जगत्सूते धाता हरिरवति रुद्रः क्षपयते
तिरस्कुर्वन्नेतत्स्वमपि वपुरीशस्तिरयति।
सदापूर्वः सर्वं तदिदमनुगृह्णाति च शिवः
तवाज्ञामालम्ब्य क्षणचलितयोर्भ्रूलतिकयोः॥

jagatsūte dhātā hariravati rudraḥ kṣapayate
tiraskurvannetatsvamapi vapurīśastirayati |
sadāpūrvaḥ sarvaṁ tadidamanugṛhṇāti ca śivaḥ
tavājñāmālambya kṣaṇacalitayorbhrūlatikayoḥ ||

jagatsūte – creation of the universe; dhātā – Brahmā; harir avati - Viṣṇu sustains; rudraḥ kṣapayate – Rudra annihilates; tiraskurvann etat svam api vapur – absorbing all these three and His own body; īśas tirayati – Īśa conceals; sadā pūrvaḥ śivaḥ - the Lord of eternity, Śiva; sarvaṁ tad idam – these four; anugṛhṇāti ca – blesses again; tava ājñām ālambya – on Your command; kṣaṇa calitayor – momentary movement; bhrū latikayoḥ - creeper like eyebrows.

“Brahmā creates the universe, which is sustained by Viṣṇu and destroyed by Rudra. Īśa absorbs all the three into His Self, who in turn is absorbed by Sadāśiva. Only a momentary movement of Your creeper like eyebrows is construed as Your command to bless them again for recreation.”

She controls all the five acts of Brahman – creation, sustenance, destruction, concealment or annihilation and re-creation or salvation. Lalitā Sahasranāma 250 Pañcabrahma-svarūpiṇī and 274 Pañckṛtya-parāyaṇā elaborately explain the significance of this verse. This verse says that Īśvara (Mahādeva) absorbs Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Rdura, who, in turn gets absorbed into Sadāśiva. This completes the process of annihilation of the universe. Recreation happens when Parāśakti makes a momentary movement of Her beautiful eyebrows signifying Her approval for recreation. On obtaining this approval the process of creation begins all over again with the creation of Brahmā. Re-creation is also known as anugraha or blessings.

Śiva’s exclusive and independent authority (svātantrya śakti as per Trika philosophy) is Śakti. Śiva does not act on His own; but acts only through His Power Śakti. Śiva and His Power are inseparable as is the case with everyone in the world. Therefore, the five acts of Brahman mentioned above are in fact executed by Parāśakti (Supreme Power). Each of these powers is presided over by a God. Brahmā presides over creation; Viṣṇu takes care of sustenance; Rudra is in charge of death (destruction) (in difficult times if Ruram is chanted along with Camakam, one can get over the difficult period with ease); Īśvara (Mahādeva) is in charge of concealment or annihilation and Sadāśiva takes care of re-creation or salvation. This is a cyclic process. All these five acts happen both at the macrocosmic and microcosmic levels. Parāśakti is in charge of all these Divine Acts happening both at the macrocosmic and microcosmic planes. All these five acts are described in Lalitā Sahasranāma 265 to 273 and summarised in nāma 274.

As the intricacies of this verse are already explained in Lalitā Sahasranāma 250, the interpretation of this nāma is reproduced here for the sake of convenience. Further reference can also be made to the above mentioned nāma-s as well.

Pañca-brahma-svarūpiṇī पञ्च-ब्रह्म-स्वरूपिणी

Brahman has five functions to perform.  They are creation, sustenance, destruction, annihilation and salvation.  Each of these activities is governed by different Gods. These different Gods are only manifestations of the Brahman.   Though one talks about various forms of gods, all these refer only to the Brahman, who does not have any form and is omnipresent. In fact these Gods, Goddesses, ministers, yogini-s mean different natural activities that take place in the universe.   That is why Nature is called as Mother Nature and worshipped as a Goddess as acts of the Brahman are unfolded only through Nature and in the arena of Nature. 

The five acts of the Brahman is a cyclic process.  Creation here means the creation of the universe in the broader perspective.  It does not mean the birth of an individual.  Sustenance also means the sustenance of the universe as a whole.  The birth and death of human beings as well as billions of other species is just a trivial part of the activities that happen in the universe.   The first amongst the creations are the five basic elements viz. ākāś, air, fire, water and earth.  Then the modifications of these elements take place gradually, which is called evolution.  Such evolution happens both in macrocosmic and microcosmic planes.  The highest known gross form of evolution is man and the highest form of subtle evolution is his mind. 

The universe thus created is being administered by the Brahman Himself.  In order to maintain a proper balance, creatures are made to shed their physical bodies.  Souls make the physical bodies to function and hence soul is called kinetic energy.  The souls originated from the hiraṇyagarbha or the golden egg. This is so called, as it is born from a golden egg, formed out of the seed deposited in the waters when they were produced as the first creation of the Self-existent. This seed became a golden egg, resplendent as the sun, in which the Self-existent Brahman was born as Brahmā the Creator, who is therefore regarded as a manifestation of the Self-existent. This is held as the fourth act of the Brahman, tirodhāna, or the great dissolution or the act of concealment.  The difference between destruction and annihilation is significant.  Destruction is the death of a single organism and dissolution is the Supreme process of the Brahman, wherein He makes the entire universe to dissolve and merge unto Himself.  At this stage the universe becomes non-existent.  There will be no continents, no mountains, no oceans, none of the basic elements (Pañca bhūta-s) exist.  Such an act of the Brahman is called mahā-pralayā.  This happens when Śiva begins His mahā-pralaya tāṇḍava or the cosmic dance.  When Śiva performs this dance of annihilation, He becomes terribly ferocious.  While He continues His dance, the universe gradually gets dissolved unto Him.  The reverse modifications take place and penultimately there exists only the five basic elements.  Finally these five elements too, dissolve into Śiva.  Except Śiva and Śaktī none exists at this stage. Śaktī is the lone witness to Śiva’s cosmic dance (nāma-s 232 and 571).

Śaktī, is very compassionate.  After all She is the divine Mother.  She has the intent to re-create the universe.  Since Śiva continued to be terribly aggressive, She could not even look at Him.  Now Śiva and Śaktī are not united.  The great dissolution takes place only if Śiva and Śaktī are separate.  When they are together, Śaktī never allows Śiva to carry out the act of annihilation.  When the great dissolution has commenced, Śaktī could only witness such an act and this was discussed in nāma 232.  There is another nāma 571 mahā-prayala-sākṣiṇī to confirm this.  Somehow She wanted Her children to exist.  Towards the end of Śiva’s tāṇḍava, She started dancing (nāṭya) along with Śiva.  But there was no ferocity in Her dance.  On seeing Her dancing, aggressive Śiva started returning to His auspicious form.  Śiva was holding the hiraṇyagarbha or the golden egg where the dissolved universe was concealed.  At the request of Śaktī, the golden egg was given back to Her by Śiva and this is called anugraha or salvation.  Salvation is a stage before the commencement of the next cycle of creation.  Now Śaktī takes over from Śiva and administers the universe with His power of autonomy or svātantrya śaktī. 

Now, it is apparent that act of the Brahman cannot happen without śaktī.  Hence, it is said that without Her involvement no body including Brahma, Viṣṇu, Rrudra, Mahādeva and Sadāśiva can function.  They are called ‘Pañca-Brahman-s’ meaning the five acts of the Brahman.  Since She becomes the cause of these five acts She is called Pañca-brahma-svarūpiṇī.

{Further reading on hiraṇyagarbha: Brahman has four distinctive states.  They are avyakṭā, Iśvarā, hiraṇyagarbha also known as sūtrātma and virāṭ. The first state is avyakṭā, the unmanifest stage (nāma 398). This is also known as turya stage, beyond the three normal stages of consciousness. The next state is Iśvarā (nāma 271). This state is the cause of the universe and is associated with māyā. The third state is hiraṇyagarbha, which binds the universe together.  The final state is virāṭ, transfiguration of the divine happens that is visible to our eyes.  The virāṭ is also known as vaiśvānarā, meaning relating or belonging to all men, omnipresent, known or worshipped, everywhere, universal, general, common, etc.}