LALITHA - The Name

Hello All!

Firstly, Sorry for my sudden hibernation. Work at office had kept me slightly busy. Secondly, Thanks to all those who have begun following my blog and those who have written personal emails to me appreciating the effort. I am delighted that I now have quite a few friends on my Orkut network as well. All because of this blog. I have vowed to continue with my posts and be more active henceforth.

Now, coming to the subject: Sri Lalitha Sahasranamam! My previous post was about the design aspect of the Hymn and today I will be commenting on the aspects of Her - Sri Lalitha.

The Name Lalitha means "The One Who Plays". Now that in literal sense means that She is the Sutra-dharini of the stage, which is the visible and tangible Universe and that she oversees the drama of the illusionary world. But when scientifically and esoterically analyzed, it renders a deeper and more fascinating meaning.

For those who are inclined towards etymology and linguistics, The Sanskrit name "Lalitha" is heavily borrowed into Latin and therefore the name "Lolita" and the Spanish further derived it as "Lola" - Both meaning a sexually precocious young girl.

Please bear in mind that western philosophical thought has always reduce meanings of words of Indic languages (especially Sanskrit) to their literal senses and dictionary meanings and very few have attempted to decipher the esoteric aspects.

When we say, "The One Who Plays"; What does She play with? Or with whom? or Why does she play? The answers lies in the Origin of the universe. In the Bramhanda Puranam, it is described that She is herself the Divine Will - The Iccha Shakti. And as in the treatise of the Lalitha Sahasranama - Subhagodaya of Sri Bhaskararaya Makhin - She wills herself to create, preserve, destroy, annihilate and absorb everything and She remains as the eternal truth.

The acts of Creation, Preservation, Destruction, Annihilation and Absorption are the Pancha Kriya or the 5 great acts of Sri Devi - As in the Lalitha Sahasranamam "Pan.cha Krtya ParaayaNaa"

Now if we look at the Big Bang Theory, It states that 13 Billion years ago, the entire universe was the size of a million times smaller than the atom - the ParamaaNu (Parama-aNu) with infinite density or at least immeasurable density and therefore infinite or immeasurable mass. The theory goes that this singularity exploded to what it became the currently visible, tangible and imaginable universe.

The process still continues and will continue for several billion years in the future. AND, at one point in time, the expansion will cease and will contract back, devouring up all that is there and will be there, and return to its original state of Unity or Singularity or Universality - A single entity called the ParamaaNu. And yet again, the process will start and the universe will expand and again contract back. The process in itself is never ending and the only thing that is constant is this process of continuous change. (This is the essence of the name: Aneka-Koti-BrahmaanDa Janani. We will look at this particular name as we traverse through the 1000 names)

As we can see the ParamaaNu, although, inanimate in literal sense had the sense to Will. The Will to Create. The Will to Expand, Contract, Absorb and become Singular again.

Since it is generally accepted that that the Feminine is responsible for all of creation - Humans, Animals, Insects, Birds, Aquatic creatures, Fauna and so on; So it is only logical that we conclude that the creation of universe is also because of a feminine force. A force so great that it created what is known as our universe.

Therefore, the name Lalitha - Lolita - Lola means "One who plays with Creation, Preservation, Destruction, Annihilation, Absorption and Recreation". The 'Sexual' term is to actually mean "Reproduce" or not the Literal meaning as what people tend to take it to be.


Thanks again for reading. I shall begin with the Lalitha Sahasranamam in my next post.