Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 219: Shri Maha bhoga (OM mahAbhogAyai namaH)

In Namams 199 to 248, the Divine Mother’s  Saguna or infiniteness power and glory are described. 

The Divine Mother can derive and enjoy all forms immense wealth. People taking refuge in the Divine Mother gets all the above things in abundance.

Bhoga means riches, money, grain and other assets. It is essentially the blessings for the devotee to enjoy all the auspicious things, even though he may not be the real owner of the things giving him the enjoyments. For example, if a very rich man owns many large properties in different places in a country. If a person is hired as the manager of one of such properties with all the best facilities under his control, he gets to enjoy the benefits of the set up, while the real owner may stop by for short periods in the property to supervise the regular activities. Being on the spot, even though he is not the owner, gives the manager the means to all the benefits of the set up. This is one kind of bhoga to be enjoyed by the devotees with the Divine Mother’s grace. 

The Divine Mother gives happiness and comfort to all universal creatures. All comforts enjoyed by the all creatures come from Her. Getting comfort using sensory elements is also called Bhoga. The divine comfort got without the sensory elements is called yoga. Bhoga is not eternal comfort; which gives happiness and sweetness in the short term and sorrow in the end. The devotee learns that eternal comfort is yoga. In general, the common man aims for Bhoga. The Divine Mother guides the devotee from enjoying the Bhoga to yoga; and to get liberation to enjoy the Supreme Self. 

The sensory elements and devotees materialistic assets give bhoga. Assets and resultant uninterrupted pleasure is called Maha bhoga. The Divine Mother is spreading such b hoga to all creatures in this universe. 

Maha bhoga also means completeness or extension. The Divine Mother extends her form, filling the whole universe which is known as Maha bhoga.

 

Goddess Annapoorneshwari is giving out food for the universe.

C N Nachiappun           

Singapore, 30 August 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.

                    

Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 218: Shri Maha Ratih (OM mahAratyai namaH)

 In Namams 199 to 248, the Divine Mother’s  Saguna or infiniteness power and glory are described.

The Divine Mother has boundless beauty and delight, which She reflects on to Her devotees. 

The Divine Mother is creating the desire in the devotees to get the objects and to be involved in the object to get delight. Thus the Divine Mother provides all the pleasures and delights to all universal creatures. Every soul, irrespective of the body it takes, enjoys the delight at the Divine Mother’s kindness. This is to help the devotees to do away their attachments and other effects of Maya in their life. She is beyond all the creatures and their enjoyments. To praise Her kindness in such granting of the delights, in itself is worshipping Her. She is such a delight to everyone in this universe. 

Ratih can mean liking or delight. The interest and satisfaction on anything, causes the mind to like it. The Maya effect is creating the desires or wants in the devotee. If a devotee likes something, is it on the thing or it is a satisfaction of his mind it likes it? Essentially the thing that can give satisfaction to his mind will be to his liking. He can stop liking something now due to some reason, which he liked earlier. Here the self and or mind liking it is the key. If he can sense trouble coming to him, he may even stop liking his body, family, son, wife, assets, and his life. Saving oneself is critical to all the humans. When he (soul) realizes that his liking is towards the Supreme Being and liberation, he is nearing the Divine Mother. All these changes in him to like the Supreme Being are the working of the Divine Mother. 

The delights can be considered in two ways:

1.       Devotees using his sensory elements to have these worldly pleasures which will be sweet and wonderful in short term.

2.       Devotee aiming for spiritual eternal delight like a sage falling into the blossom of unbroken bliss and feeding himself the nectar therein. Undoubtedly, the Divine Mother is source of such an indescribable bliss in gaining the spiritual attainment.  So the people undertake the path of tapas and seek the liberation to be with the Supreme Being forever. 

Ratih is the beautiful wife of Manmathan (God of desire or kama). The Divine Mother is a greater beauty than Ratih. 

So the Divine Mother is Maha ratih.

 

Goddess Shri Durgha 

C N Nachiappun          

Singapore, 29 August 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.

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

Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 217: Shri Maha saktih (OM mahAshaktyai namaH)

In Namams 199 to 248, the Divine Mother’s  Saguna or infiniteness power and glory are described. 

The Divine Mother has great powers within Her. 

The Divine Mother has all the abilities and strengths. We can see greatness, wherever She is present. Her devotees can reach the Brahman, the Supreme Being, with Her help. For the devotees’ life to be meaningful, they need Her help in worldly materialistic things also. She being the Maha sakthi, She spreads across the universe. 

Sakthi is also means weaponry. The worldly creatures have their body as their weapon. The humans can design their own weapons in trying to defend themselves. In all these weapons of the creatures and the humans, the Divine Mother is present as universal weapon; Shed controls the universe. She, all alone, is running and maintaining the universe’s smooth functioning. 

The Divine Mother’s power expands in all directions in this universe, similar to brightness of a fire spreading in all directions. When one moves away from the fire, the warmness of the fire is felt less by him. Once the devotee moves away from the Divine Mother focus, Her kindness and power shown on him reduces. The loser is the devotee. She may be nearer to the devotee, but yet the devotee needs the merit from his earlier births’ good karma and vasana, to be drawn to Her, for Her blessings. 

Gita (VII.3) says “only one in thousands strives for perfection; and even among the successful strivers only one will have the chance to Know Me in essence”. This emphasizes the point that the devotee’s devotion and   involvement is critical in seeking the Divine Blessings. 

The Divine Mother’s Grace is needed to get Her blessings. It is essentially Her perfect design to get the devotees to be drawn to Her. 

Baskararaya carya interpreted the Maha sakthi “as the board and many sides power; She is required to protect the whole universe”. 

Sakthi can be said to be mightiness, strength, ability, weapons and army. The Divine Mother has all of these in great qualities within Her to be the Maha sakthi. There is no comparison to Her sakthi in this universe. 

She is the Maha sakthi.

The Divine Mother as Maa Durgha and Maha Sakthi

C N Nachiappun          

Singapore, 28 August 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.

Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 216: Shri Maha sattva (OM mahAsatvAyai namaH)

 In Namams 199 to 248, the Divine Mother’s  Saguna or infiniteness power and glory are described.

The Divine Mother has Maha (great) sattva. 

Sattva is power, existence, intelligence, sattvic qualities, strength, substance and reality. The adjective Maha (great) is applicable to all of these; they are all within the Divine Mother, Herself. 

All universal creatures are the Divine Mother’s various forms. When each creature reaches a higher level, its sattvic qualities show up; such as increases in their mental ability. The mind is linked to the soul; this linkage helps in soul’s quest to reach the Brahman. 

The human intelligence is another sattvic quality needed for the soul to reach the Brahman. The Divine Mother being the Maha sattva, provides such intelligence to the devotee for his advancement. 

The Divine Mother holds all sattvic things within Her as we have listed earlier. The individual creatures get their sattvic things from the Divine Mother. She does not differentiate between the highest souls such as Brahma to small creatures like an ant in generously granting these sattvic qualities. 

Sattva can be defined as existence also. Each creature identifies its existence. The Divine Mother is behind their existence. Their sattvic existence is not permanent. For example the paper is processed from the wood gotten from a tree. The next stage for the paper is not certain. As the soul progress to next higher level, the true sattvic qualities of the soul show up.  Using such sattvic nature, the soul tries to reach the Brahman with the Divine Mother’s help, who is a Maha sattva Herself.

 

 Shri Samayapuram Mariamman, in Trichy District, Tamilnadu is best worshipped by ladies seeking good family life.

C N Nachiappun          

Singapore, 27 August 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.

                    

Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 215: Shri Maha maya (OM mahAmAyAyai namaH

In Namams 199 to 248, the Divine Mother’s  Saguna or infiniteness power and glory are described. 

The Divine Mother is the greatest illusion. 

Maya prevents us from understanding the things as they are. What happened a just while ago does not happen later due to Maya. Nature causes the things to change in this universe. Nature and Maya are the same. From birth the humans keep changing and reach death. They are reborn elsewhere. The universe keeps changing and gets recreated. The Divine Mother is the one causing all these changes. She is Maha Maya. 

Even the learned men get the ignorance due to Maya. Even Thri-murthis are going through Maya, controlled by the Divine Mother. Brahma was caught by two demons disturbing his creation activities. He worshipped to the Divine Mother, who created and sent Vishnu to clear the Brahma’s troubles. 

Maya gives non truth state such as understanding things wrongly. On birth the child cries. It grows on its mother’s kindness. He or she becomes a parent. So Maya creates the Samsara Sagara in every soul. 

The Maha Maya (the Divine mother) finally lifts the soul from darkness of illusion and showers the bliss on it. The soul’s prarabdha karma is a factor for each soul’s results. Even who is completely bound by Maya, can undergo changes instantly with nearby Realized soul’s association. 

Maya is not giving a true state. Maya is not absence of something. The Sun is really not the Sun, it is Existence. So is the Earth. Maya hinders us from seeing their true self. When the Maya is lifted, the soul can experience that it is all Brahman. One needs the grace of Maha maya (the Divine Mother) to lift her Maya. 

We have seen that the Thri-murthis (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) can get illusory agitation by the Divine mother’s actions. The Markandeya Purana says “The Divine Maha Maya forces the minds of the sages and leads them to delusion”. She links the soul to both happiness and sorrow being the Maha maya. 

Kalika Purana  says “She is the Supreme Goddess Maha maya. She takes away the knowledge from beings, which possess knowledge from their earlier birth, while being in the womb; giving birth to them, leading them to have many desires based on previous birth, makes them confused, egoistic and doubtful. They suffer anxiety from anger, sorrow and greed. The Divine Mother brings them happiness and sorrow”. 

Hreem is a mantra for the Divine Mother. It contains the strength like a seed which gives out a big tree later. Panchadashi a 15 syllabled mantra recitation is one way for the Divine Mother to eliminate the Maya in souls. 

A soul, in present birth is covered by Maya during its awaken and sleeping times where it gets dreams. This Maya effect is referenced well in Sri Dashinamurthy Astagam 8^th verge clearly (please see the appendix); that the Maya due to one’s ignorance is a cause of stopping the soul from seeking the Brahman. But once the soul surmounts such Maya with worshipping the Divine mother, it starts enjoying the total bliss at the Brahman; there are no Maya hindrances any more. 

Maha Maya can also be interpreted as the treasury of unparalleled compassion.

 

 Shri Samayapuram Mariamman, in Trichy District, Tamilnadu is best worshipped by ladies seeking good family life.

 

C N Nachiappun          

Singapore, 26 August 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.

4.       https://stotranidhi.com/en/dakshinamurthy-ashtakam-in-english/

Sri Dashinamurthy 10 verges Astagam  is referenced.       

Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 214: Shri Maha pataka nasini (OM mahApAtakanAshinyai namaH)

In Namams 199 to 248, the Divine Mother’s  Saguna or infiniteness power and glory are described. 

The Divine Mother destroys all greatest sins of Her devotees. 

All embodied souls have some defects in them. Defectiveness can lead to paataka. The universal creatures, especially the humans, try to convert their defects into positive goodness. 

It is the ignorance and vasanas of soul’s previous birth that cause such defects. By reducing one’s ignorance, one learns to increase the knowledge about the Divine Mother and to seek salvation from Her. She helps to remove such paataka, and finally release the devotees from Samsara Sagara. 

The worst type of paataka results from previous birth vasanas. Reciting the Divine Mother’s Namams and mantra, such as 15 syllable Panchadashi, can help to reduce the deep-rooted paataka in devotees, as in the case of cheating the Guru, Brahma-hattya Dosham, theft, consuming alcohol and going after others wife. 

A simple look or a glance from the Divine Mother burns our sins to state of cinders (ashes from a solidified rock). The Brahmanda Purana is clear in stating that the remembrance of the holy feet of Parasakti is the most effective remedy for all our sins committed either knowingly or unknowingly. 

Paataka causes fall. It takes away the self knowledge of the devotee and distracts him from his aim to reach the Supreme Being. 

By the Divine Mother’s simple look or a glance, the biggest sins in Her devotees are removed; She grants them salvation.

 

Shri Samayapuram Mariamman, In Tamilnadu Trichy District, best worshipped by ladies seeking good family life.

C N Nachiappun          

Singapore, 25 August 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.

                    

Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 213: Shri Maha pujya (OM mahApUjyAyai namaH)

In Namams 199 to 248, the Divine Mother’s  Saguna or infiniteness power and glory are described. 

The Divine Mother is the greatest to be worshipped; and or the Divine Mother is most worshippable. 

The humans and other universal creatures worship the Divine Mother for their sustenance and other living needs. All the worships of different devas or deities reach the Divine Mother only. 

The humans devote their five sensory elements to seek the Divine Mother’s blessings. All the puja of universal creatures add up to a larger Maha puja of the Divine Mother. 

We have seen earlier that the Three-Murthis, namely, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are worshipping the Divine Mother. She is Maha, with every attribute like power, kindness and controlling the universe, which is held within Herself. So She is Maha pujya or Pujaniya. 

The  Divine Mother’s worship is Maha puja.

 

Mari amman. She takes care of the earthly things. 

C N Nachiappun          

Singapore, 24 August 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.