SAUNDARYA LAHARI

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VERSE 60

PERCEPTUAL AND CONCEPTUAL VALUES
THE INTERACTION BETWEEN TWO DICTIONARIES
THE RECIPROCITY BETWEEN METALLIC SOUNDS AND WORDS

 

सरस्वत्याः सूक्ती-रमृतलहरी कौशलहरीः
पिब्नत्याः शर्वाणि श्रवण-चुलुकाभ्या-मविरलम् ।
चमत्कारः-श्लाघाचलित-शिरसः कुण्डलगणो
झणत्करैस्तारैः प्रतिवचन-माचष्ट इव ते

 

sarasvatyas suktir amrta lahari kausalaharih
pibantyas sarvani sravanaculukabhyam aviralam
camatkara stagha calita sirasah kundalagano
chanatkarais taraih prativacanam acasta iva te
 
The good sayings of Saraswati, exuding nectar sweetness,
Ever absorbing as with slow interest, you bend Your ears to them, o blessed one
Each bright wit therein approving with nods,
While Your series of earrings seem to applaud them with their high pitch jinglings
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In the previous section, the arrows of Kama and the side glances of the Goddess figured in collaboration to present before us two fully developed Chakras, one higher and the other lower. The lower Chakra implied the three modalities of nature (gunas) and other aesthetic interests which were sublimated or verticalized in the first half of the previous set of ten verses. In this section we pass on to the domain proper to the Goddess of the Word, Saraswati, who presides over poetry. In the Vedic context she is represented as sitting in white robes on a white lotus, telling crystal beads and holding a book. The “Satapatha Brahmana” which presents a later Vedic revision of Saraswati, speaks of a goddess who sends arrows both ways, that is, toward both the perceptual and conceptual sides at once. Such a Word-Goddess, who presides over both the dictionaries, the conceptual as well as the perceptual, is sometimes referred to as Ubhaya Bharati (a double Saraswati), and is proper to the temple which is said by some scholars to have been established by Sankara himself at the Sringeri Math.
 
For the purposes of this verse we need more than one goddess. So Sankara gives us the picture of one goddess responding to the words of the other. It is important for us to fix the episte­mological status of these two goddesses before trying to understand the dialogue taking place between them. One is represented here as only nodding while the other is actually speaking.
 
The difference between these two versions of the Word-Goddess might be distinguished as between medium and message.
If we take a red pencil and make a line with it, that could be called a “medium language”, based on percepts. The red is immediately evident in the medium itself and the conceptual message or word is not necessary to make the meaning any clearer.
Sarasvati on the other hand, represents the word “red”, when we spell it out with any pencil, not necessarily a red one.
 
The interaction between perceptual realities and conceptual realities is thus a form of agreement or one-to-one correspondence between numerator and denominator aspects of the same word-content. We could have the example of the word “stop” and a red light put together in a traffic signal, where symbol and sign meet to cancel out into the same meaning.
 
The situation in this verse is analogous. The Absolute Goddess has two aspects that belong together to the same meaning. Structurally analyzed, there is an ontologically-biased Goddess having a communication with her own teleological counterpart. The lower Goddess, who is more real, bears real metallic earrings jingling on her ears. She does not speak, but her response is made up of nods which only approve of the verbose statements made by her own higher dialectical counterpart. As Goddesses of the Word, both of them are interested in the aptness of analogies that poets might succeed in choosing. When aptness succeeds, it is the success of the perceptual aspects of an analogy cancelling out against its conceptual aspects. The verdict on this matter has to come from the side of perception, because human experience begins with sensations and perceptions, and only then passes over to higher conceptual constructions.
 
The sayings of Saraswati consist of wise proverbs or witticisms. Witty statements have to be short and convincing. When analogies are aptly employed, those who enjoy good literature will surely applaud the genius of the poet concerned. Without being expressed in words, the applause could come from the ontological side, because seeing is always more convincing than hearing. This is why the jingling of the ear-ornaments, along with the gesture of nodding, is meant here by the poet to express in non-verbose language the Goddess´ nodding appreciatively on hearing wise proverbs expressed in the more verbose language of literature, belonging to the side of Saraswati. Nodding is the vertical link connecting the two sides, and the jingling of the ear ornaments participates both in the world of sound as well as in the world of the “medium”. Thus message and medium meet and cancel out, resulting in a situation that is meant to enhance the beauty-value of the Word Goddess who could be seen as speaking or silent, as required.

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

 

This verse depicts a dialogue between Saraswati and the Devi.
 
 
Saraswati.
 

Three values are to be distinguished here:
Saraswati's poem - which is Vedic, and is situated on the Numerator.
Devi hears it - this is on the Denominator.
Thirdly - the Devi appreciates it in the meeting place of all light, sound, electricity etc.
 
(This central meeting point - the O Point of the structure - is where the earrings jingle as she nods Her head. At this point of cancellation the numerator sound is translated by the nodding or oscillation of Her head into the jingling of the concrete, denominator earrings. ED)
 

There are three sounds:
Saraswati speaking and the Devi appreciating her words - this makes up a dialogue between the two goddesses: then cancel  them out with the third sound of earrings.

There is an Aryan Goddess, Saraswati, and a Dravidian Goddess, often called Mukambika, the "Silent Mother".

The three sounds correspond to white, red and black - the three gunas (modalities of nature).
 

There are three levels here:

1) The sound of the ear-ornaments jingling very delicately: thought, which is conceptual - this is the central level, which is red.

2) Saraswati is reciting a beautiful Vedic poem, which descends from the Numerator - this is another level - the white level, on the positive side.

3) The Devi hears it - this is the Denominator aspect of the sound - black, on the negative side.
 
The jingling of the ornaments is due to the shaking of the head of the Devi in appreciation - this is occasionalism.
 
 
(Occasionalism, often attributed to Descartes, is a philosophical theory about causation which says that created substances cannot be efficient of events. Instead, all events are taken to be caused directly by God. (A related theory, which has been called 'occasional causation', also denies a link of efficient causation between mundane events, but may differ as to the identity of the true cause that replaces them. The theory states that the illusion of efficient causation between mundane events arises out of God's causing of one event after another. However, there is no necessary connection between the two: it is not that the first event causes God to cause the second event: rather, God first causes one and then causes the other. ED)
 
(It seems clear that the Guru here intends to say that the words from Saraswati on the Numerator and the jingling on the Denominator are not related by a crude relationship of cause and effect - like one billiard ball striking another - but a more subtle causal relationship, as is the relation between God and events described above. ED)

This verse of Saraswati is in praise of the Devi.
 

You have to think of Saraswati as respectable, on a white lotus on the numerator hypostatic side.

She sings a poem, which has to be appreciated by its denominator counterpart.

The Devi hearkens and strains to hear the song - the sound is like the vibrating of the vertical axis.

The Numerator and the Denominator come together in the centre, without the three levels of structuralism being kept in mind.
.
.
 Guru: this verse is too good to be explained.

This is the secret of Sankara: he puts together Aryan - Saraswati - and Dravidian - Mukambika - and gets Vedanta.
 
(Saraswati is of North Indian Aryan origin and is the "Goddess of the Word" (vak devi), while Mukambika, whose name means the "Silent Mother" is of South Indian Dravidian origin. ED)

A dialogue between Mukambika and Saraswati takes place in this verse - that is, a dialogue between the Denominator and Numerator.
 

The counterparts are Denominator protolanguage and Numerator metalanguage.
 
(In the terminology of Nataraja Guru, these terms are used differently from their usual definitions in linguistics: the structural methodology used throughout his works is protolanguage. The Cartesian co-ordinates are protolinguistic in essence; so also are the longitudes and latitudes of maps. Symbols are protolinguistic; signs are metalinguistic. Alphabets belong to metalanguage and geometrical elements such as angles, points, lines or concentric circles can be used protolinguistically. ED)

The stretching of the ear through protolanguage - through the shaking of her head, which is protolanguage, causing the jingling of the ornaments.
 

There is a telephone call from Saraswati to Mukambika, wherein great secrets are given in words - this is metalanguage.
Mukambika responds (that she understands) by using protolanguage (her jingling ornaments).

In the line "chanatkarais taraih prativacanam acasta iva te", "Iva…" means "it looks as if she is applauding" - it is a response - so it is still an analogy.
 
(This supports the statement above that it is occasionalism that relates the words and the jingling - rather than brute cause and effect - the relation between the two is analogical rather than causal. ED)

It is still a vertical structural relationship: it has no "real" status of two "real" goddesses talking in the horizontal world - there is no duality here - there are no two goddesses - there is only one - the negative principle. The "two" goddesses are only structural monomarks.
 
(Cause and effect are horizontal - occasionalism or analogy is vertical. ED)
 
(This structure is tentative. ED)

It is simply a structural requirement to have two goddesses..

FOLLOW ANYTHING WHOLEHEARTEDLY AND YOU WILL GET THE TRUTH.

THE PEOPLE WHO FIRST FOUND THIS STRUCTURE OF A WOMAN´S BODY WERE MEDITATING FOR EROTICISM, NOT FOR PHILOSOPHY; 
BUT THEY FOLLOWED IT SO WHOLEHEARTEDLY AND COMPLETELY THAT THEY FOUND THE TRUTH INSTEAD.
 
Sarasvatya suktir: ("The sweet sayings of Saraswati")  this is an example of the medium and the message as counterparts, with a line separating them.
 
 
Saraswati is the message,
 
Mukambika (the Devi as the "silent mother") is the medium.

The silence of Mukambika has a terrible power.
 
We are living inside a conic section, the universe moves in parabolas and hyperbolas.
 
 
At whatever level you take a cross-section, you get the same structure.
Draw a vertical axis up from the Sri Chakra to Shiva, he will come down and lift the handle of the mirror of the face of the Devi.
Then Ganesha and Skanda will be born in the lotus-pond.
Shiva will not copulate, but only gaze with his third eye.