Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 274: Shri Panca krtya parayana (OM pa ~ nchakRRityaparAyaNAyai namaH)

 In Namams 249 to 274, the Divine Mother’s  Five functions and Her Five Isvara forms are described. 

The Divine Mother is devoted to all five functions in managing the universe according to Her wish. 

Creation, preservation, samharam(dissolution), tirodhana (hiding with in Herself) and anugraha (granting liberation to souls) are the functions; they are happening continuously in this universe. The Divine Mother takes the correct murthy’s role in performing above tasks. During creation, She is brahmani; during preservation She is Vaishnavi; during dissolution She is rudrini; when the souls forget their status, She does the hiding the universe as Isvari; and when recreating the universe, She does it as Sadashiva. To worship Her is to go beyond all five stages to Supreme Being. 

Parayanam means important view or task or key desire. She does all five important tasks with such devotion continuously. During pralaya all five tasks are stopped. She stands as a witness to pralaya (Namam 232 “OM maheshvaramahAkalpamahA tANDavasAkShiNyai namaH” and Namam 571 “OM mahApralayasAkShiNyai namaH”) when present Brahma’s life ends. 

Brahma’s life is calculated in Brahmam scale, something similar to decimal scale we practice now. Brahmam is a very large scale type. For Brahma one day is calculated to be 8640 million years in our decimal scale. At the end of this period Mahapralaya occurs. 

Books namely Mrgendrasamhita and Pratyabhijnahrdaya detail these five functions clearly. Brahmasutra mentions that Isvara does three functions namely, creation, preservation and dissolution; In Saivadvaita, the above five functions are described. Parasakti is equal to Supreme Shiva. She as Brahama does creation; Vishnu does destruction; Isvara does dissolution and Sadashiva does the blessing of re-creation. 

In Vaisnava tradition, these five functions are done by corresponding manifestations: Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Aniruddha, pradyumna and Narayana. 

The Divine Mother as Goddess Parvati,

the consort of Lord Shiva.

C N Nachiappun          

Singapore, 25 October 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.