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SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA.

Respected Swamin,

I am glad to get another opportunity to write more on this subject.

While the purpose of this mail  is not to dispute or question the
other meanings in vogue, my aim is  to see the meanings and their
implications from the point of view of sruti texts.

It is said that for any vedantic passage, 7 levels of explanations are
possible starting from mundane level to Brahmanic level. In this mail
let me attempt  3 levels of explanation of Brahamanic, Purusha and
tantric conceptualizations.

The first level was already followed in attempting describe Lakshmi as
Will in Brahman. Let me start from from Purusha level.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Explanation – I

Purusha sUkhtam  is presented in a specific sequence, starting from
macro cosmic creation and Purusha's  omnipresence in everything to how
this manifestation must be sustained by yajnas as root of Dharma so
that Glory is attained. (becomes saadhyam, as denoted by Saadhyas and
devas of the past. The description of Saadhyas in Rig Vedas tells
about saadhayam and siddhi – attainment as their nature. )

The second part from Taiitriya Aranyaka tells about what the
worshipper of this Purusha comes to know of Him as a result of which
he becomes the Brahma gyaani.

The last two verses (Rucham bRAhmam & HrIs cha) tells about the
realization of the Brahman as a result of which the knower can attain
anything he wants and all that he wants.

That realization was first done by Devas (in Rucham BrAhmam verse).
That realization is attained by the person (in the last verse -hrIs
cha) at the final rungs of creation,  by which he attains
iSHTam maniSHANa |
amum maniSHANa |
sarvam maniSHANA

What is this Realisation?
Is it about His 2 patnis?
In what way realization about His patnis lead to sarva siddhi?

It is indeed about 2 natured something which is described as His
patnis here, if we look into other parts of this verse and other
pramanas, such as Gita which gives a detailed version about Purusha.

Everything in Purusha is 2- natured.
HrI and Lakshmi.
Day and night (AhO ratherE)
Heaven and earth as the Wide open mouth of Purusha (Ashwinau vyaattham
- (Details of how the Ashwin twins are the Heaven and earth are found
in Rig Vedas)
The one who understands this 2 natured-ness attains whatever he wants.

This is told by Gitacharyan in Purushotthama yogam, 15-5 of BG . "The
one who knows the 'dwandwai' (duality) attain Imperishable State."

 There are even  2 purushas (dwauw purushau) in His creation (15-16),
the kshara and akshara. And He the Purusha is in them all. The one who
realizes the duality between the kshara and akshara (jiva) and the
other ness of the utthama purusha who is in them is said to attain
Glory or can attain whatever he wants.

 This is implied in the last verse of Purusha suktham. This duality is
outlined in my last mail in these words.

"And Lakshmi  who grants Wealth. ( hreer-lajjAbhimAninee devata ,
lakshmee- raishvayAbhimAninee devatA - iti sAyaNA) The Day and the
Night are even such opposites. Sriman Narayana is the conciliation of
all such opposites, even as Sesha, the snake, and garuda, the eagle,
worshipping him together signify."

The presence of  such opposites in the cosmic creation invaded by
Purusha is to be understood by the saadhaka who will then become
capable of discerning the nature of self from non-self  and attain
Brahman in  "imperishable status" (Read Ramanuja bhashyam for BG verse
15-5)

Saayana defines HrI as Lajja abhimani devatha and Lakshmi as raishvay
abhimani devatha – having opposite nature.

The other meaning of  hrI is modesty and that of Lakshmi is prosperity.
Both modesty and prosperity are His two sides.

Why they are two sides as though they are two natured?
Yes, they are different from each other as they don't go together.

When one becomes prosperous, he forgets to be humble and simple.
Instead he exhibits pride and ego.

It is rare to find one having both qualities (modesty and prosperity) together.

They are not opposing qualities, but come under what is called
PrAgabhAva and PradhvamsAbhAva. It means contradictory to the
existence or contradictory to the emergence of a thing into existence.
This means that when one thing exists, the other does not exist, just
as there is a conflict between good and evil or good and bad. Though
we may come across many persons who are bad in some ways and good in
others, but certainly not good and bad with respect to the same thing
at the same time. This is implied by  PrAgabhAva which is one among
the 3 forms of negation found in Vedanta. (the other two being abhava
and anupalaabdhi)

That Bhagavan has both these is what is told in the verse under discussion.
One instance to understand this is the very characterization of Rama
in Ramavatara.

Throughout Ramavatara, Rama exhibits this hrI narure, modesty and humility.
One of the often asked questions on Ramavatara is why He presented
Himself as an ordinary mortal, not even once showing signs of
acceptance or awareness about Himself as Brahman or bhagavan. When
Sita entered agni, it was the Brahmaadhi devathas who told Rama of His
Brahman- ness which Rama listened to as though it was news to Him!
That was about His modesty, HrI nature!

Another instance about Lakshmi having HrI as the other nature of Herself.

This is about Adhi Shankara's Kanaka dhara sthothram on Lakshmi to
shower prosperity on a poor woman. Every one knows this sthothra only
upto what  Shankara prayed for that woman. The sthothra further
continues, when a realization dawned upon Shankara what if Lakshmi
thinks that he has not asked anything for himself, as it was by
obliging his sthothra she had granted the benefits. Wont she think who
this person to call her to shower her bounties on someone else and not
ask for anything for himself?

But he was not in need of any wealth. But there is something which is
indeed wealth but not the same as material wealth. That is Vinayam,
humility and modesty. Shankara asks Lakshmi for this wealth, called
vinayam.

It is the other side of material wealth, not a negative of it. The one
who has both is indeed a Great soul. Such  a person is said to have
attained everything.

The very depiction of both modesty and prosperity was expressed about 
Smt MS Subbulakshmi in an article in The Hindu, Sunday magazine (Dec
11 '05).

It says that she has left a priceless legacy, 'The legacy of humility
in success". This is the HrI and lakshmi together! Success has not
gone into her mind. She was humble throughout. She did not possess
wealth. She gave everything to others. Only the jewels that she had on
her was all that she possessed. But she radiated such a wonderful aura
of prosperity of all hues. Added to it was the rare kind of modesty
and humility.

We can find the co-existence of the two in some wonderful persons of
rare kind, say, I have seen it in our Ammangar in Appan Thirumaaligai.
On seeing such persons, our body automatically falls at their feet. A
serene peace descends within us then!! Such is the power of the
coexistence of the two.

This is again depicted in the verse from Yuddha khandam quoted by Sri
Soundararajan swamy.

"Ramasya dakshine parsve Padma Sri samavastita
Savye tu Hrir visalakshi ."

It is in this context and also due to the dharma for which Rama stood,
my humble contention is that Rama is indicated as PurushOtthama in
this yuddha khandam passage, with Sita as His Patni and HrI as
modesty, both prosperity and modesty together with Him.

Of the many dharmas enunciated by Rama, the foremost is that of being
a "Eka patni vratthan". This is an adjective for Rama. Rama is eka
patni vratha: The vratha: in this (masculine gender) is not vratham
(napumsaka lingam).

He is eka patni aavruththa: He is always with (committed to) one
patni. (Sita here and metaphysically it is about jivas)

Nowhere it is interpreted that He has 2 wives even if it means
protecting Bhoo devi. Sita asks once Rama what His dharma is. Rama
replies that it is not to bear the sufferings of others. (Sundhara
khandam) (This is Parama Vaishnava dharmam or Parama Vaishnava
LakshaNam). Whatever He does for the sake of Bhoodevi is in this
context only, in Ramayana. He along with Sita are the protectors
(Purushakaarthwam of Sita is the highlight of Ramayanam). By the given
verse, He and Sita are depicted at the Purusha level. (further
explanation of this in the course of this mail)

Another reason to say this is that "Vishalaakshi" is the name by which
Sita is referred to at many places in Ramayana.  Vishalaakshi
(wide-eyed) is Sita, not Bhudevi.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Explanation II

Another way to look at this is as mantras.
There are basic syllables called bheejaksharas that bring out the
desired goals. The popular ones  known to all are a, u  and m of
pranavam, which have been described by Purvacharyas.

Another very powerful one is the gayathri mantra, having 24 syllables.
Each of these are high energy creating ones connected with 24 points
within the body.
A peep into the power of mantras shows how this is a vast science, now
in utter neglect.

There are a host of  mantras which are all acoustics-based and have
been responsible for   creation of universes by vibrations by them.
Upanishads also speak of many  bheejaksharas for different types of
accomplishments.

The basic 3 mantras are Shreem, hreem and kleem, which are recited to
get wealth, auspiciousness and fame respectively.

The first triangle made in yantric sadhana has hreem on top, shreem on
right corner of the base and kleem at the left corner representing
Gyaana, iccha and kriya shakthi respectively.

The hreem has 'ra' as the Bheejaakshara. It is the purva rUpam or the
agni. The agni carries the oblations in all homas. Hreem carries the
offerings to the devas.

But contrary to this is the 'la' akshram of Lakshmi.
La is agni sthambhana, i.e., extinguisher of fire. (remember lakshmi
is always seated on lotus in water)

When 'la' bheejaksharam  is chanted, it replaces 'ra' bheejaksharam
and hreem becomes hleem that carries the offerings.

This is to show that Hreem and lakshmim are two sides of contrary
nature. This is perhaps indicated by the last verse of Purusha
suktham.

(One of the mantras is the Krishna bheejaakshara, the 'ka' of kleem.
It is also known as the Brahma akshara that fulfils any desire. All
the aksharas have some ati devathas and it is interesting to note that
Mars, representing warrior qualities is the ati-devatha for Krishna
bheeja. (the ati devatha and gruha tattwa are expressed in Upansihads
- Aithareya and Brihadharanyaka in particular - and further note on
them will be discussed if queries are raised). This  perhaps explains
how Krishna as Yogeshwara of Arjuna was the mastermind behind all
war-tactics.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Explanation III

This is about Brahman and Lakshmi at different levels.

Sage Yajnavalkhya tells about the creation and manifestation of
Purusha, in Brihadharanyaka upanishad. (verses to be given at the end
of this mail)


In this, one finds the essence of the first 18 verses of Purusha
suktham and then it continues about how the Purusha feels lonely and
desires for a mate and thus It replicated Itself into pati and patni.
Sage Yajnavalkya further explains how these two forms of Purusha
unites to initiate human creation.

The two has permeated all beings in these two naturedness.
"Lakshmyam saha HrusheekEshO" says Lakshmi tantram.

Every name of bhagavan has some specific implication. Every passage of
Sruti and smriti have these names only in appropriate application in
the context. Even in BG, one finds different names are used to
indicate bhagavan at different places in accordance with some
relevance.

When Arjuna does prapatti, the name Hrusheekeshan is mentioned by
Sanjaya. Hrushekeshan means one who has controlled indriyas or who
controls the indriyas. Such a controller is the Antharyamin. The
prapatti is done at war field to the bahgavan who controls his
indriyas. The same controller  is expressed as  Krishna in the last
sloka by Sanjaya because Krishna had become Arjuna's Yogeshwaran or
antharyamin taking control of all his actions, when he lifted up
Gandeeva.

When Bahgavan is recognized as the controller or antharyamin or
kadavuL (uLLilirundu kadubhavan), He is referred to as Hrishekeshan.
When Bhagavan is seen as Hrusheekeshan, His patni is always Lakshmi.
In Ketumala varsha (Srimad bhagavatham chapter 5) Lakshmi worships
Hrusheekeshan who as antharyamin lords the indriyas. The other name
for such a swarUpam of Bhagavan is Purusha. (Refer to my mail on
Varshas and avataras in Ramanuja group archives)

It is at the State of Purusha the division into pati and patni or HrI
and Lakshmi takes place.

Further high up, at Unmanifest Brahamna level, SrI resides inside Him.
("BrahmaNi SrI nivAsE " - Ramanujacharya)

To have this in proper order,

Brahman has His SrI in Him.

Purusha exists as two with SrI beside Him.

And at the level of all-pervading Vishnu, the patnis are 3. Wherever,
the 3 or even 2 patnis are mentioned in sruti texts, they are
mentioned as Vishu patni only.

We already have been gifted with the vachan to recognize this order
in Vishnu gayathri with the 3 pradhana mantras.

'Narayanaaya vidmahE Vaasudevaaya dheemahi, thannO Vishnu
prachOthayaat'. (Taii- Narayana valli).

'We desire to attain Narayana (Brahman). Therefore we meditate ( do
upasana) on vAsudEva (the Purusha who dwells in all). May Vishnu make
this upasana grow.'

The 3 fold nature of Brahman goes thus:

Brahman as Ekam.

Purusha pervading duality.

And Vishnu as Lord of 3 vyahruthis (here, patnis).

With pranams,
jayasree saranathan

---------------------------------------

(reference from Brihadharanyaka Upanishad)

Chapter IV—The Creation and Its Cause
1
In the beginning, this universe was the self (Viraj) alone, in the
shape of a person. He reflected and saw nothing else but His self. He
first said: "I am He." Therefore He came to be known by the name I
(Aham). Hence, even now, when a person is addressed, he first says:
"It is I," and then says whatever other name he may have. And because
He, before (purva) the whole group of aspirants, burnt (aushat) all
evils, therefore He is called Purusha. He who knows this verily burns
up him who wishes to be Viraj in advance of him.
2
He was afraid. Therefore people still are afraid when alone. He
thought: "Since there is nothing else but Myself, what am I afraid
of?" Thereupon His fears were gone; for what was there to fear?
Assuredly, it is from a second entity that fear arises.
3
He was not at all happy. Therefore a person even today is not happy
when alone. He desired a mate. He became the size of a man and wife in
close embrace. He divided this body into two. From that division arose
husband (pati) and wife (patni). Therefore, as Yajnavalkya said, the
body before one accepts a wife is one half of oneself, like the half
of a split pea. Therefore this space is indeed filled by the wife. He
was united with her. From that union human beings were born.
7
Now, all this universe was then undifferentiated. It became
differentiated by name and form: it was known by such and such a name,
and such and such a form. Thus to this day this universe is
differentiated by name and form; so it is said. "He has such a name
and such a form."

This Self has entered into these bodies up to the very tips of the
nails, as a razor lies hidden in its case, or as fire, which sustains
the world, lies hidden in its source. People do not see the Self, for
when viewed in parts It is incomplete: when breathing, It is called
the vital breath (prana); when speaking, the organ of speech; when
seeing, the eye; when hearing, the ear; when thinking, the mind. These
are merely Its names according to Its functions. He who meditates on
one or another of Its aspects does not know, for It is then
incomplete: the Self is separated from Its totality by being
associated with a single characteristic.

The Self alone is to be meditated upon, for in It all these become
unified. Of all these, this Self alone should be known, for one knows
all these through It, just as one may find an animal which is lost
through its footprints. He who thus knows the Self obtains fame and
association with dear ones

Chapter III—The Two Forms of Brahman
1
Verily, there are two forms of Brahman: gross and subtle, mortal and
immortal, limited and unlimited, definite and indefinite.
2
The gross form is that which is other than air and akasa. It is
mortal, limited and definite. The essence of that which is gross,
which is mortal, which is limited and which is definite is the sun
that shines, for it (the sun) is the essence of the three elements.
3
Now the subtle: It is air and akasa. It is immortal, it is unlimited
and it is indefinite. The essence of that which is subtle, which is
immortal, which is unlimited and which is indefinite is the Person
(Purusha) in the solar orb, for that Person is the essence of the two
elements. This is with reference to the gods.
4
Now with reference to the body: The gross form is that which is other
than the air and the akasa that is in the body. It is mortal, it is
limited and it is definite. The essence of that which is gross, which
is mortal, which is limited and which is definite is the eye; for it
(the eye) is the essence of the three elements.
5
Now the subtle: It is the air and the akasa that is in the body. It is
immortal, it is unlimited and it is indefinite. The essence of that
which is subtle, which is immortal, which is unlimited and which is
indefinite is the person (purusha) that is in the right eye, for that
person is the essence of the two elements.
6
The form of that person is like a cloth dyed with turmeric, or like
grey sheep's wool, or like the scarlet insect called Indragopa, or
like a tongue of fire, or like a white lotus, or like a flash of
lightning. He who knows this—his splendour is like a flash of
lightning. Now, therefore, the description of Brahman: "Not this, not
this" (Neti, Neti); for there is no other and more appropriate
description than this "Not this."


-------------------------------------------------------------------------



From: rajan s <rajan_ramaswamy@...> wrote:-

Dear Jaysree
Thank you for the explanation on the word Hri and meaning of the
remainingstanzas of purusha Sukta and further elucidation from
upanishad and TaitriyaAranyaka..

You have explainedThe exact translation goes thus:-hreeshca te
lakshmeeshca patnyau | ahorAtre pArshve |nakshatrANi roopam | ashvinau
vyAttam |iSHTam maniSHANa |amum maniSHANa |sarvam maniSHANA
||(hreeshca) Hree and (lakshmishca) Laskhmi are (patnyau) wives (te)to
you. (aho - rAtre) The day and the night (pArshve) your
sides.(nakshatrANi) the Stars (roopam) your brilliant form.
(ashvinau)the Healing Ashvins (vyAttam) your mouth

I am giving below the meaning as given in the vyakhyanam of Puthur
SrivasaIyengar.hreeshca te lakshmeeshca patnyau - Bhomidevi and
Lakshmi are your Patnis.ahorAtre pArshve -- They are together with you
during day and night|nakshatrANi roopam --- You are luminous like
stars.ashvinau vyAttam -- You are beautiful like Ashwini devas|ISHTam
maniSHANa -- Let our desires be fulfilled|amum maniSHANa -- Let us get
Kainkarya Prapthi|sarvam maniSHANA --Let us get all we want

Hri is also used in Valmiki Ramayana as Bhoomi Devi in Yuddha Canta 109-6

Ramasya dakshine parsve Padma Sri samavastitaSavye tu Hrir visalakshi
.meaning Lakshmi was on the right side and Bhoo Devi on the left side.

I am particularly thankful for your pointing out Patnyau as dvivachanam

Adiyen

Ramanujadasan

Soundararajan


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