With the jasmine flowers of my emotion, the blue lotuses of my mind
With the champaka flowers of blissful memories, the coral of a voice sweet with honey
Do I adorn my heart, a lotus, acts as the channel
The purple-green goddess, enchanting with the overpowering scent of her hair.
It is to Tripurasundari, beloved wife of Vedapureshwara, that I turn.
With the veena [1] melody of my heartfelt love, the drumbeat of rasa[2]
With a wind symphony of breaths, the flautist's tune formed by chanting the words "Sri Devi"
Do I make music for the goddess as a stream of sound, the Ganga of ragas,
an aesthete of fine taste in the mridunga, [3] the pipe and the veena
It is to Tripurasundari, beloved wife of Vedapureshwara, that I turn.
She whose ears glitter gold with her earrings as she jingles with her belt of gold and stone,
Her shining nose-ring eclipses the bright beauty of the stars
Her anklets ring in time and in tune with the steps of her blissful dance
For she, the queen of queens, is the lover of the lord of dance.
It is to Tripurasundari, beloved wife of Vedapureshwara, that I turn.
Gayatri, the origin of the full and complete Vedanta,
who knows all there is to know about the Vedas
She in whom exists all arts, sciences and languages,
she who dispenses knowledge complete and true.
She is the four modes of speech - purport, import, sense, sentence and utterance
She forms the very essence of the meaning of 'tat tvam'. [4]
It is to Tripurasundari, beloved wife of Vedapureshwara, that I turn.
She personifies the instinctual knowledge that is truth, charming as the light that is existence,
beautiful in her blessed truth
She represents 'sat-chit-aananda' [5], a soul still shackled, illusion, the syllable 'om'
She dwells within the hearts of the compassionate, Vedanta Saraswati, silence itself.
It is to Tripurasundari, beloved wife of Vedapureshwara, that I turn.
Beguiling, she confounds all three worlds, adorable in her darkness and elegant,
She stands for beauty, sister of the dark-skinned Krishna, Uma.
As a lover she symbolises the love rasa,
the great goddess of love passionate in her devotion to her lord the god of love
It is to Tripurasundari, beloved wife of Vedapureshwara, that I turn.
She answers to 10 names, starting with Bala,
well established in the 10 branches of meditative knowledge
The stage of Atman, the phase that transcends the mind
Faultless she embodies the Vedas, brightening Sundareshwara's heart, Meenakshi.
She enchants minds as a jewel does, pure at heart.
It is to Tripurasundari, beloved wife of Vedapureshwara, that I turn.
Manifested through her 1000 names she means a million things
She is the purpose and the intention, the form of sound and rasa, peace itself, Narayani,
You need only to think of her to find contentment at heart,
Bhagavati, Bhavani, the very quality that makes us rejoice.
It is to Tripurasundari, beloved wife of Vedapureshwara, that I turn.
She symbolises the fine arts and is at essence prana, [6]
she is the quality of sound, empassioned,
Atremble with music and dance, she delights in poetry and prose,
adored she embodies love and affection
She is time as dictated by the tune and the beat, Kali
It is to Tripurasundari, beloved wife of Vedapureshwara, that I turn.
She dwells on the eastern coast,
a revered goddess splendid in her wealth she distributes gifts long wished for,
A goddess victorious she brings all happiness, health and life
Pure and forbearing, she gives power, courage, patience, and peace free from fear.
It is to Tripurasundari, beloved wife of Vedapureshwara, that I turn.
Sree Vedapureeswara is Lord Siva, the presiding deity of Pondicherry and Sree Tripurasundari is His Beloved Consort.
[1] : The veena is a stringed instrument associated with southern Indian carnatic music.
[2] : Rasa literally means juice, but is also a technical aesthetic term which refers to the impact literature has on your emotions.
[3] : The mridunga is a kind of drum.
[4] : Tat tvam asi literally means 'You are that' a sentence of huge import from the Upanishads indicating that the human self is identifiable with the whole.
[5] : This compound literally means 'Existence-consciousness-bliss'. It refers to the experience of Brahman that a yogi aims to, and can, reach.
[6] : Literally 'breath' and thus the vital breath, life.
