Selections from Saundarya Lahari   Adi Sri Sankaracarya The Classic Devotional Poem of Sri Adi Sankaracarya

1 – The Supreme Reality Describe of Shiva-Shakti, The Inseparable Whole, Being-Will

United with Shakti, Shiva is endowed with the power to create the universe.  Otherwise, He is incapable even of movement.  Therefore, who except those endowed with great merits acquired in the past can be fortunate enough to salute or praise Thee, Mother Divine, who art the adored of even Hari, Hara and Virinci?

2 - The Greatness of the Mother is Glorified

Gathering a minute particle of dust from Thy lotus feet, Brahma the creator brings into being this limitless and mysterious universe without any imperfection.  As the sustainor Vishnu as Adishesha somehow supports this universe made from that dust with His thousand hoods, and Hara (Shiva), as the destroyer, crushing it into powder, rubs the ashes all over His body at the time of dissolution.

3 – The Divine Mother Described as Love

The dust of Thy feet is the Island City, wherefrom takes place the luminous sunrise of spiritual illumination driving away the over-casting darkness of ignorance in the hearts of devotees.  It forms the cluster of flower buds, from which gushes forth the nectar of intelligence, enlivening the dull-witted.  It is a veritable necklace of wish-yielding gems for the poverty stricken.  And for those immersed in the ocean of Samsara, it becomes their uplifter like the tusk of Vishnu, which raised the earth from submergence in the Pralaya waters when He incarnated as Varahavatara, the Cosmic Boar.

4 – The Graciousness of the Mother

All Deities other than Thee bestow boons and give shelter from fear by their mudras, the gestures of their hands.  Thou alone are not given to any such eternal demonstration of giving boons and shelter.  For, dear Refuge of All, Thy very very feet, without any demonstration, are themselves inherently capable of sheltering devotees from the great fear of Samsara and of giving them much more than what they pray for!

5 – The Divine Mother as the Source of Fascinating Attraction

Adoring Thee, who art the bestower of prosperity on all Thy votaries, Hari (Vishnu) wsa able to become a charming female (Mohini) and stir waves of passion in the minds of no less a Deity than Hara (Shiva), the Destroyer of the Three Cities.  And Smara (Kama, like Cupid), through Thy adoration, obtained a form – a veritable feast for the eyes of his consort Rati, with which he has become capable of causing deep infatuation even in the minds of sages.

6 – Mother’s Grace Gives Power to Kama Deva

See how ineffective are the weapons of Kama Deva (Cupid) in and of themselves! His bow is made only of flowers; it’s bow-string is a line of honey-bees; he has only five arrows, and these are made of flowers; his minister is the undependable Spring season; his battle chariot is the shifting and formless Malaya breeze; and above all he is Ananga, the bodiless one.  Yet, blessed by Thy gracious glance, he by himself, is victorious over the whole world!

7 – Mother Tripurasundari’s Form Described and Invoked

May the Divine Mother Tripusundari, the Pride and Self-Awareness of Lord Shiva, vouchsafe Her presence before us – the Mother with Her slender waist girdled with jingling bells, with Her frame slightly bent in the middle bythe weight of Herbreasts that bulge like the forehead of a young elephant, with her face resembling the autumn moon, and with her hand sporting a bow, arrows, a noose and a goad.

8 – Description of External Worship of Shakti in Sri-Cakra

Fortunate indeed are the few who adore Thee the Inundation of Bliss-Consciousness, as abiding on a mattress that is Paramshiva spread on a couch, which too is an aspect of Shiva, placed in a chamber of wish-yielding gems, amidst a Nip pleasure garden, in an island of gems, Manidvipa, which is situated in the Nectar-Ocean and fringed by rows of celestial Kalpaka trees.

9 – Description of Internal Worship of Shakti in Kundalini Meditation

Having penetrated the Prithvi (Earth) element situation in the Muladhara, the Jala (Water) element in the Manipua, the Agni (Fire) element in the Svadhishthana, Akasha (Sky) element above the former in the Visuddhi, and Manas (Mind) in the Ajna between the eyebrows, Thou, ascending through the Sushumna or the Kulka Path, sportest with Thy Consort in the solitutde of Sahasrara the Thousand-Petalled Lotus, above in the head.

10 – The Descent of the Kundalini after Smadhi

Drenching the whole manifested multiplicity, the prapancha, here meaning the seventy two thousand Nadis of the Jiva, with the nectar flowing from Thy feet, Thou (the Kundalini representing Tripurasundari) descendest from the exuberance of the Nectarine Radiance of the Moon, where the Kundalini unites with Shiva, into the hollow of Thy own sphere in the Muladhara at the lower end of the Sushumna, assuming Thy serpentine form of three and a half coils and sleepest therein.

11 – Description of Sri-Chakra, Representation of Devi in Her Transcendent Cosmic Manifestation.

The four Sri-Kanthas (Shiva-chakras) and the five Shiva-yuvatis (Shakti-Chakras) are the nine Mula-prakritis, or basic manifestions, and these are apart from Shambhu (the bindu or small circle in the center).  Then there are two lotuses, one of eight petals and another of sixteen, besides three surrounding circles and three lines.  This forms Thy mansion with forty-four Konas (triangles).

12 – The Splendorous Beauty of Tripuasundari

Oh Daughter of the Mountain of Snow!  The greatest of poets like Brahma, in trying assiduously to portray Thy beauty, fail to find any other object to describe (who are the most noted entities available to compare in respect of beauty) attain, out of their eagerness to experience Thy beauty, only to an imaginative identification with the State of Oneness with Shiva, which is difficult to gain even by severe austerities. They seek to do so because only Thy Eternal Consort Shiva has the privilege of absorption in Thy beauty, and oneness with Him alone can help one experience it.

13 – The Grace of Devi Enhances Attractiveness