Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 423: Shri Dvija vrnda nisevita (ōṃ dvijavṛndaniṣēvitāyai namaḥ)

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

The Divine Mother is worshipped by twice-born people. 

Taking human life from the mother is the first birth as sudra. Since then, due to one’s actions and maturity, reaching the Brahman is his second birth. They are called twice-born or Brahmana. People cannot easily become twice-born just by performing rites. Maturity and devotion is the key to this. From someone’s life style, he can be judged whether he is sudra or Brahmana. Getting to the dvija state is the aim of all humans. To this extend, these twice-born are treated well, the dharma in the society increases. Divine worship increases. 

To explain this further, by birth all humans are sudras. Karma makes the sudra into a dvija, a twice-born, normally interpreted as Brahmana. The  Vyasa by birth sudra but by his tapas has become Rishi is the proof that in India, actions decide a person’s caste (varna). The Divine Mother is the one worshipped by those twice-born through their actions. 

Dvija is also teeth. The Divine Mother’s teeth were compared in earlier Namam 25 to thirty-two forms of worship starting with Suddhavidya or Srividya. The present Namam can be interpreted as She who is to be worshipped by these means. 

The Divine Mother is Sandhya and according to the Renuka Purana, “This Sandhya is to be worshipped by the twice-born, devas and mahatmas (great souls) always while sitting, walking, eating and sleeping.” 

The Namams Vyahrti, Sandhya and Dvijavrndanisevita represent the three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleeping. Vyahrtih denotes the operation of speech and symbolizes the waking state. Sandhya, being in between the other two states, denotes the dream state. Dvija (twice-born) also means birds, here referring to the souls. Just as the birds fatigued from their flight finally come to their nets to rest, the souls after waking and dreaming, merge with the Brahman in the deep sleep state. The Bhadaranyaka Upanisad (lV.3.19) says, “ Just as a hawk  or falcon flying about long time, is exhausted and comes to its nest, so does this person hasten to this state where falling asleep, he desires nothing nor sees any  dreams.” In the Chandogya Upanisad (V1.8.11) it is said, “When a man is said to be sleeping, then dear boy, he has become united with Brahman.”

The Divine Mother as Madurai Meenakshi.

C N Nachiappun          

Singapore, 23 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.

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