Prabhava-The Origin

The greatest scientific inventions and  marvelous engineering creations, the impressive range of musical instruments and masterpieces of music, challenging sports and the legendary moments of sports- what's the origin of everything that people do or create?  What's the origin of this whole Universe? 

Every creation starts from a thought. That thought starts as a vibration, which we might not even be aware of. The vibration is the starting point of even the physical activity and the emotional sense. The subtle vibration or movement whether it's physical, intellectual or emotional is the first step for anything we create either small or big, whether externally or internally. 

The first sloka of Soundarya Lahari tells us about that minutest vibration, called ‘spandana’. That spandana is possible only by Shakti- The Power, which we call as Divine Mother. Even the Creator of the Universe is able to create only because of that- ‘Shaktah prabhavitum’ and can't even move a little without it. That power which is the origin and source of every activity, without which nothing is possible, is called Shakti- Divine Mother. 

Even if we are not aware of it, that spandana is what makes us do what we do.  

If we start recognizing that Power, we will also understand that that Power is in every cell in us- and compared to the millions of activities that happen in our body, the things that we do voluntarily are much less. If we are aware that there is this Shakti which is making both the automatic processes and voluntary activities in our body possible, we realize that we can't do anything without it.

But in order to recognize it we need to have humility, an acceptance of the fact that it's not totally our greatness that we do things. We also need to have some introspection. With introspection and humility, if we gain some understanding of that power,  we can also discern that this Power is in every being and everywhere, it’s Universal. 

We could also perceive that it is limitless. Once we are aware of it, we can’t not have reverence towards this Universal Power, Divine Mother. Once we see something much larger than us, we also tend to bow down and praise its greatness. 

The first sloka says that one who hasn't done any punya can’t praise or prostrate to that Shakti. What is punya? Punya is the result of any activity which purifies our mind- a meritorious action is called punyakarya. There are many kinds of activities like this- serving others by volunteer work, donating money, providing emotional support etc. How do these activities purify the mind?  For example if we take the activity of donating money to the poor- it cleans the mind of the lower qualities such as selfishness, possessiveness and greed. It replaces those lower qualities with higher and noble qualities of love, selflessness, sacrifice and also humility, lowering the feeling of self- importance at least temporarily. Thus the mind gets purer.  

Other activities such as meditation, breath control through pranayama, and religious activities such as chanting also purify the mind by removing the negative qualities and replacing them with positive qualities.

In a pure mind, there is a higher possibility of clarity of thought and introspection, which could lead to the ability to recognize the Power (Shakti) behind everything and ultimately within oneself. A person who never does any of those activities, punyakaryas, has no possibility of developing those virtues and thereby not being able to either recognise that Power-Divine Mother or salute to Her or praise Her.  The sloka aptly says ‘how can one with no meritorious actions be able to prostrate or praise the Divine Mother?’

Salutations to the Divine Mother, the Universal Power behind the Prabhava or origin of everything!