In Namams 275 to365, the Divine Mother’s many forms providing benefits to Her devotees
in great details are discussed.
The Divine Mother releases the ignorant devotees from bondage; She liberates the embodied souls from Pasa (bondage).
Pashu means embodied soul. The Lord Shiva is Pasupati, the leader of all embodied souls. Due to ignorance and pasa, the souls go through Samsara cycle. To release the souls from the bonds, a divine force (the Divine Mother) is needed. Not many souls are thinking of liberation. The souls due to Maya assume that the bonds are there for them always. Only very few souls will desire to be liberated from Samsara cycle; the Divine Mother liberates them. Seeking liberation is the best form of prayer possible. The Divine Mother grants such desires of liberation to Her devotees; thus She is Pashupasa Vimocini.
Animal Pashu (embodied soul) lives with bondage on it. It feels “I”, the Divine Mother is in that “I” form. Those who do not understand the Divine Mother take the lower level births. Ignorant Pashu does not have the freedom, the Lord Shiva as Pashupati creates the bondage with hunger and thirst. The animal Pashu thinks that getting relief from hunger and thirst is the ultimate for it. The Divine Mother liberates the human souls or Pashus. The embodied soul, the human Pashu, starts to understand that the Divine Mother is within itself to manage it. Once the soul realizes that the Divine Mother is within and outside, its hunger and thirst disappear. Ignorance and Karma effects go to ashes. All Pasas are cleared. The devotees get the Divine Mother’s grace to be liberated.
Pasa are ahankara, maya and karma based three types. These ropes and the resultant bonds are created by the actions of embodied souls. The souls ought to learn to know to release the bonds through worshipping the Divine Mother. Ahankara leads to maya which later leads to karma results. Some souls have all three types of pasas, who try to pray to the Divine Mother to meet their selfish needs or desires; their prayers indirectly leads to their pasas getting reduced. For some, their earlier birth prayers to the Divine Mother can come in to help to reduce their pasas in current birth. For some yogis, the pasas are burned to ashes and they get liberated from Samsara cycle.
When we face sorrow, we seek some one’s help. Our previous good karma, leads us to seek the Divine Mother’s help to worship Her; this will help to minimize the sorrows. As the result, the devotee develops more devotional feeling towards the Divine Mother to seek and get Her Motherly Kindness. All pasas are eliminated; the souls get liberated; thus She is Pashupasa vimocini.
Linga Purana says that from Brahma to a tree, all living things
are subject to Maya as pashus of Lord Shiva, because of the beasty nature of
them. Brhadaranyaka Uanishad (1.4.10) says Pashu is the one who still maintains
a sense of separation (duality). “He who adores God, thinking he is different
from Him, does not know; he is like an animal (pashu)”.
Man, the Manusya thinks that pashu has a long way to reach man’s stage in life
cycle. Pasa are the rope binds. Ezhuttachan in Bhagavata Kirtana sings, “Bonds
are man’s karma; Break they must, for him to be free, by eating the fruit of
karma; make bonds no more!”
Pa is thirst; asa is hunger. The devotees immersed in the Divine Mother’s worship are freed from their thirst and hunger and liberated. Pashus have desires to eat and drink to quench their thirst and hunger; they do not talk about Brahman; they are not aware of this current worldly conditions or the next birth for them according to Sruti. Pasa is the bond of ignorance causes the freedom to be lost. Maya, one of three gunas (attributes) and Karma are the bondage forms. The word pasa refers to everything arising from these above.
There are five fold affiliations affecting the soul in bondage which are also pasa. Through the power of yoga and the Divine Mother’s blessings the embodied souls get liberation from bonds. Five affiliations are: nescience (ignorance), egoism, desire, anger and intense attachment.
Nescience is the inability to discriminate between self and non self. Egoism is misconception that the body is the self. Desire is the attraction arising from wish for pleasure. Anger is the aversion to do anything that obstructs the enjoyment of pleasure. Intense attachment is clinging to sense objects even when it is known that they are harmful to one’s welfare.
Pasa in Hindu numerology refers to number fifty-two; there are fifty-two kinds of pasa or bonds which the embodied soul can face. Sivarahasya says that the Divine Mother rescues Her devotees from five affiliations and fifty-two pasas.
Saiva scriptures talk about three kinds of bondages, namely, anupasa, bhedapasa and karmapasa. Anupasa is the misconception that indivisible and unlimited self is limited to some respects. The self is one and is unique. The root cause of seeing it as many distinct forms is Maya, also called maya impurity or mayamala. Maya is sometimes considered as sixth tattva with other five namely are: Parasiva, Sadasiva, Isvara, Rudra and Brahma. Karma pasa is the third type of impurity or bondage. One has to free himself from all three types of bondages to become Shiva himself; omniscient, ominipresent and omnipotent.
The Divine Mother due to Her unison with Lord Shiva is with Him always. She liberates the embodied souls from all three bonds; hence She is known as Pashupasa vimocini.
This Namam means that the Divine Mother liberates souls from Samsara cycle, those desiring to reach Pashupati or Shiva, the protector of Pashus. Pashu can also mean Vishnu.
Bonds can refer to sixteen forms of ignorance and seven forms of sorrow. The Divine Mother liberates the souls from all these hardships. Pasa also can mean “dice”. Bhaskararaya interprets this Namam as “while playing dice with Shiva, the Divine Mother conquers Him, throwing the dice on the board”.
There are three types of souls: worldly ones, yogis and knower (tattvajnas). The worldly ones have their bondages increased; the yogis have the bondages turn into ashes and in the knower the bonds stays dormant without awakening. They have to deserve the Divine Mother’s grace to get liberation from all above bonds.
Aarthanareeswarara :Shiva and Goddess are equal.
C N Nachiappun
Singapore, 13 January
2021.
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 Chithbavandar
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