In Namams 381 to 474, the Divine Mother’s Jnana Yoga worship methods are discussed in details.
The Divine Mother is the first cause of the entire universe.
Mula is root; prakrti is the essential cause of creation. Pra denotes the three gunas namely Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. Thus through creation, nature, is endowed with the three qualities. Pra also means pre or before giving reason that prakrti existed before creation, which is the Divine Mother Herself.
The Divine Mother is the First reason for this universal formation. For all the universal galaxies and beings, since She is the primary cause, She is called Mulaprakrti. For example, the one who makes the household items such as pot, vessel for cooking etc use the base material mud? Before these items were made, the original mud was there. Likewise, before this universe with galaxies and creatures is created, the Divine Mother is there as Mulaprakrti.
Our every thinking takes a certain form. Yoga helps to avoid effects of incomplete thinking forms. Meditation helps to control our mind. A devotee tries to advance from uncompleted thinking to Mulaprakrti state. By that he is getting ready to reach the Brahman.
Vak Devis who wrote this Sahasranamam on Shri Lalitha are trying to explain the universal creation by names. Prakrti, Prakrti-vikrti and Vikrti are three stages of creation.
Prakrti is the root cause of everything in this universe. There is no earlier source for this Prakrti. Prakrti- vikrti are cause and effect like Mahat and Ahankara.
Ichashakti, Kriyashakti, Jnanshakti, Kundalini, Para and Mathruka are six shaktis combining to form the Divine Mother. She is the prime reason or original principle behind the entire universal creation or She is the Brahman and is away from the rules of cause and effect.
Pancaratra Agama says,” Devi Sarasvati is the Mother of the universe, the Mother of Vedas and has no other cause; hence She is called the Primal Cause”. According to Devi Bhagavatha, Durga, Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Savitri and Radha are the forms of this universal cause.
Srividya mantra is also called Mulaprakrti, which is original cause. This is also said to be in the form of prakasa which stands for the syllable ‘A’ and vimarsa which stands for syllable ‘Ha’. The Sanskrit alphabet starts with A and ends with Ha. These two syllables represent the entire universe. Therefore the Divine Mother, the original cause is the creator of this entire universe which these letters of the alphabet represent.
Creation is also said to be in six ways or forms: Tamasa (ignorance), Mahat (universal mind),Ahankara (egoism), the five subtle elements, eleven senses and the deities starting with Dik (deity presiding over the quarters) The Divine Mother is the cause of all these, She is called Mulaprakrti or the original cause.
According to Bhakararaya ,who is the first known writer of the explanations for Shr Lalitha Shasranamam, the first two letters of mulaprakrtih ma and la stand for the numbers five and three respectively. They represent the five elements and the avyakta, mahat and ahankara. The Divine Mother is the origin of all these eight; hence She is the original cause.
Prakkrti is the cause; Vikrti is effect or product. For example cotton is the prakrti and the thread is vikrti; in next level prakrti is thread and vikrti is the garnament. This is the effect one becoming the cause of something in turn.
Taittiriya Upanisad(11.1) states that of the five great elements, water is prakrti (cause) for earth, fire for water, air for fire and ether for air. Brahman, the Divine Mother is the prakrti for all these elements, especially ether.
In Sankhya philosophy, Mulaprakrt is one of the two basic principles which themselves have no cause: Purusa and Prakrti. Everything else we see is the result of transformation (virkrti) of that original cause (prakrti).
The following twenty-three entities are the virktis arising from the original cause; Universal mind, egoism, individual mind, the five tanmantras (sound, touch, form, taste and smell), the five elements (earth, water, fire, air and either), the five sensory organs and five organs of action.
The sankhya system accepts Prakrti and Isvara (Purusa) as truth. For one who follows Advaita that is in non-dual philosophy the two are the same.
Swami Vivekananda has said that the tower of Advaita is built on sankhya , but that the crowning piece is purely Advatic or non-dual. He has also said that all the philosophies of the world are reduced in one way or other in Kapila, the founder of Sankhya philosophy.
In the beginning, there was only the Supreme Self, the Paramatman, which is knowledge-bliss. Dormant in it was the essence of time, later manifesting as visible objects. When the desire for creation arose in the Supreme Atman, the power developed. From this Prakrti, Maya arose which is endowed with the three gunas. When the Paramantman entered the undifferentiated prakrti in the form of Ksetrajna (knower of the field), the principle of Mahat arose. From Mahat, there arose three types of egoisms: sattvic, rajasic and tamasic (also known respectively as vaikarika, taijasa and bhutadi). From the sattvic egoism, arose mind; from rajasic egoism arose the senses and from tamasic egoism arose the five great elements as said in Bhagavata Purana.
It is to be noted, that the process of creation of the universe
is described differently in different sources.
The Divine Mother, the cause of the universe.
C N Nachiappun
Singapore, 25
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
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