Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 624: Shri Guhya {ōṃ guhyāyai namaḥ)

The Goddess Divine Mother is to be known as ‘secret’. 

The Divine Mother is hidden secretly in Hrdaya cave of Her devotees. Vedantha tattva indicates that our eyes see the items available to the eye. Sometimes, certain items, although there, may not be visible to our eyes. Similarly, the Divine Mother is hidden; so, She is beyond our eye sight. What we cannot openly say out but such words are hidden within ourselves due to our silence. This aspect needs to be understood by the devotees. Only the Divine Mother or the Brahman is held in such secret state. Since there is no movement, there is no sound also. There is no sound and there is silence within the Brahman. Lord Shiva as Dakshinamurthy keeps silence. So to understand the Brahman and the Divine Mother in hidden state is a great worship to the Divine Mother. 

She is hidden in our hrdaya cave. For our eyes seeing the light outside the cave is possible, but once inside the cave, we will encounter the darkness. After a while, when we get used to the cave darkness, we start to visualize and understand the things within the cave. Likewise, one looks at external material things, cannot visualize within them to have the Darshan of the Divine Mother. So our external material outlook has to be left out to fully understand the Divine Mother within ourselves. So, we can see the Divine Mother hidden secretly in our hrdaya cave. 

Guhya is “one who is hidden in a cave”. The Divine Mother is to be reached by secret modes of worship in the cave of the heart. “Secret mode” implies worship done in solitude with total surrender.

The Divine Mother is to be known in ‘Secret”.

 

C N Nachiappun

Singapore, 10 October 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