LALITHA SAHASRANAMAM 626 - 630.

Tripura (626)


There is an ancient scripture titled ‘Tripura Rahasya’ in the form of dialogue between sage Bhargava and sage Dattatreya. The original text consists of three parts – The glory of Devi, Her rituals and knowledge about Her.

This nama could also mean that She is in the form of all triads. For example, She is in the form of Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra. Iccha, jnana and kriya shakthis. The three kutas of Panchadasi. Creation, sustenance and destruction. The three nadis, ida, pingala and sushumna. Three worlds, bhur, bhuvah, suvah. Three gunas satvic, rajasic and tamsic. She is in the form of all such triads and once these triads are transcended, the Brahman is attained.

Brahman is pure consciousness and can be visualized in three ways. The first one is pramatr-chaitanya (consciousness limited by intellect). The second one is pramana-chaitanya (consciousness limited by knowledge). The third one is jiva-chaitanya (consciousness limited by individual soul). These three types of consciousness are also known as triad.

Trijagad vandya (627)

She is worshipped in all the three worlds viz. bhur, bhuvah, suvah. The three worlds are represented by three vyahritis of Gayathri mantra. These three worlds are nothing but the three stages of consciousness. The lowest level of consciousness is materialistic in nature and the highest-level consciousness is pure in nature. The purest form of consciousness is the Brahman.

Trimurtih (628)

Trimurtihs are Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra. She is the combined form of these three Gods.

There is a story associated with this nama. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva looked at each other and in the process there appeared a young girl. On seeing the girl, these Lords asked her who she is. She replied saying that She is the Shakthi, the combined form of all the three of them. They named the girl as Tripura. Tripura form of Devi was born out of subtle looks of Gods of creation, sustenance and dissolution. She is made of three colours, white, black and red. White colour is Brahma. He is satvic in nature and hence described as white. The second colour is black representing Vishnu’s rajo guna. The third colour is red, representing the red colour of Rudra Shiva, tamo guna. It is said that the Brahman has divided into three, Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra. The same three combined to form Shakthi. One into many and many into One. That one is the Brahman. Brahman is the cause and Shakthi is the effect. For every cause there has to be effect/s.

This nama says that She is in the form of the three gunas and thus represents the three aspects of the Brahman - creation, sustenance and dissolution.

Tridashesvari (629)

She is Iswari to all gods and goddesses. She is the Isvari of tri-dashas. In human, there are four stages – child, youth, middle age and old age. However, devas have only one stage of eternal youthfulness. . Hence devas and devis are known as ‘tri-dashas’. She is the chief of all tri-dashas (gods and goddesses).

‘Tri’ means three and ‘dasa’ means 10. 3 x 10 + 3 gives numeric 33. There are 33 devas. 8 Vasus, 12 Adityas, 11 Rudras, 2 Vishve devas thus making 33. She is the chief of all these 33 devas. Each of these 33 devas has 10,000,000 (ten million or one crore) assistant devas. This explains 33 crore devas (330 million).

She is also the Ishvari for three stages of human consciousness – sleep, dream and deep sleep stages.

Tryakshari (630)

She is in the form three bijas. For example, Bala mantra has three bijas – im-klim-sowhu. In Shodasi mantra, the three kutas of Panchadasi are treated as three bijas.

Brhadaranyaka Upanishad V.iii.1 says that ‘hrdaya’ has three syllables (hr+da+ya). In the same Upanishad it is also said (V.v.1) that ‘satya’ has three syllables (sa+ti+ya). Both heart and satya (truth) means the Brahman. All those that have three syllables lead to Her. For example, Brahman is said to be residing in the heart. Satyam, jnanam, anantham is the Brahman.