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 6 (text and translation)

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 6:

योनौ कनकपुञ्जाभं हृदि विद्युच्छटोज्ज्वलम् ।
आज्ञायां चन्द्रसंकाशं महस् तव महेश्वरि ॥ ६ ॥

yonau kanakapuñjābhaṃ hṛdi vidyucchaṭojjvalam |
ājñāyāṃ candrasaṃkāśaṃ mahas tava maheśvari || 6 ||

O Maheśvarī, your illuminating power shines like a treasury of gold in the source, a brilliant burst of lightning in the heart, and a luminous moon in the center between the eyes.

Notes:

In this verse, Śivānanda describes the radiance of the goddess shining in three important centers along the central axis of the practitioner's body: at the womb (yoni), heart (hṛdaya), and the space between the eyebrows (ājñā). Śivānanda uses the term yoni in this verse, calling attention to the ambiguity of whose body is actually being described: a female practitioner; a male practitioner whose body has been mantrically identified with the goddess through rituals of superimposition (nyāsa); or perhaps the Goddess herself?

Regardless of whose body is being referred to, the experience of luminosity shining in these three centers, where kuṇḍalinī is often described as being temporarily impeded by knots (granthi)[1] and other limiting factors,[2] can be found across tantric texts and traditions. When read in conjunction with the previous verse that describes the sudden rise of kuṇḍalinī, this verse could very well be describing a more sequential rise of kuṇḍalinī.

The Lalitāsahasranāma correlates these three centers with the three kūṭas (groups) of fifteen syllables that constitute the principal mantra of Tripurasundarī, known as the Pañcadaśākṣarī—the first kūṭa is related to the Goddess's face, the second kūṭa to the center between her throat and hips, and the third kūṭa to her womb.[3] It is worth noting that the Lalitāsahasranāma gives these correlations in a descending order, from the face down rather than from the womb up.

The ritual worship of deities can take on various orders and sequences (krama). Two principal sequences stand out within Śrīvidyā, and related Kaula traditions, known as the uttara (northern) course and the dakṣiṇa (southern) course. In the uttara course, there is a descent from an upper location such as brahmarandhra to a lower center such as mūlādhāra. The ascending dakṣiṇa course is just the opposite, starting from a lower center and ascending to a higher one. Both of these sequences are used in practices such as nyāsa[4] and are also related to ascending Verse 6

and descending flows of kuṇḍalinī—perhaps modeled on the upward and downward flows of prāṇa within the body.[5] It is the ascending dakṣiṇa course which is most widely known and propagated today, largely because it was popularized through Sir John Woodroffe's publication “The Serpent Power” in 1919, although both orders clearly exist within Śrīvidyā and the larger tantric corpus.

The ninth verse of the Saundaryalaharī describes the ascending dakṣiṇa course as follows:[6]

महीं मूलाधारे कमपि मणिपूरे हुतवहं स्थितं स्वाधिष्ठाने हृदि मरुतमाकाशमुपरि ।
मनोऽपि भ्रूमध्ये सकलमपि भित्त्वा कुलपथं सहस्रारे पद्मे सह रहसि पत्या विहरसे ॥ ९ ॥

mahīṃ mūlādhāre kamapi maṇipūre hutavahaṃ sthitaṃ svādhiṣṭhāne hṛdi marutamākāśamupari |
mano'pi bhrūmadhye sakalamapi bhittvā kulapathaṃ sahasrāre padme saha rahasi patyā viharase || 9 ||

“You pierce earth in mūlādhāra cakra, water in the maṇipura cakra, fire in the svādhiṣṭāna cakra, wind in the anāhata cakra and the ether above that, and mind in the cakra between the brows; thus You pierce the entire kula path and then take pleasure with Your Lord in the secrecy of the thousand-petal lotus.”[7]

Later, in verses thirty-five to thirty-seven, the descending uttara course is described as follows:

मनस्त्वं व्योम त्वं मरुद् असि मरुत्सारथिर् असि त्वम् आपस्त्वं भूमिस् त्वयि परिणतायां न हि परम् ।
त्वम् एव स्वात्मानं परिणमयितुं विश्ववपुषा चिदानन्दाकारं शिवयुवति भावेन बिभृषे ॥ ३५ ॥
तवाज्ञाचक्रस्थं तपनशशिकोटिद्युतिधरं परं शंभुं वन्दे परिमिलितपार्श्वं परचिता ।
यम् आराध्यन् भक्त्या रविशशिशुचीनाम् अविषये निरालोकेऽलोके निवसति हि भालोकभुवने ॥ ३६ ॥
विशुद्धौ ते शुद्धस्फटिकविशदं व्योमजनकं शिवं सेवे देवीम् अपि शिवसमानव्यवसिताम् ।
ययोः कान्त्या यान्त्याः शशिकिरणसारूप्यसरणेः विधूतान्तर्ध्वान्ता विलसति चकोरीव जगती ॥ ३७ ॥

manastvaṃ vyoma tvaṃ marud asi marutsārathir asi tvam āpastvaṃ bhūmis tvayi pariṇatāyāṃ na hi param |
tvam eva svātmānaṃ pariṇamayituṃ viśvavapuṣā cidānandākāraṃ śivayuvati bhāvena bibhṛṣe || 35 ||
tavājñācakrasthaṃ tapanaśaśikoṭidyutidharaṃ paraṃ śaṃbhuṃ vande parimilitapārśvaṃ paracitā |
yam ārādhyan bhaktyā raviśaśiśucīnām aviṣaye nirāloke'loke nivasati hi bhālokabhuvane || 36 ||
viśuddhau te śuddhasphaṭikaviśadaṃ vyomajanakaṃ śivaṃ seve devīm api śivasamānavyavasitām |
yayoḥ kāntyā yāntyāḥ śaśikiraṇasārūpyasaraṇeḥ vidhūtāntardhvāntā vilasati cakorīva jagatī || 37 ||

“You are mind, You are air, You are wind and the rider of the wind, You are water, You are earth, beyond You as You evolve there is nothing higher, there is only You, and when You transform Yourself by every form, then You take the form of consciousness and bliss as a way of being, O Śiva's youthful one! (35)

I salute the supreme Śambhu who abides in Your ājñā cakra, shining with the radiance of countless suns and moons, at His side embraced by Highest Consciousness; by worshiping Him with devotion, we begin to live in that region of light beyond the reach of sun and moon and fire too, the place no sorrow can touch. (36)

In Your viśuddhi cakra I worship Śiva as clear as pure crystal, the source of air itself, and I also worship the Goddess, in act the same as Śiva; by the radiance of these two as they travel the path to a oneness in form with the moon's rays, the universe has banished its inner darkness and dances with joy like a partridge.” (37)[8]

The Saundaryalaharī continues to list all of the principal cakras in the descending uttara course down to mūlādhāra in verse forty one.

The Lalitāsaharanāma lists the order of the cakras in relation to its description of the principal dhātu yoginīs (Ḍakiṇī, Rākinī, Lākinī, Kākinī, Sākinī, Hākinī, and Yākinī), who are listed in the descending uttara course (from viśuddhi to mūlādhāra). The yoginīs are listed in this way following their sequence of worship in the yoginīnyāsa (the mantric installation of yoginīs)—one of the six principle nyāsa rites used in the Śrīvidyā tradition. Although not explicitly mentioned in the Lalitāsahasranāma, according to related sources such as the Kubjikā tantras and the Matsyendrasaṃhitā, the yoginīs are worshiped in this descending uttara course to invoke their anugraha (grace), as their worship in the ascending dakṣiṇa course is said to bring about their nigraha (punishment). Furthermore, when the[9] dhātu yoginīs are worshiped in the descending uttara course, they are correlated with an auspicious set of goddesses, whereas when they are worshiped in the ascending dakṣiṇa course, they are linked with inauspicious set of goddesses.[10] The reasoning behind these powerful associations might have to do with the fact that the ascending dakṣiṇa course is taught to bring about dissolution (saṃhāra) whereas the descending uttara course invokes emanation (sṛṣṭi).[11]

Given these teachings, it becomes clear why the yoginīnyāsa and the Lalitāsahasranāma list the dhātu yoginīs, and the six principal cakras, in the descending uttara course: it summons the grace of the yoginīs and invokes benevolence and creativity.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

The brahma-granthi, viṣṇu-granthi, and rudra-granthi are found at these locations. See names 99-104 of the Lalitāsahasranāma in Paṇśikar 1935, 54-55.

[2]:

See verse 17 of the Cidvilāsastava.

[3]:

śrīmadvāgbhavakūṭaikasvarūpamukhapaṅkajā || kaṇṭhādhaḥkaṭiparyantamadhyakūṭasvarūpiṇī | śaktikūṭaikatāpannakaṭyadhobhāgadhārinī || in Paṇśikar 1935, 52.

[4]:

The visualized installation of mantras onto the body and objects used in ritual worship.

[5]:

See Bodewitz 1987.

[6]:

Grateful to Sthaneshwar Timalsina (2015, 2, fn. 11) for referencing these Saundaryalaharī verses.

[7]:

Translation by Clooney 2005, 50.

[8]:

Translations by Clooney 2005, 55-56.

[9]:

Kiss 2021, 129-131.

[10]:

Heilijgers-Seelen 1994, 140-146.

[11]:

Kiss 2021, 130.

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