SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

VERSE 79

PRECARIOUS VACUITY AT THE O POINT

 

निसर्ग-क्षीणस्य स्तनतट-भरेण क्लमजुषो
नमन्मूर्ते र्नारीतिलक शनकै-स्त्रुट्यत इव ।
चिरं ते मध्यस्य त्रुटित तटिनी-तीर-तरुणा
समावस्था-स्थेम्नो भवतु कुशलं शैलतनये

 

nisarga kshinasya stana tata bharena klamajuso
naman murter nari tilaka sanakais trutyata iva
ciram te maddhyasya trutita tatini tira taruna
samavasthastemno bhavatu kusalam saila tanaye
 
For Your waist, naturally slim, fatigued by weight of bust form,
Bending by form and on the point of breaking,
Equal in state to a tree on a collapsing brook bank;
O mountain-born one, let there be security forever.
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Verse 79 is addressed to the “Best of Women”, more literally to the “Beauty-spot of womanhood”. Sankara has written other verses in which he touchingly says that he cost his mother a lot of emaciation and suffering in the act of giving birth to her child, as is normal to all mothers, through all time, anywhere. Maternity viewed in this way is a form of martyrdom that women have to pass through and for this reason they deserve the praise and gratitude of all humans born from their mother's womb. The aptness of the apostrophe employed in this verse is therefore perfect, motherhood being the central function of womanhood.
 
There is reference to the slimness of the waist again here, and also to fatigue due to the weight of the bust. In the second line there is a reference to the disastrous predicament of a possible breaking of the vertical support. A tree standing on the sands next to a deep canyon cannot main­tain its stable and erect position as the narrow brook below keeps eroding the earth deeper and deeper. Beside the problem of breaking at the mid-region of the waist, there is the more seriously precarious position of the whole tree slanting or falling to one side at any moment. The tragedy of incertitude in personal life cannot be portrayed in any more forcible language than that which is adopted here in the name of the status of the pure principle of Motherhood. The reference to the bent figure in the second line underlines the pain and suffering that is involved in childbearing. The canyon-like formation where the brook flows very deep, is to bring out the profundity of the inner space in which this zone of tragic incertitude is to be located. The reference to the father and the absence of reference to the husband are also to be noticed. We are on the negative side of the situation, where the flag-post and banner proper to Verse 73 and the reference to Shiva's reputation are left behind. Here we have a figure which has already appeared as early as Verse 7, where the proud purusika and recumbent motherhood were inserted into the same complex schematic dynamism. The nature of the danger of the middle region snapping is to be brought out in the next verse. The worst trials of motherhood, according to Sankara here, are in finding some ground on which life could thrive with stability and steadiness. It is just these factors, where womanhood and its specific functions tend to be most pronounced, that are endangered here. The stability of the mountain from which she is descended is the only feature that can supply what she herself lacks in respect of that function of maternity, for which this region of her body stands.
 
The central prayer in this verse is the concern of the author for the safety of the middle region of the Goddess. The beauty here could be called a tragic predicament rather than a colourful one, as hitherto presented.

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

 

WORD FOR WORD
Nisarga kshinasya - by nature (weakened or thinned, emaciated)
Stana tata bharena klamajusoh - by the weight of the heaving breasts attaining to fatigue
Naman murteh - with form bending down
Nari tilaka - perfected spot of womanly beauty
Shanakaih trutyta iva - as if about to break
Chiram - for long years
Te madhyasya - in the middle region of thine
Trutita tatini tira taruna - resembling a tree on the bank of a brook slid down
Sama vastah stemnah - having a firmness equal to it
Bhavatu kushalam - let it bless
Shaila tanaye - o daughter of the mountain.

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Another version:

WORD FOR WORD
Nisharga kshinasya - by very nature fatigued, emaciated or tired (By the weight of the breast bank, what has come to have fatigue)
Naman murteh - with form bowing down
Nari tilaka - o crowning forehead red mark of perfection of womanhood
Shanakais trutya iva - as if broken a little
Chiram - for long
Te madhyasya - of Your middle part
Trutita tatini tira taruna - broken (slid down, disrupted)
brook bank tree as comparable to
Sama vastha themnah - having resemblances
Bhavatu kushalam - let it bring blessings
Shaila tanaye - o Daughter of the Mountain
 
.

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There is a parallel between this structure of two cones meeting apex-to-apex, vertically, and the multiplication table of 9 where 18, 27, 36 etc is mirrored by 81, 72, 63, 54 etc.
 

Another version:
 
TRANSLATION
By nature (weakened or thinned - or emaciated)
By the weight of the heaving breasts attaining to fatigue
With form bending down (prostrating)
O perfect spot of womanly beauty (the spot placed by Indian women between the eyebrows)
As if about to break (one part of the breast from the other) (see structure)
For long years
In the middle region of thine (see structure)
Resembling a tree on a brook bank sliding down
Having a firmness equal to it
Let it bless
O Daughter of the Himalayas
Let the devotee attain long years of bliss by meditating on the middle part of this Goddess.
 

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Here there is Numerator fecundity and Denominator fertility, divided by a tragic line, which is the breaking point.
 
 
At the bottom of the structure is the square root of minus-one
 
Her waist is breaking peripherally due to fecundity of breasts - but is still intact within.
It is a tragic line about to break.
 

 

Another version of a translation:
 
By very nature fatigued (emaciated or tired)
By the weight of breasts' bank (like the bank of a river)
What has become fatigued
With the form recumbent (as in humility or prayer)
O crowning forehead red mark of perfection of women (nari tilaka).
As if broken a little (peripherally broken, but within still intact)
For long (let this meditation give contemplative content...)
Of Your middle part
Broken (slid down or disrupted) brook bank tree as comparable
To hyper-fecundity in the nature of woman)
(A mound has been formed on which a tree can grow)
Let the devotee think of this comparison
Having resemblances (by the analogy )
Let it bring blessings, O Daughter of the Mountain
 
A certain suffering of motherhood is eternal by nature
 
A further translation:
 
By the protuberance of the breasts there is fatigue
With form bowing down
O perfected woman (a tired woman is the perfect lover).
As if broken
For long
Of your middle part
As comparable to the broken brook-bank tree
They have got equality or resemblance (with Your middle part)
Let this meditation on this resemblance bring peace (a vision of the Absolute)

 
 
At the centre is a tragic line and a breaking point - her waist is almost broken.
 

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A tree on a collapsing brook-bank. Make a river flow into a ravine, and compare it to the lower-loin part of the Devi.