Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 199: Shri Sarva sakti mayi (OM sarvashaktimayyai namaH)

In Namams 199 to 248, the Divine Mother’s  Saguna or infiniteness power and glory are described. 

The Divine Mother has all the divine powers. 

Her name itself sakthi because she has got all the powers. She is Omni potent. She can do and undo anything in this universe. So everyone including all Devas get their energy from the Divine Mother; She the reservoir of all type of energies from where all others get their energy. In Devi Mahartmiyam chapter 5 and 11 after Devi killed asuras, Deva’s praise goddess and do namaskarams describing her greatness which is called as Devi Namakam.

She has all the saktis within Her. All three Murthies’ (Brahma, Visnu and Rudran) powers, innumerable saktis for devas, humans, animals, and birds are within her. So She is eternal and infinite sakti Herself. Ischasakti, Ganasakti , Kriyasakti, Annapurna, Gayatri, Savitri and all other saktis are within Her. Heat from fire, water quality, solid earth, and transient air, fullness of sky, rays from the Sun and coolness of Moon and everything having strength are all within Her. 

 Acharya Bhaskaraya quotes from Lakshmi Tantra of Pancaratra the Devi’s own words: O Indra, I am Mahalakshmi in the age of Svayambhuva (Manu). I am born as the slayer of demon Mahisa for the well being of all devas. Those portions of My powers which came from the bodies of the devas together became My highly beautiful form. 

Any power or action we see in this universe is only a trace of the Divine Mother’s power. The Markendeya Purana says: Those who are wise know that whatever energy objects possess is all the Divine Mother Herself. The Sruti also says: The power of the Supreme is of many different kinds. 

For her three key functions of creation, sustaining and dissolving the universe, all three Ischasakti, Ganasakti and Kriyasakti are used in different ways at each stage, but all these power are all coming from the Divine Mother.

In Kena Upanishad there is an incident told: When devas won a major war against an evil, by their own standards, they were rejoicing in a place. They saw a bright light far away through the window. Indra asked Agni to go and investigate that light. Agni tried to show off his powers to that light, failed against its strong powers and reported his failure back to Indra. Then Indra sent Vayu to the light; he also failed against the light and reported back to Indra. Then, it was Indra’s turn that he went to light. There he saw the Divine Mother, Uma Himavathy in golden shining colour. He realized his mistake that he and other devas had how foolishly assumed that they had won a major war, but without the Divine Mother’s powers behind it. They sought Her blessings and acknowledged their mistakes of assuming to be great themselves beyond Her. 

The universe is held together by forces of different kinds and of infinite extent. The scientific proof is confirmed by the images of the universe with thousand hoods of the great Ananta (infinite). 

We cannot understand Her fully with our senses. Her power is pervading all over the universe. We can further see in Namam 237: “Maha catuh sasti koti yogimi gana sevita”, which means that She is attended by sixty-four crores (one crore is equal to ten million) of bands of yoginis and She holds all their powers within Her.

 The Divine Mother as Lalithambigai ready to bless.

C N Nachiappun          

Singapore, 10 August 2020.

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.