Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 352: Shri Vahni mandala vasini (OM vahnimaNDalavAsinyai namaH)

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

The Divine Mother resides in the discs or systems of fire. 

Fire or heat has good relationship with human body, where the embodied soul resides. All Hindu prayers, auspicious and other forms of deeds are done with having Agni or Fire as the evidence. In general the burning fire, either be forest fire or a row of lighted lamps, creates a divine feeling in humans automatically. This fire is one of the five universal elements and it is spread all over the universe in some form or other, creating the divine feelings. The human body has the heat within itself until the embodied soul leaves the body, so it is termed as Vahni mandala. The human body where the embodied soul resides is an ideal kshetra to worship the Divine Mother. The human body chakras are focusing on Muladhara is a good example of Agni in our body. 

We have earlier meditated on Divine Mother in Chandramandala and Suryamandala. The third bright meditating place is in Agnimandala. The Divine Mother resides in Agnimandala also. It is in Muladhara in human body. Vahni refers to number three in Hindu numbering system; the word Vahni or agni means fire. There are three kinds of fires considered: The fire that burns in the funeral pyre usually looking towards south; the fire in the sacrificial arena to offer to deities and the fire elsewhere such as in the home used for cooking etc. 

Acharya Bhaskararaya interpreted Vahni mandala as three systems (discs) of fire; so this Namam means that the Divine Mother resides in three mandalas (discs or systems) in Srichakra namely the Agnimandala in Svadishthana, Surya mandala in the anahata and Chandramandala in Sahasrara. Please refer to earlier Namams 99 and 240. The Divine Mother is present both internally and externally in all these mandalas. She the Divine Mother lives in Soma-Surya-Agni, all three mandalas.

 

The Divine Mother in Srichakra

C  N Nachiappun          

Singapore, 11 January 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 Chithbavandar