सैवात्मा ततोऽन्यमसत्यमनात्मा । अत एषा ब्रह्मासंवित्तिर्भावभावकलाविनिर्मुक्ता चिद्विद्याऽद्वितीयब्रह्मसंवित्तिः सच्चिदानन्दलहरी महात्रिपुरसुन्दरी बहिरन्तरनुप्रविश्य स्वयमेकैव विभाति । यदस्ति सन्मात्रम् । यद्विभाति चिन्मात्रम् । यत्प्रियमानन्दं तदेतत् पूर्वाकारा महात्रिपुरसुन्दरी । त्वं चाहं च सर्वं विश्वं सर्वदेवता इतरत् सर्वं महात्रिपुरसुन्दरी । सत्यमेकं ललिताख्यं वस्तु तदद्वितीयमखण्डार्थं परं ब्रह्म
saivātmā tato'nyamasatyamanātmā | ata eṣā brahmāsaṃvittirbhāvabhāvakalāvinirmuktā cidvidyā'dvitīyabrahmasaṃvittiḥ saccidānandalaharī mahātripurasundarī bahirantaranupraviśya svayamekaiva vibhāti | yadasti sanmātram | yadvibhāti cinmātram | yatpriyamānandaṃ tadetat pūrvākārā mahātripurasundarī | tvaṃ cāhaṃ ca sarvaṃ viśvaṃ sarvadevatā itarat sarvaṃ mahātripurasundarī | satyamekaṃ lalitākhyaṃ vastu tadadvitīyamakhaṇḍārthaṃ paraṃ brahma
«She is the self; other than her, all is untrue and is not-self. Hence she is the knowing of brahman, free of the portions of being and non-being, knowledge-consciousness, non-dual knowing of brahman, a wave of being, consciousness and bliss — the great Tripurasundarī who, having entered from without and within, shines alone, by herself. What is — is mere being; what shines — is mere consciousness; what is dear — is bliss: and this is the great Tripurasundarī in her former form. Both you and I, and the whole universe, and all deities, and everything else — are the great Tripurasundarī. The one true thing, called Lalitā, is that non-dual, undivided, highest brahman».
a950b0edabac · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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Here is the heart of the book, and two places in it deserve unpacking. First: yad asti san-mātraṃ, yad vibhāti cin-mātraṃ, yat priyam ānandam, “what is — is mere being; what shines — is mere consciousness; what is dear — is bliss.” This is the same fivefold set we examined reading Sarasvatī-rahasya (4.23), only taken in its three upper members.
To restate briefly: in every thing one distinguishes “is,” “shines,” “is dear,” “form,” and “name”; the first three are common to all, the last two belong to the thing itself. The Vaiṣṇava side accepts this scheme, and that priyam, “what is dear,” is declared a property of the Highest and not of our taste, was discussed in the same place. The second place is the one for the sake of which the book belongs in the Śākta category: tvaṃ ca ahaṃ ca sarvaṃ viśvam... mahā-tripurasundarī, “both you and I, and the whole universe... are the great Tripurasundarī.”
Note that what is said here is not “you are that,” but something else and wider: “both you and I.” That is, one line names two — the speaker and the hearer — and both are declared to be her. The Vaiṣṇava objection is the one we have brought up dozens of times, and we restate it briefly for the last time.
If “both you and I” are one and the same, then there is no one to speak and no one to listen; yet this very speech is uttered by one to another. This is sva-vacana-virodha, “contradiction of one’s own utterance”; and in this book it stands out most clearly, since the pronouns themselves are placed side by side. Add, too, what deserves to be kept here as true.
The word laharī, “wave,” is applied to being, consciousness and bliss; and the image of a wave is good precisely because a wave is neither separate from the sea nor identical with it. This is, to my mind, an exact picture of what the Vaiṣṇava side calls acintya-bheda-abheda; and the book itself has offered an image that answers not to its own conclusion but to ours.