Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 598: Shri Dakshayani (ōṃ dākṣāyaṇyai namaḥ)

The Goddess Divine Mother is Sati Devi, the daughter of Daksha Prajapati. 

Daksha Prajapati, the father of Sati or Daksayani Devi, the spouse of Lord Shiva, got the Divine Mother as his daughter with all the good attributes. Daksha enjoyed much in demeaning, Her spouse, Lord Shiva. He said that Lord Shiva did not have a residence of his own and Lord Shiva lived in forest in places like the cremation grounds. 

Nobody in this universe (except Lord Shiva and the Divine Mother) has eternal life. Everybody gets dissolved during the Pralaya. The matured souls considers that as a place for burning the dead bodies; they do not place any attachment to that; when one lives with a body, but considers himself as ashes, he gets the maturity to reach the Brahman. What Lord Shiva does by having ashes applied to his body, is a good aspect to tell the humans about non-attachments in the universal things. 

Dakshan’s demeaning actions were happily accepted by Lord Shiva; matured souls will not have any attachment in universal things. The Divine Mother, Sati was fully attached to Her spouse Lord Shiva. The mature souls taking a lower-level family by birth and reaching the higher maturity level is also explained in this Namam. 

Daksha was the son of Brahma. He was one of the nine leaders and was also the head of the nine leaders. He wanted to have great power in three worlds and more than three Murthies (Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra). He wanted to get Lord Shiva as his son-in-law, and he prayed to the Divine Mother for that. The Divine Mother was born Sati, as his daughter Dakshayani. Daksha had sixty daughters; of these twenty-seven were the stars (Ashvini to Revathi); they were married to the Moon. The Divine Mother is in star form as well. The yaga offered on the new moon and full moon days are called Darsam and Pooranamsam respectively. If this is done continuously for all seasons, it is called Daksayana Yaga. The Divine Mother is in that Yaga form as well. 

The Puranas celebrate the story of Sati. Angered by Her father’s insult of Her spouse lord Shiva, Sati burns Her body in the fire of yaga, during the sacrifice (Yaga) conducted by Daksha; She was reborn as Uma Devi and married to the Lord Shiva again.

The Divine Mother with Her spouse Lord Shiva.

 C N Nachiappun        

Singapore, 14 September 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 Sithbavandar