{"collection":"tantra","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/tantra/htg/htg08.htm","path":"tantra/htg/htg08.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/tantra/htg/htg08.htm","text":"Hymns to the Goddess, by John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon), [1913]\n1\nNow I pray for the attainment of all blessings to Bhuvane\u015bvar\u012b,\n The cause and Mother\u00a03 of the world,\n She whose form is that of the \u015aabdabrahman,\u00a04\n And whose substance is bliss.\n2\nThou art the primordial One,\u00a05\n Mother of countless creatures,\n Creatrix of the bodies\u00a06 of the lotus-born,\u00a07 Vi\u1e63\u1e47u and \u015aiva.\n Who creates, preserves, and destroys the three worlds.\n O Mother! by hymning Thy praise I purify my speech.\n3\nO Daughter of the Mountain-King,\u00a01\n Thou art the cause of the world-destroying energy of \u015aiva,\u00a02\n Who manifests in earth, water, fire, ether, the sacrificer, the sun and moon,\u00a03\n And who destroyed the body of Manmatha.\u00a04\n4\nO Mother! men only worship the triple-streamed Gang\u0101\u00a05\n Because She shines in the matted hair of \u015aiva,\u00a06\n Which has been purified\n By the dust of Thy lotus feet.\n5\nAs the moon 7 delights the white night lotus 8 and none other,\nAs the sun delights the day lotus\u00a01 and none other,\n As one particular thing only delights one other,\n Thou, O Mother! delightest the whole universe by Thy glances.\n6\nAlthough Thou art the primordial cause of the world,\n Yet art Thou ever youthful;\n Although Thou art the Daughter of the Mountain-King,\u00a02\n Yet art Thou full of tenderness.\n Although Thou art the Mother of the Vedas,\u00a03\n Yet they cannot describe Thee.\u00a04\n Although men must meditate upon Thee,\n Yet cannot their mind comprehend Thee.\u00a05\n7\nO Mother of the worlds!\n Those who have reached that birth amongst men\n Which if so difficult to attain,\n And in that birth their full faculties,\n Yet nathless do not worship Thee,\nSuch, though having ascended to the top of the stairs,\n Nevertheless fall down again.\u00a01\n8\nO Bhav\u0101n\u012b!\n Such as worship Thee with fragrant flowers and sandal paste,\n Ground with cool water\u00a02 and powdered camphor,\n Gain the sovereignty of the whole world.\n9\nO Mother! like the sleeping King of serpents,\u00a03\n Residing in the centre of the first lotus,\u00a04\n Thou didst create the universe.\n Thou dost ascend like a streak of lightning,\u00a05\n And attainest the ethereal region.\u00a06\n10\nThy body, having been moistened with the nectar flowing from That,\u00a01\n Thou dost again reach Thy abode\u00a02 by that way.\u00a03\n O Mother and Spouse of Mahe\u015bvara!\n They in whose heart Thou glitterest are never reborn.\n11\nO Gaur\u012b! with all my heart\n I contemplate Thy form,\n Beauteous of face,\n With its weight of hanging hair,\n With full breasts\u00a04 and rounded slender waist,\u00a05\n Holding in three hands a rosary,\u00a06 a pitcher,\u00a07 and a book,\n And with Thy fourth hand making the jn\u0101namudr\u0101.\u00a08\n12\nO Bhuvane\u015bvar\u012b\n Yogis who have restrained their senses\n And have conquered the six enemies,\u00a09\n In yoga with calm minds behold Thee\n Holding noose and a goad,\nAnd making the vara and abhaya mudr\u0101s. 1\n13\nThou art Lak\u1e63m\u012b,\n Rivalling the lustre of molten gold,\n Holding two lotuses in two of Thy hands,\n And with the other two making the gestures which grant boons and dispel fear.\u00a02\n Four elephants holding jars (in their trunks),\n Sprinkle Thy head with nectar.\u00a03\n14\nO Bhav\u0101n\u012b! Thou art Durg\u0101,\u00a04 seated on a lion,\n Of the colour of durv\u0101 grass,\u00a05\nHolding in Thy eight hands various kinds of dreadful weapons,\n And destroying the enemies of the immortals.\u00a01\n15\nI remember again and again the dark\u00a02 primeval Dev\u012b\u00a03 swayed with passion,\u00a04\n Her beauteous face heated and moist with the sweat (of amorous play),\u00a05\n Bearing a necklace of Ganj\u0101 berries,\u00a06 and clad with leaves.\n16\nO Spouse of \u015ar\u012bka\u1e47\u1e6dha,\u00a07\n I place on my head Thy blue lotus feet,\n Which are followed by\u00a08 the Vedas,\nAs swans are lured by the tinkling sound of an anklet.\n17\nO Bhav\u0101n\u012b! I worship thy body from ankle to knee,\u00a01\n Upon which the bull-bannered one\u00a02 gazes with great love,\n And who, as if not satiated by looking thereon with two eyes,\n Has yet made for himself a third.\u00a03\n18\nI call to mind thy two thighs,\u00a04\n Which humble the pride of the trunk of an elephant,\n And surpass the plantain-tree in thickness and tenderness.\u00a05\n O Mother! youth\u00a06 fashioned those thighs\n That they may support as two pillars the weight of thy (great) hips,\u00a07\n19\nLooking at thy waist,\u00a01 it would seem as if it had been absorbed\n And become the great bulk of thy breasts and hips.\u00a02\n By the youth\u00a03 which clothes the body with hair,\u00a04\n May it ever be resplendent in my heart!\n20\nO Dev\u012b! may I never forget thy navel,\u00a05\n As it were a secure inviolate pool,\u00a06\n Given to Thee by Thy blooming youth,\n Filled with the liquid beauty\u00a07 of the beloved of Smara,\u00a08\nHe who was fearful of the fire from the eyes of Hara. 1\n21\nThy two lotus-like breasts, smeared with sandal,\n Which bear ashes telling of \u015aiva's embrace,\u00a02\n Call to mind the vermilion-painted temples moist with ichor\u00a03\n Of some (impassioned) elephant\n Rising from his bath in waters,\n Flicked with foam.\u00a04\n22\nO Mother! Thy two arms, beauteous with the water\n Dripping from Thy body bathed from neck to throat,\n Seem to have been formed by the crocodile-bannered One,\u00a05\n As long nooses wherewith to hold the throat of his enemy\u00a06 (\u015aiva).\nMay I never forget them!\n23\nO Daughter of the Mountain-King,\n Again and again have I looked upon Thy shapely neck,\n Which has stolen the beauty of a well-formed shell,\n And is adorning with pleasing necklace and many another ornament;\n Yet am I never satiated.\n24\nO Mother! he has not been born in vain\u00a01\n Who oft calls to his mind\n Thy face, with its large round eyes and noble brow,\n Its radiant cheeks and smile,\n The high, straight nose,\n And lips red as the bimba fruit.\u00a02\n25\nWhoever, O Dev\u012b! contemplates upon Thy wealth of hair,\n Lit by the crescent moon,\u00a03\n Resembling a swarm of bees hovering over fragrant flowers,\n Is freed of the ancient fetters which bind him to the world.\u00a04\n26\nThe mortal who in this world\n Devoutly from his heart reads this hymn,\n Sweet to the ears of the wise,\n Attains for ever all wealth in the form of that Lak\u1e63m\u012b\n Who attends the crowned kings who are prostrate at Her feet.\n31:1 The Dev\u012b in her aspect as Lord and Ruler of the world.\n31:2 P. 567.\n31:3 Ambik\u0101.\n31:4 S\u0101k\u1e63\u0101tsabdabrahmasvar\u016bpi\u1e47\u012b: the \"sound\" or manifested Aparabrahman, as opposed to the absolute, the Parabrahman. The Dev\u012b and the \u015aabdabrahman are, in fact, one, though men speak of Her as His \u015aakti (power).\n31:5 \u0100dy\u0101.\n31:6 Vapuhpratip\u0101dayitr\u012b. The Devas have bodies, subtle though they be, as the \u015aabdabrahman Himself has.\n31:7 Brahm\u0101.\n32:1 Himavat, whose daughter, as P\u0101rvat\u012b, the Dev\u012b was.\n32:2 For they derive their power from the Dev\u012b, the All-Mother, whose children they are, and who also manifests as their Spouse.\n32:3 These constitute the eight-fold forms (a\u1e63\u1e6dam\u016brti) of \u015aiva, viz, Sarva, Bhava, Rudra, Ugraha, Bh\u012bma, Pa\u015bupati, \u012a\u015b\u0101na, Mah\u0101deva.\n32:4 The Deva of Love.\n32:5 Trisrotah, for there are three Ganges: the heavenly (Mand\u0101kin\u012b), earthly (Alakanand\u0101), and that of the nether world (Bhogavat\u012b).\n32:6 As to the descent of Gang\u0101 into the ja\u1e6da of \u015aiva (see Hymn to Gang\u0101, post).\n32:7 Literally Lord of Kal\u0101. Kal\u0101 is a digit of which there arc sixteen in the moon. The am\u0101kat\u0101 is that from which the nectar is distilled.\n32:8 Kumudin\u012b, which blooms and opens at night.\n33:1 Kamalin\u012b.\n33:2 Mountain (\u015aaila), which is that which is made of masses of stone (\u015ail\u0101)--a rhetorical comparison between the hardness of stone and Her tenderness.\n33:3 Tray\u0101. The whole Veda is so called because it consists of song, prose, and verse; or because the Rik, Yajus, and S\u0101ma are alone referred to as Veda.\n33:4 Cf. verse 2 of Mahimnastava of Pu\u1e63padanta.\n33:5 Literally, \"Though thou art to be meditated upon, thou dost not stay in the path of mind\" (cf. Mahimnastava, loc. cit, and \u015aruti, which says, \"Yato v\u0101co nivarttante apr\u0101pya manas\u0101 saha.\")\n34:1 That is, as the subsequent fall makes the ascent useless, so human incarnation is without avail for those who, without excuse in such incarnation, do not worship the Dev\u012b.\n34:2 K\u0101lid\u0101sa in the Ritusamh\u0101ra says that in the hot weather women should wear fine cloth, powder their hair with fragrant scent, and smear their breasts with sandal, ground with cool water.\n34:3 She as Ku\u1e47\u1e0dalin\u012b resembles a sleeping serpent with three and a half coils abiding in the m\u016bl\u0101dh\u0101ra.\n34:4 The M\u016bl\u0101dh\u0101ra cakra (see last note).\n34:5 Vidyullat\u0101 balaya vibhramamudvahanti. This is the sense of the passage which may literally mean that the Dev\u012b carries the beauty (vibrahma) of wristlets, like a streak of lightning, or \"the Dev\u012b is sporting like a streak of lightning.\"\n34:6 Khamasnuv\u0101n\u0101. Kham is here \u015aiva in the Sahasr\u0101ra, whither the Dev\u012b repairs when Her passion is aroused by the lightning of the K\u0101m\u0101gni around Her fanned by the leftward revolution of the red Kandarpavayu.\n35:1 That is the Sahasr\u0101rapadma.\n35:2 M\u016bl\u0101dh\u0101ra.\n35:3 Margen\u0101tena--that is, the n\u0101d\u012b su\u1e63umn\u0101.\n35:4 Ap\u012bvarastanatat\u012bm.\n35:5 Tanuvrittamadhy\u0101m.\n35:6 Japam\u0101la, with which japa or recitation of mantra is done.\n35:7 Kala\u015ba.\n35:8 Literally, holding cint\u0101, which is a name for the j\u00f1\u0101na mudr\u0101, or manual gesture so called.\n35:9 The six sins (see p. 27, n. 3).\n36:1 That is, the gestures (Mudr\u0101) which grant boons and dispel fear. In the first the hand is held horizontally, the palm open, the fingers close to each other, and the thumb across the palm and touching the root of the third finger. The second is the same, but the hand is held upwards vertically, the palm being shown to the spectator.\n36:2 That is, the vara and abhayamudr\u0101s, ante.\n36:3 In this form the Dev\u012b is represented as being surrounded by four elephants, which pour nectar over 'her from jars held in their trunks.\n36:4 One of the names of Bhuvane\u015bvar\u012b (see p. 171 of Prosanna Kumar Shastri's \"Da\u015bamah\u0101vidy\u0101\").\n36:5 Of a dark green. It is not clear why this colour is here mentioned, as the colour of Durg\u0101 is a golden yellow. It is, however, the colour of other forms, which are those of the one and the same Dev\u012b. Thus the colour of K\u0101l\u012b is that of anjana (black, collyrium), T\u0101r\u0101 is n\u012bl\u0101 (dark blue), M\u0101tangin\u012b is asit\u0101 (black) or shy\u0101m\u0101ng\u012b (dark green). The hue of Shodash\u012b (\u015ar\u012b) is that of the rising sun (b\u0101l\u0101rk\u0101kanti), at it is that of Bhuvane\u015bvar\u012b (uddaddinakaradyuti). The colour of Bhairav\u012b is said to be that of a thousand rising suns; of Chinnamast\u0101 that of a million suns; p. 37 Dh\u016bm\u0101vati is of an ashen colour (vivarn\u0101); Bagal\u0101mukh\u012b is all yellow (p\u012btavar\u1e47\u0101), and Kamal\u0101 is said to be like lightning (saud\u0101minisannibh\u0101)--see Prosanna Kumar Shastri's \"Da\u015bamah\u0101vidy\u0101\".\n37:1 The Daityas, enemies of the Devas, whose Protectress the Dev\u012b is.\n37:2 Asitak\u0101nti. It is difficult to arrive at English translations for some Sanskrit words of colour. M\u0101tangin\u012b here referred to is also spoken of as shy\u0101m\u0101ng\u012b or dark green; and dark green and dark-blue seem also to be used interchangeably.\n37:3 M\u0101tangin\u012b, one of the Da\u015bamah\u0101vidy\u0101.\n37:4 Anangatantr\u0101m--influenced or swayed by Ananga (\"the bodiless one\"), a name of the Hindu God of Love, K\u0101ma.\n37:5 Avirnid\u0101sha jalashikharashobhivaktr\u0101m. The cause is shown in the preceding line--play and union with her Lord.\n37:6 Red and black berries used as goldsmiths' weights.\n37:7 \u015aiva, the \"beautiful throated,\" also called Shitika\u1e47\u1e6dha (\"peacock-throated\"), from the colouring caused by His drinking the venom which arose at the churning of the ocean.\n37:8 Anugamyam\u0101nau--that is, the Vedas worship and adore Her.\n38:1 Jangh\u0101. cf. Lalit\u0101sahasran\u0101ma, verse 18, where the Dev\u012b's calves are compared to \"the sapphire-studded quiver of the God of Love, with rounded ankles and instep arched like the back of a tortoise.\"\n38:2 \u015aiva, also called Vri\u1e63addhvaja.\n38:3 \u015aiva is always represented with three eyes, the third being the eye of wisdom, which in man opens on the realization of divinity.\n38:4 Uru (cf. Lalit\u0101sahasran\u0101ma, verse 17. \"The symmetry and smoothness of Her thighs are known only to K\u0101me\u015ba (\u015aiva). Her knees shine like jewelled discs.\"\n38:5 Cf. First Canto of K\u0101lid\u0101sa's Kum\u0101ra Sambhavam.\n38:6 Madhyamenabayas\u0101.\n38:7 Shroni.\n39:1 Murtirmadhyastava.\n39:2 Shronyaustanauchayugapat prathayishyatochchairb\u0101ly\u0101t parena bayas\u0101 parihristas\u0101rah--that is, the waist is so slender and the breasts and hips so heavy that it would seem that the greater part of the body, which goes to the making of the waist, had been taken away and put into the breasts and hips, and formed their bulk.\n39:3 B\u0101ly\u0101tparenabayas\u0101. Literally the age which follows childhood, which is the cause of these changes in woman's body.\n39:4 Rom\u0101valivil\u0101sitena, which appears with puberty (cf. verse 15 of the Lalit\u0101).\n39:5 N\u0101bhi, which also means any navel-like cavity.\n39:6 Pallalamapradhri\u015byam--from all but \u015aiva: a similar idea to that of verse 17 of the Lalit\u0101, where it is said that the beauty of the Dev\u012b's thighs are known only to Her Lord K\u0101me\u015ba (\u015aiva).\n39:7 L\u0101vanyav\u0101ribharit\u0101ng.\n39:8 That is, Rati, Spouse of K\u0101ma or Smara, the God of Love, son of K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a and Rukmin\u012b. The son of K\u0101ma is Aniruddha, and his companion is Vasanta, the spring. He is armed with a bow-and-arrows, the bow string being a line of bees, and the arrows flowers of different plants.\n40:1 When the Devas desired a commander for their forces in their war with T\u0101raka, they sought the aid of K\u0101ma in drawing \u015aiva towards P\u0101rvat\u012b, whose issue alone could destroy the demon. K\u0101ma undertook the mission, and shot his arrows of love at \u015aiva, when the latter was doing tapas. \u015aiva, however, who was offended at this disturbance of his devotions, burnt K\u0101ma down with a flash from the fire of His third eye. Subsequently K\u0101ma was reborn in the form of Pradyumna at the request of Rati.\n40:2 For \u015aiva's body is covered with ashes.\n40:3 Samadasyakumbhau, the ichor which exudes from the temples of elephants in rut.\n40:4 The ashes are thus compared to foam, and the sandal paste to the vermilion with which the temples and foreheads of fine elephants are painted.\n40:5 That is, K\u0101ma, the God of Love.\n40:6 For \u015aiva burnt him (see ante n. 5). The Dev\u012b's arms embrace the neck of \u015aiva.\n41:1 Sa eva j\u0101tah. Literally, \"He is indeed born.\" His birth is fruitful.\n41:2 The fruit of the tree called ty\u0101l\u0101kucho in Bengali, which, when ripe, is very red, and to which the lips of young women are often compared (cf. Meghad\u016bta, verse 2, \"Pakvabimb\u0101dharo\u1e63th\u012b\").\n41:3 The Dev\u012b bears the crescent moon on her head as does \u015aiva.\n41:4 Tasya svayam galati Dev\u012b pur\u0101\u1e47ap\u0101sh\u0101--that is, he is freed of rebirth, the fruit of Karma. Here commences the phala (fruit or result portion) of the stotra.","title":"Hymns to the Goddess: From Tantra: Bhuvane\u015bvari, from the Tantras\u0101ra","type":"page"}