sarvAruNa

शुक्लाम्बरधरम् विष्णुम् शशिवर्णम् चतुर्भुजम्|

प्रसन्नवदनम् ध्यायेत् सर्व विघ्नोपशान्तये||

श्रीगुरुभ्योनमः

कदंबारुणमम्बाया रूपम् चिंतय चित्त मे।

मुञ्च पापीयसीम् निष्ठाम् मा गृधः कस्य स्विद्धनम्॥

 (त्रिपुरसुन्दरी वेदपादस्तवम् – 51)

Oh! Mind!! By thwarting the firmness towards all sinful and materialistic thoughts, contemplate on Amma in kadamba flower’s Aruna hue.

While commenting on Lalita Trisati 138th nama Sarvaruna, Sankara Bhagavatpada defines Aruna as the colour of copper, quoting Rudram (असौ यस्ताम्रो अरुणः).

अव्य्क्तरागस्त्वरुणः (अमरकोशम्)

A red colour (रागम्) that is not enunciated (अव्यक्तम्) is called Aruna.

व्यक्तमम्बामयम् सर्वम् अव्यक्तम् तु महेश्वरम्

In the entire creation, all that is gross, is an embodiment of Sakti and what is not, is that of Maheswara.  For example, if Sakti is projected as a seed, the tree that is hidden in the seed is Maheswara.

So, from Amarakosa’s definition, we infer that the colour tone Aruna is the mix of white, representative of Siva, the unmanifest, and red, symbolic of His Sakti.

Combining Kamakala Vilasa’s description and Amarakosa’s definition, we understand that the white and red combined Aruna is indicative of the Primordial couple (Kameswari-Kameswara, adi dampati dvayam) responsible for creation and dissolution.

सर्वारुणा

Amma’s complexion is Aruna, rosy red. The radiance from Her body, from head to toe is Aruna, a hue that is white and red combined.

Upto the nama Maha-Lavanya-Sevadhih, Vagdevatas described the gross form of Amma, who manifested from the Chidagnikunda.

Now they are describing the form of Amma residing on the top of the Sumeru mountain along with Kameswara. It is from here that She has descended at the Chidagnikunda.

While commenting on Lalita Trisati 138th nama Sarvaruna, Sankara Bhagavatpada defines Aruna as the colour of copper, quoting Rudram (असौ यस्ताम्रो अरुणः).

अव्य्क्तरागस्त्वरुणः (अमरकोशम्)

A red colour (रागम्) that is not enunciated (अव्यक्तम्) is called Aruna.

व्यक्तमम्बामयम् सर्वम् अव्यक्तम् तु महेश्वरम्

In the entire creation, all that is gross, is an embodiment of Sakti and what is not, is that of Maheswara.  For example, if Sakti is projected as a seed, the tree that is hidden in the seed is Maheswara.

So, from Amarakosa’s definition, we infer that the colour tone Aruna is the mix of white, representative of Siva, the unmanifest, and red, symbolic of His Sakti.

Combining Kamakala Vilasa’s description and Amarakosa’s definition, we understand that the white and red combined Aruna is indicative of the Primordial couple (Kameswari-Kameswara, adi dampati dvayam) responsible for creation and dissolution.

Inner Meaning

Prakasamsa is the intelligible illumination in an object/material and Vimarsamsa, the germane knowledge to perceive it.  For example, a jyoti is the prakasa aspect and the light (kaanti) emanating from the jyoti is its vimarsa aspect, because we identify the jyoti from the light that comes from it.

चित्तमयोहंकारः सुव्यक्त अहार्ण समरस साकारः।

शिवशक्तिमिथुनपिंडः कबळीकृत भुवनमंडलो जयति॥

 (कामकलाविलासम् – 5)

When knowledge indurated Supreme Consciousness, the Paramatma, looks into His own internal Vimarsa sakti, the universe with names (sounds having letters dangling between the अ kaara and ह kaara) and forms (comprising of Sun, Moon and Fire tattvas) is evolved.

सितशोणबिंदु युगळम् विवक्तशिवशक्ति संकुचप्रसरम्।

वागर्ध सृष्टि हेतुः परस्परानुप्रविष्टविस्पष्टः॥

 (कामकलाविलासम् – 6)

Paramatma’s prakasamsa/white bindu represented by the letter अ conjoins with the intrinsic vimarsa sakti/red bindu, represented by the letter ह, produces अहम् rupa, mixed Aruna bindu, the bindu being responsible for the creation and dissolution. 

Though Vagdevatas described Amma’s Aruna varna in a few other namas (padmaraga-samaprabha, tarunaditya-patala) too, only three of the thousand namas have the word Aruna. They are निजारुणप्रभापूरमज्जत्ब्रह्मांडमंडला, अरुणारुणकौसुंभवस्त्रभास्वत्कटीतटी, सर्वारुणा.

We have seen that the namas from Srimata to Tatanka-yugalibhuta-tapanodupa-mandala are indicative of the cosmogenesis, the creation process of the uncountable Cosmic eggs with ashtavidha prakruti. So, Aruna in the first nama, seems to be suggesting the SivaSakti-maya Brahmanda srushti.

Aruna in the second nama describing Amma’s divine saree that covers the entire body, seems to be suggestive of ontogenesis, the SivaSakti-maya pindanda srushti. It also refers to the entire ceaseless SivaSakti-maya creation revealed from the Paramatma using a negligible portion of His grand total brilliance.

The last and the third nama with Aruna, Sarvaruna, refers to the Siva-Sakthi couple in unison whose abode is the Sumeru mountain. 

May Amma’s Aruna varna brilliance sweep away the darkness (ignorance) in me.

 श्रीमात्रेनमः

Gross picture of Creation - Aruna

शुक्लाम्बरधरम् विष्णुम् शशिवर्णम् चतुर्भुजम्|

प्रसन्नवदनम् ध्यायेत् सर्व विघ्नोपशान्तये||

श्रीगुरुभ्योनमः

अविद्यावरणम् अपनयमे सुविद्याभरणम् उपनयमे|

अपारे घोरसंसारे कृपाळो विघटय दुरासं ||

Let us now understand an important concealed gross picture of the namas we have seen so far, from yet another angle, namely creation. 

श्रीमाता-निजारुणप्रभापूरमज्जत्ब्रग्माण्डमण्डला

The one and only one Supreme Consciousness ParamBrahma who is the creator, sustainer and destroyer of the entire manifested creation, desired to become many and made this immeasurable vast creation consisting of innumerable Cosmic Eggs, through four vyuhas.

The components of a Cosmic Egg/Brahmanda/Universe are explained in the subsequent four namas.

चम्पकाशोकपुन्नागसौगन्धिकलसत्कचा 

– Amma’s hair is representative of vyoma, the Celestial Sky

कुरुविन्दमणिश्रेणीकनत्कोटीरमण्डिता 

– कोटीरम् – Crown – Amma’s crown made up of rubies, the gems symbolic of Sun God. So, this nama is indicative of Surya mandala

अष्टमीचन्द्रविभाजदळिकस्थलशोभिता

 – चन्द्र – Moon in this nama, is indicative of Chandra mandala

***

पश्यन्नपि यथा लक्ष्म जगत् सोमे न विन्दति|

एवमस्ति न चोत्पन्नम् न च तन्न परायणम् || 

(शान्तिपर्वम् -203.8)

The scar on the Moon is actually the land/pruthvi on the Moon. But when we see it from the Earth, we will not realise that it as the land of the Moon.

***

According to this, the Chandra kalankam in the next nama is indicative of Earth.

मुखचन्द्रकळङ्काभमृगनाभिविशेषका – चन्द्रकळङ्कम् – Bhu mandala

Each Brahmanda or Cosmic Egg has Surya, Chandra and Bhu mandalas in the Celestial sky or BhurBhuvaSvarlokas.

Vagdevatas, described the ashtamurti tattva (eight gross forms) in the creation starting from an insect to the Brahma (pipilikadi Brahma paryantam), in the next five namas.  Paramatma’s own energy that is in subtle form, manifests as the following eight gross forms in any Brahmanda - five fundamental elements (Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Sky), time (Sun and Moon)/intellect,mind and ahamkara/atma/Purusha/Kshetragna (Bhagavad Gita 7.4).

वदनस्मरमाङ्गल्यगृहतोरणचिल्लिका – According to Markandeya purana, the two eye brows of Amma are formed with the two twilights’/Sandhyas’ tejus (82.27). The Mangala-gruha or the house that has the festoon (torana) between two twilights is nothing but the Earth.

वक्त्रलक्ष्मीपरीवाहचलन्मीनाभलोचना – Amma’s eyes are formed with the brightness of fire and they are described to be looking like fishes in Lakshmi pravaham. So, Water and Fire tattvas are hidden in this nama.

नवचम्पकपुष्पाभनासादण्डविराजिता 

-  Nose is the organ of breathing, indicative of Air/Vayu tattva

ताराकान्तितिरस्कारिनासाभरणभासुरा – Star like nose-ring  - Sky tattva

कदम्बमञ्जरीक्लुप्तकर्णपूरमनोहरा 

– Manohara– Manas/Yajamani/Kshetragna/Atma/Ahankara

ताटङ्कयुगळीभूततपनोडुपमण्डला  – tapana, udupa – Sun and Moon (Time)  

In the rest of the namas upto Maha-lavanya-sevadhihi, the order of creation as described in the Paingalopanishad and Kamakala Vilasam are indicated.

When the omnipotent Supreme Consciousness ParamaSiva desired of creation, His inherent mulaprakruti, the primordial vimarsa sakti appears like a mirror.

पद्मरागशिलादर्शपरिभाविकपोलभूः – adarsa – Mirror

The reflection of Supreme Consciousness ParamaSiva in this mirror like Sakthi is called Sakshi/Citkala/Antaryami

The Vimarsa Sakti/Mula Prakruti (Satvodriktam) augmented with the Citkala/Antaryami results in a covering/Avarana named maya/avyakta . The way a seed contains the tree in an unmanifested state, the entire creation is in an unmanifested state in this Avarana, hence the name avyakta (Paingalopanishad-2).

नवविद्रुमबिम्बश्रीन्यक्कारिरदनच्छदा – छद – screen – avyaktavarana

The reflection of Citkala on this screen-like avyaktavarana is called Iswara Chaitanya

The avyaktaavarana Sakti (rajodriktam) augmented with Iswara Chaitanya results in a sprout like Mahattatva/Vikshepa sakti (Paingalopanishad-3).

शुद्धविद्याङ्कुराकारद्विजपङ्क्तिद्वयोज्ज्वला

 – अङ्कुर – sprout – Mahattatva

The reflection of Maheswara on this Mahattatva is called Hiranyagarbha

The Mahattattva (tamodrikta) augmented with Hiranyagarbha manifests in a gross energy called citta/ahamkara. The reflection on this citta is none other than the all-pervading Vishnu (Paingalopanishad-4).

कर्पूरवीटिकामोदसमाकर्षद्दिगन्तरा – आमोद, दिगन्तरा – all pervasiveness

These four stages (mirror, maya, seed/sprout, gross manifestation) of the creation process are shrouded in the first two slokas of Dakshinamurthy stotram, by Sankara Bhagavatpada. These four are also known as Chatur-vyuhas.

Sakshi/Citkala/Antaryami, Iswara Chaitanya, Hiranyagarbha and Vishnu are nothing but the reflections of the Supreme Consciousness/ParamaSiva/Paramatma.  So each one of them also contains prakasamsa and vimarsamsa of the Brahma vastu, ParamaSiva.

The four prakasa, vimarsa pairs Citkala-Mula Prakruti, Maheswara-Maya, Hiranyagarbha-Mahat and Vishnu-Ahankara/Citta are known as the conjugal pairs Kameswari-Kameswara, Uma-Maheswara, Vani-Hiranyagarbha and Lakshmi-Narayana, respectively. 

In Kamakala Vilasa, these four divine pairs are symbolized by four bindus. The Kameswari-Kameswara divine pair that is responsible for the entire creation is represented as the middle Samvid-bindu. The other three pairs manifested from this duo are indicated by three bindus so as to form a triangle enclosing the middle bindu. 

Uma-Maheswara couple is denoted by the prakasa/sukla (White) /satva bindu, Vani-Hiranyagarbha pair by vimarsa/rakta (Red) /tamo bindu and Lakshmi-Narayana pair by misra/ sukla-sonita /rajo bindu.

These three bindus Sukla, Sonita, misra are also symbolic of Chandra-Agni-Surya mandala tattvas and satva-tamo-rajo gunas, respectively. Since the prakasa bindu denoting Uma-Maheswara couple is representative of Chandra mandala, it is indicative of the letter अ and the vimarsa bindu denoting Vani-Hiranyagarbha pair is representative of Agni mandala, it is indicative of the letter ह. As a result, the mixed or misra bindu denoting Lakshmi-Narayana pair is representative of Surya mandala and is indicative of aham (ego).

The triangle formed from the samvid bindu is called yoni cakram. The entire name-form (nama-rupa) based creation is manifested from these two.

Nama (name) is associated with sound and rupa (form) is associated with the five fundamental elements (panca maha bhutas).

The bindu that is ultimately responsible for the manifestation of the creation at the gross level is the misra, aham bindu.  Excitation of the prakasa aspect of the misra bindu results in  evolution of the Panca Maha Bhutas, while excitation of the vimarsa aspect, in akaradi-hakranta varnas/letters.  These letters are in turn manifested as words, mantras etc.,

The evolution of these two, are described in further namas.

Sabda-brahmotpatti- Creation of Sabda brahma

निजसल्लापमाधुर्यविनिर्भत्सितकच्छपी – निजसल्लाप – Sabda brahma

मन्दस्मितप्रभापूरमज्जत्कामेशमानसा

 – मज्जत् कामेशमानसा -  prakasa / अ

अनाकलितसादृश्यचिबुकश्रीविराजिता – सादृश्य – vimarasa /  ह

कामेशबद्धमाङ्गल्यसूत्रशोभितकन्धरा 

– माङ्गल्यसूत्र -  the garland of letters from अ to ह

Pancha bhutotpatti – Evolution of Five fundamental elements

Since all the tattvas are hidden in the prakasa-vimarsa pair symbolic of two letters अ and ह, Chandra-Agni-Surya mandala tattvas are responsible for the form. The following namas seem to be symbolic of five fundamental elements, the Pancha Mahabhutas.

तस्माद्वा एतस्मादात्मन आकाशः संभूतः | अकाशाद्वायुः |

वायोरग्निः |अग्नोरापः | आद्भ्यः पृथ्वी | (तैत्तिरीयोपनीषद् – 2.1.1)

कनकाङ्गदकेयुरकमनीयभुजान्विता – Amma’s shoulders, representative of the vast infinite sky, are formed with Vishnu’s tejus – Sky element

रत्नग्रैवेयचिन्ताकलोलमुक्ताफ़लान्विता – Chintaka lola – moving pendant – Air/Vayu element

कमेश्वरप्रेमरत्नमणिप्रतिपणस्तनी – stana are formed with Agni’s lustre – Fire/Agni element

नाभ्यालवालरोमाळीलताफ़लकुचद्वयी – Whirlpool like navel/nabhi – Water element

लक्ष्यरोमलताधारतासमुन्नेयमध्यमा – Madhya – Earth/pruthvi element

Sthula, sukshma and karana sariras formed along with the antahkarana and indriyas

These five fundamental elements undergo panchikarana and as a result, a gross body with  jnanendriyas and karmendriyas is formed.  The following three namas describing Amma’s hip portion seem to be indicating the Sarira-traya. The three bands on the waist, formed due to  the heaviness of the breasts, are covered by the red saree tied on the hip which in turn, is decorated with a waist band.

स्तन्भारदळन्मध्यपट्टबन्धवळित्रया – Innermost unseen three bends on the waist - subtler karana Sarira with trigunas

अरुणारुणकौसुम्भवस्त्रभास्वत्कटीतटी 

– (bhasvat) Shine - knowledge/jnanendriyas- subtle sukshma sarira

रत्नकिङ्किणिकारम्यरशनादामभूषिता

 – Decorative waist band – Gross sthula sarira decorating the karana and sukshma sariras

कामेशज्ञातसौभाग्यमार्दवोरुद्वयान्विता – The thighs, symbolic of icha sakti are indicative of manas and ahamkara

माणिक्यमकुटाकारजानुद्वयविराजिता – The knees, symbolic of jnana sakti are indicative of budhi/intellect and chitta

इन्द्रगोपपरिक्षिप्तस्मरतूणाभजङ्घिका– indriyas

गूढगुल्फा – Vital force

With this nama, the description of the Pindanda creation, comprising of the Sarira-traya along with the antahkarana, prana-sakthi/vital force is complete.

From this, one can observe that creation happens due to the misra bindu, a combination of Sukla/white and Sonita/red bindus. The colour that is obtained by mixing white and red is Aruna.  Hence the colour Aruna is always representative of creation.

From the nama कूर्मपृष्ठजयिष्णुप्रपदान्विता up to the nama महालावण्यशेवधिः, we have seen that Parameswara using a negligible part of His own Supreme effulgence, materializes the entire macrocosmic and microcosmic creation. This creation keeps happening continuously, eternally.

This way, Vagdevatas described the gross from, the saguna description of Amma concealed with the secrets of the Pindanda, Brahmanda creation. Brahmanda mandalas are described in namas upto  ताटङ्कयुगळीभूततपनोडुपमण्डला and further, Pindanda srushti is described in the namas upto गूढगुल्फा. The source of this recurrent creation process is explained in the rest of the namas upto महालावण्यशेवधिः

May I have the darshan of Amma’s sadrupa soon.

श्रीमात्रेनमः