Random Meditations Through Her 1000 Names (XVII): The Eyebrows Which Trigger Evolution And Involution Of Worlds

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As the form of the Goddess arises in the inner fire pit of the yogi, her eyebrows become visible. Sri Lalita Sahasranama calls her eyebrows the gateway arches to the house of Kamaraja - the lord of kama: Vadanasmara-mangalya-grihatoranachillika.

The term used to describe the eyebrows of the Goddess is torana. Torana is etymologically 'tura-tvarana’ - a transitional passing from one space to another - a gateway.

Here, when Kama does auspicious activities then the eyebrows of the Goddess becomes the gateway for his household.

Throughout Sri Lalita Sahasranama, there is an emphasis on Kamadeva. The very foundational Puranic context of Sri Lalita marrying Shiva as Kameshwara, and fighting against Bhandasura, assumes significance here.

Bhandasura himself was born of the ashes of Kama when Shiva burnt the deva of desire with his third eye. It would be the graceful eyes of the Goddess that would resurrect the burnt Kama.

As ‘Anna’ Subramaniyam states - the desire towards the lower aspects gets burnt by Shiva. The desire for liberation then resurrects by the grace of the Goddess.

So, when Sri Lalita Sahasranama speaks of kama, it provides meaning not only at the level of poetic aesthetics but also at cosmological level and at the plane of inner yogic-psychology.

Her face arouses the desire of Shiva. That is auspicious for all existence. And in arousing that divine desire of Shiva, it is the face that is the field of operation for Kamadeva. Then, her eyebrows become the torana - the arches signifying the gateway.

This Puranic, poetic description also contains in it another significant dimension related to the very existence of all the universes. The famous Nasadiya Sukta of Rig Veda (X.129) points to the primal role of Kama in creation :

"That seed primordial born of the Mind, That Desire then arose in the beginning. The wise seers searching their hearts through intuition realized that the relation between that which is and which is not".

The importance of this kama and the development of this aspect throughout the Puranic lore of Sanatana Dharma is brought out clearly by Stella Kramrisch, one of those rare Western Indologists from the Coomaraswamy-Tagore school of Hindu studies :

This passage gains significance in the meditation of the relation between kama and the Goddess because Kramrisch, perhaps unknowingly, ends up re-asserting in academic language what Adi Shankaracharya had revealed in Saundarya Lahari beautifully.

He in fact brings out both the cosmological and the mystic and poetic dimensions of the eyebrows of the Goddess in two verses that sing their glory.

In Saundarya Lahari verse 24 he states:

The commentary explains:

Then in verse 47 the seer-poet states again:

Here a very beautiful paradox is provided.

While the Sahasranama likens her eyebrows to the arches in the gateway to the functional domain of Manmatha, here they are likened to his bow.

Yet, this bow does not weaken us.

It removes our fears.

Clearly, the kama here is not libido but a desire that is more fundamental and hence more elevated - the desire for liberation.

Combining both, one can see very clearly how the eyebrows of the Goddess, that trigger the five basic functional archetypes that sustain cycles after cycles of the involution and evolution of the universes, are the one that allow Kama to start the whole process, as sung by the Vedic seer in the Nasadiya Sukta. The later Puranas poetically and aesthetically expand upon this Vedic kernel with their beautiful discourses.

The Sahasranama as well as Saundarya Lahari, through the invocation of the eyebrow and the Kama theme, reinforce the Vedic and Puranic vision through devotional instruments, immersing us in the contemplation of the mysteries of the Consciousness that is the ground of all existence.