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.. shrI lalitA sahasra nAmastotram with meanings ..
sanskritdocuments.orgApril 10, 2015
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Document Information
Text title : lalitaasahasranaama stotraFile name :
lalita.itxCategory : sahasranAmaLocation : doc_deviiLanguage :
SanskritSubject : hinduism/religionTransliterated by : M. Giridhar
giridhar at chemeng.iisc.ernet.inProofread by : KirkWortman
kirkwort at hotmail.com, Sunder Hattangadi, MandaKrishna Srikanth
1) Book Mantra Pushpam; published by Ramakrishna Math,Khar, Mumbai
2) Book Sri Lalita Sahasranama; published by Sri RamakrishnaMath
Mylapore, Madras; with text, transliteration and translation edited
by SwamiTapasyananda 3) Videotape of Vedic Pandits, recorded from
the MaharishiChannelLatest update : August 2, 2002, December 24,
2013Send corrections to : [email protected] access :
http://sanskritdocuments.org
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The Divine mother is to be meditated uponas shining in a
vermilion-red body, with atriple eyes, sporting a crown of
rubiesstudded with the crescent moon, a face allsmiles, a splendid
bust, one hand holdinga jewel-cup brimming with mead, and theother
twirling a red lotus. -
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2 I meditate on the great Empress. Sheis red in color, and her
eyes are fullof compassion, and holds the noose, thegoad, the bow
and the owery arrow inHer hands. She is surrounded on all sidesby
powers such as aNimA for rays andShe is the Self within me. The
Divine Goddess is to be meditated uponas seated on the lotus with
petal eyes.She is golden hued, and has lotus owers in Her hand.She
dispels fear of the devotees who bow before Her.She is the
embodiment of peace, knowledge(vidyA), is praised by gods and
grantsevery kind of wealth wished for. I meditate on the Mother,
whose eyesare smiling, who holds the arrow, bow,noose and the goad
in Her hand. She isglittering with red garlands and ornaments.She
is painted with kumkuma on her foreheadand is red and tender like
the japa ower.
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or --- -- - -- - - or ---- --- or ----- --- ---- ---- ---- --- ---
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12 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - -- -- - - or --
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Before we begin, let us oer ourselves at the feet ofthe Divine
Mother, shrImat mahAtripurasundarI.This introduction deals with the
background onlalitAsahasranAma (the purANa etc) and the importance
ofShri Chakra, the diagrammitical form for meditation.(Only a brief
description is provided here since ithas been extensively described
by Adi Shankara in the text ofSaundaryalaharI. A detailed
description of Lalita yantra (ShriChakra) is given in the Hindu
Tantrik pagehttp://www.shivashakti.com/)Among the 18 purANas,
brahmANDa-purANa is well knownfor theextolation of Lalita. It
explains in detail the appearance ofthe Goddess Lalita to save the
world from the clutches of thedemon bhaNDAsura. There are three
important sub-texts inthispurANa.The rst of these texts is
LalitopAkhyAna, consisting of 45chapters and is found in the last
section of the purANa. Thelast ve chapters are especially well
known. They extol thegreatness of the Divine mother, the signicance
of the mantraof the goddess (shoDashAkSharI-vidyA), the various
mudrasandpostures to be practiced, meditations, initiations etc.,
and
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16 the mystical placement of the deities involved in Shri
Chakra.The next text is the lalitA trishati in which 300 names of
thegoddess is featured. There is a well known commentary on
thiswork by Adi ShankarAchArya.The third text is the celebrated
LalitA sahasranAma, whichconsists of 320 verses in three chapters.
The rst chapter is51 verses, and relates that the 1000 names of
LalitA wererecited by various devatas as commanded by the
goddessherself.This chapter also explains that the verses are in
anuShTupChaNDaH(metre known as anuShTup)and that the deity Lalita
is invoked in three kUTas(vAgbhava, kAmarAja, and shakti). The
second chapter of thetext contains the thousand names of the
goddess in 182 1/2verses (which is transliterated below). The third
and nalchapter is 86 1/2 verses long and enumerates the
benetsaccrued by reciting these one thousand names of the
Goddess.This is mainly to encourage people to recite the names
withconcentration to achieve, if not anything else, a peace of
mind.Lalita trishati and lalitA sahasranAma are dialogues
betweenthe sage Agastya and the god Hayagriva (Pronounced
ashayagrIva). Hayagriva is theincarnation of ViShNu who assumed the
form of a horseto kill a demon by the same name. Agastya was asage
of great renown, who is immortalized as a star in thecelestial
heavens(one of the seven Rishi-s, saptarShi or UrsaMajor).He is the
patron saint of Tamilnadu being afounder of a system of medicine
called Siddha, and also havingdrunk the whole ocean in his
kamaNDalum. According toyAskasNirukta, Agastya is the half-brother
of the great sage,VasishTha.The story of the meeting of Agastya and
Hayagriva is
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17given in the lalitopAkhyAna and is quite interesting.
Agastyawas visiting several places of pilgrimage and was sad to
seemany people steeped in ignorance and involved in only
sensualpleasures. He came to kA nchi and worshipped kAmAkShIand
soughta solution for the masses. Pleased with the devotion and
hiscaring for the society, Lord ViShNu appeared before Agastyaand
provided the sage Agastya with the solution of curing theworldly
folk from ignorance. He explained that He is theprimordial
principle, and the source and the end of everything.Though He is
above forms and guNas, He involves himself inthem. He goes on to
explain that a person should recognize thatHe is the pradhAna
(primordial) transformed into the universe,and that He is also the
puruSha (conscious spirit) who istranscendental and beyond all
qualities(guNa-s) and forms.However torecognize this, one has to
perform severe penance,self-discipline etc. If (since) this is
dicult, Lord ViShNuadvises that the worship of the goddess will
achieve thepurpose of life, given as liberation from bondage,very
easily. He points out that evenother Gods like Shiva and Brahma
have worshiped the goddessTripurA. ViShNu concludes his discourse
saying that this wasrevealed toAgastya so that he (Agastya) can
spread themessageto god, sages, and humans. ViShNu requests Agastya
to ap-proachhis incarnation, Hayagriva and disappears from
Agastyassight.Agastya approaches Hayagriva with devotion and
reverence.Hayagriva reveals to Agastya that the great Goddess,
lalitA,is without beginning or end and is the foundation of the
entireuniverse. The great goddess abides in everyone and can
berealized only in meditation. The worship ofgoddess is done with
the lalitA sahasranamA (1000 names) or
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18 with trishati (300 names) or with aShTottaranAma (108
names)orwith Shri Chakra (diagrammatical form for meditation).In
tantra shAstra, each devi/deva is worshipped as a mantra,and
yantra. Shri Chakra is used to represent the divine
motherdiagrammatically. It denotes how the power of a small point
inthe centre of the Shri Chakra transforms itself into a seriesof
triangles, circles, and lines. One can meditate on the ShriChakra
itself knowing the signicance of the triangles andcircles. These
forms respresent the various transformations ofthe Reality. One can
realize that the universe has evolvedthroughthe undierentiated
consciousness and has eventuallybecome the universe aswe know it.
The recitation of sahasranAma and trishati areused in the worship
of Shri Chakra. The correspondencebetween Shri Chakra as a yantra
and the fteen letter mantraof the goddess (pa nchadashIvidyA,
pronounced panchadashIv-idyA)is achieved by carefully studying the
Shri Chakra which isconstructed using the symbolism of the three
kUTa-s and thesignicance of the fteen letters of the shrIvidyA. It
issaid that if meditation on Shri Chakra is not possible,recitation
of the sahasranAma with utmost devotionwould confer the same
benets, perhaps in longer time-frame.The sahasranAma also mentions
how to meditate on the vari-ouscentres of consciousness (chakras)
in ones body. Kundalini,meaningcoiled up, ordinarly resides in the
muladhAra chakra,at the base of spine, and when it risesto the
sahasrAra chakra at the top of the head, one becomesaware of the
ultimate reality.Before reciting the sahasranAma, it is advised
thatthe divine mother be meditated upon according to the dhyAna
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19shloka-s, given in the beginning of the text.May the Divine
Mother guide us in our every action andthought,and may She confer
upon us the greatest gift of all, mokSha,the liberation.OM tat
sat.
Encoding and notes provided by Prof. M. Giridhar
[email protected](Proofread by Kirk Wortman
[email protected].)
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.. shrI lalitA sahasra nAma stotram with meanings ..was typeset
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