Thus Spake the Divine - Kamakshi’s Eyes

Thus Spake the Divine

Kamakshi’s Eyes

Acharya Bhagavadpada, in his eternal composition Saundarya Lahari, describes the beauty and elegance of Ambal from head to toe in the most enthralling manner. In this chapter, Maha Periyava brings out the beauty of Kamakshi’s eyes, as elucidated by Acharya in his Shlokas. Periyava also highlights the sublime humility of Acharya when He pleads for Ambal’s grace, which melts our heart.

Eyes are the most important part of our body. When we address our loved ones, we say in Tamil, “En Kanne” (Oh, My Eyes). We don’t say “Oh, My Nose!” or “Oh, My Ears!” Isn’t it? When Paramatma

has emerged in the form of Kamakshi, how special should Her eyes be? The names Kamakshi (Kama + Akshi) means eyes filled with love, Meenakshi (Meen + Akshi) stands for fish-like eyes and Visalakshi (Visala + Akshi) indicates wide eyes. They all speak of the unique beauty of Her eyes. (Sanskrit prefix “Akshi” in all these names means “eye” in Tamil).

We have seen Kamakshi sporting sugarcane bow and flower arrows of Manamatha in Her hands. Baghavadpada, in His 43 rd Shloka of Saundarya Lahari, describes the beauty of the eyes of Kamakshi in the most adorable poetic way; that not only does she hold bow and arrows in Her hands, She is holding them in her eyes too! Here is the gist of His expression in Shloka Number 43.

“Ambal’s eyebrows are curved like the bow of Manmatha. They are slightly bent and strained. Generally, one strains eyebrows when he or she is in a state of worry. Here, the Mother of Universe, Kamakshi’s eyes are bent because of her worry to protect people from evil. Now, there is a gap seen in the middle portion (Nose ridge), which is hairless and looks like a deformity. This means that eyebrows are not joined. {Bhagavadpada justifies the reason for this. If eyebrows are joined, it is not a preferred specification of Samudrika Lakshanam (qualitative specification of beauty of a chaste woman)}. Further, he goes on to say that a gap is seen in the middle portion of the bow because the archer has to pull the string by his fist. Here, the archer is Manmatha who is pulling the bows of Ambal’s curved eyebrows with his fist in the string. The bowstring of Manmatha is made of beetles and, similarly, Ambal’s eyes are the beetles, which move incessantly here and there to ensure that none of Her children is left out from Her benevolence in this vast Universe.”

At one other time, Parameshvara once went into the mode of Dakshinamurti, action-less, passion-less. Ambal was worried that this would hamper the worldly business of reproduction of lives. Hence, She made Manmatha shoot his arrow on Parameshvara, the result of which was that Parameshvara awoke from His Brahma Nishta, became amorous and looked at Ambal with love. This represented His love for the entire beings of Universe. The look created a vibration in the passion-less, action-less Brahmam and thus worldly transactions began. Ambal was relieved of Her worries.

The eyes (of Kamakshi) shoot arrows of love and passion on Ishvara, while pouring Anugraha on devotees. They thus demolish sensory lust and bestow wisdom on devotees. How are the arrows of Manmatha made? They are made of five flowers, namely, lotus, jasmine, kuvalai, flowers of mango and Ashoka. A flower is one that absorbs our four senses through its appearance, taste, fragrance and touch. Beauty of its appearance draws the eyes, its honey tingle the taste nerves of tongue, its fragrance attracts the nose, and its softness gives the pleasure of touch. Ear is one left over sense. It is for the ears that the beetles of bow-string keep buzzing. Above all this is the sugarcane bow, which is the mind that acts on all the five senses triggering sensuous pleasures.

If Manmatha can immerse the entire living beings into lust just by bow and arrows made of flower, sugarcane and beetles, what does it mean? It means he is able to carry out his mission only because of the mercy of Ambal! There is a proverb, which says even a tiny grass turns a powerful weapon for a strong-willed person. Here the weapon of Manmatha is sugarcane bow! Ambal bestows Her grace on Manmatha only to carry out the reproduction process. Though for poetic expression it is said that Manmatha strings the bow of Ambal with his arrows, it is only She who has bestowed all powers. Only with Her power is Manmatha able to make our senses irrational and bow towards lust and its resultant outcomes.

King is the one who protects as well as punishes his citizens. Similarly, Ambal punishes us for our Karmas and simultaneously confers boons on us from Manmatha. And, Hers’ are the Lotus Feet we surrender to when Manmatha takes undue advantage of us. Ambal protects us from the clutches of Manmatha only when he acts beyond his limits. She always has her brows strained and bent. She keeps worrying about living beings and shoots her brows as the bow of love at Parameshvara and draws His attention towards the wellbeing of this Universe.

There is 57 th Shloka in Saundarya Lahari composed by Bhagavadpada when immersed within the grace and benevolence of Ambal. Without the absolute grace of Ambal, a nectarine Shloka like this would not be there. In this Shloka, Acharya pleads for Ambal’s grace on Her devotees. He beseeches Ambal that Her grace must behold Her devotees as ‘also’ him. This brings out the absolute humility on part of our Acharya, who is the epitome of Bhakti and Jnyana.

This Shloka, which starts with “Drusha Dhraheesya”, speaks of the expansive grace of Ambal.

“Hers’ is far-sighted vision that is capable of reaching extensively any extreme distance beyond one’s grasp. A mother would always keep her new-born child under her eye-sight. For Ambal, all of us are Her new-born children, be them of any calibre. Not only that, She is mother of the entire class of fauna and flora. She is the Mother of this boundary-less Universe. Everything is within Her eye-sight. Therefore, there is no limit for Her grace. It extends beyond distance, where there are even people who are unworthy of Her grace. Her eyes are long like half-open and half- closed blue-lily flowers.” (Acharya compares Her eyes to blue lily flowers because they are long, they are blue and they are cool.) Acharya further pleads “Hey Ambal! Make me “too” immerse in the grace of your eyes”. He says, “Even if I am unworthy of your grace, there is no loss for you in showering your grace on me”. This is to highlight that even if people with flaws seek Her grace, there is no negative impact of Her sight. He says, “There is no loss for you by pouring your grace on me, whereas I become prosperous with your grace”.

He brings out a simile to highlight the aspect of impartiality on the part of Ambal. “Full moon glitters with bright light. It spreads its cool irrespective of the location, be it the palace of a King or a thorn-bush. Just because it falls on the palace, it does not absorb the riches of the palace, not does it get pricked as it falls on the thorn bush. Similarly, wherever Ambal’s grace extends, it neither adds nor diminishes the magnitude of Ambal’s grace.” Therefore, Acharya says, “If it falls on me, it would not reduce in its magnitude, whereas I become fulfilled because of its touch on me. Without any loss to you, I gain a lot. Therefore, please immerse me ‘also’ in your ocean of grace.”

When Acharya adds “also me”, it includes all of us too. Ambal, Ishvara and Acharya are all one and the same. Such a meritorious Acharya with his absolute compassion stands among us and pleads for Her grace on our behalf. A genuine and compassionate prayer from the heart will benefit even undeserving ones. Her grace is as cool as moon and blue lily flower. Acharya indicates to us that Her grace will elevate anyone and everyone from sorrows.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.