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Soundarya Lahari is the greatest of all the works on Sri Matha as it exhibits the Srungara Rasa like Srimad Bagavatham, which speaks of the glories of Radha Rani as the queen of rasaleela.The origin of Sri SoundaryaLahari is Sri Kailasham mountains itself. We all owe a lot to Sri Shankara Bagavadpada for this work.
Once there was an argument between a great scholar named MandanaMishra & Sri AdiShankara Bagavadpada. Adi Shankara, debated with him on various topics in Vedas & won the debate after which Mandana Mishra's wife Bharathi wanted to argue with Sri Shankara. Even before she started Shankara understood that, she was going to argue on Srungara. Since Shankara was a virgin & a Sanyasi he went into the body of a king(para kayapravesham),who was dead & understood the essence of bliss in family life. After that he continued the debate and Bharathi & Mandana Mishra became disciples of Sri Shankara. Bharathi, who was an incarnation of Goddess Saraswathy became Sri SaradaDevi in Sringeri. Mandana Mishra was renamed as Sureshwaracharya & was made as the head of Sringeri mutt or ashram. It's after that experience that, Sri Shankara understood more about the timidity & the beauty of women.
Sri Shankara had been to the divine abode of Lord Shiva. Sri Shankara was a noble soul, who attained the pinnacle of wisdom even at the age of eight due to which he could travel with his "sukshma" or the spiritual body to all the worlds. When he went to Kailasham, he saw the holy verses of Sri Soundarya Lahari inscribed on the walls of Kailasham. Sri Shankara started learning them. Seeing that Lord Shiva advised Lord Ganesh to learn those verses too because once Sri Shankara knows it would be known by the whole Universe. If all the people in this Universe would chant SoundaryaLahari, Sri Matha would never leave this universe. Such is the greatness of SoundaryaLahari. There were forty verses originally. Sri Shankara composed 60 more verses, which are called as Ananda Lahari & made it as 100 verses. The verses composed by Sri Shankara are like a direct conversation between man & Sri Matha in simple Sanskrit. Sri Shankara also composed the bashyam or commentary on the same.
If Vedas are like food Sri Soundarya Lahari is like glucose for our soul!! Sri Shankara has given the essence of Bakthy, Vedantha & Srungara rasa in it. Each verse or sloka in it has a particular effect or "Phalam". If anyone would chant the verses with devotion he/she would attain whatever he wishes by the graces of Sri Matha. Various parts of Sri Matha like her nose,eyes,her legs,nails,etc. have been described .Greatness of various aspects of Sri Matha like her glimpse or"drusti", the dust particle form her divine feet ( padha dhooli) have been elaborated in a very nice way. If one could understand the meanings of the verses & chant Sri SoundaryaLahari, one could feel the presence of Sri Matha & would love any woman as Sri Matha as the tenderness of women has been elaborated in this work. Understanding Sri Soundarya Lahari & chanting it is like drinking honey. Sri Matha lives through these verses.Traditionally the verses are chanted in carnatic ragas. As the ragas or musical patterns are associated with a bhavam or mood, the raga matching to the bhava of the verse is used. But chanting all the verses in Ananda Bhairavi raga brings lots of pleasure to our souls!!
The greatness of the Sri Vidhya,Pancha Dashakshari ,Sri Chakram.. have been elaborated in this. But we should owe all these to our great acharya Sri Shankaracharya, who has given us this divine gift. The gifts, which we get from our friends are worthless. But the ones which we get from great people like Sri Shankara BagavadPada through his works are really worthy as they help in the upliftment of our souls.
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