Lalitā Mahātripurasundarī and Kāmākṣī

Lalitā Mahātripurasundarī is the supreme Parāśakti, the highest power of the cosmic feminine. She is also called Kāmākṣī, Kāmeśvarī, Rājarājeśvarī and Śrī Mahātripurasundarī. She is the third great manifestation of this power.

She arose from the yajñāgni (sacrificial fire) of a great yajña offered by Indra and the devas. They had given their own flesh as āhuti (offering) to call down divine help against the asura Bhaṇḍāsura. After she slew Bhaṇḍāsura and set the three worlds free, she is enshrined for ever as Kāmākṣī at the Kāmakoti Pīṭha in Kāñcīpura. She is the same as the Śrī Cakra, which is both her mantra and her yantra (diagram). The whole Śrī Vidyā upāsanā (practice of devotion) centres on her worship. The Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa tells her story in the Lalitopākhyāna, Chapters 12 to 43.

Prādurbhāva: her rising from the fire (Chapter 12)

Bhaṇḍāsura had won the three worlds. He had made even the devas his servants. Indra then called a great mahāyajña (a great fire yajña) of a kind never held before. The devas took their own flesh as haviḥ (offering) and put it into the sacred fire. Their joint offering showed how urgent their need was.

From the heart of that yajñāgni, Lalitādevī came forth. She is the third and highest form of Parāśakti. She comes after Mahākālī (Durgā) and Mahālakṣmī, who had each arisen in earlier ages to protect the worlds.

At the moment of her prādurbhāva (appearing) her form shone beyond all comparison. Her colour was the deep red of the padmarāga ruby, like ten million rising suns joined in one. She had four arms. In her right hands she held the pāśa (noose) and the aṅkuśa (goad). In her left hands she held the sugarcane bow (ikṣu-cāpa) and the five flower arrows (pañcabāṇa). Her ornaments and clothes, as the devas’ own stotra says, are beyond telling.

The Lalitāstava Rāja: the great stotra (Chapter 13)

When Lalitādevī came out of the fire, the devas gathered round and broke into the great Lalitāstava Rāja, the stotra of victory to Lalitā. It describes her in her full cosmic greatness.

She is called Viśvabhāvanī (she who sustains the universe), Kāleśvarī (the ruler of time) and Kāmākṣī (she whose glance grants all wishes). The stotra says her body is the cosmos itself:

The lower worlds are her feet and legs.
The earth is her belly.
The space between is her heart.
The upper worlds are her face.
The sun and the moon are her two eyes.
The clouds are her hair.
The Vedic texts are her speech.

She is praised as the śakti who cannot be parted from Mahāśiva. She is the source from whom even Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Maheśvara receive their powers. She is praised as the Tripura, the one who holds and goes beyond all three worlds and all three states.

Vivāha: her marriage to Kāmeśvara (Chapters 14–15)

After her prādurbhāva, Lalitādevī herself wished for a husband who was worthy of her. The great builder Viśvakarma raised a splendid divine city for the wedding feast. Brahmā looked at the gathered devas and great ones. He saw Mahāśiva himself appear in the loveliest of all forms, as Kāmeśvara, the lord of kāma (desire). He was a youth of great beauty, unlike any form Śiva had shown before.

Lalitādevī chose Kāmeśvara with a garland, as in a svayaṃvara. Bhagavān Viṣṇu gave her away in kanyādāna (the giving of the bride). All the devas, ṛṣis and gandharvas, and the highest beings of the cosmos, came to the wedding. At the end, Brahmā gave her the name Kāmākṣī. It means she whose eyes are kāma itself, whose very glance is the sovereign power of desire and of liberation.

The march of the army and the slaying of Bhaṇḍa (Chapters 16–30)

With her husband Kāmeśvara, Lalitādevī led the army of the devas on a great march from Śrī Nagara toward Bhaṇḍāsura’s fort, Śoṇitapura. Her own chariot was the splendid Cakrarāja. Kāmeśvara himself drove it, and it was a whole universe in small. Many verses describe it.

Her commanders were Daṇḍanātha-Vārāhī and Śyāmalā-Mātaṅgī, and they led their huge armies. A series of great battles followed, in which Bhaṇḍa’s commanders and armies were destroyed one after another.

In the last battle, Bhaṇḍāsura used his most terrible weapons. Lalitādevī met each weapon with a stronger weapon of her own. At last she let loose the Mahāpāśupatāstra, the highest weapon of Parameśvara. With it she destroyed Bhaṇḍāsura, his sons, his city Śoṇitapura and all his army in a single moment. The three worlds were free.

Manmatha had been burned to ashes by Śiva, and Bhaṇḍa had risen from those ashes. Now Manmatha was brought back to life, because with Bhaṇḍa destroyed the condition for his revival was met.

Śrī Nagara: the divine city (Chapters 31–37)

Lalitādevī and Kāmeśvara rule for ever from Śrī Nagara, also called Tripurā. This divine city is the Śrī Cakra in a form with three dimensions. It has seven enclosures, seven moats and divine forests. At its centre is the Cintāmaṇi Gṛha, where Lalitā and Kāmeśvara live on the Bindu-pīṭha of the Śrī Cakra.

Kāmākṣī at Kāñcīpura: her lasting pīṭha (Chapters 39–40)

The Lalitopākhyāna names the Kāmakoti Pīṭha at Kāñcīpura as Lalitādevī’s lasting home on earth. She is enshrined there as Kāmākṣī and is present in four forms:

Cit (consciousness)
Śuddha (pure)
Parāparā (in between)
The four-armed Lalitā form

Brahmā himself came to Kāñcī and saw her there directly. He then sang the great Kāmākṣī stotra. Pārvatīdevī also came to Kāñcīpura, after her tapas (austerity) for the darkening of the worlds, and had darśana (sight) of Kāmākṣī. Bhairava had cut off Brahmā’s fifth head and carried the pāpa (sin) of brahmahatyā, the killing of a brāhmaṇa. At Kāñcīpura, by Kāmākṣī’s grace, he was freed from that pāpa.

Śrī Cakra and Śrī Vidyā: the mantra of Lalitā (Chapters 38, 41–43)

Hayagrīva says in the Lalitopākhyāna:

Śrī Cakra is Lalitā’s mantra.

The yantra and the mantra are one. To worship the Śrī Cakra is to worship Lalitādevī directly.

The mantra of Lalitā is the Pañcadaśī, which has fifteen syllables. It has three kūṭas (parts): Vāgbhava, Kāmarāja and Śakti.

ka-e-ī-la-hrīṃ | ha-sa-ka-ha-la-hrīṃ | sa-ka-la-hrīṃ

The Ṣoḍaśī, the form with sixteen syllables, adds one bīja (seed syllable) to the Pañcadaśī.

The mantras fall in an order. It runs from the Veda mantras through the mantras of Viṣṇu, Durgā, Gaṇapati, Lakṣmī, Sarasvatī, Pārvatī, Āmnāya and Śyāmā. Among all of these, the Lalitā mantras are the highest. Among the Lalitā mantras, the Pañcadaśī is the Mantrarāja, the king of mantras.

Dīkṣā and the Lalitā Sahasranāma (Chapter 43)

The Lalitopākhyāna describes five kinds of dīkṣā (initiation) that suit Śrī Vidyā:

Sparśa-dīkṣā, passed on by touch
Dṛg-dīkṣā, passed on by the gaze
Śāmbhavī-dīkṣā, given by the grace of Śiva
Māṇasī-dīkṣā, passed on by the mind
Kriyā-dīkṣā, given through ritual

This chapter also holds the well-known Lalitā Sahasranāma, the thousand names of Lalitādevī. Each name opens a view of one side of the endless devī.

Sources

Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Lalitopākhyāna, Chapters 12–43