samayati sakuntadhipa iva
jvaraplustan drstya sukhayati sudhadhara siraya

He who can bring You, as emanating nectar out of Your limbs all around,
Into his heart like a moonstone-made statue,
He can quell the pride of serpents like the King of Birds
And a fever patient cure by his very look of ambrosial streak.

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Verse 20 has to be read with Verse 10; between these two limiting verses we have had various perspectives of the dynamism implied between them. Verse 10 gives us a picture of ambrosial essence emanating from between the feet of the Goddess and of how a double set of ramified streaks is to be visualized. In the present verse, it is not the Goddess who is to be visualized objectively, but her image is to be placed at the centre of the heart of the contemplative who is her votary. Thus there are negative and positive attitudes possible in the practice of meditation or adoration of the Absolute Beauty Goddess here. These subjective and objective versions are complementary, reciprocal, or compensatory; and if one is placed at the limit of the self (the Alpha Point) the other is placed at the limit of the non-self, (the Omega Point). They could even be cancelled out into the neutrality of the Absolute, as indicated in the last verse of this work, where everything is finally abolished.

It is recommended in this verse that the contemplative reduce the Goddess to the semblance of a statue made of moonstone. The gleaming lustre of moonstone has an interesting, subdued tone about it, between brilliance and shade or tint, thus indicating that this statue is to be placed at a neutral point within the consciousness of the yogi, where the transition takes place from the subjective to the objective.

This corresponds to what is technically understood in Patanjali's Yoga as pratyahara: efferent tendencies which are neutralized by afferent tendencies and vice-versa. When this neutralization occurs, one experiences an inner psychic richness akin to samadhi.

The emanation of nectar refers to the efferent tendencies of the psyche, while the crystallization at the heart centre into a "moonstone-made statue" is the cultivation of the opposite (afferent) tendency of centralization at the locus of the heart. When this is accomplished, the yogi's personality, even in the outward sense, comes to have a revised status. He radiates a confidence and a functional alertness or brilliance in respect of his senses, which gain a perspicacity as if some inner light played on his features. This state has been referred to as tejas, and Swami Vivekananda's works, as also his personality , could be cited as evidence of this kind of yogic attainment. The voice is said to become mellow, the skin becomes more glossy and tender and the metabolism functions in such a balanced and purificatory way that it is said to have the effect of nadisuddhi (clarity or transparency of the blood vessels and lymphatic system).

A yogi in such a state generally becomes extremely sympathetic to any man, woman or child who is naturally attracted by him. Jesus was such a healer, always with a multitude of people around him. He becomes "the cynosure of all eyes" and the focal point of everyone's interest. There are many stories about the psychic feats of certain Tamil siddhas (saints); one, especially, was said to make the bones of a dead woman come to life by his songs, when he passed through the scene of a village funeral. We have to make allowances for natural exaggeration here. Another saint could  miraculously cure the chronic stomach-ache of a Jaina king by sprinkling holy ashes as a treatment. In the "Yoga Vasishta", Cudala, the young queen of King Sikhidhvaja, tells her husband how, by practicing a yogic and contemplative way of life, she enhances her personal charm and value as a peaceful presence in the palace. Examples of such yogis are found anywhere in the world. They might seem very humble and harmless, but at a given moment they can vomit fire, as it were, if confronted with a proud person who might question his intrinsic positivity coming from pure contemplation only.

The sage Kanva is described by Kalidasa, in "Shakuntala", as having this kind of positive power of asserting himself (tejas). He says that Kanva is like a lens which by itself is cold, but, when confronted with a source of heat or light, can rise to the challenge and produce its own fire. The mild life of forest dwellers is not to be challenged by forces less intense than what their austerities can build up within their psyche.

The Sanskritic literary tradition has created a number of counterparts in the bird or animal world in which the pride of one is cancelled and superseded by the power of another. The lion is the counterpart of the elephant in this respect. The king of birds here, which is a vulture or eagle, has the power to cancel the pride of a serpent. This is cancellation in the created world of creatures, though the operation of psychic powers need not be confined to this outer world of creation. It could also apply to the inner world of emotions.

The second instance of this verse belongs to this order. A man in hospital, who is desperate about his own survival, enters into a negative state of depression, by which he gives up all hope, and as doctors sometimes put it: "the patient himself does not wish to live". Many instances are known in India of a yogi entering such a sorrowful situation and working a miracle of this kind by instilling such confidence in the patients that they begin to gain hope instead of losing it. The turning point is as delicate as the retro-action in a thermostat. It can take place with the subtlest of influences in the world of psychophysics or psychosomatic medicine. Sympathetic emotions are contagious and can work wonders between individuals linked together in a bipolar reciprocity. The tears in the eyes of such a yogi will be found to be on the point of bursting out in sympathy. This kind of psychic power is not to be mixed up with other psychic powers, such as atomicity (anima), etc., whose status is to be discussed in later verses. This is a global state of sensitivity that is very rich intellectually and emotionally at the same time.

The mode of operation for inducing such a state of yogi-hood is here explained as residing at the core of the heart of the yogi. That value represented by the Goddess of Absolute Beauty cancels out into a fully-neutralized state of yogic perfection, by virtue of which, such siddhis, or so-called powers, become natural attributes of the yogically revalued personality. The yogi is always an interesting person to other human beings, especially to women and children.

The streak of nectar in terms of which the psychic powers are to be understood according to this verse, satisfies two requirements at one stroke. Nectar is a perceptual value; while the streak is an intelligible or cancellable value. When fused together, the streak of ambrosia represents an emanation which is neither physical nor mental. One often hears of emanations or presences from saints or yogis. Language has conferred on either one or both of these aspects some kind of reality, because it has to refer to either a fact truth or a logic truth. When fact and logic meet, it is a value like beauty that emerges, and combined words like "thinking substance" or "ambrosial streak" become permissible in this context. The duality, if it persists, must be countered by unitive understanding to become what is neither a streak of light nor ambrosia, but a central value called Beauty.

Pratyahara means "centralization of tendencies".
By pratyahara here one gains two kinds of psychic powers.

 

(The word "Pratyahara" does not appear as such in this verse, but is clearly the "bringing together" of the first line, which is compared elsewhere with a tortoise retracting its limbs.

 

"He who remains in all cases unattached on gaining
such or such desirable-undesirable end, who
neither welcomes (anything) nor rejects in anger,
his reason is well-founded.

 

Again as when a tortoise retracts its limbs from all
sides the senses are (withdrawn) from objects of
sense-interest, his reason is well-founded."

 

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verses 57 and 58.

ED)

 

The previous verse is not completely absolutist, you have to supply the Numerator and cancel.

(This probably means that the previous verse, Verse 19, deals with eroticism and emphasizes denominator values. ED)

 

Consciousness is a circle or a flower.
The yogi withdraws into it and restrains his outgoing impulses - this is pratyahara.

 

A statue is considered inter-subjectively and trans-physically by the yogi inside himself - he centralizes himself and conserves his dissipated interests.

 

 

A moonstone statue (of an elephant - not a Devi) - just to show the glow.

 

The nectar emanated by the Devi's limbs represent value - it is a kind of nervous energy.

A serpent crawling is in a dialectical relationship with a hovering vulture.
They are hereditary enemies - there is an accentuation of polarity; as also with the fever-patient and the curing yogi.

 

The limbs of the Devi shine like moonstone. She diffuses light all around from all Her limbs.

 

 

 

The man who takes this glow into himself can cure snakebite and hysteria just by his glance.

 

Anybody who participates in this light will have this healing power. Narayana Guru is an example of this.

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The poison of serpents and the fever are cured by the man who can bring the Devi inside himself.

Moonstone is a stream of intentionality flowing from the Devi in the moonstone bindu (central locus).

The power of the Goddess is uniformly homogenous.
Numerator and Denominator can interact.

 

"That person who can think of You, the Devi, in a certain manner, he will be able to cancel out the poison of the serpent and by his look alone and cure even terrible diseases".

The point here is that the Absolute can cancel out all imbalances and discrepancies.

A man in tune with the Absolute has the power, for example, to "cure" hysteria, just with his glance.

"Showering from Your limbs, which are diffusing an ambrosia from the light - which is like a cut moonstone (body)".(? ED)

How can ambrosia come from light? Because the conceptual and perceptual sides have to be put together.

 

 

 

Out of the aggregate of light there arises the sweet taste of nectar.

 

What seems to be different gradations of quality are not different at the core of the Absolute.
(He is able, by his look, to do something...)

There is some confusion here as to the intricacies of Sanskrit grammar.
Who or what is referred to as cut moonstone and where to place the fluorescent light?

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Another version:

TRANSLATION
- (Of the Devi) diffusing (all around)
- From the limbs
- The sweetness of the nectar arising out of the aggregate of limbs
- He who brings Thee to his heart
- (You who) like the form of a moonstone
- He is able to kill the poison of snakes like the Lord of Snakes (the eagle).
- Those afflicted by fever he cures by the streak of flowing nectar

(THIS IS A LOOK OF THE EYES WHICH CURES - IT IS ABSOLUTE)

The yogi is meditating and has a fluorescent glow on his body.

 

 

 

 

"I am like a moonstone and I am reflecting the light of the radiance of the Devi, which is like nectar."

The ambrosial sweetness coming from the light-cluster of the Devi brings to his heart a fluorescent gleam.

Schroedinger: light when falling on certain fibres produces diffraction.
By this light - balance - he can cure imbalance.

 

(Diffraction refers to various phenomena which occur when a wave encounters an obstacle or a slit. In classical physics, the diffraction phenomenon is described as the interference of waves according to the Huygens Fresnel principle. ED)

 

 

 

(Curran, a disciple, says: the magenta of the Devi, meditated upon as ambrosia, causes the calm light of the cut moonstone to come from the man.)

 

 

Anyway, whatever strict interpretation of the Sanskrit grammar of this verse, the point of his power to heal and to "absorb the poison" is that the Yogi's balance -because he is in tune with the Absolute - can correct and compensate for imbalance (i.e. disease and poison), merely by his glance; just as the glance of the Guru can calm a hysterical woman, or even "liberate" a disciple.

 

"The man who is able to bring You, as nectar, into his heart, is able to send the nectar out to those who are suffering from snakebite or fever, merely by his look".

The psyche swings between two poles: fever, snakebite and LSD are at the Alpha Point.

 

The holograph divides light into two parallels and You have two photographs projected into the same space.

How can this ambrosia come into the heart like a moonstone?
First, light comes from the limbs of the Devi; then it is given some taste, which is Denominator.

 

Then the synthesis is carried further, bringing it all into the heart, as an enjoyable sensation, like a moonstone.

It is a diffracted light, diffuse and glowing.

 

The methodology is faulty when you travel from mythology to mythology.

As if She is made of moonstone, he brings Her by descending dialectics down the vertical axis to his heart, by his philosophical speculation.

She is brought down as diffracted light (see Schroedinger).

 

(The Guru talks about myth-making, in the context of various religions in India - i.e. religious factions or cults.)
One story is as good as any other story, so never mind the mythology.

This verse wants to say: when You are down, "blue", at the Alpha Point, low down on the Denominator side; then you can be helped by the positivity of the Numerator.

(The doctor will talk to the typhoid patient on the 27th day, the day of the disease's crisis, to see if he wants to live. "No Numerator" means depressed.)

These people need to be consoled. Someone must say: "Never mind Your parents, I am Your best friend; come on, now".

Everyone who believes in the Absolute and loves humanity can perform this kind of "magic": it is Absolute Affection.

 

Here we have the cancellation of particular pairs of opposites.
Think of a moonstone figure of the Goddess and put it in the central locus.
You are related to values - think of all of them .
Every word implies a certain value, every percept has its corresponding concept.

 

 

 

 

There is a "real", perceptual, chair and there is a conceptual chair.
Divide the value worlds into two - each filled with values.

 

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There are ramified sets and they all refer to the central value, brought together into your heart or self. ("like a moonstone statue" ED)

 

 

 

 

 Ramified sets refer to a central value.

 

The moonstone figure of the Goddess in your heart is the source of values in the worlds.
Moonstone combines thinking and substance, you recognize an image of yourself, as of moonstone.

He can abolish the poison of a snake and by his glance he can save a man who is at the 27th day of typhoid, when the disease's crisis occurs.

Snakebite is not a poison, but like an electric shock, in most cases.(?)

 

In both cases the Absolutist can provide the confidence necessary for the afflicted person to decide to live.

 

A saint can save people merely by providing encouragement.
The man who is harmonized in this way gets a certain power of the Absolute - this is not an exaggeration.

The Numerator of the bird completely neutralizes the poison of the serpent.

He becomes a dear disciple, like the cat and the rat, or Nitya and Prasad (two of the Guru's disciples).

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Another version:

 

TRANSLATION
- Showering, radiating, spreading out ramified or fan-wise
- From the limbs
- The ambrosial essences arising out of the ramified sets
- One who can bring You to the heart
- Like unto a moonstone-made icon
- He can neutralize serpent potent power
- Like the king of birds
- By look cures fever patients
- By streak of ambrosia (Absolute Kindness)

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NOTE : It is not the poison of the snake that is neutralized, but the pride of the snake.
The pride is the thing, there are many proud people who will come to you, and you should know how to counter them.

For example: Narayana Guru and the proud Aryan pundit, puffed up with pride in his learning - he asked his disciples: "Is his (Sanskrit) grammar all right?"

The snake represents the potent negative force in opposition to the Numerator force.
The two have to cancel out.
The pride of an absolutist can be great.

(The negative power of the snake is cancelled out by the power of the absolutist yogi. ED)