This brief hymn has not been much examined in the West, but it is beautiful in its simple celebration of the divine Mother. Simple, it is yet profound. Although the recurring salutation is addressed to Mahalakshmi, we must not be confounded into thinking that the Devi is simply another deity in the vast Hindu pantheon. She is not just a cosmic functionary. In successive movements, the hymn leads us from her familiar identity as the boon-dispensing goddess of beauty, grace and prosperity towards her larger nature as the great primordial Mother who is ever one with the unknowable Supreme. The first few verses treat of the Devi's nearer virtues. It is only in the crop of verses in the centre of the hymn that the fullness of her nature is betokened.

From the fourth verse, we get a clearer inlook into the charming Mahalakshmi: knowledge and power are her nature as well as sweetness. Her power works mightily in those who seek intimacy with her. She energizes us to gather strength, integrity, and light as we push up through the universal coils towards a rounded perfection. Consonant with the deeper meaning of perfection, she widens our vision, helps us divest ourselves of ego-dross and grants enlightenment finally as a grace, not as a desert. Through the process of rebirth, we regain the status of the immortal Self and bring the warring opposites into a completer harmony through her all-wise guidance. We can imbibe the Rasa of cosmic enjoyment since then it is based on oneness of being. And she leads us intimately, through symbols close to us. She lives in and adopts the form of the sacred word discoverable and utterable to the human spirit. We find a passage to her divinity from, within our own psychologies.

Revealing herself as liberator from ignorance is a cardinal step, but she is more. Moving from he active presence into her dynamic Person, we enter her endless reality. The great Goddess is not one of many deities; the many are part of her oneness. She is not engrossed in the wheel of time, but stands in her own being outside it. Plunging into her infinity, we can find no starting point, no culmination, no closure. Indeed we see the world emanating from her in its parturition. And that massive cosmic unfolding is purposely undertaken by the Queen who is the master of all, Maheshwari. We are moving beyond Names.

Creating the universe is a cosmic yoga. In the depths of the One there is a primal movement of self-focussing: the sole reality dwelling upon itself in great concentration, Tapas, delivers the pulsating, creative consciousness of the Supreme. The Creatrix is the divine reality, born of self-yoga, not herself a creature, but the fashioner of all the universe that stretches beneath her sovereign gaze and station.

This abounding universe is drawn from her own being and hence is instinct with her own consciousness, power, and delight. Should we desire to know her in all the ways of her being, we must involve ourselves in the drama of her cosmos and emerge from our initial immersion into the benumbing self-denial and ignorance that guard the mystery of the Inconscient. As we scale the evolutionary ladder, we also accelerate the discovery of self and world knowledge through yoga, reclaiming the mysterious process that she established before time existed. Thus we come to work for her.

In the seventh verse, we meet with the Indian conception of the supreme Divine, Parabrahman, and pause. An Unknowable of which we can say nothing fruitful, it is a reality beyond all conditioning, pre-existent to Time, unspanned by Space, an Absolute above all conceivable cosmic poise or manifestation. The Parabrahman supports the universe, but remains free outside it, Yet this hymn identifies the supreme personality of the Mother with this unfathomable something which must include but outstrips both the personal and impersonal aspects of divine existence. The Mother draws her infinity from that Godhead and assumes and empowers every form, all this that is seen and conceived and what is unreachable to our understanding. We see that the Divine Mother is one with the Supreme, rules the Cosmos she creates from herself, brings into time and space what is eternal and infinite. Thus we come to know her.

Although she is transcendent in oneness with the Parabrahman and cosmic in scope as source and creator and impeller and goal of all action, she also inhabits the core truth of each individual existence, stationing herself as the beloved in each heart. Finding her there, we feel her as the great harmoniser who draws all together into a tetherless unity, who justifies and fructifies all the uniqueness that we each potentially represent. All are drawn from her illimitable being. Every particularity is sanctioned and empowered by the One, everyone is precious to her. Thus we come to love her.

This hymn to Mahalakshmi, the beautiful and beneficent Goddess, speaks to all the modes of being, all the avenues of approach, all the mystery of existence. Its refrain is our soul's joyous proclamation: I bow to Thee whom I know and love and serve, Sweet Mother.

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