Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 414: Shri Svaprakasa (ōṃ svaprakāśāyai namaḥ)

In Namams 381 to 474, the Divine Mother’s Jnana Yoga worship methods are discussed in details. 

The Divine Mother is self-luminous. 

The Divine Mother is bright naturally. Of the universal five elements, the Sun is self–luminous. Moon gets light form Sun and shines. Similarly from Sun’s light received, the earth shinning had been observed from Moon during space missions such as from NASA. Sun has self brightness, but at a later date the Sun will get destroyed. Long time ago, Earth and Moon were part of the Sun and they had self brightness. On separating from Sun, they lost their heat and brightness. All universal things lose their brightness, during pralaya. 

The soul also gets absorbed within the Divine Mother and loses it brightness. The Divine Mother is eternally expanding across the universe and all the universal creatures come under Her control. She maintains Her brightness eternally. She lives in all universal souls and to understand that it is proper worship of the Divine Mother. The uninitiated devotees use universal things to light up and pray to the Divine Mother. This practice had been accepted by learned people. Yogins can see the light in the souls as the Divine Mother and worship Her. This is only possible for such matured souls. 

To see and understand the universal things, we need Sun’s light but we cannot visualize the Divine Mother with Sun’s light. Her individuality is in Her self–luminous which the elements like Sun are not able to demonstrate. Since there is no comparison to Her, nobody else can explain Her brightness. We cannot use another light to see the Sun. Similarly, the Sun cannot explain the Divine Mother’s brightness. Sun will not be visible in front of Her brightness. Like Moon, and other glittering stars cannot be seen in front of Her brightness. Then, how come the light from the fire can be visible. Only with the Divine Mother’s brightness, such things are visible to our eyes. We need to have the Divine Mother’s brightness to see such things. “He shines and everything shines after Him. By His light, all these shine”. (Katha Upanisad 11.2.15). The Divine Mother is that Brahman Itself. 

By splitting this name as Sv (well) + ap (water) + ra (fire) + Kasa (one who shines), one understands the meaning as, “She who shines well in water and fire”. We notice that water and fire are the primary power of universal beings’ life.

 

The Divine Mother as Svaprakasa

C N Nachiappun          

Singapore, 14 March 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.

The Lalitha Sahasranamam published in Tamil by Shri Ramakrishna Thapovanam, Thiruipparaithurai, Trichy District, Tamilnadu, India with commentary by Shrimath Swami Chithbavandar