dhanuh pauspam mauve madhukaramayi panca visikha
vasantah samanto malaya marud ayodhanarathah
tathapya ekah sarvam himagiri sute kam api krpam
apangat te labdhva jagat idam anango vijayate
O Daughter of the Snowy Peak, just deriving from your
glance askance whatsoever grace he could,
With flowery bow and bumblebee string,
and five-flowered dart and springtide for minister,
All these as one withal, mounting the chariot
of the mountain breeze, he victorious reigns, the god of love.
Beauty is experienced in the mind. The object may be situated in space-time, but the value, "ananda" is experienced within a person. The mind is, therefore, the focus of contemplation. The mind has been studied for many thousands of years, and yet its mysteries are not fully understood. One type of study focuses on the healthy state of mind and the yogis and wise individuals are sought as exemplars of high mindedness. Another kind of study looks at people who are suffering from disease and their minds are studied and the cause of their illness is diagnosed.
In the Saundarya Lahari, we are introduced to a very highly developed aesthetic of an elevated state of profound beauty. The mind is like a mirror, reflecting both the world experienced outside and the thoughts and feelings within. The inward value that is experienced is the same for all individuals, but the external causes can be different. This can cause confusion and conflict as people wrongly thing that they are appreciating different things. Yes and No. There is variety in the object of appreciation, but unity in the inward appreciation of value.
Keats famously declared that a thing of beauty is a joy forever. Eternity is inexhaustible beauty - a wonder that never ceases. Where is beauty to be found? In the eye of the beholder, say the poets.
Unlike a physical mirror which remains unchanged while reflecting the surroundings, the mind, with its basis in consciousness, is a medium, a thinking substance, that transforms into its reflection. Vrittis, or modulations of the mind, assume the form of the subject and the object. A common analogy is that of amorphous clay becoming a pot or a cup. Once the form is assumed, the features of form so impresses the mind that it looses its ability to discern the universal "stuff" which has no specificity. So the flexible mind can change into any word formation or emotion without loosing it's intrinsic nature. The rigid mind is forced to keep itself from changing, and this inflexibility becomes it's own prison.
When a form has a certain sensibility, it looks beautiful. In this verse Daughter of the Snowy Peak refers to Parvati. She is the daughter of "parvata", the mountain. We find references in Indian mythology to the feminine connection with the earth. Sita of the Ramayana is born in a furrow and eventually returns to the earth. Here the Universal Goddess is identified with Parvati. The second reference is to Kama, the god of love. Kamadeva needs the side glance of the Goddess in order to be able to function.
The god of love mentioned here is an elemental spirit, closer to nature, the forces of which he needs to accomplish his influence. But the powers of nature are not enough by themselves, he needs the grace of the Universal Mother in order to be able to function. She grants him this grace by a side glance, which is enough, even though it is much inferior to a full glance.
Here is love portrayed in its healthy and divine expression. The energy of the spring season brings great delight to the human heart. The sweet call of birds, the cool refreshing breezes, the fragrance of flowers have a slightly intoxicating effect. This is just the occasion thay the god of love is looking for to shoot his flowery arrows. Thus the factor of occasionalism is very important for the success of Kamadeva.
His bow is also made of flowers, and the bowstring is made of a row of bees. There is a drop of nectar in every flower which the bee seeks. The bees fly back and forth, with a buzzing sound, very much like the twang of a bowstring as it is pulled back and released.
The five-flowered arrow cannot cause any physical injury, but they make people fall madly in love. This is a 'wound ' with a peculiar agony, and paradoxically solace only comes from the very source that caused the wound in the first place.
The poets Kalidasa and Jayadeva are masters at describing the mental and physical state of lovers as they go through the pangs and ecstasy of their relationships.
Poetry offers us a medium to express the subtler aspects of the mind in a symbolic language which has a deeper meaning than prose. To be able to perceive the deeper structure of language and associate words with their truer meanings is the gift of the poet. The poet, like other artists, is therefore able to see much more than a non-poet. This insight is arrived at by deep pondering and penetration.
Some Notes from "The Living Goddesses" by Maria Gimbutas
In Neolithic Europe and Asia Minor (ancient Anatolia) in the era between 7000 BC and 3000 BC religion focused on the wheel of life and it's cyclical turning. This is the geographic sphere and the time frame I refer to as Old Europe. In Old Europe, the focus of religion encompassed birth, nurturing, growth, death,and regeneration, as well as crop cultivation and the raising of animals. The people of this era pondered untamed natural forcers, as well as wild plant and animal cycles, and they worshiped goddesses, or a goddess, in many forms. The goddess manifested her countless forms during various cyclical phases to ensure that they functioned smoothly. She revealed herself in multiple ways through the myriad facets of life, and she is depicted in a very complex symbolism.
First I will explore these forms in detail, looking mainly at goddess figures, and then I will unravel their meaning. The images of the goddess can be loosely categorized under her aspect of life giving and sustaining, death, and renewal. Although male energy also motivated regeneration and life stimulation, in both the plant and animal worlds, it was the feminine force that pervaded existence.
The human body constituted one of Old Europe's most powerful symbols. As a result of modern cultural programming, we often associate nakedness with sexual enticement. The modern analyst naturally projects these attitudes back thousands of years and assumes that ancient depictions of the body served basically the same purpose.
Writing grew out of religious symbols and signs. Humans have been communicating by means of symbols for a very long time. Abstract signs emerge in the Lower Paleolithic Acheulin and Mousterian periods ( from circa 300,000 to 100,000 bc)
The scandanavian magician priestess known as Thor Volva had a council of nine wise women.
In some areas like Minoan Crete and the Agean Islands a completely theacentric, gynocentric civilization and religion endured through the first half of the second millennium bc.
Krishna tends to Radha's feet
