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Saundarya Lahari All comments V1
ALL COMMENTARIES ON VERSE I
OF THE SAUNDARYA LAHARI
This file contains all references to Verse 1, to be found in Notes and
Commentary on the verses (see Saundarya Lahari/contents).
This will give an idea of the different ways of looking at the poem.
A good way of approaching the study of this work is to start with the
Introduction, then the commentary on each individual verse.
Then, by consulting Saundarya Lahari/Notes, the reader can consult the
various comments that the Guru made on the verses as his ideas developed
over the years.
Most importantly, the accompanying structures will make the protolonguistic
elements clearer than is done by the written word.
Additional commentary has been added as an introduction and for continuity.
Redundancies and duplications have also been eliminated.
The serious student is advised to consult the original source files in SL NOTES.
Please ask us for any assistance.
INTRODUCTION
In this file we have:
1) A transcription of each Sanskrit verse in roman letters:
this does not pretend to be a phonetic transcription,
but aims to be roughly pronounceable to a non-Sanskritist
and also recognisable to those who know Sanskrit.
2) A translation of the verse into English, together with earlier
versions which sometimes throw a light on the ambiguities of the original.
3) A word-for- word translation together with earlier variants.
4) A series of titles and short remarks on each verse.
5) One or more long commentaries on each verse.
6) One or more structural diagrams on each verse.
We have editorialised to the extent of getting rid of duplications
and providing a linking commentary.
See the original EV and SL files to eliminate these.
VERSE 1
TRANSCRIPTION
SIVAH SAKTYA YUKTO YADI BHAVATI SAKTAH PRABHAVITUM
NA CED EVAM DEVO NA KHALU KUSALAH SPANDITUM API
ATAS TVAM ARADHYAM HARI HARA VIRINCADHIBHIR API
PRANANTUM STOTUM VA KATHAM AKRTAPUNYAH PRABHAVATI
TRANSLATION
Shiva, united with Shakti, becomes able to manifest,
If otherwise,this god knows not even how to pulsate,
How then could one of ungained merit be able to bow to, or even
praise,
One, such as You, adored even by Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma.
SLP6
There are slight variations in the different versions
circulating during the Guru's last years:
*Shiva, united with Shakti, becomes able to manifest,
*R(IF)
If otherwise, this god * knows not even how to pulsate,
* R(does not know)
How then could one of ungained merit be able to bow to, or even praise,
One, such as You, adored even by Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma
TEXTA
As can be seen, the variations are very small.
There is a much earlier version printed in Values magazine in 1969:
If Shiva should only when united with Shakti
Get the power to manifest in becoming;
If again, without such, he has no ability even to pulsate,
How then could one of unaccomplished merits
Have the privilege of bowing to or even to praise
One such as You, adored even by Hari, Hara, Virincha and others.
SLG1
There is another version from 1969, taken from students' notes:
Shiva = mathematical, general
by specific function = shaktya, representing the two phenomenal factors;
wave length and vibration, res cogitans and res extensa
(only) when united = yukto
if he (should) become
able to manifest in becoming
if not thus, this god
is not indeed expert (in the matter)
even to pulsate (pulsation)
it being thus, you
are being worshipped
even by (api) Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva (Vedic)
to prostrate, even to praise
how (Shankara is outside the Vedic context - below)
one of unaccomplished merit
specifically attain
SLC2
There is another version from students' notes in 1970:
The god Shiva (as great numerator factor)
and Shakti (horizontalising principle on the negative side)
When united only (or unified)
(when participating vertically and horizontally with each other).
(Shiva, he) becomes able - (at best participating nominally).
(only when he participates does he become able)
To realise himself (in any specified way),
(to become fully himself), (attaining all plenitude),
(only when he participates does he keep from evaporating),
(will only be an absurd mathematical figurehead).
If likewise this god is not capable indeed -
(wave length = horizontal movement).
Even to oscillate (like a straw) -
as opposed to vertical movement.
Thus how can for You (devi).
Worthy of worship (by).
Even by Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma
representing the three relativistic functions:
preserver, destroyer and creator),
but only as demiurges of a base order.
You are not only on the negative side of the vertical axis,
But You also touch the finger of Shiva, thus representing the Absolute
- and thus being worthy of worship by the three demiurges.
Either to praise or worship You (how?).
One who has no merits of good acts -
(I am not a Brahmin or a learned man),
( how can I ever attain to the Absolute beyond all words?).)
How can I become a specified personality? -
(Either I must fill it with the content of beauty, via protolanguage).
I am not a priest (brahmin) who performs meritorious deeds.
How can I praise You?
(Vedanta is not just giving alms and going to temples).
I will have to put You into relationship with Shiva,
the Logos or Omega Point.
If You are not touching Your husband (participating vertically)
he is just a theoretical, mathematical, Omega point.
SLG1
WORD-FOR-WORD TRANSLATION
sivah - Shiva
saktya - by Shakti, his horizontal counterpart
yukto yadi - if united
bhavati saktaha - becomes able
prabhavitum - to manifest
na ced evam devaha - if otherwise, this god
na khalu kusalaha - does indeed not know (khalu = indeed)
spanditum api - even to pulsate
ataha tvam - thus (one such as) you
aradhyam - adorable
hari hara virincadibhir api - even to Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma.
pranant hum stotum va - to bow down to or even to praise
katham akrta punya prabhavitum - how could one of ungained merit be able
SLP7
There is an earlier word-for word translation from 1969:
Shivah = Shiva (numerator factor).
Shaktya = with Shakti - the phenomenal factor in the centre of the Absolute.
Yukto-yadi = when united, unified (i.e. when participating
vertically and horizontally with each other).
Bhavati Shaktah = becomes able (Shiva).
Prabhavitum = to realise himself, become fully himself, attain full plenitude.
Nachedevam devah = if likewise this god.
Nakhalu kushalah = is not capable indeed
Spanditumapi = even to oscillate like a straw (?) to or (illegible)
Atah stvam = thus to or for you.
Aradhyam = worthy of worship
Harihara virinchadhibhir api = (illegible)
prananthum = to adore
stothum va katham = even to praise, how.
akritapunya = one who has no merits of good acts.
prabhavati = become specified.
A701 - SLG1
SHORT NOTES
These notes have been slightly amplified and collated to make them more
easily understandable, original files are all available on request.
In the first section, Verses 1 to 10, the main structural features are introduced
In Verse 1, Sankara provides a preliminary structural dynamism.
The vertical and horizontal axes are defined.
The paradox is here posed as between the Field (Kshetra) and the Knower of the Field
(Kshetrajna) at the core of the Absolute
Kshetra is horizontal
Kshetrajna is vertical
The distinction between the field and the knower of the field is wisdom.
Both Shiva and Shakti have equal importance.
Shiva is not active, he is only a catalyst, a parameter like the thread
of a pearl necklace, a correlating principle at the Omega point.
Maya is spreading from the Alpha point to the virtual and actual side.
The Numerator is only a thin parameter and a crescent moon:
It cannot pulsate without the Devi.
Shiva is a catalyst, he does not change.
He is a magnet.
He is a fire - not affected by heat, but heats an iron ball.
Vedanta is radical; do not ask me to come into the temple or to perform rituals.
LONGER COMMENTARIES
According to Purva Mimamsa, the first verse of a work must say:
1) What you are dealing with.
2) How does it relate to other subjects?
3) Does it lead to salvation?
Sankara is dealing with Siva and Shakti: this is the content of the work.
a) Siva and Shakti represent conceptual and phenomenal aspects of the universe.
Sankara is not writing this for his salvation,
he is already a "knower of the Absolute" (Brahmavit).
b) There is a paradox between the conditioned and unconditioned Absolute
(Para and Apara Brahman),
as between mind and matter, reality and appearance.
A696-P2
STRUCTURE SLC3 - P2 - V1
Shakti is the specific manifestation of Siva.
Siva is living vertically, and becomes manifested
when united with the Devi.
c) If he is not united, he cannot even have the slightest
vibrating horizontal movement.
d) The three gods, in the process of becoming,
are in charge of the three functions of creation, preservation and destruction;
and the Devi is in charge of them.
The Devi's charge is to manifest the world.
The two parameters with their subtle participation are revealed;
and, Sankara says, we will focus on the negative aspect of the Absolute (Shakti).
Treat of the lower Brahman, not the upper.
But, he says, I am outside the picture, I belong to no context.
Beauty o give content to the absolute.
STRUCTURE SLC2 - P1 - V1
This is participation of horizontal and vertical factors.
There is a homogenous ground and a complementarity between the two factors.
A695 - SLC2
Siva can pulsate only with your collaboration.
You are being worshipped by the three gods and Siva is just one of these.
Sankara is in meditation below the alpha point ,
thinking only of the omega point.
He is verticalized and outside the whole picture.
B) The horizontal contains a fanwise expansion, that is all.
A696 - SLC3
A FURTHER COMMENTARY FROM 1971
Absolute Beauty is the result of cancellation.
Creation, which exists, subsists and has value, is beauty.
You meditate on the Devi and establish a bi-polar relationship with the Absolute.
A yogi can meditate on a certain abstract principle of Absolute Beauty,
leading to an understanding without logic - through the
emotions and intuition -something you can experience: then you
will establish a relation between the Non-Self and the Self which
will cancel out into a joy forever.
The Guru is still baffled about how to treat the verses,
but has the idea of a stereotyped picture to be repeated throughout the film;
the Devi's form with chakras, Kandukavati ascending and Nataraja descending,
with a yogi meditating at the Alpha
Point, seems like a permanent advance. Education and entertainment
are to be kept separate; begin by taping the educational portion
in black and white.
Verses to be treated singly, showing normalisation after cancellation:
7: Kvanat
11: Sri Chakra
18: Tanuchaya (magenta patches)
22: Bhavani Tvam
29: Remove Brahma's crown
36-41: The chakras in descending order treated as one.
SLC1
The Goddess is a combination of Siva and Shakti.
She is superior to the three gods.
The worshipper is a man without merits - Akrta Punya
Shankara is not a religious man.
Siva shaktya Yukto..
An arc lamp bursts into flame
There is a paradox between two factors, plus and minus.
Atastvam Aradhyam... a globular mirror with pictures of the three
gods prosternating.
The gods,being Vedic, have merit, Sankara does not;
he is outside the religious context.
The relationship between Siva and Shakti is a paradox.
Bowing down is existential.
"How can I praise?" is subsistential.
Other arms than thine are explicitly expert in giving boons;
She grants boons through Her feet - ontology.
A726 - SLP6
LONGER COMMENTARIES
The following is a commentary from Values Magazine, 1969.
The paintings of these artists, some of which I also saw, were
of a non-representational kind where human forms, when faintly
present, blended with geometric patterns and cancelled each
other out in glorious symmetrical designs of colour and form.
I at once thought of the possibilities of a colour language to serve
as a "Lingua Mystica" proto-linguistically, to explain the verses
of the Saundarya Lahari (the Upsurging Billow of Beauty) of
Sankara, whose cryptic verses had recently intrigued me
highly and lured me towards attempting a structural analysis of
this much misunderstood yet truly Vedantic text, hitherto lost to
the pseudo-scientific esoterics of Tantrism and the Sakti cult of
post-Buddhist decadent India.
Further scrutiny of about forty verses with comparative study of
interpretations by scholars, including the verse translation of
the same by the famous Kumaran Asan, has convinced me that all of
them have fallen short of a truly critical estimate of this
masterpiece. Sankara himself must have thought in terms of a
structuralism then understood, belonging to the Tantra and Sakteya
background, whose remnants still persist as remains of past
culture both in Kerala as well as in Bengal at the present day.
This stratum with its precious esoterics has been more or less
overcovered by other debris accumulated and deposited in other
parts of India, where the chequered rule of emperors and kings or
chieftains, with greater or lesser Muslim permeation, has
succeeded in covering up even the outcrops of this stratum.
The Tantra school has its proto-linguistic traditions. The Mother
Goddess is also a favourite in the esoterics of Yoga. Thus we
touch here a rich deposit of ancient wisdom of rare beauty and
quality. Proto-linguistic speculation excels itself here.
Having thus struck upon a rich vein of treasure trove, I have been
directing my interest in scrutinising and analysing structurally
some of the verses. Even the title has been intriguing and
elusive enough to attract my interest. The word "Saundarya-
Lahari" , the title of these hundred verses in classical
Sanskrit, suggests both the intoxication arising from beauty as
well as a general overwhelming upsurge of the aesthetic sense in
the contemplation of the Absolute Self. This aesthetic
sense, arising out of the Supreme Bliss Value, is of the essence of
the emotional content of the Absolute. Ethics, Aesthetics and
penetrating metaphysical analysis meet here in the upsurging of
the sense of beauty within the contemplative as understood
by Sankara.
In this composition Sankara proves to be fully absolved from the
possible charge as a dry-as -dust philosopher, by which
appellation he is associated in the popular mind because of the
exegetics and logistics in which he indulges in most of his
commentaries.
Although Sakti - Tantrism is the evidently assumed background of
the composition before us, there is unmistakable internal evidence
to suggest that Sankara, the well-known Advaitin, is its author.
His seal can be discovered as imprinted on every verse by the
clear absolutism revealed and by the classical finish of the
verses, as inimitable as in the case of Kalidasa. In order to give
the reader just a foretaste of the delicacies and delights of
this composition from a master philosopher and dialectician, we
translate here the first verse of this series.
If Siva should only when united with Sakti
Get the power to manifest in becoming;
If again, without such, he has no ability even to pulsate,
How then could one of unaccomplished merits
Have the privilege of bowing to or even to praise
One such as You, adored even by Hari, Hara, Virincha and others.
Here we have more than one rhetorical question by which Sankara
fulfils the conventional requirement of adoration of a deity. As
an Advaita Vedantin, his praise has necessarily to refer to no
other high value than the Absolute. The Upanishadic way does not
give primacy to ritualistic or meritorious works for
emancipation. The structural and literary requirements of the
Vedic context are however retained for linguistic purposes
here, as useful for a negative way by default rather than by open
obligation for direct worship or praise of a single goddess or
deity.
The goddess here belongs to the context of Brahman (the
Absolute). This and every other verse of the series approaches
the Advaita by the negative way of omission rather than
recommending adoration of Parvati or Sakti as the followers of
the Tantra school, more properly so called, might do. The Tantra
background, however, is seen here to be taken advantage of and
adapted to serve the requirements of the highly suggestive and
structural language proper to the "lingua mystica" of Vedanta.
In the last line, reference is made to the triple gods
Vishnu, Siva and Brahma who have the functions of
preservation, destruction and creation respectively in the
theological and mythological context of Hinduism. He implies here
that as a devotee in praising the Goddess as the negative
absolute factor coupled with Siva (who is positive as
counterpart of the negative feminine principle) he is not on the
same footing as the Vedic gods who belong to the context of only
relativistic and meritorious Vedic ritualism.
The schematic analysis of the diagram below will reveal some of
the structural implications applicable to the aesthetic value of
the Absolute when viewed from a negative rather than from a fully
positive perspective.
STRUCTURE SLG1 - P4 - V1
Note here that it is the totality that is indirectly adored or
praised. The question of merit does not even arise when the total
Absolute Value is intended here. The manifesting function is
that of the horizontal negative and the pure Absolute itself is
beyond action as it is comprised within pure verticalized Shakti
positivity. There is thus only an indirect praise of the Absolute
initially at the start of the work, from a negative viewpoint.
STRUCTURE SLG1 - P4 - V1
Saundarya means "value", and the highest abstract value is beauty.
Sankara underfocuses on the negative side or the side of Maya. He talks
about beauty, and through Axiology, Methodology and Epistemology
arrives at a description of the Absolute Upsurge of Beauty.
Sankara first showed the map with all the gods , then wrapped
it up by showing the dynamism of the circulation between the
parts. If he uses mythological language, it is only to build up a
structure, the understanding of which reveals the Absolute. Do not
say that Sankara believed in all these gods - he used them
only to praise the Absolute with ideograms. Reciprocity, compensation
and cancelability are all factors in this structural situation.
SLG1
FINAL COMMENTARY
The following may be considered as the final commentary produced by the Guru in 1972.
It is reproduced from two typescripts. See SLV files for further details.
This opening verse squarely poses the paradox of life. Sanskritic
literary convention requires that the beginning of any work must
indicate:
1. the subject matter or content of the work,
2. the context of the work, i.e., where it belongs in relation to
other disciplines and kinds of literature,
3. the overall purpose of the work, and
4. the type of person to whom the work will correctly apply.
These requirements are correctly kept in mind by Sankara in this
opening verse of the Saundarya Lahari.
A paradox always implies two rival positions, both of which could
be true alternatively or when taken together dualistically. The
wise man, the poet, the philosopher, or the spiritual guide has to
face this paradox which lurks at the very core of life as its
most central problem. It is of a highly subtle, speculative or
philosophical order. Other problems belong to human life in its
numerous everyday aspects. In every case an enigma lurks between
two factors such as appearance and reality, mind and
matter, theoretical and practical, noumenal and phenomenal, etc.,
as an endless series of antinomies. Man and woman, father and
mother, husband and wife, cause and effect, are conjugates of the
same kind, their relation in every case being of a subtle and enigmatic order.
Even a word and its meaning belong to each other inseparably,
for they cannot be thought of disjunctly from each other.
The Bhagavad Gita refers to this duality by its own terms, as the
field (Kshetra) and the knower of the field ( Ksetrajna). By
abolishing the duality between them one attains the Absolute.
Thus we come to the notion called the Absolute, which is the same
as the Brahman in Vedantic philosophy, with which Sankara is most
directly concerned. It is well known that he stood for Advaita
Vedanta, a strictly non-dual philosophical position which admits
of no reality outside itself. The doctrine of the Saundarya
Lahari is the same philosophy that he has elaborated in all his
great commentaries (Bhasyas), although here it is presented in a
non-verbose, visible and colourfully real protolinguistic form.
Failure to appreciate this fact has made most scholars and
authorities treat this work as pertaining only to the discipline
of Tantra, rather than of Vedanta, thus resulting in a wholly wrong
estimation . We have explained this fact in our "generalities"
above.
Sankara makes Siva and Parvati represent between them the highest of
human values, as easily recognisable even in everyday conjugal life
known to all humankind anywhere in the world. Siva is not a
demiurge here, but has his place as the counterpart of his
own negative aspect, as represented by Parvati.
The relation is a subtle and enigmatic one.
The word and its meaning belong together.
The word is merely nominalistic or conceptual, but its
meaning must refer to human experience without being a mere
abstraction. We call the abstraction a concept, while the
experienced aspect of the same would be a percept. Thus
nominalism and perceptualism, which Vedantins refer to more
simply as "name and form" (nama-rupa) meet and fuse
together, cancelling out into what we appreciate as the
meaning, which is neither a concept nor a percept, but is the
result of the two-sided participation between these two opposite
sides.
To give an example; truth and beauty can be thought of as human
values resulting from the participation and cancellation of what
is visible with what is intelligible. The status of the resultant
meaning, represented by the words "Truth" and "Beauty", written
with capital letters, falls under the aegis of the Absolute.
All human values can be treated in this way, as Spinoza says :
sub specie aeternitatis
In the Saundarya Lahari, Sankara combines the beauty of Siva and
Parvati so as to give them together the human value of beauty
with a capital letter, by which it attains to an overwhelming
absolutist status, as suggested by the title of the work itself.
Sankara's aim here is to give to the abstract notion of the Absolute
the content of absolute beauty. In doing so he reveals himself as
a man of superior poetic genius, by virtue of which the Absolute,
otherwise a mere abstraction, comes to have a concrete, real and
visible as well as a truly experienceable content.
Colour is a reality, and the twilight colour, magenta, has a special
status among all other colours, for it results from the meeting
of infra-red and ultra-violet. We find as the central theme of
each of the hundred verses the personification of the value of
absolute Beauty in the form of the goddess who is directly related w
ith the colour magenta (aruna) (e.g. see Verses 23, 50, 84, 92, 93, 98).
Thus the author intends here to bring together two aspects:
something fully real and visible on the one side, that is,
the colour magenta; with on the other side , as its counterpart,
a highly thin and mathematical abstraction which also
represents the Absolute, not in visible, but in purely intelligible
terms. The universal concrete and the universal abstract are
thus inserted into the same neutral or unified ground.
By intersection we could say that magenta, as a universal reality,
has a horizontal reference, where it inseparably participates
at the core of the field of consciousness with its own vertical
parameter of a highly fourth-dimensional order.
Such theoretical matters will become clear as we proceed. Lesser
degrees of abstraction and generalisation could be given as an
endless series of intermediate positions. Each position could
then represent, in a hierarchy of values, one item of value always
coming under the aegis of the Absolute, when correctly placed and
cancelled out within the four-fold structural situation. What we
must understand here is that Siva and Parvati, who are mythological
figures or divinities of the Hindu pantheon, with specific
functions attributed to them in the traditional literature of
Hinduism, are here being exalted by Sankara to the position of
two ambivalent abstract principles - their intimate participation
having a complementarity, a reciprocity, a compensation and a
cancelability between them.
All overt action or activity is horizontal in status, and
therefore must be relegated to the domain of the negative
existential principle, which is the function of Parvati. Her
reference is at the negative vertical limit of the four-fold
structural whole previously described. This participation between
Siva and Parvati takes place at the very core of the total
situation, ground or field. Siva, as the positive principle within
this same field, is to be visualised as a thin vertical
parameter, having his reference at the hypostatic or positive
vertical limit of this quaternion situation. No kind of
action, except in the most purely mathematical sense, applies to
him. He is a kind of "unmoved mover" of Aristotle, which, like the
catalyst in chemistry, while acting, is not really acting at all.
The distinction here can be compared to a time-like and a space-
like function. Horizontal action is space-like, while vertical
action is time-like, spending itself in duration, which is partly
conceptual in status. If we abstract this paradox of concept and
percept even further, it abolishes itself by double assertion or
by double negation, both of which attain that Absolute which is
beyond paradox. Such are some of the subtleties which must be
kept in mind by the intelligent reader who examines the content
of this century of verses starting from this very first one.
Without doing so, the reader is likely to make the error of
treating this work as a theological or cosmological scripture or
even a textbook of Tantra meant only for religious or
philosophical study by persons lesser in their cultural interests
than the uncompromising Advaita Vedantin, like Sankara himself,
who is to be kept in mind as the Adhikari (the type of person
for whom these verses are meant). It is in this sense that Sankara
takes care to indicate that he is outside the scope of that kind
of Vedic religious orthodoxy which thinks in terms of holiness or
meritorious works when he says that he is incapable of praising
or even saluting the absolute principle of Beauty here intended.
The way of works and merit is unequivocally rejected by him in
this verse as being outside his scope or intentions. We have to
read this first verse together with the last verse of this
series, where he again washes his hands of any intention to
present a specific religious doctrine, which ordinary religious
people might infer that he is tacitly supporting. The Absolute is
proved by itself, and should be left alone to declare its glory to
the world.
In this very first verse the reader can see that Sankara wishes
to emphasise the necessity of thinking of Siva and Sakti as
belonging together to the one and only unitive content which is
that of the value called Absolute Beauty. It is a great mistake
to separate the functions of the twin counterparts that are meant
to enter into a unified non-dual function here.
Mother - worshippers in India are likely to make the mistake of
saying that the beauty of the three worlds represented by
the Goddess, sometimes referred to as Sakti or Tripura Sundari,
is to be given primacy over the Siva principle. They tend to
forgetthat the basic cancelability of status between these
two counterparts - male and female, positive and negative, vertical
and horizontal, conceptual and perceptual, etc. - is all-important
to be kept in mind throughout the unfolding of this sequence of
verses. To forget this idea is to fall into the error of duality,
the most repugnant attitude for Advaita Vedanta. The Kaulins and
perhaps the Samayins were just such Sakti worshippers, whose
unilateral position Sankara must have wanted to correct and
revalue by undertaking the present work.
Another point to notice in this verse is that when Siva is not
united with Sakti, he has no function at all. Some commentators say
he has become "sava" - a dead body - when he is not united with the
feminine principle. This is to forget that a correlating parameter
running through the whole universe and able to ordain
it, making cosmos out of chaos, is as important a function as any
other function or aspect of the same Absolute. Here a form of
pure verticalized action is implied as running through the world
like the guiding thread of Ariadne, without which Theseus would
never have been able to ascend out of the labyrinth of the
Minotaur. Even the Mandukya Upanisad, which eliminates all
functions and even predications when it refers to the highest
Absolute in its final verdict - describing the ultimate
Absolute as removed multi-dimensionally beyond all taint of
relativity or predicability - still retains a certain auspicious
value or attribute referred to there as "santam sivam
advaitam"(peaceful, auspicious, non-dual). A further qualification
is mentioned immediately anterior to these final epithets by the
words "prapancopasanam" referring to that principle which
abolishes the phenomenal world, that is, all that has a horizontal
reference.
Thus to distinguish clearly the implied paradox, so as to finally
abolish it correctly without violating the requirements of an
absolutist epistemology, methodology or axiology is of great
importance from the very start. Science and mathematics, physics
and metaphysics, the visible and the intelligible, are all
counterparts that have to be treated as belonging together to an
Absolutist whole.
There is in this verse a reference to the three gods:
Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, who have three distinct functions to
perform within the totality of the field in which Siva and
Parvati live together. The value of the union itself is the
ground of the Absolute, and the three functionaries are to be
inclusively contained therein as having only a secondary
importance. With any number of other gods, permissible under
the aegis of the Absolute, this eternal union of male and female
represents the resultant of the absolute value of Beauty. In
mathematical terms this union is just a cancellation taking place
between the vertical and horizontal parameters, the latter of
which can be thought of as a curved or asymptotic line or
perimeter, while the former could be a straight line or parameter.
The three main functionaries represented here are fully justified
and they could be recognized even by strict scientifically minded
persons when we treat them each as having the status of a factor
with a function belonging to it as when we say that y = f(s) in
algebra. Thus the mythological personifications can be
disregarded as merely incidental to the exigencies of language.
Other monomarks could be chosen to refer to these same
functions, which are creation, preservation and destruction. These
three functions are inevitable concepts in the context of the
cosmological, psychological and axiological processes taking place
in the universe within the self and the non-self, when thought of
in most general and abstract terms. Mythology is less positive
than mathematics, as Auguste Comte would put it. The positively
minded modern man need not take mythology seriously. These
demiurges could be treated as monomarks for the three functions
understood in the abstract, where the grand process of becoming in
the universe can be thought of as coming under the inevitable
functional phases or aspects of beginning, enduring and
disappearing, to one or other of which three phases any process,
inner or outer, must conform.
These three gods or demiurges belong to the Vedic context.
Vedanta is outside mere Vedism, but does not conflict with it, just
as a well could be hidden within an expansive lake. Vedism,
with its distinctions of meritorious actions and sin based on the
notions of the sacred and the profane, could be inclusively
transcended or submerged within the scope of the more open and
generous dynamism of the Advaitic outlook.
We have to distinguish the two limiting points within the scope
of spiritual progress.
Just so does the River Rhone expand into the lake of Geneva at
one end but pass out at the other as a thin stream again - to use
one of Henri Bergson's favourite examples. One could place
oneself at the lower expanding limit of the river or at the upper
contracting limit of the lake, in a vertical perspective, without
coming into conflict with less absolutist religious disciplines,
which are vitiated by hedonistic or relativistic considerations.
This first verse marks the lower limit. By the time the
discussion reaches the last verse, spiritual progress through
works has attained to its maximum maturation, thus effectively
abolishing its own importance, just as the same water can
transcend to become a simple river again. The three gods thus
come into the picture only between the lower and the higher
limits of the total situation to be kept in our minds here.
Sankara himself prefers not to enter into the context where
merits and demerits or causes and effects, or obligations and
taboos come into interplay within these two limits. The effects
of good works accrue only at the upper limits. Sankara, at the
start here, correctly places himself before any action or reaction
of cause and effect begins to operate. He wishes to remain a
strict absolutist, in keeping with his own neutral and normalised
position, giving equal importance to both cause and effect. but
taking his stand preferably before the causes even begin to
operate. He is thus removed from all taint of the phenomenal
process of becoming. Transcending this, he is again seen at the
end to be outside the scope of the four-dimensional set-up in
which alone good and bad could interact. This is the reason why
he takes care to underline in this verse that he is one of
unaccomplished merits, unlike the demiurges who are caught within
the process and strive to attain the positive limit which is the
culminating point of all meritorious actions.
Vedanta is a negative way (nivritti marga). That is a further
reason why this description, evidently applicable to himself as
well as to the correct reader, is treated as being outside the
scope of both merit and demerit taken together. When speaking of
himself in this manner, we are also justified in thinking that he
is indirectly referring to the Adhikari - the kind of person to
whom this work applies - which refers to any member of the public
having the same status as himself in the total situation to be
visualised here. This could only be done by what is called
extrapolation in mathematics. Thus the subject matter of this work
as the value of Beauty under the aegis of the Absolute, is
correctly seen in the context of Vedantic tradition, which
transcends the Vedic context in which the three gods aspire for
perfection by works of religious merit, being placed at the
positive top limit of the structural vision. As a
Vedantin, Sankara himself takes his position initially on the
negative side of the total situation, opposed to all aspiration, as
is in keeping with the Nivritti Marga, or negative path, of Brahmavidya,
the Science of the Absolute - understood in the Upanishadic context.
In the Upanisadic tradition there is a reference in Kena Upanisad
(3rd kanda) to the situation in which the three gods - Agni, god
of fire; Vayu, god of wind and Indra, the chief of the gods - stand
puzzled about the nature of a Supreme Spirit that presents itself
in a vacant space before them. This is the positive
Absolute, which is approached closest by Indra, the best of the
demiurges. The same space then suddenly reveals the beautiful
form of Uma, the daughter of the Himalayas, representing the
negative aspect of the same Absolute without contradiction or
mutual exclusion. The beauty of Uma (Parvati),here treated as
interchangeable in value with what the Absolute represents, thus
affords us a correct precedent acceptable to the teachings of the
Upanisads, of which the Saundarya Lahari could be treated as a
correct continuation.
Siva worship is proto-Aryan and chiefly of South Indian
origin, but the Upanisadic tradition blends both Aryan and proto-
Aryan and Dravidian cultures, as is unequivocally implied in Verse
75. These comments on this first verse are to be taken as
important preliminary clarifications for the understanding of the
remaining verses also.
SLV1
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