200. Sarvamaṅgalā
Devi is all auspiciousness.
Like all engulfing fires She consumes all evil. Sarvamaṅgalā is one of the incarnations of Durgā along with Jvālāmālinī. This is considered to be a virgin force.
The presiding Devi of Tuesday called Maṅgalavāra, is the war God Mars whose nature is fire. In the last name, She is defined as Sarvaśakti. In this name, the process obtaining total knowledge is indicated as through fire.
There are three basic modes of learning:
The path of the Sun, which represents a terrible heat which is too hot even to burn. Ordinary burning is a chemical combustion which involves rearrangements in the electron structure of the atoms. In the Sun the electrons are all slipped off by the extreme heat making a thermonuclear fusion possible under great compressive forces. Such a state is too hot to burn. Worship of the Sun leads to the extreme heat generating light, but also a terrible passion for life.
The path of the Moon, which represents extreme cold, cold of the space. It is practically like a dead body. Worship of the Moon leads to a death like pallor, an extreme cold, a sense of total detachment from the world.
The path of the Fire, which represents the median path between these two extremes. It is a normal heat. Worship through the path of Fire leads to neither the extreme passion nor the ascetic self-denial of utter vairagya.
The Sun, Fire and Moon constitute the basic triad of upāsana. The nerve currents are supposed to be flowing along the path of the Sun, called piṅgalā, when there is extreme heat in the body. The currents are flowing along the path of the Moon, called iḍā, when there is an extreme cold in the body. When the body has the normal heat, the Śakti, the power of consciousness, runs through the path suṣumṇā; that is the path of Fire.
In the body, the location of these three lights are as follows.
Agni maṇḍala, the region of Fire, is in the Mūlādhāra and Svādhiṣṭhāna.
The Solar region is the navel region and heart centre and the Maṇipūra and Anāhata cakras.
The Lunar region is located between the Viśuddhi and Ājñā centers.
Piṅgalā is the nerve current going up clockwise, helically touching each bījākṣara in each petal of these lotuses from Mūlādhāra to Ājñā. This current takes the heat of the Mūlādhāra and Svādhiṣṭhāna upwards.
The nerve current starting from the Ājñā and going downwards to Mūlādhāra goes down helically in the anti-clockwise direction carrying with it the dispassion.
Thus the hot stream moving up is piṅgalā and cold stream coming down is iḍā. When the devotee goes through this exercise a few times - namely the exercise of generating the heat in Mūlādhāra and Svādhiṣṭhāna, converting it to light in the heart and the divine visions in the Ājñā and coming down as a dispassion back to the Mūlādhāra a few times, the awareness will start moving along the warm path of suṣumnā upwards. It may be stabilized at the Ājñā center or the heart center of the Sahasrāra.
In all cases the starting point is the heat.
Śaṅkara, in his famous Soundarya Lahari, mentions that the Fire is located in the Svādhiṣṭhāna center. This occurs in the stanza containing: "Mahīṁ mūlādhāre kamapi maṇipūre hutavahaṁ sthitaṁ svādhiṣṭhāne," etc. The sequence described by Śaṅkara is in the solid state in the Mūlādhāra, the fiery state in the Svādhiṣṭhāna, the watery state in the navel center in the Maṇipūra. This sequence, although it is contrary to the popular conception of heat in the navel center and water in the Svādhiṣṭhāna, seems to be more appropriate. The agni or the fire that is being referred to is undoubtedly the kāmāgni, the fire of luck which is generated by the awareness being located in the liṅga. The movement of the Kuṇḍalinī in the suṣumnā is made possible through a dispassionate observation of the kāmāgni, the raging fire below and the cool head above. A recognition that nature is bipolar, with one pole in the center and the other pole in the knowledge center, is important to understand the nature of transformation of the libido, called sublimation. The word sublimation refers to making the reproductive diet sublime, i.e., remove the gross and the base elements from it and transform it to the aesthetic harmonious and joyous and peaceful values of life.
Source: Śrī Amṛtānandanātha Sarasvatī "Sudhā Syandinī Bhāṣyaṃ" Typed Manuscript
(an incomplete commentary on Lalitā Sahasranāma)
