Soundarya Lahari

A small description about this powerful verses sung in praise of the Devi.

The story goes like this:

When Adi sankaracharya visited the Kailash (abode of Lord Shiva and Parvathi), Shiva gave it to Sanakaracharya the soundarya lahari, which is nothing but a collection of 100 verses in praise of the Sakthi (Goddess Parvathi).

Sou in sanskrit is 100 and when one sings or reads this with full devotion, one can enjoy the bliss, hence the name soundarya lahari.

The first 49 verses is called Anandha Lahari and the remaining 51 verses is Soundarha Lahari.

On his way back to Earth, Shiva's vehicle (Nandhi) snatched the first 49 verses. When Adi Sankara was praying to Goddess Sakthi to help him get the songs in full, Sakthi asked Sankara to start writing the missing 49 verses by himself.

Hence the first 49 verses describes the beauty of the Devi and the balance songs are used to describe the destroying powers of the Devi. Even today, for certain ailments, these are very powerful and found to have curing powers.

I happen to listen one of Shri Mataji's speech recently in which She explains about Soundarya Lahari in just two words:-

YOUR MOTHER IS ATHI ROUDRA, ATHI SOWMYA...

Means she is all powerful to destroy any negativity at the same time

She is eternally beautiful/kind.

The famous music composer Illayaraja (from Tamil film industry) has composed a beautiful song in tamil which is nothing but one verse of Soundarya Lahari. The song Janani, Janani.. even today this song is played as an opening song by all light music troupe.

This song is full of vibrations..

Happy reading...