Saubhagyahrdayastotra by Sivananda
by Brian Campbell and Ben Williams | 2024 | 11,962 words
This is the English translation of the Saubhagyahrdayastotra (“praise to the heart of auspiciousness”) by Sivananda (fl. 13th century South India), who was one of the earliest interpreters of the Tantric tradition of goddess worship known as Shri-Vidya. The Saubhagyahrdaya Stotra embodies Shivananda’s synthesis of foundational Shaiva doctrine, Kund...
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Verse 3 (text and translation)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3:
स्मरामि तां परां वाचं पश्यन्त्यादिक्रमाश्रयाम् ।
नानाविधरसाकारमहानुभवरूपिणीम्&न्ब्स्प्; ॥ ३ ॥smarāmi tāṃ parāṃ vācaṃ paśyantyādikramāśrayām |
nānāvidharasākāramahānubhavarūpiṇīm || 3 ||I contemplate that supreme speech (parāvāc), the ground for the sequence beginning with visionary speech (paśyantī); [that speech] has the nature of the immediacy of direct experience in the form of a diverse array of aesthetic sentiments.
Notes:
Contemplations on the nature of language permeate Indic religious and philosophical thought. Language, as both śabda (sound), as well as the goddess Vāc, plays a vital role in Śaiva tantra and is further amplified in Kaula tantra where the goddess of language is homologized with the dynamism of nondual consciousness and encompasses four levels. The idea that language exists in four parts, and of which only one is audible to human ears, stretches back to the Ṛgveda (1.164.41, 10.71, 10.125). The great fifth century C.E. Sanskrit grammarian Bhartṛhari further developed this idea by teaching about three principal levels of language known as paśyantī (visionary), madhyamā (middle), and vaikharī (embodied)—although some scholars believe he actually includes a supreme (parā) all-pervasive ground of language in his concept of the universal śabdabrahman.[1] Regardless, four aspects of language known as parā, paśyantī, madhyamā, and vaikharī become the standard model for conceiving of language and are described within Kaula tantra as early as the Kālīkulakramasadbhāva (2.73, 2.89). These four aspects are briefly summarized as follows:
1. parā — The supreme nondual dynamism of consciousness—the power of consciousness to signify, comprehend, and create awareness, meaning, differentiation, and reality—the power of consciousness to become aware of itself.
2. paśyantī — The pure “seeing” or visionary level of language that is beyond the dualizing dichotomy of subject and object. Paśyantī is immediate apprehension before thought is divided between śabda (sound-unit) and artha (meaning).
3. madhyamā — The “middle” level of language that is fully dependent upon duality and a division between a subject and an object. Madhyamā is unarticulated, silent, and the “mental” aspect of language that comprises thought.
4. vaikharī — The audible level of language that is articulated and spoken aloud. Vaikharī is the level of language that humans generally communicate in.
In this verse, Śivānanda contemplates the single supreme level of speech (parāvāc) as the source of the other three beginning with paśyantī and teaches that language, through its various 'aesthetic sentiments,’ is a conduit for the direct experience of reality. This is a teaching that highlights the liberatory, rather than binding, power of language.
The Yoginīhṛdayatantra (1.38-40) correlates the four levels of language with four important Śaiva goddesses and their corresponding energies:
Level | Goddess | Energy |
parā | Ambikā | śāntā |
paśyantī | Vāmā | icchā |
madhyamā | Jyeṣṭhā | jnāna |
vaikharī | Raudrī | kriyā |
Śivānanda opens his Subhagodayavāsanā with a beautiful contemplation on all the levels of language as they relate to the blossoming of a flower:
पराभूजन्मपश्यन्तीवल्लीगुच्छसमुद्भवा ।
मध्यमासौरभा वैखर्य् अक्षमाला जयत्य् असौ ॥ १ ॥parābhūjanmapaśyantīvallīgucchasamudbhavā |
madhyamāsaurabhā vaikhary akṣamālā jayaty asau || 1 ||“The garland of letters as embodied speech reigns supreme—that is the fragrance of intermediate speech, which emanates from the blossoming creeper of visionary speech born from the earth: Parā[vāc].”[2]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
See Aklujkar 1970, 67-70.
[2]:
Translation by Ben Williams.