SAUNDARYA LAHARI
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VERSE 76
THE PARAMETER CONTINUES BELOW THE O POINT FROM THE DIVING OF EROS BELOW THE O POINT
हरक्रोध-ज्वालावलिभि-रवलीढेन वपुषा
गभीरे ते नाभीसरसि कृतसङो मनसिजः ।
समुत्तस्थौ तस्मा-दचलतनये धूमलतिका
जनस्तां जानीते तव जननि रोमावलिरिति
hara krodhajvala valibhir avalidhena vapusa
gabhire te nabhi sarasi krtasango manasijah
samuttasthau tasmad acala tanaye dhuma latika
janastam janite janani tava romavalir iti
gabhire te nabhi sarasi krtasango manasijah
samuttasthau tasmad acala tanaye dhuma latika
janastam janite janani tava romavalir iti
That mind-born god, once, on his body being engulfed
In the fire of Shiva's ire, into the deep lake of Your navel,
O Mountain Daughter, he dived, and on re-emerging,
The smoke thus raised, the people look upon as Your rows of hair.
In the fire of Shiva's ire, into the deep lake of Your navel,
O Mountain Daughter, he dived, and on re-emerging,
The smoke thus raised, the people look upon as Your rows of hair.
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From the vitalistic level, which lends a touch of redness to the lowest level marked in Verse 74, we pass on now to the transition from the outer to the inner space within the psycho-physical structure of the body of the Goddess. The variegated fluorescence that produced a picturesque effect, visible from outside but originating from inside, marked in theoretical terms the lowest point of transition where the participation was equally between outer and inner spaces. In the present verse, the mode of operation of this participation is being more closely scrutinized. For the purpose of such a scrutiny, it is necessary to think of Kama as a mind-born divinity or demiurge who could pass from inner space to outer space, as between the two compartments of an hour-glass. He is able to dive into inner space when his head has caught fire and he is also capable of coming back into outer space again. Outer space, representing as it does conceptual, numerator factors not necessarily favourable to life, is comparable to fire rather than to water. In the philosophy of Heraclitus, fire occupies a central place among the elementals; while Thales gives importance to water. The Hylozoists or Eleatics give primacy to one elemental principle or another. Here we are concerned with water and fire only; one favourable to life, the other too hot to sustain life. A dividing line passes horizontally at the point of the navel of the Goddess, schematically understood. The Mind-born God does not experience discomfort, because eroticism and discomfort cannot go together. Thus, he is said here to move between the plus and minus sides of the vertical parameter, alternately ducking into and re-emerging from, the water. When he ducks under the water the smoke will be enclosed within bubbles, if any, in inner space, and when he re-emerges, the smoke could ascend to form a vertical line in the atmosphere, which can be imagined to be motionless and having its own horizontal pressure at the limit of transition between the regions proper to water and fire. The streak of smoke could be like the one rising from a burning incense stick in a still room. This streak is compared to the thin streak of hair at the abdominal region of both men and women. Hair growth indicates places where erotic pleasures are likely to be hiding in concentrated form. Secondary sex qualities are indicated by the presence or absence of hair on the surface of the skin. Thus the absence of hair would indicate negative eroticism and growth of hair would mean positive eroticism. There can be an intermediate region marked by the streak referred to here. Deeper structuralism thus can be revealed by superficial ectodermal features which are secondarily related to sex.
The encircling flames of the second line give place to a streak marked by the growth of hair, represented by smoke at a deeper level. Two inverse logarithmic spirals could be imagined here in terms of the inside and outside of a loop-like structure, according to the principle of the Moebius strip, just at the region where inner space participates with outer space. If Shiva's flames are comparable to his city-burning fervour, the Mountain Daughter´s body below her navel can, by contrast, represent the cool kindness of living waters. The Mind-born God has been compared by other Sanskrit poets to a limbless magenta ball of light, not unlike the variegated picture presented at the end of Verse 74.
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.
WORD FOR WORD
Hara krodha jvala vali bhih - by the collection of glances of fire/by the ensembles of the glances of fire of the anger of Hara
Avalidhena vapusha - with body permeated through and through
Gabhire te nabhi sarasi - in the deep navel-lake of thine
Krta sangah - one who has submerged himself
Manasijah samuttasthau - Eros rising up
Tasmad - from it (from this sinking)
Achala tanaye - o Daughter of the Hills
Dhuma latika - smoke streak
Janah stam - people, them
Janite - treat it like
Janani tava roma valir iti - o Mother, to be Your hairy ensembles (Mount Tamalpais) (sic - see the Guru's autobiography, page 620, Adventures in Inner and Outer Space. referring to Hippie Midsummer orgies on Mount Tamalpais. ED)
Hara krodha jvala vali bhih - by the collection of glances of fire/by the ensembles of the glances of fire of the anger of Hara
Avalidhena vapusha - with body permeated through and through
Gabhire te nabhi sarasi - in the deep navel-lake of thine
Krta sangah - one who has submerged himself
Manasijah samuttasthau - Eros rising up
Tasmad - from it (from this sinking)
Achala tanaye - o Daughter of the Hills
Dhuma latika - smoke streak
Janah stam - people, them
Janite - treat it like
Janani tava roma valir iti - o Mother, to be Your hairy ensembles (Mount Tamalpais) (sic - see the Guru's autobiography, page 620, Adventures in Inner and Outer Space. referring to Hippie Midsummer orgies on Mount Tamalpais. ED)
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(Eros, or Kamadeva, is here called "Manasija", (he who is born of mind, a contraction of the Sanskrit phrase "sah manasah jāta"), because desire is born in the mind. ED)
Another version:
WORD FOR WORD
Hara krodha jvala vali bhih - by the encircling flames of the ire of Shiva
Avalidhena vapusha - with body engulfed
Gabhire te nabhi sarasi - in the profound navel lake of Yours
Krtah sangah - having dived
Manasi jaha samuttasthau - the mind-born god Eros emerged therefrom
Tasmat - by that reason
Achala tanaye - daughter of the mountain
Dhuma latika - the creeper-like streaks of smoke
Janas tam - them, the people
Janite - they take to be
Janani tava roma valih iti - o Mother as Your rows of hairs
Hara krodha jvala vali bhih - by the encircling flames of the ire of Shiva
Avalidhena vapusha - with body engulfed
Gabhire te nabhi sarasi - in the profound navel lake of Yours
Krtah sangah - having dived
Manasi jaha samuttasthau - the mind-born god Eros emerged therefrom
Tasmat - by that reason
Achala tanaye - daughter of the mountain
Dhuma latika - the creeper-like streaks of smoke
Janas tam - them, the people
Janite - they take to be
Janani tava roma valih iti - o Mother as Your rows of hairs
Uha-poha: That intuitive faculty which is akin to imagination or insight, or even critical acumen which, like statesmanship, chivalry or even craftsmanship is a gift with which certain persons are more endowed than others. It is more than what mere scholarship can give.
The vertical axis passes from between the breasts into the navel, and there it becomes an interior parameter - a Denominator factor (for the next verses).
Ripples on the river seem to be a slight disturbance on the horizontal when it is met by the vertical.
The waist is referred to also as slim - it is a kind of parameter.
Logarithmic spirals.
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The beauty here is something vague.
"There are some people with great insight who will see something very slender at Your navel, and will see a slight delicate interplay, like ripples.
"There are some people with great insight who will see something very slender at Your navel, and will see a slight delicate interplay, like ripples.
(The ripples on the horizontal axis could be seen as the "fluctuations of awareness" which make up the universe, when seen with the eye of wisdom. The universe comes into being through the union of Shiva and the Devi, which is brought about by Eros, despite his flaming crash dive described in this verse. ED)
The hollow of Your navel is filled with these; and that is where the attenuated space from between the breasts is entering".
The thinness of the waist means that this is only a thin parameter connecting the Numerator and Denominator aspects of the Devi's body.
When noumenal (positive) meets phenomenal (negative, perceptible by the senses or through immediate experience), there is a delicate touch of ripples such as found on the surface of a river when a gentle breeze blows.
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By the anger of Shiva, Eros is caused to burn; he sinks into the navel of the Devi in order to quench the flames.
The milk ocean is at a certain level.
(This suggests that when Eros quenches his burning body in the Devi's navel it is in the milk ocean. This is the ocean where Vishnu or Narayana, the preserver of the universe, sleeps:
Narayana; One who sleeps on the primordial waters (Nara, water; ayana, to lie in repose). Creation, before Brahma gave it the four directions, symbolized by his four heads, has the indefinite nature of all-pervading water ("God moved upon the face of the waters" as Genesis, I, 2 puts it) on which the numinous principle of life or creation was supposed to recline. ED).
Why is there fire suddenly at the area of the navel?
Because this man, Eros, is suffering from the contradiction of actualization.
(This happens when he descends to the actual, horizontal level where positive and negative factors contradict each other, rather than cancelling out vertically. ED)
Saraswati's milk is not harmful to the Devi, because it is conceptual or numerator.
But when you get to the Denominator, perceptual factors are mutually exclusive - the character of the vertical axis is now changed from water to fire.
But when you get to the Denominator, perceptual factors are mutually exclusive - the character of the vertical axis is now changed from water to fire.
When a man is erotic, he is likely to be pushing out some rival.
(This is the exclusion which is characteristic of the horizontal. e.g. two bowls will fit one into the other vertically, but exclude each other vertically. Matter is defined as "something that impenetrably occupies space". ED)
Eros is an entity belonging to that level, so he cannot sink forever.
(He belongs to the negative level below the horizontal stratum of the Devi's navel. ED)
He has a degree of immortality, and so he has to come back onto the scene.
He has to come there week by week.
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Eros dives into the Devi's navel after being set on fire by Shiva's anger, because he was running peripherally, playing tricks: if he approaches Shiva vertically, he will fall down.
This brings out the rahman-rahim aspect of the Absolute (Arabic, "(Allah) the merciful, the compassionate"see Quran).
(One is horizontal; one is vertical. ED)
- بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
- bismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm
Cruel numerator, kind denominator.
(Burning fire from Shiva on the Numerator; refuge within the Devi's body on the Denominator. ED)