LALITHA SAHASRANAMAM 335-337

Veda-vedya (335) She can be known through Vedas. There are three postings on Vedas Part I Part II and Part III . If you need more information on Vedas you can go through these postings. All the Vedas lead to the Supreme reality, the Brahman. Brahman is the embodiment of Vedas. Krishna says in Gita XV.15 “By all the Vedas, I am to be known. …I am the knower of all Vedas”. Vedas can be known only through knowledge. In other words, we can also say that unless one has knowledge, the self-realization is not possible. Brahman is the essence of that knowledge. There is a difference between Vedas and Vedanta. Vedanta refers to the teachings of Upanishads. Study of Upanishads gives the necessary impetus to the knowledge. It is also said that the Sri Chakra has four gates on the four sides and each gate represents one Veda. Knowing Her through Vedas is called Suddha Vidya (the perfect knowledge) in contrast to Sri Vidya that deals predominantly with the rituals. No doubt, some good interpretations on Vedas are available, but generally Vedas are beyond human interpretation. If one looks at the Vedas, one may tend to believe that they talk about external fire rituals. In fact they do not. They convey several subtle interpretations and out of such interpretations, Upanishads originated. Upanishads do plain speak and to the point. They say this is not Brahman, that is not Brahman, Brahman will be like this and like that. In other words, they try to identify the Brahman by negations and affirmations. She is in the form of essence of Vedas. Vindhyachala-nivasini (336) She lives in Vindya Mountains. In Durga Saptasati (700 verses like Bhagavad Gita and a part of Markendeya purana) XI.41 She says “I will be born in the house of Nandagopar (father of Krishna) and will live in Vindya mountains, during which time I will kill these two demons (two demons called Sumban and Nisumban)”. This verse is a definite clue identifying Krishna as Lalithai. This could be the reason for various namas in this sahasranamam identifying Her with Vishnu. There are certain instances where She is said be the sister of Vishnu. In this Sahasranamam, nama 280 says that She is the sister of Padmanabhan, a form of Vishnu. Vidhatri (337) Dhatri means the motherhood. She being (Sri Mata) the Supreme Mother, She nourishes this universe. Dhatri also means gooseberry and in this context it is said that She likes gooseberries. The lord of creation Brahma is known as Vidharta and his wife is Vidhatri. The Supreme Shiva in the form of Brahman creates this universe, as Vishnu maintains it and as Rudra destroys it. His consorts in these three stages are known as Sarawathi, Lakshmi and Roudrani. There are other namas (457, 823, 826, 985) with the same meaning, come up later in this Sahasranamam. In Lalitha Sahasranamam no nama is repeated for the second. But there are certain namas that could convey the same meaning. If we go deep into each nama, we can realize that such namas also convey different meanings only.