{"collection":"tantra","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/tantra/htg/htg14.htm","path":"tantra/htg/htg14.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/tantra/htg/htg14.htm","text":"Hymns to the Goddess, by John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon), [1913]\n1\nHR\u012aM, HR\u012aM\u00a03 is Thy most pleasing b\u012bja,\u00a04\n O Thou whose moon-like\u00a05 beauty is heightened\nBy the lotuses (which surround Thee).\u00a01\n O auspicious and favourable Dev\u012b!\n Forest fire\u00a02 of the forest of evil thoughts,\n Whose lotus feet are worshipped by the universe.\n O lotus seated upon a lotus,\n Joy dost thou cause to those who salute Thee,\n Destroyer of Ignorance,\n Spouse of Hari,\u00a03\n Substance of the world.\u00a04\n2\nAIM, AIM\u00a05 is Thy favourite mantra,\n Thou who art both form and formlessness,\u00a06\n Who art the wealth of the lotus face of the lotus-born,\u00a07\n Embodiment of all gu\u1e47as,\u00a08 yet devoid of attributes,\u00a09\n Changeless, and neither gross nor subtle.\u00a010\nNone know Thy nature, nor is Thy inner reality known.\u00a01\n Thou art the whole universe;\n And Thou it is who existeth within it.\n Thou art saluted by the foremost of Devas.\n Without part Thou existeth in Thy fulness everywhere.\u00a02\n Ever\u00a03 pure art Thou.\n3\nGreatly art Thou pleased with the recitation\u00a04 of the mantra HR\u012aM.\u00a05\n Thy crown is white as snow.\u00a06\n Thy hands play with the v\u012bn\u0101.\u00a07\n O Mother! Mother! salutation to Thee.\n Burn, burn my sloth and grant me great intelligence.\u00a08\n Thou art Knowledge itself.\n The Ved\u0101nta ever sings of Thee.\n\u015aruti\u00a01 speaks of Thee.\n O giver of liberation! O way to liberation!\n Whose power is beyond all understanding.\n O giver of happiness,\u00a02 adorned with a white necklace,\u00a03\n Grant to me Thy favours.\n4\nThou art intelligence, intelligence, intelligence,\u00a04\n Thy names are memory, resolution, mind, and hymn of praise.\u00a05\n Eternal and fleeting,\u00a06\n Great cause, saluted by Munis,\u00a07\n New and old;\u00a08 sacred current of virtue,\u00a09\n Saluted by Hari and Hara.\u00a010\n Ever pure, beauteous of colour,\n The subtlest element\u00a011 of things--\nYea, even the very half thereof.\u00a01\n Thou art the giver of intelligence, intelligence, intelligence.\n Who art the giver of joy to M\u0101dhava.\u00a02\n5\nIn the form of HR\u012aM, K\u1e62\u012aM, DH\u012aM, HR\u012aM,\u00a03\n Thou holdest a book,\n Thou art joyful, of smiling face, and of good fortune.\n Innocence, current of charm,\u00a04\n With all powers of arrest.\u00a05\n Burn, burn my sin,\n And dispel the darkness of my evil thoughts.\n O praiseworthy of all!\n Thou art G\u012bh, Gauh, V\u0101k, and Bh\u0101rat\u012b.\u00a06\n It is Thou who grantest success to the tongue of the greatest of poets,\nAs also in the attainment of all (forms of) knowledge. 1\n6\nI pray to Thee, I pray to Thee, I bow to Thee,\n Come to my tongue and never leave me.\n May my intelligence\u00a02 never go astray,\n May my sins be taken away,\n May I be free from sorrow.\n In time of peril may I never be bewildered.\n May my mind work freely without impediment\u00a03\n In \u015a\u0101stra disputation and verse.\n7\nHe who chastely\u00a04 lives, observing silence\u00a05 and religious devotions,\u00a06\n Abstaining from flesh and fish\u00a07 on the thirteenth day of the month,\u00a08\n And bowed with devotion, early each morning\n Praises Thee with the most excellent verse.\n Will, skilful in speech, surpass even V\u0101caspati.\u00a09\n The uncleanliness of his sins will be swept away.\n Such an one gains the fruit of his desires,\nThe Dev\u012b protects him as though he were Her own child.\n Poetry flows from his mouth,\n Prosperity attends his house,\n And every obstacle to success will disappear.\n8\nWhoever reads without interruption the whole of this hymn\n Twenty-one times on the thirteenth day of the month,\u00a01\n Both on the dark and the light side of the month,\u00a02\n And meditates on Sarasvat\u012b garmented in white,\n Adorned with white ornaments,\n Such an one attains in this world the fruit of his desires.\n This auspicious hymn has been made by Brahm\u0101 himself;\n Whoever daily reads it with care acquires immortality.\u00a03\n74:1 Dev\u012b of speech, eloquence, knowledge, and learning, and \u015aakti of Brahm\u0101; but formerly, according to the Pur\u0101\u1e47ic account, the Spouse of Vi\u1e63\u1e47u, represented as a fair woman with either four or two arms, and often as seated on a lotus holding a v\u012bn\u0101. The Bh\u0101radvaja Smr. says: \"Sarasvat\u012b is She who ever resides in the tongue of all beings and who causes speech.\" According to the Vasi\u1e63\u1e6dha R\u0101m\u0101, cited in the Lalit\u0101, verse 137, She is called Sarasvat\u012b as the possessor (vati) of the saras (flow of nectar from the brahmarandhra). The Brahm\u0101 Pur\u0101\u1e47a says the Dev\u012b created Sarasvat\u012b from Her tongue, and from Her shoulders the science of love.\n74:2 P. 579.\n74:3 The b\u012bja, or \"seed\" mantra of the Dev\u012b whose other b\u012bja is the v\u0101gbhava b\u012bja or \"aim.\"\n74:4 See last note.\n74:5 The colour of Sarasvat\u012b is white. Thus She is elsewhere represented as \"white, holding the v\u012bn\u0101\" (Svetav\u012bn\u0101dhar\u0101); \"adorned with white flowers\" (svet\u0101bhara\u1e47abh\u016b\u1e63it\u0101), \"holding a white rosary\" (svet\u0101k\u1e63as\u016btrahast\u0101ca), \"besmeared with white sandal paste\" (svetacandanacarcit\u0101), \"clad in white raiment\" (svet\u0101mbaradhar\u0101), and the like. Here Her whiteness is compared to the moon.\n75:1 She is seated on and represented as surrounded by lotuses.\n75:2 D\u0101v\u0101gni. She destroys such thoughts.\n75:3 Vi\u1e63\u1e47u\n75:4 Sams\u0101ras\u0101re. The sams\u0101ra is the illusory world of birth and rebirth, which is said to be asara (unreal, unsubstantial, fleeting). The reality behind this phenomenal illusion is the Dev\u012b, who plays, and whose play is world-play.\n75:5 The v\u0101gbhavab\u012bja.\n75:6 R\u016bp\u0101r\u016bpaprak\u0101\u015be.\n75:7 Brahm\u0101, whose Spouse She is.\n75:8 The \"qualities,\" or conditions, which are the substance of Prak\u1e5bti or sattva, rajas, and tamas.\n75:9 She is nirgu\u1e47\u0101, for She and the Parabrahman are in Their essence one.\n75:10 The forms of the Dev\u012b are threefold: par\u0101 (supreme), s\u016bk\u1e63m\u0101 (subtle), which consists of mantra and sth\u016bla (gross or physical), with hands and feet. But She is neither of these in the sense that the only true form (svar\u016bpa) is above and beyond them both.\n76:1 N\u0101pivijn\u0101tatattve; another reading being n\u0101pivijn\u0101natattve. The reference is to Her supreme (para) form, of which the Vi\u1e63\u1e47u Y\u0101mala says \"none know\" (M\u0101tastvatparamam r\u016bpam tannaj\u0101n\u0101ti kashcana (see chap. iii. of the \u015a\u0101kt\u0101nandatarangin\u012b).\n76:2 She as the Brahman is akha\u1e47\u1e0da \"everywhere\" and yet in the limited sense \"nowhere,\" in the sense that She is at some particular place and not elsewhere, or partly here and partly there.\n76:3 In past, present, and future.\n76:4 Japa, which includes that which would not be understood as recitation in the English sense--viz., manasa or mental, and the inaudible japa.\n76:5 The b\u012bja of the Dev\u012b.\n76:6 Her colour is white\n76:7 A stringed musical instrument.\n76:8 Dehibuddhimprashast\u0101m; the great prayer to Her.\n77:1 Revelation; generally applied to the Vedas in which Sarasvat\u012b is spoken of (see Muir, O\u1e62\u1e6c., verse 339). She is also called Mother of Vedas.\n77:2 \u015a\u0101rad\u0101.\n77:4 Dh\u012b.\n77:5 Dh\u0101ran\u0101, dhriti (or constancy), mati. She is the \"hymn of praise,\" for it is composed of words, and She is the Dev\u012b thereof, and word and speech itself.\n77:6 She eternally exists as the reality behind all appearance, and is the cause of the fleeting appearance itself.\n77:7 Sages.\n77:8 See note 6 ante. She ever appears in new forms, and yet Herself in Her aspect as Atm\u0101, persists as the one and same.\n77:9 Pu\u1e47ya.\n77:10 Vi\u1e63\u1e47u and \u015aiva.\n77:11 M\u0101tra--the atomic part of things.\n78:1 M\u0101tr\u0101rdhatattve. She is so very subtle: or alternatively the M\u0101tr\u0101rdha below the S\u0101hasr\u0101ra.\n78:2 The husband of M\u0101 or Lak\u1e63m\u012b--that is, Vi\u1e63\u1e47u, whose Spouse She was. She as Prak\u1e5bti gives joy to the param\u0101tm\u0101, who is the enjoyer (bhokt\u0101).\n78:3 The mantra, as currently recited is Om Om Ksh\u012bm, Ksh\u012bm, svarupe. \"Ksh\u012bm,\" for She is the destructress of sin.\n78:4 Mohemugdhaprav\u0101he. Mugdh\u0101 is generally used in connection with n\u0101yik\u0101--that is, a simple, artless innocent maiden, as yet unacquainted with love. The general and correct reading is mugdhemohaprav\u0101he.\n78:5 Stambhanam; one of the six \"magical\" powers known as the \u1e63atkarma, whereby a person may be paralyzed in action or speech. So a disputant might seek the power of stambhanam to close the mouth of, or confuse his adversary.\n78:6 Various words which all mean \"word\" or \"speech.\"\n79:1 Literally, the giver of siddhi (success) in all knowledge of which She is the presiding Dev\u012b.\n79:2 Both buddhi and manas.\n79:3 Prasaratu (\"flow freely\").\n79:4 He who is brahmach\u0101rin. Here commences the phala portion of the stotra.\n79:5 Maunin.\n79:6 Vratin. The vrata are voluntary religious practices and devotions as distinguished from the obligatory daily ritual.\n79:7 Nir\u0101mishah.\n79:8 The trayoda\u015bi; the Sarasvat\u012b vrata day.\n79:9 Or Brihaspati, the Lord of Speech.\n80:1 Trayoda\u015bi.\n80:2 The month is divided into two halves (pak\u1e63a), according as the moon is waxing or waning.\n80:3 Am\u1e5btatvam--that is, liberation (mukti).","title":"Hymns to the Goddess: From Tantra: Sarasvat\u012b (Sarasvat\u012bstotra) from the Tantras\u0101ra","type":"page"}