Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 282: Shri Sahasrasirsa vadana (OM sahasrashIrShavadanAyai namaH)

In Namams 275 to365, the Divine Mother’s  many forms providing benefits to Her devotees in great details are discussed. 

The Divine Mother has one thousand heads and faces; thousand literally means countless, here. 

For humans, we have one head and one face, which is similar to the Divine Mother’s external image. For various reasons, happiness and sorrows come to the humans naturally; we are trying to destroy the sorrow. Ravana’s heads and faces came from the Divine Mother. Rama did not discard that fact, when he destroyed Ravana. We have to fight the evil, until we reach the Brahman. We will realize that the sorrows also come from the Divine Mother to humans in a way to help souls to mature to reach the Brahman. 

Namams 282, 283 and 284 explain the countless forms of the Divine Mother. Before the universe was formed five great souls appeared. Depending on the Karma effects, many separate souls were born. To give them identity, a separate head, faces etc were given to those souls. There are countless heads and faces  there in the universe. The word ‘thousand’ implies countless. So the Divine Mother creates countless souls and keeps them under Her control. 

The Purusa Sukta says, “The cosmic man (Purusa) has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes and thousand feet”; the Gita (X111 – 13) describes the Supreme, “He exists in the world enveloping all with hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads and mouths everywhere, with ears everywhere.” 

The Devi Bhagavata describes the cosmic form of the Divine Mother: “The Divine Mother is effulgent with a thousand eyes, a thousand hands, a thousand heads and a thousand feet” 

The Divine Mother’s body is spread over the entire universe. Everything in this universe is a limb or part of her body. Which means that we cannot hide any our actions without Her knowledge in this universe is one of the interpretations of this Namam. 

The sages imagine that Adisesha (Ananta) is a thousand-headed serpent, supporting the earth. Ananta is the symbol for the power of countless faces, an attractive power. It is this power that keeps the celestial bodies revolving in their paths without crashing into each other. This is shown that Ananta, the serpent, supporting the earth on his hooded head. This cosmic force of attraction had been learned in India even as early as Vedic times. Later Aryabhatiya is the proof for this. Varahamihira gives the pictorial aspect that the earth being suspended in a case formed by the stars in the same way a ball of iron would be suspended in the centre of the cage made of magnets. The stability of solar system is based on the forces of mutual attraction. 

In all, the Divine mother has countless heads and faces; nothing happens in this universe without Her knowledge.

 

The Divine Mother as Goddess Kalimaa Jagan Mohini.

C  N Nachiappun          

Singapore, 02 November 2020.

 

 

References:

1.       The Thousand Names of the Divine Mother published in English by Mata Amritanandamayi Center, San Ramon, California, USA, with Commentary by T. V Narayana Menon

2.       Shri Lalitha Sahasranama Stostram published in Tamil by N. Ramaswami Iyer charities’ societies, Trichirapalli, India, with Commentary by C. V. Radhakrishna Sastry.

3.       The Lalitha Sahasranamam published in Tamil by Shri Ramakrishna Thapovanam, Thiruipparaithurai, Trichy District, Tamilnadu, India with commentary by Shrimath Swami Sithbavandar.