Lalitha Rahasyam

Lalitha Rahasyam During Dwapara yuga, Sage Vyasa Maharshi chanted the following prayer before he could get the knowledge of Lalita Rahasya Sahastra namam. “Sarva chaitanya roopAntAm, adhyAn vidyan cha buddhim ya gnyana prachodayAt” Meaning: Let that first original education which has become a secret be given and let the intelligence to understand that knowledge be given. Whe Vyasa Maharshi was reveling in his True state he had the vision of Lord Hayagreeva giving the ultimate knowledge Sage Agastya.Vyasa Maharishi recognized and made a book on it which is now known as the Lalita Sahasra namam. Meaning of LALITAHA “LakshyatvAt sarva vidyAnAm linga heena taya sthite, tArakatvAt bhavam bodhe” Lalitha Sahasra namam starts first describing the Saguna form of Goddess then takes us to our Nirguna state and then provides us our own True state. Why Lalita Sahasranamam came? There is a story behind this which is just to ignite our Mind and get interested into Lalita. There were two demons named Sundu and Upasundu. As usual they were troubling all the Gods and Gods went to Bramha for the solution. Bramha created a beautiful lady named Tilottama and sent before the two brothers. Both of them fell in love with her. But even Lord Bramha began to have desire for her and went behind her. So to protect herself she turned into female Deer and started running and Lord Bramha took the form of male Deer and started chasing her. Looking at this situation Lord Shiva came into the scene and stopped Bramha. They realized that this is the play of Manmadha the son Vishnu. Lord Bramha curses him as you will be burnt into ashes in a situation in future with the same Lord Shiva before whom Lord Bramha was insulted. “Aho durAtman garvAdhaha mam anyAyam pravartinam krutavAn asmi durmedhA duhitur bhoga mohitam, tat bhavishyasi sankrudhaha, neelakanTa lalAtajaihi jwalA jatAlaihi ujjwalanaihi bhasmamAtra tanusmara” Birth of Bhandhasura There was a Demon named Tarakasura, who was troubling all the Gods. Gods went to Lord Shiva but he was in great Meditation. So then Lord Bramha asked to take the help of Godess parvati. Then Manmadha created beautiful environment with his arrow and makes the attractive Parvati appear before shiva. Shiva loses his semen and it falls in the Fire (Krittikas) below. It is distributed to all the 6 krittikas and they together combine to produce Kartikeya who is Lord Subramanyam who kills Tarakaasura as per his boon.

Lord Shiva realizes the fact that the mischief of disturbing him during his Meditation was undertaken by Manmadha and opens his third eye with anger. Manmadha realizing his end informs to his wife Rati to take the help of Goddess Parvati to protect her married state. But before this could happen Lord Shiva burns him into ashes. Later, one of the Pramadagana named Chitraghateshwara of Lord Shiva gives bodily form “Pum” shape to the ashes of Manmadha. Lord Bramha, looking at the ashes of Manmadha because of whose mischief he was insulted before Shiva, cheerfully says “Bhanda Bhanda”. Meanwhile, Lord Shiva realizes with his inner divya drushti vision that Manmadha was innocent and was forced by all the Gods to perform this mischief for the birth of Lord kartikeya to kill demon Tarakaasura. Lord Shiva looks at the ashes with kindness and forgiveness. This invokes life in the molded ashes that turns out to be demon BhandAsura. Lord Shiva asks him a boon and Bhandasura demands to acquire half of the strength of the enemies who come to fight and all their weapons could do no harm to him. “ Prati dvandi balArtantu mat bale upayokshati, tad astra shastrA mukhyAni vrudhA kurvantu no mama” Now he is the King of Shonitapura and rules for 60,000 years. He encourages performing Yagnas, praying Lord Shiva, study of Vedas in his city so there are no problems all the citizens are happy. His Ego grows to such an extent that he starts ignoring even Lord Shiva who is the cause for his birth. He starts troubling all the Gods. Indra and other Gods are panicked and looking for a solution. Sage Narada advises them to pray to that ultimate Consciousness energy. Lord Indra hears a voice from the formless to perform Maha Yagaa where, the place of yagna measured crores of Yojanas and in which Gods themselves would be offered into the fire. From that fire the energy Consciousness (Shakti) ascends who would kill demon Bhandaasura and free Gods. This means that our Ego as to be burnt in the fire of Knowledge to attain realization of that Supreme.

“swAtmaiva devata prokta lalita vishwa vigraha” Goddess Shakti is not somewhere but the whole universe is. So we as part of this universe are also the Goddess. Our body itself is Sreechakram where she is residing. Number of Mantras has an importance When you separate the total number of mantras into each line there will be together 365 lines giving the message for us to read each line every day and remember Goddess Shakti throughout that day with that mantra. Finally realizing the Supreme Consciousness Lord Shiva by the end of the year (Birth cycle). .