Advaita Vedanta

SAUNDARYA LAHARI

VERSE 14

NUMEROLOGICAL STRUCTURALISM
AN ASCENDING VERTICAL SERIES
VERTICAL CONIC SECTIONS NUMEROLOGICALLY ANALYZED

This verse marks a further degree in the abstraction and generalization required before placing oneself in the correct perspective to be understood in these verses. The overwhelming experience of erotic joy pictured in the previous verse refers to an event that could take place in the span of one day. But there are 364 other days in the year in which young men and women must live continuously, without having such an occasion repeated in the same way each day. It is suggested here that one live through that period by verticalizing one's interests to another degree of subjectivity by abstraction and generalization, and not only live the 365 days of the year, but continue in a dispassionate manner, looking forward to no overwhelming event that might tend to make one day different from the rest of the 10,000 years within the context of which, as stated in the "Ruba'iyat" of Omar Khayyam, each human being is expected to place himself philosophically.

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

 

WORD FOR WORD
ksitau - for earth
sat pancasad - 56
dvi samadhika pancasad - 52
udake - for water
hutase - for fire
dvasastih - 62
catur adhika pancasad - 54
anile - for air
divi - for sky
dvih sat trimsat - 72
manasi ca - for the mind
catur shasti iti ye - 64 and thus what
mayukhaha - rays (come out)
tesam api upari - above all these
tava - your
padam buja yugam - your twin feet (are placed)

-

"56 for earth..." etc. there are six levels, with the seventh level at the twin feet.
Below and above are the Brahma Chakra and the Brahma Randra, making nine.

365 (The total here is 360, but the manuscript is clear. This discrepancy is characteristic of the problems with the numbers in this verse. ED) days are arranged vertically.

The Mandala language used in the first part of the poem  begins here.
The Devi's feet will be put in many places from now on.

-

 

-

.

In this verse we have a review of the Chakras - placing the feet on the Sahasrara - this is a revision by Sankara.

 

 

 

 

(EDITORIAL NOTE: the above structure is tentative and subject to revision. Like so much about this very difficult verse, there are many ambiguities in the interpretation the Guru gave to it. We should perhaps remember in this context that the Guru would often say: "You can't pin it down once and for all, if you fix the four limbs of the structure rigidly in place, you will get a chair or a table - it will not dance". Structuralism is a methodology, not a doctrine.)

 

VERSE 14 - all of the Chakras are passed in review.
VERSE 15 - shows numerator and denominator values.
VERSE 16 - the effect on the lotus-like mind of poets

.

Another version:

 

TRANSLATION

This verse is situated at the Omega Point, involving rays and numbers.
- in earth
- 56
- 52
- in water
- in fire
- 62
- 54
- in air
- in the sky
- 72
- in the mind
- thus 64 indeed
- rays (mayukhaha)
- even above those
- your
- pair of feet (are placed)

.

This is a numerator schema because it deals with numbers rather than with visible things.

 

 

Each number in this series is divisible by 2, which shows bilateral symmetry and an ambivalence.
In this verse, there is a descent from mind to air and an ascent from earth to fire.

 

 

 

The resultant sum of the numbers, 360, gives a total structure, or a structural whole.
The 360 is four right angles.
The same 360 will also be found in the vertical axis.

 

(EDITORIAL NOTE: the editor was present at the study sessions when the Guru produced his commentaries on this verse. When he was asked about the significance of the numbers making up 360 (56, 52, 62, 54, 72, 64) he stated that they seemed to belong to some numerological system with which he was not familiar and that this was in any case not essential to the understanding of the verse. We have requested an analysis of these numbers from a mathematician, but so far there seems to be no discernible pattern of any interest. Other experts on the Saundarya Lahari and Tantra whom we have consulted have also come up with no results. Any suggestions are welcome.)

The feet can be put at three points on the vertical axis:

at the top at the Omega Point, as in this verse;

centrally at the O Point;

at the bottom at the Alpha Point.

 

Here, it is the Absolute seen as an Omega Point structure.
A universal elsewhere is implied in the rays of light.

64+72+54=190
62+52+56=170

 

(EDITORIAL NOTE: this unequal relation between the two sections may have some parallel with the Sri Chakra of Verse 11, where there are 5 triangles facing upwards and 4 facing downwards. )

 

Sankara is confident of his ability (see later verses) because he knows he is using a structure which meets his descriptions.

Note - "sky" and "ether" are the same word in Sanskrit.
This structure is akin to Pythagoras' tetraktys.

(Both are diagramatical representations of a series of numbers. ED)

 

Another version:

TRANSLATION

The earth element, Muladhara, 56,
In water there are 52, Manipura,
Svadhisthana, in fire , 62, Anahata, in air 54,
The 72 of ether, Visuddhi, the 64 of the mind, Ajña;
Thy feet are far beyond, (above) the rays of these.

 

Instead of saying that she is sporting with Her Lord, the attempt here is to grade all of the Chakras with numbers - 56 to 74 and then renormalized to 62.

 

The rays are supposed to correspond to letters of the alphabet.

 
1) In the previous verse, girls are able to appreciate the Absolute, even in an old man (Verse 13);

2) Here, in Verse 14, the Devi's feet placed in the Bindhusthana and thus normalized - think of the feet there in a kind of bright moonlight.

 

In this verse there is a very tricky use of numeralization and structures.
It is a renormalization from the previous verse.

At the central Bindusthana there is an active principle - the Devi's feet.
The Numerator is an idea, but the Universal Concrete goes at the bottom.

The burning of the candle is in the middle - at the meeting of the idea and the concrete.

 

 

The generalized candle gets its power to burn from Shiva and its substance from the Devi.

 
The nominal candle is at the Omega Point.
The actual candle burns a single man at a time and a place.
(It can be verticalized by abstraction and generalization)

 

 

(This structure is tentative and probably needs revision. ED)

 

A verticalized candle is its reflection; the physical candle is at the Alpha Point.

At the core of your being something is changing (burning) at every moment.

This is the universal concrete man who is eating something.

 

(The reference to a candle in the first place is obscure. We presume it is an example used to clarify the four poles of the quaternion structure, like the more familiar example from Eddington reproduced below. ED)

 

 

EDDINGTON 'S QUATERNION STRUCTURE:

1. The actual chair in which the actual man can sit; this chair will exclude another chair, and occupies a particular space.

2. The virtual chair, in which a virtual man can sit; much like a mirror reflection.

3. The Alpha Point chair, the form of the chair generalized, it excludes all other chair.
This is the universal concrete version, it excludes horizontally but not vertically.

4. The Omega Point chair: the word "chair" in the dictionary, purely conceptual.

 

Devi - the idea here, in this verse, is to provide a Numerator (with the numbers. ED) to balance the Devi's Denominator.

.

Narayana Guru talks of Numerator and Denominator, front and back mirrors - everything is a reflection except Brahman, the Absolute. (Which is neutral and comprises both Numerator and Denominator. ED)

.
The author, here in this verse, reduces, categorizes, schematizes, abstracts, and generalizes.

Finally you become That; That becomes This.
The world is you, you are the world.

Experience what is inside, and the world that is outside.
When these tally, you have achieved Brahmavidya, or the Science of the Absolute.

Place yourself at the inside.
The ferryman counts ten people, then crosses over, then counts nine (without counting himself), and says: "one must be dead".

It was himself. (similarly with the number of the Chakras. ED.).
You can say it (what you see and what you are) but they must tally.
There must be an apperception.
The Darsana Mala contains the essence of Vedanta, it is all there.

 

Another version:

TRANSLATION
Earth - Muladhara - 56
Water - Manipura - 52
Fire - Svadhisthana - 62
Air - Anahata - 54
Ether - Vishuddhi - 72
Mind - Ajna - 64
And the two feet beyond these rays in the Bindusthana.

 

Which epistemology allows you to include Mind as a cosmological factor, among the list of elementals, Earth, Water, Fire etc.?

Mind is included as an universal concrete reference point.

Here the mind is put at the top, descending and interpenetrating matter, (with earth at the bottom).
The elementals must not be considered as separate or distinct from one another. (Like a blue lotus: the blueness and the lotus are not to be separated.)

Also, the elementals may be construed or seen as two sets - one for the Devi on the denominator, one for Shiva on the numerator.

Sankara multiplies the tattvas, etc., by two - because there is duplication.
But a duplication of what?

Even Socrates could not manage to include the Mind in the same schema with the Earth. He said. "I cannot philosophize with mud" (like the hylozoists). (He gave primacy to the conceptual over the perceptual - unlike Vedanta. ED)

So the two legs of the Devi are reciprocal.

We can allow Sankara to normalize upward - putting the feet at the top instead of in the middle.

The Devi is also a nourishing principle - there is a baby inside (denominator) as well as outside (numerator).

 

The two feet, vertically, come one from above and one from below.

The key word is "rays" (mayukhas)
Peripherally the rays are very colourful, and not so colourful at the centre.

The letters of the alphabet finally represent the wisdom of the Vedas.
So the letters are placed in the schema, as the bursting of the Devi - the vehicles of wisdom.

All of the numbers are duplications.
See the multiplication table of 9. That is the Absolute staring at you.

 

Below, as illustration, are some further examples from saundarya lahari/notes:

EVIDENCE OF STRUCTURALISM
1) The Cartesian Correlates
2) Probability curves - curves on graphs

 

3) Multiplication, subtraction, addition and division form a quaternion structure.

 

4) The multiplication table of 9

 

5) The four forms of logic
6) What is "pi" ?
7) Fourier functions - sinus curves in electromagnetics

 

8) "Architectonique musicale"

How do you explain this symmetry, both mathematical and logarithmic?
So these numbers must be seen in terms of duplication.

Verse 14 and Verse 9: both relate to numerology.

The most important point in this verse is that the Devi is breaking through the Chakras. This is like Verse 9, where the Devi is described as: "Sporting with Your Lord secretly in the thousand-petaled lotus"; this means that the Devi and Shiva are equal and that they are participating and absorbing one another.

What about the lower stages? Duality cannot be admitted.

See Gautama, Kanada, Kapila, Patanjali and Jaimini.
The Axiology, epistemology and methodology which unites these six Rishis (wise men), the founders of the traditional Schools of Indian philosophy, was known to Sankara and further elucidated by Narayana Guru, then expanded by Nataraja Guru in "The Science of the Absolute".

 

 

This sequence is the relative way to see the ascending relationship: the intermediary stages should be seen.
What is not clear is how they (the Devi and Shiva. ED) could meet and sport together.

 

There are now numerological and alphabetical implications.
(The vowels are close to the centre, the consonants are horizontal.)

 

 

 

 

There are certain words which are used often in the Mantra diagrams or Yantras.
So letters are taken and graded structurally - a finalization of the thought-word to reveal the Absolute in terms of the Devi, both abstract and concrete: her peripheral aspects (in the Tantra).

 

The Tantris say that the sounds can be correlated with the Colour Solid. Newton, Steiner and Goethe all had colour schemes.

 

 

 

 

(EDITOR'S NOTE: this phenomenon is known as Synaesthesia: in one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme → colour synesthesia or colour-graphemic synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently coloured.

See also Rimbaud's poem "Voyelles".)

"Unless people can prove to me that colour is not real....etc"

(This is a quotation from Bergson, as far as we know. ED)

Colour is a Universal Concrete.

 

 
Why should the rainbow be an illusion? c.f. Bergson.

 

 

Light, line and colour, these are the elements of a painting. (See Ruskin.)

The Colour Solid: