(OM sakalAgamasandohashuktisampuTamauktikAyai namaH)

In Namams 275 to365, the Divine Mother’s  many forms providing benefits to Her devotees in great details are discussed. 

The Divine Mother is like a pearl enclosed in the shell made of all the Vedas and or scriptures. The meaning of this statement is that if all the scriptures collectively form a shell, the Divine Mother is inside similar to a pearl. The size of the shell gives an idea of the size of the pearl inside but not the quality and greatness of the pearl inside. 

The Divine Mother’s ornaments are all the Vedas like a pearl inside the shell. This means that Vedas are like ornaments for Her. It is not enough to say that Vedas are the Divine Mother’s ornaments. Further, the Vedas cannot fully explain the Divine Mother’s true self. The Vedas only act to motivate the soul to seek the Brahman. 

The Vedas give the form of the Divine Mother but not Her completeness or true-self. Katha Upanisad (1.ii.23) says, “The Atman cannot be attained with the study of the Vedas, nor by intelligence nor by hearing”. Then how to reach the Atman? When the Atman chooses a devotee to help him to attain the Brahman, its real nature is revealed to that devotee only. This Upanisdic saying reveals the appropriate meaning of this Namam. As the Divine Mother says, “Looking for truth outside is like drying up the ocean to catch the fish. One should look deep within. Only then, the truth about the Divine Mother will be revealed to him”. 

The tattvas which have come from Lord Shiva’s face are equally good as Vedas in describing the glory of the Divine Mother. Like Vedas, tattvas also are not able to describe the Divine Mother fully. They indicate that She is like a pearl in a shell. To get the pearl from the sea, one has to dive deep inside the sea and bring out the shell containing the pearl. Likewise the devotee has to dig deeper in Vedas and tattvas to understand the Divine Mother more. It is not enough to bring the shell with the pearl from the sea. One should know as to how to value the pearl. The Divine Mother is far greater than anything else in this universe. 

The shell with the pearl is in the sea bed for long, long time; the pearl grows and gets polished inside to reach the valuable state. Similarly, one experiences in many ways the glories and values of the Divine Mother through the reading and understanding the Vedas and the tattvas, which will take much longer time.

The Divine Mother as Parvati  Devi

 

C  N Nachiappun          

Singapore, 10 November 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.

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3EoRFDzDoU&t=7s