92) hrIm-garbhA: The syllable hrIm stands for the three Divine Forms constituting the Trinity: brahmA, vishNu and Siva. These are the three first saguNa (with attributes, as opposed to nirguNa, attributeless) expressions of the Absolute. The respective Energies are known as vAmA, jyeshThA and roudrI. TheAbsolute (that is, the Mother Goddess)  has, as it were,  all these six  in her womb (=garbha). That is why she is hrIm-garbhA. Recall the declaration in the gItA:

mama yonir-mahd-brahma tasmin garbham dadhAmy-aham /
sambhavah sarva-bhutAnAm tato bhavati bhArata //

My womb is the great brahman;  that  I impregnate;
then takes place the birth of all beings.


(97) hrImkAra-vedyA: She is known by the syllable hrIm. By Nature she is attributeless. Being attributeless, She cannot be known because being known would make Her  an object different from the subject. But the hrIm syllable when learnt from the guru in formal manner and by making it  one's own by listening, enquiry and meditation, one gets into the bliss of the Infinite which is exactly what She is. Thus what is indirect as the Ultimate Absolute becomes direct, through the hrImsyllable. Hence the name hrImkAra-vedyA.  Recall the Lord's words from the gItA (7 - 14):

mAmeva ye prapadyante mAyAm-etAm taranti te /
Those who take refuge in Me, they alone cross over this illusion (of mAyA)


(98) hrImkAra-cintyA: The syllable hrIM is analogous to the syllable aum;  and thus it is the means of meditation of brahman. In both these syllables, the Absolute (para-) form and the Attributed (apara-) form of brahman are indicated.  This is an esoteric mystery well-known to the practitioners of the philosophy of yoga. Thus hrIm contains both the 'facets' of brahman and naturally it is fit to meditate on the Absolute Mother Goddess by the hrIm mantra.  

(99) hrIm :  The purport of the syllable, like aum, is the blissful state of brahman. brahman is the substratum  of everything cognisable by the senses and obtainable by mundane efforts. All these physical things are superimposed on the attributeless Mother Goddess known as the parA-Sakti. Removing the superimposition is itself liberation. By doing this removal, hrIm reveals itself as the absolute brahman. 

(110) hamsa-vAhanA : The hamsa bird is the carrier (vAhana) of the facet of Mother Goddess known as brAhmI.So She is hamsa-vAhanA. A more esoteric meaning would be as follows. The word hamsa, when derived from the root verb meaning motion (hanti) stands for both the Sun and the vital air known as prANa. The Consciousness that is our essential core has both the Sun and the prANa as  indicators  (vAhana) of its  manifested omnipresence.  So She is hamsa-vAhanA.  Recall from taittirIya-upanishad: (II - 8 - 14)


sa yaScAyam purushe / yaScAsAvAditye / sa ekaH /
And this one who is in the man, and that one who is in the Sun, He is One.


The supreme Bliss is described as 'He who resides in the Sun'. He is One  with the One who resides in the Man, in the sense that the space in a pot, standing separately, is one with space as such. 

(124) sarva-mangalA :  She is auspicious by nature. Even unthinking duds, if they resort to any one of the methods of devotion like meditation, recitation, worship, prostration, or ritual arcanA, are blessed by Her with what they want. So She is auspicious even for them. Also She is the spiritual core of every being  and in that sense She is auspicious  Bliss to all. Also the word 'sarva' connotes Lord Siva and to Him She is certainly the most beloved, in fact She is half of Him and so auspicious to Him. Also, mangala denotes 'woman'  and  all women are the manifestations of the Mother Goddess,  Recall here the words of Devi bhAgavatam:

striyAs-samastAs-sakalA jagatsu

She is auspicious to all because women are generally auspicious to all.

(125 to 127) sarva-kartRI, sarva-bhartRI, sarva-hantRI :She is the doer through her mAyA Sakti. She is the sustainer of everything in the universe. She is the destroyer at the time of deluge.  Thus the three names characterise Her as the Power behind the three functions of the Trinity. Recall the lines from taittirIya-upanishad: (3 - 1)

yato vA imAni bhUtAni jAyante, 
yena jAtAni jIvanti, yat-prayanty-abhisamviSanti

From which all beings here are born;
having been born, by which they remain alive,
and into which, on departing, they enter.

(133) sarva-soukhya-dAtRI : soukhya is happiness. There are four kinds of this: priya, the feeling of happiness experienced by just seeing the things we want to possess; moda, the feeling experienced when we obtain what we wanted; pramoda, the feeling experienced in the actual enjoyment of the thing we wanted; and Ananda, the holistic experience of Bliss by the experiencer. All this is given by Her according to the karma and bhakti of the individual jIva.  So She is the giver of  all kinds of soukhya to all.

(134) sarva-vimohinI : She creates the delusion for all - in the sense, that She is the mAyA Sakti and so all the false knowledge that we get is from Her! Note that this is not said in any derogatory sense. She is the substratum of everything and therefore also of our intellect, and of our ignorance. Recall the words of the gItA: (5 - 15)

ajnAnenAvRtam jnAnam tena muhyanti jantavaH /

Knowledge is covered by Ignorance;  That deludes all beings

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© 2017 by V. Krishnamurthy