She is Ādishakti, the mother of mothers - Lakshmi, Saraswati and Gowri. They are three emanations from the Adishakti. She is the upward thrust of evolution; not merely of an individual liberation, but for a whole class of classless human beings. She is the great vehicle of vajrāyana of Buddhism in Tibetian mandalās. She plays with such things as the moon, rainbows, space, the sun. Three is Her abstract symbol, She is Three Pura Sundari, the beautiful girl in all three aspects of creation, nourishment and destruction.
Sundari is the primal power of God, Ādishakti, to see Himself in various forms. The first desire of the Supreme to manifest caused a division in the Being. Sundari is this first desire (KAmakala or Ichcha Shakti). Desire is the secret of creation; it is the root of manifestation; it is the mainstay of existence. The Desire first takes the form of fragmentation and then a seeking to unite all the fragmented parts in the whole. The Divine desires to sacrifice Himself in creation and then desires to receive back the creation into Himself. This two-fold desire is the basis of Love, the vivifying bond that ties the creator and the created. Love exists by itself, independent of the objects through which it manifests. Love has no clinging, no desire, no hunger for possession, no attachment. It is simply the craving for union of the self with the Divine.

Sundari is Hrim, the combination of Hari, Hara, and Virinchi; She is called Vishnu Maya, the great illusion; She is the greatest seductress there is, continuously assuming new forms, and highly procreative and blissful like a sixteen year old girl.

She is described in 108 letters in the three vedas, in a triad each consisting of four lines in anushtup metre as follows:-

Tat Savitur varenyam
bhargo devasya dhimahi
dhiyoyonah prachodayat
parorajase savadom (32)

Jatavedase sunavama somam
aratiyato nidhati vedaha
Sa nah parsadati durga naveva sindhum duritatyagnih (43)

Tryambakam yajamahe Sugandhim pushti vardhanam
urvarukameva bandhanat mrityor muksiya mamritat (33)

The first four lines are known as Gayatri, of four feet. Their purpose is to unfold the divine presence in the aspirants heart. From this chandas or metre is derived the Sri Vidyā mantrā of fifteen letters, as will be subsequently explained.

The next four lines are known to unfold the power of God in the aspirant and hence relate to the Shakti, the primal power. From this are derived the nine Chakreshwari mantrās of Sri Chakra, a mandala of divine couples in union. Sexual union is a symbol for an active God - that is, God with his power to act; not the inert God who does not even want to see himself. The realitites (Vedās), the learned books (Shāstrās), the explanatory texts (Purānās), the duties, the predictive sciences (Jyotish Shāstrās) all proceed from the union of Shiva and Shakti: the assertion of God.

The last four lines relate to Shivā, the bestower of immortality, and the conqueror of death.

Now let us go deep into how the Panchadasi mantrā of Sri Vidyā has come to be coded by God in love with Shakti. From GAyatri, we shall derive and interpret in three stages the three parts of Panchadasi - called the Vāgbhava Kūtā, Kāmarāja Kūta and Shakti Kūtā. The kūtās represent the union of Saraswati with Brahma, Lakshmi with Vishnu and Gowri with Shiva respectively.

Vāgbhava Kūtā
This is the Kūtā by which will power is generated. Will power is the creatrix; manifestation is creativity, it is brahmānanda, the bliss of the union of Brahma and Saraswati.
The correspondence between Panchadasi and GAyatri is as follows.

Tat: Brahma, the creator, the will is permanent. He is attributeless, blemishless, he contains the womb of power by it, i.e., he can exist independent of it also. When he enters his womb of power, he desires consciousness. He opens the eye of power as it were and projects himself through it and that generates the power of will. By his desire to see, he sacrifices his completeness; so, he sees himself in the sacrifice - the emission of his seed into the womb of power. His desire is the first cause. The desire springs out of desirelessness in a silent will, quite spontaneously, without any prior cause to it. When this happens, he invents a symbolism (the sanskrit alphabet of 50 letters).

Manmatha and Ishwara are the two poles of the same reality - a silent consciousness manifesting desire is Manmatha, and a desiring mind wishing for its satisfaction (and thus its elimination) is Ishwara. They are inseparable. Thus the essence of will power is desire. Thus, the word Tat (meaning ``that'') arises out of desire, because `that' will not exist in a non-dual state of total desirelessness. The letter `Ka' symbolizes passion, the essence of will power and is therefore identified with tat.

Savitur: Savitā means the one who gives birth. Tripura as Mahā kundalini, the light and heat streaming from the sun (Savitā), interacts with the mother earth to procreate all the life forms. Sun is the father and earth is the mother, and life comes of their union. What is life? Life is a movement in consciousness which enables the triad: the seer, seeing and the seen to be created. The separation of the seer and seen creates the act of seeing. This triad is symbolized by a triangle (yoni). The letter `a' is known as the nirguna brahman, and `i' His desire to see Himself. The letter `e' is the result of the union between `a' and `i'. The letter `e', is therefore the divine source, the mother of all that is seen.

Varenyam: Varenyam means the best part. The best or central part of creative power is the yoni. Moreover, the central part of the word varenyam is `e'. Thus, the essence of the words savitur varenyam is completely symbolized by `e'.

According to the Shivasutrās, Va = nectar or the seed of immortality, ra = fire, e = cause, n = taste, ya = air, m = touch or contact. Thus varenyam means that the seed of life is to be placed in the fire of the yoni to taste the breath of life (air).

Thus `e' equals savitur varenyam and it is to be worshipped as the life giver. It must be remembered that the sexual symbolism works at three levels. At the physical level, `e' means the yoni. At the mental level, `e' means the desire (not necessarily sexual), which leads to action. At the spiritual level, `e' means the consciousness, which is the source of desire which then is the source of action. The one connecting link at all three levels is that consciousness, desire, and action all arise from interactions, and all interactions are collectively described as contact phenomena or maithuna.

Bhargo devasya dhimahi: Bhargo devasya means the central characteristic of the deva, which is immortality - turiya - the fourth and last state. The other three states of waking, dreaming, sleeping do not affect it. Dhi symbolizes flow of a particular mode of awareness overlapping with the turiya state and corresponds to `i'. Mahi is a symbol for earth, food and semen. All meanings are contained in `la'.

Dhiyoyonah prachodayat: Paramatman is an objectless entity. He is established in Sridevi, the divine consciousness, like a swan on a still lake. Dhiyoyonah prachodayat means that may He inspire us towards the objectless intuitive perceptive state of super consciousness, in utter silence of the mind. The mantrā is spoken by Tripura Sundari, and the aspirant is merely a silent spectator.

Parorajasi Savadom : At the end of silence (Turiya), which is not inert but full of activity (rajas), pure unshadowed light wells out of the divine consciousness. This is identified the beeja hrim.

Kāmarāja kūtā
The nature of KAmarāja kūtā is KAmalā - the form of a woman with a circle for the head, the sun and the orbit of moon as Her two breasts and fire as the yoni.
Tat: Tat, or `that' points to perceptionless pure awareness of non-duality that is characteristic of Shiva, symbolized by `ha'.

Savitur: Shiva emits his veerya, or creative shakti, symbolized by `sa'. This Shakti flows from the Sun, through the space, and through the head towards the genitals to manifest as reproductive power; if it can be contained in the head or the heart centers, it will manifest as the creative fury of epic writings and other gigantic artistic expressions.

Savitur Varenyam: The central component of the sun is cool and symbolized by the moon. When the sun's energy is controlled at the heart center, it becomes creative energy, potency of libido symbolized by kāma, or the letter `ka'. When the utter creativity of the sun is muted with the coolness of the moon, a hamsa is born as the jeeva. Ha is Shiva, the out-going breath and sa is Shakti, the in-coming breath. Bindu between them is a result of their union, the kumbhaka, which readies the mind for concentrated attention. The bindu thus is a symbol for (i) the mixing of the male and female genital fluids (ii) the kumbhaka and (iii) the mind. The word bindu tatparam then has meanings at all these three levels. At the physical levels it refers to the creation of a new life. At the vital level, it refers to the suspension of physical activity, the prelude to perfect concentration occurring in kumbhaka. At the mental level, it refers to clearing up the lake of the mind of all surface waves, leading to the union of jeeva with paramatman.

Similarly the words nāda and kalā have meanings at all these three levels. NAda is sound, it is vibration of breath, and the rhythm of blissful union. Sound changes into silent light as the frequency goes up in the still mind. Kalā is suspended breath leading to a carnival of lights of divine glory in the mind (saguna brahman). Beyond this triad of nāda, bindu and kalā is the immensity of the wonder of wonders of nirguna brahman which one experiences in nirvikalpa samadhi. There can be no description possible of this state, because there is none to describe it, none to know it; there not even `I' exists. Is it vacuum? Emptiness? God only knows, and you know it if and when you are God and experience it. That is all that can be said about it.

Bhargo devasya: Bhargo deva means Shiva or `ha'. The nature of Shiva is to be in continuous abhishekam. There is an abhisheka happening when jeeva merges into paramatman resulting in Brahmānanda. This is a cooling current from head to foot called amritha snanam which cools the 72,000 nerves in the body, clearing away all sins, accumulated karmas, and bondages.

Dhimahi: The earth, by its inactivity demonstrates the ultimate in dharana, a rock-like steadiness of thought flow. La is symbol for earth and is the most appropriate for Shiva because He has indestructible potency for creative orgasmic bliss and still holding on to the form. In the Buddhist parlance this is known as Vajra, representing the indestructibility of egoless bliss.

Dhiyoyonah prachodayat: Silence is once again alluded to.

Paro rajase savadhom: May the rock-like steady flow of awareness move up in space beyond rajas into Satva. Pure satva is Vishnu. Gopis are the jeevās, reluctantly but irresistibly drawn by the love of the Lord, dancing to the tune of the Murali of Krishna. The flute of Krishna is the Anahatha in one's own heart, if one listens to it with love, one is invariably drawn to the lord. Thus all the jeevas are women, and the Lord is the only male. When the jeeva mates with the Parmāthman, the resultant is a sexless, objectless subject called Ananda. The symbol for all this Hrim, the essential component being shyness, reluctant to express love, but needing that badly.

This is the Kāmarāja kūtā revealed by Tripura Sundari as Lakshmi to Her Lord, Vishnu. Love universal and egoless, cosmic in dimension, is what one gets when one concentrates on the heart center. This is where one hears the call of Krishna. In female form Krishna is Lalita, to satisfy all the desires of Her devotees. The integration of jeeva with paramātman is completed when each person realizes the bisexuality within oneself; when through experience one can express the opposite partner (kundalini) in oneself. Then, having enjoyed the highest union, one no more craves for any physical union as its ability to satisfy is so inferior; moreover it is subject to the costs of bondage. Desires go away of their own accord, without having to suppress them; because, in a state of oneness with God there is no gap between desire and fulfillment.

Shakti Kūtā
Shakti kūtā symbolizes the time KAlā, in union with his Samhāra KAli.
Tat Savitur Varenyam: From the best part of creativity is created the space, from that the air, then the remaining three great elements, and the mind, and the ego, called the jeeva. The jeeva is the best part of the creative chain; it deserves the light of the sun, of union with divine at all levels. Darkness is death to it; it deserves to see light. So this refers to jeeva or chit shakti, `sa'. `Sa' is the illuminating consciousness.

It must be brought out once and for all the intimate relationship between life and death. Death is the hooded cobra watching the light of life between the eyebrows. How is light seen? When a photon dies in the retina, a consciousness of light is born. If you are seeing a light continuously, know that billions of photons are dying to maintain the stream of consciousness of the light within. The pleasure one gets of seeing the light is the pleasure of watching the death of billions. That is you, the reader, as Shiva, the Lord of death.

How can life be without death? Something has to die continuously to let life come to existence. So Shiva as KAla has to die continuously so that new time can be born. Without death, there can be no life. Death is Shiva, and life is Tripura Sundari, as KAli. Little doubt then that they are forever inseparably united! The source of life is death, and the source of death is life. The reality is neither this nor that; it is both sides of the same coin!

Samādhi is the union of extinction and awareness. Death is extinction; Life is awareness. In samadhi, one is switching back and forth between extinction and awareness in all the states: waking, dreaming, or sleeping. Every moment, your consciousness of the previous moment is dead and gone, and you are a new you, whether you like it or not. Samādhi is an eternal property of Godhood. Since you are God, it is your property too.

Eros and thanotos are the life and death instincts. They derive from the same source, called the negation. Negation of life is death, and of death, life. God desires to be born; being born, He desires to die. What is born must die, what is dead must be born again.

Bhargo Devasya Dhi: The source of Chit or consciousness (the best part of creativity) is death. Shiva is the great corpse when not connected with consciousness. But when is he not coupled to consciousness? If there exists a time when existence is uncoupled to consciousness, that existence might as well not be there for all one cares; because there is no one to care then. Only in the loving embrace of consciousness, existence has a meaning. Only in the loving embrace of life, death has a meaning. Thus for the divine life, Shiva is the intelligence giver. So bhargo devasya dhi is condensed to `ka', the symbol for Shiva, the nirguna Brahman.

Creation is multiplicity through duality. Destruction of multiplicity gives rise to advaita, a non-dual state. Shiva, and his union with samhāra shakti kāli, is the proper aspect for worship if one wishes to reach the undifferentiated state of advaita.

Mahi: `Ma' is contact, `ha' is Shiva and `i' is desire to see. This means a detached desire to see and enjoy life, without the notion of identification of oneself with the act. The basic desire to see is still there. It is desirable to see, not run away from the world. Mahi is `la', the symbol representing the wonderful world, the myriad beauties of nature, and the waves in Her ocean of consciousness. The trick is to be in the world and at the same time be detached.

Dhiyoyonah Prachodayat: This implies silence, as before.

Paro Rajase Savadhom: Beyond rajas is either satva, or tamas. In the tamasic interpretation the third `hrim' destroys all dualities. `Ha' is Shiva, `Ra' is is fire, `i' is the desire to destroy all dualities, and `m' is the contact. In kaula mārga, all males are considered Shiva, and all females Shakti. In the knowledge of advaita, their act of voluntary choice and union both mentally and physically become pure acts. If one acts not for the urdhvaretas but for casual enjoyment; not out of voluntary acts of testing balance of ego but using force and violence; then these very same acts become not means for upliftment but cause for downfall.

The conversation between Shiva and Parvati was rewarded by Ganapati, and the Guruparampara started that way.

Lakshmi, the all pervasive power of Vishnu is called Sri, the auspicious one. She is the beautiful one. She gives both bhoga and moksha. If you go with desire to Her, She will blend your spiritual progress with material glitter which is imitation jewellery. She shows Herself and Her true riches to the one who is dispassionate, and approaches Her with divine oneness. When the Sri beeja is added at the end of Panchadasi, it becomes what is known as laghu shodasi. She is ever radiant and charming like a sixteen year old girl.

Tripura Sundari is an ocean of knowledge. She cannot be exhausted even if one were to write a million volumes about Her. The best thing to do is then do Her upāsana as She directs it. The best form of upasana is to seek the source of knowledge as an observer; by not running away from bondages; by not being attached to the results of actions, but by acting out of divine will. This is the triple combination of bhakti, jnana, and karma margās. We will conclude Tripura Sundari upāsana in Her own words: The more you know, the more you love, the more you experience OM.

- Amritananda