Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 391: Shri Nitya sodasika rupa (OM nityAShoDashikArUpAyai namaH)

In Namams 381 to 474, the Divine Mother’s Jnana Yoga worship methods are discussed in details.

The Divine Mother is in the form of sixteen daily deities; She shines with sixteen deities. 

 From new Moon day to full Moon day there are fifteen daily deities to be worshipped; daily one deity. Presiding over all of them is Tirupurasundari or Mahavithya or the Divine Mother, who is governing force in the universe as a whole, which She created. The fifteen deities are, namely: Kamesvari, Bhagamalini, Nityaklinna, Bherunda, Vahruvasini, Mahavajresvari, Shivadutti, Tvarita, Kulasundari,Nitya, Nilaparakim, Vijaya, Sarvamangala, Jaymalini and Chitra. 

Sixteen is a key concept in vedic scriptures. Many yogis lived in this world for sixteen years before they attained their Liberation. It is said that within sixteen years a human can reach a stage where his beauty, skills, knowledge, and wisdom develop to be in good shape. Shri Rama at His sixteenth year he had achieved all these and also got married. The Divine Mother by having fifteen plus one deities is demonstrating the importance of this sixteen. 

Sodasi means sixteen; it is one of the Divine Mother’s names. The devotee has to worship all daily deities to get the eligibility to worship further the Divine Mother. These daily deities are eternal like the Divine Mother, Herself. Moon’s growing or waning is due to Maya. To remove that ignorance, the Divine Mother is in Sodasika form. 

So Sodisika is the presiding the deity of the sixteen syllable, sodasi, mahamantra. Shaktirahasya says that a single utterance of Sodasi mantra pleases the Divine Mother more than anything; even performing of cores of Sodasayaogas (sixteen sacrifices) or horse sacrifices. The meaning of Nityasodasika is the “one who is worshipped daily (nitya) using the Sodasi mantara.” She is like a sixteen year old girl with all the beauties. 

This Namam can be interpreted as: “She is pleased by daily worship done in the home (sodasika)”.

 

The Divine Mother as Tripurasundari presiding over the fifteen nitya deities.

C  N Nachiappun          

Singapore, 19 February 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