Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 705: Shri Sastramayi (ōṃ śāstramayyai namaḥ)

From Nama 684 to 741 the glories of the Divine Mother are discussed.

The Divine Mother is the creator and enforcer of all the codes of conduct for pursuing the four Purushartha (Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha) She embodies all of them.                          

The Divine Mother takes the form of sastras. Each religion has a set of rules and procedures, which may be called shastras. Divinity has given out its own nature as sastras. Whatever books are close to or follow nature’s rules, they are the true shastras. When we analyze nature well, we can understand the inner meanings of nature. By studying the documented shastras and by studying nature, we can increase our knowledge. What we have in our mind is an inner shastra and what we see in nature is outer shastra. We can repair our inside experiences, but it may not be that easy to repair the whole of nature. Through shastras, we can repair our inner self, for which the Divine Mother blesses us always.

Those who study the shastras, are trying to study the Brahman. For such people, nature will always be a guide. With the Divine Mother’s grace, those who study the shastras become Yogis.

The Divine Mother is in knowledge (shastras) form. To get away from being deluded by Maya or ignorance, the Divine Mother’s blessing is needed. Shastras are documents which in orderly fashion teach us to get away from illusion and ignorance; further, they give us internal and external improvement experiences to take us through the correct path to attain Brahman or Liberation. Vedas and Sruti give us such knowledge to seek Brahman. The Divine Mother is in such documents form also; She is ‘Shastramayi.’

The four Vedas were formed from the Divine Mother’s out going breath and the great mantras from Her ego-sense. From Her sweet words were born poetry, drama, and heroic. Sagas. From Her tongue, Sarasvati was born. The six Vedanta (supplementary to the Vedas) were created from Her cheeks, and Mimamsa philosophy, Nyaya (logic), Puranas and dharma shastra (the code of justice) from the top of Her throat; and the sixty-four arts from the bottom of Her throat; the science of love from Her shoulders and the Tantras from Her limbs as said in Brahmana Purana.

 

What shastras say is the ultimate truth, not what our sense experience or reason says. Even Vedanta agrees with this view. We should accept what the shastras say even when our senses and reason appear to contradict it. We see many examples of misleading nature of the sense in this physical world. The Sun appears to rise in the east and to set in the west, yet the science of astronomy tells something different, that the Sun is not moving, but the earth is going round the Sun, completing one round in one year.

 

The Divine Mother is in the form of Shastras.

C N Nachiappan

Singapore, 30 December 2021.; Updated 23 February 2025

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