143. Nirupaplavā
Uplava means a catastrophe. There are no catastrophes in Devi. Entire worlds may be born and destroyed in the mind of Devi. It is all a child's play. There is no pain, there is no catastrophe, there is no violence of any sort.
This is exactly what Kṛṣṇa teaches Arjuna in the battlefield, when Arjuna renounces his weapons saying that - “I cannot and will not kill my friend, my brothers, my teachers, my fathers” and so on. Kṛṣṇa tells him thus:
“Whom are you killing? If it is the soul that you are trying to kill, that cannot be killed by anything. Because it is unpierceable, unbreakable, unbeatable, and indestructible. If we say that you are killing the bodies, then the bodies never had a life of their own, to be killed. They are already dead indeed. You may send your arrows. They may beat you to death. They may fall down and die. In reality you are neither the killer nor are they the killed. Even before they were born, I have killed them all. See if you will.”
So saying, he opens his Virāṭsvarūpa to Arjuna and gives the Viśvarūpā Darśan.
In the Devi Gītā also, we find the Devi giving a Viśvarūpā Sandarśanam to the various God assembled. She shows Her terrible form eating up the brahmins, the kṣatriyas and all people. Time indeed is the terrible being. Like fire, it consumes everything. When time itself is consumed, there can be no catastrophe.
Source: Śrī Amṛtānandanātha Sarasvatī "Sudhā Syandinī Bhāṣyaṃ" Typed Manuscript
(an incomplete commentary on Lalitā Sahasranāma)
