Sivaa & Svaadhina-vallabha

शुक्लाम्बरधरम् विष्णुम् शशिवर्णम् चतुर्भुजम्।

प्रसन्नवदनम् ध्यायेत् सर्व विघ्नोपशान्तये॥

श्रीगुरुभ्योनमः

आगमप्रणवपीठिकाममलवर्णमङलशरीरिणीम्

आगमावयवशोभिनीमखिलवेदसारकृतशेखरीम् ।

मूलमन्त्रमुखमण्डलाम् मुदितनादबिन्दुनवयौवनाम्

मातृकाम् त्रिपुरसुन्दरीम् मनसि भावयामि परदेवताम् ।। (नवरत्नमालिका – 8)

We will try to understand two namas Sivaa and Svadhina-vallabha now.

शिवा

शिवस्यपत्नीतिवा शिवा – She who is the wife of Siva, is Sivaa

दोषशमनच्छिवा – Sivaa is auspicious because of Her faultless nature/Mangalam/auspicious

मोक्षे भद्रे सुखे शिवम्

Sivaayai namah - Pranams to Siva’s wife Sivaa, who is auspicious, bestower of happiness and moksha.

स्वाधीनवल्लभा

वल्लतीति वल्लभः One who has got Her husband under Her sway.

Hidden meaning:

In these two namas, Vagdevatas seem to be indicating the syllables that emanated from the Akshara Brahma described in the earlier nama Siva-Kama-Eswara-ankastha. Sanskrit syllables are of two types, vowels swara varnas and consonants, vyanjana varnas. The vowels अ,आ,..etc., are the swara aksharas and the consonants क्, ख्, ग्,..are the vyanjana aksharas.

Patanjali, in his Mahabhshya for the Panini Ashtadhyaayi, describes the vowels and consonants in the following verses.

स्वयम् राजन्ते स्वराः। अन्वग् भवति व्यञ्जनमिति (महाभाष्यम् – I.2.29)

The vowels are self luminous, could be uttered independently.  Consonants follow vowels.  The consonants क्, ख्, ग्,.. etc., are pronounced with the help of the vowels and their pronunciation follows vowels.  For example, क्+अ = क, क्+इ= कि etc.,

It is mentioned in the following sloka of the Suta Samhitha from the Skanda Purana that, the vowels are representative of Sakthi and consonants that of Siva.

यथ परतरः शंभुर्द्विधा शक्तिशिवात्मना।

तथैव मातृका देवी द्विधा भूता भवेत्स्वयम्।।

एकाकारेण शक्तेस्तु वाचकश्चेतरेण तु।

शिवस्य वाचकः साक्षाद्विद्वेयम् पदगामिनी।। (सूतसंहित-यज्ञखंड् -4.21,22)

With this purport, the nama Sivaa seems to be suggestive of the the self luminous vowels and the nama Svadhinavallabha, to the vowels in the context of being followed by Her husband in the form of the consonants.

Though vowels could be uttered without the help of consonants, combinations formed with vowels alone like aaiuiiuuaa do not convey any meaning.  In order to have meaningful word formation, it is a must that the vowels conjoin with the consonants.  This way, vowels and consonants are interdependent. These two namas that we are trying to understand now, refer to the swara-vyanjanaaksharas, symbolic of Sakthi and Siva respectively, indicate their coalescent nature.  

However, in Lalitha Trisathi there are namas referring to Amma as ka-kaara, sa-kaara, ha-kaara and la-kaara rupini.  But all these are consonants and according to the above discussion, consonants are infused with Siva tattva.  Then what is the secret behind these consonants being personified as Amma?  Let us try to understand this too.

There is yet another interpretation of these vowels and consonants.

एवम् षोडशकम् परमर्शानाम् बीजस्वरूपमुच्यते।

तदुत्थम् व्यञ्जनात्मकम् योनिस्वरूपम्। (अ3-7,8)

In the Shambhavopaya section of Abhinava Gupta's Tantrasara, he describes the vowels as seeds and the consonants issuing from these vowels as yoni. Yoni here refers to the source or womb. These consonants are also indicative of the subtle and gross elements responsible for the creation.  Hence the word yoni is used for consonants.

The seed is of Siva tattva and the yoni is of Sakthi tattva. This is the reason as to why the vowels are called prana (vital force) akshara and consonants, prani akshara, prani being one with the vital force.  Very aptly, the Tamil language refers to the vowels as uyir ezhutthu and consonants as mei ezhutthu or udal ezhutthhu.  Uyir – life; mei/udal – body; ezhutthu- syllable. While most of the other dialects use swara and vyanjana, in Telugu, they are called acchulu and hallulu following the ach and hal pratyaharas of Panini, respectively. 

From this discussion of Suta Samhita and TantraSara’s connotation of vowels and consonants, we understand that if vowels are manifested as Sakthi tattva, consonants get personified as that of Siva and vice versa.  Their interplay is described by Sankara Bhagavatpada in the शरीरम् त्वम् शम्भोः शशिमिहिरवक्षोरुहयुगम् sloka of Soundarya lahari.  In this sloka, he praises Amma!! You are the body of Sambhu. You change your roles of dependee-dependence with so very ease and are always in the blissful association.  The dependee-dependence he is referring to here, indirectly seems to be indicating the vowel-consonant relation.

Paramatma desirous of becoming many, made this creation.  Creation takes place from the Akshara Brahma, with the Nada coupled with the gross form. Evolution is synonymous with the sound and form. In fact, the vowels-consonants are not just part of the language but are also associated with the creation of the fundamental elements, jnanendriyas, karmendriyas etc., The Siva-Sakthi personified syllables are the fundamental building blocks for the nama-rupa srushti.

May Amma’s grace showers present me with a flash of Her divine gross form.

श्रीमात्रेनमः