Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 296: Shri Anadi nidhana (OM anAdinidhanAyai 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 neither a beginning nor an end, meaning that She is there forever. 

The embodied soul essentially takes a new body to settle its earlier birth karma balances. It goes through death to leave its last birth. By this process, the soul matures in its state to reach the Brahman. The Divine Mother is eternal not having any Samsara Sagara for Herself. She is there always. So She is called Anadi Nidhana. 

As we have been saying, there is no beginning or end to the Divine Mother; no one can understand Her fully. No one has ever seen Her beginning or end. All creatures are created by Her; it is impossible to understand Her fully, who is the root cause of the universe. One can only guess that She has no births and deaths unlike for any universal creature. It is customary to take that She Herself has started the universe which is confirmed by many Upanishads. 

The word Nidhana is a kind of blockage to the Divine Mother worshipping. It can mean death or the type of death for universal creatures.  As explained earlier, Vararuci system of numbering indicated “adi” stands for number eighty. This Namam can mean that the Divine Mother uses one of eighty causes of deaths for the devotees. The devotee, who is mortal, returns to worship the Divine Mother to become immortal. 

Of these eighty types twenty eight are Vadha (killing) types, the rest are Pasa (bondage and or rope) types.The Vishnu Purana says, “Egoism and self-conceit cause twenty eight vadha types of deaths.” Linga Purana says, “The fifty two Pasa deaths are due to knots of avidya ignorance”. 

The Divine Mother protects Her devotees from above both kinds of harm. Even for the fearless worshippers residing in forests with many cruel animals around them, the sole refuse is the Divine Mother and their unshaken faith in Her protection. 

Goddess Durgha, the protector.

C  N Nachiappun          

Singapore, 16 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.

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