PRĀDHĀNIKA RAHASYA

	The king said:
1.	OṀ. Blessed one, you have told me about Caṇḍikā’s manifestations. Be pleased, O knower of what is sacred, to speak of their essential nature.
2.	Accepting my reverence, O twice-born, tell me everything of the Devī’s true being, and by what manner, by which ritual I am to worship.
	The seer said:
3.	This is the supreme secret, and it is said that it should not be divulged. But look how devoted you are! There is nothing I would not tell you, O king.
4.	First and foremost is Mahālakṣmī, who holds the three forces of creation. She is the supreme sovereign. She is both defined by form and indefinably formless; having manifested in every way, she abides in everything.
5.	She holds a citron, mace, shield, and drinking vessel. On her head, O king, she bears a serpent, linga, and yoni.
6.	Her complexion is the color of molten gold, and like molten gold, her ornaments shine. She filled the entire void with her radiant light.
7.	Seeing the entire universe a void, the supreme sovereign conceived a surpassing form through her power of tamas.
8.	She became a woman, shining black like collyrium, teeth glistening in her lovely mouth, her eyes wide, her waist slender,
9.	her four hands adorned with sword, drinking-cup, head, and shield, her neck garlanded with strands of headless torsoes and a necklace made of skulls.
10.	The dark one, this fairest of women, asked Mahalakṣmī, “Mother, give me my names and deeds. Salutations to you again and again.”
11.	Mahālakṣmī answered her, the dark one fairest among women, “I give you the names [you will be known by] and the actions [you will perform].
12.	Mahāmāyā, Mahākālī, Mahāmārī, Ksudhā, Trsā, Nidrā, Trsṇā, Ekavirā, Kālarātri, Duratyayā—
13.	these are your names, and their meanings will be revealed by your actions. Understanding your actions through them, whoever reflects on them will attain happiness.”
14.	O king, when she had spoken to her thus, Mahālakṣmī, through her surpassingly pure power known as sattva, assumed another unequaled form, lustrous like the moon.
15.	She became an exquisite woman, holding prayer beads and goad, vīṇā, and book. And to her Mahālakṣmī gave names:
16.	Mahāvidyā, Mahāvāṇī, Bhāratī, Vāk, Sarasvatī, Āryā, Brāhmī, Kāmadhenu, Vedagarbhā and Dhīśvarī.
17.	Then Mahālakṣmī said to Mahākālī and Mahāsarasvatī: “Goddesses, bring forth couples, male and female, according to your own natures.”
18.	Having spoken thus, Mahālakṣmī produced her own female and male couple, born of the golden womb, resplendent, and seated on a lotus.
19.	The Mother called the male Brahmā, Vidhi, Virinca, Dhātr; and she called the female Srī, Padmā, Kamalā, Lakṣmī.
20.	Likewise Mahākālī and Bhāratī each produced a couple. I shall tell you their forms and names.
21.	Mahākālī brought forth a blue-throated, red-armed, white-limbed, and moon-crested male, and a white female.
22.	He is Rudra, Sankara, Sthāṇu, Kapardī, and Trilocana. The woman is Trayī, Vidyā, Kāmadhenu, Bhāsāksarā, and Svarā.
23.	[Mahā]sarasvatī brought forth a shining white female and a blue-black male, 0 king. I shall tell you their names.
24.	[His are] Viṣṇu, Kṛṣṇa, Hrsīkeśa, Vāsudeva, Janārdana; [hers are] Umā, Gaurī, Satī, Caṇdī, Sundarī, Subhagā, Śivā.
25.	In that way, the three young women at once assumed maleness. Those who are able to see will certainly see, but not the rest who remain uncomprehending.
26.	Then, O king, Mahālakṣmī presented Trayī as a wife to Brahmā, Gaurī to Rudra, and Srī to Vāsudeva.
27.	Virinca united with Svarā and created an egg. The blessed, heroic Rudra, together with Gauri, broke it open.
28.	Within the egg, O king, was the primary matter, destined to evolve into all the universe, moving and unmoving, consisting of the five gross elements.
29.	Keśava, together with Lakṣmī, nourished and protected it. Maheśvara, along with Gauri, dissolved all the universe.
30.	O great king, Mahālakṣmī is the supreme sovereign, the true essence of all that is. She is both formless and with form, bearing various names.
31.	She can be described by different names, yet by no other name [can she truly be known].

Prādhānika Rahasya Commentary

Known as Rahasyas (“secrets”), the three angas usually recited after the Devīmāhātmya form a continuation of King Suratha’s dialogue with Medhas and relate to the manifestations of Śakti. If the function of the three preliminary angas is to assure the reciter’s safe access to divine power, the purpose of the Rahasyas is to instruct in philosophy and ritual worship. These three closely related texts have been called the “earliest systematic statement of Śākta philosophy.”¹

The Prādhānika Rahasya (“The Secret Relating to Primary Matter,” or “The Preeminent Secret”) takes as its point of departure the Brahmāstuti’s phrase “differentiating into the threefold qualities of everything” (DM 1.78). In considering how the singular ultimate reality assumes the multiple forms of the phenomenal universe, the Prādhānika Rahasya first describes the differentiation of the guṇas as taking place within the Devī herself and remaining at the unmanifest (avyākṛta) stage.²

Attempting to describe the indescribable, Medhas paradoxically uses vivid mythological images to refer to unmanifest states of being, beginning with a verbal portrayal of Mahālakṣmī as the supreme, formless “form” of the Devī, containing the three guṇas in perfect, non-manifesting equilibrium (verse 4). He describes the symbols of her powers held in her four hands, and on her head the coiled serpent representing the cosmic cycle of time; the linga, symbolizing absolute consciousness; and the yoni, standing for relative consciousness (verse 5).

Alone in an emptiness paradoxically filled with her own light (verse 6), Mahālakṣmī assumes a second form, made from unalloyed tamas. Usually the word tamas is translated in this verse as “darkness,” which makes a dramatic effect; but it should be remembered that any English word—for example, “darkness, inertia, ignorance, illusion, veiling”—describes only the visible effects of tamas and not the pure energy in itself.

The names of the tamasic, four-armed Mahākālī, revealed in verse 12, encompass proper names, personified qualities, and descriptive epithets. In my translation, I have retained the original Sanskrit forms as capitalized names—indeed, verse 11 announces them as names—but their meanings are significant. Mahāmāyā (“Great Illusion”) is the divine power that makes the phenomenal universe cognizable to the senses. Mahākālī (“Great Darkness”) signifies pure tamas personified. Mahāmārī (“Great Destroyer”) indicates a form of Durgā. The others are Ksudhā (“Hunger”), Trsā (“Thirst”), Nidrā (“Sleep”), Trsṇā (“Desire”), Ekavīrā (“Foremost Heroine”), Kālarātri (“Dark Night”), Duratyayā and (“Inscrutable One”).

Next, Mahālakṣmī assumes a form made of pure sattva (verse 14) and receives her names (verse 16). They are Mahāvidyā (“Great Knowledge”), Mahāvāṇī (“Great Sound”), Bhāratī (“Eloquence”), Vāk (“Speech”), Sarasvatī (“Flowing One”), Āryā (“Noble One”), Brāhmī (the śakti of Brahmā), Kāmadhenu (“Wish-Fulfilling Cow,” a reference to the Devī’s nurturing aspect), Vedagarbhā (“Womb of the Vedas”), and Dhīśvarī (“Sovereign of Wisdom”). Three of these refer to the creative capacity of sound, speech, and language. Dhī in the final epithet signifies thought, especially of a religious nature, such as meditation or prayer, or more generally reflection, intelligence, wisdom, knowledge, or art—all functions associated with sattva.

After differentiation, each guṇa generates a polarized pair of offspring, represented as male and female (verses 17 through 25). This polarization can be thought of as analogous, in the scientific view, to the up and down differentiation of quarks, positive and negative electrical charges, or the north and south poles of a magnet.

Again, there are the names. Mahālakṣmī’s male offspring is Brahmā, also called Vidhi (“Creator”), Virinca (etymology uncertain), and Dhātr (“Supporter”); the female is Śri (“Splendor”), Padmā (“Lotus”), Kamalā (“Lotus”) and Lakṣmī (“Good Fortune, Prosperity”). Mahākālī’s male offspring is Rudra (“Howling One”) or Śiva, also called Sankara (“Causing Prosperity, Beneficent, Auspicious”), Sthāṇu (“Standing Firmly, Motionless”), Kapardī (“He of Matted Locks”), and Trilocana (“Three-Eyed”); the female is Sarasvatī, also called Trayī (“Three [Vedas]”), Vidyā (“Knowledge”), Kāmadhenu (“Wish-Fulfilling Cow”), Bhāsāksarā (“Letters of Speech”), and Svarā (“Sound, Speech”). Mahāsarasvatī’s male offspring is Viṣṇu, whose other names include Kṛṣṇa (“Dark One”), Hrsīkeśa (“He Whose Hair Stands on End [with Joy]”), Vāsudeva (“God of Gods”), and Janārdana (“Exciting, or Agitating, Men”); the female is Umā (a name of Pārvatī), also known as Gaurī (“Shining One”), Satī (“Your Ladyship,” a name of Durgā, sometimes described as Truth personified), Caṇdī (“Fierce, Impetuous”), Sundarī (“Beautiful”), Subhagā (“Possessing Good Fortune, Blessed”), and Sivā (“Auspicious”).

The marriages that couple the tamasic Sarasvatī with the rajasic Brahmā, the rajasic Lakṣmī with the sattvic Viṣṇu, and the sattvic Gaurī with the tamasic Rudra signal the beginning of the guṇas’ process of interaction (verse 26), which leads to all the activity of the universe. Brahmā and Sarasvatī produce a cosmic egg, which Rudra and Gaurī break open (verse 27), releasing the pradhāna—primary, unevolved matter, which will evolve through the further and increasingly complex combining and recombining of the guṇas into the five subtle elements (tanmātras) and then into the five gross elements (mahābhūtas) of space, air, fire, water and earth. Although the concept of the physical world as consisting of five elements may seem archaic and quaint, note how scientific it truly is. Air, water, and earth represent the three states of matter—gaseous, liquid, and solid. These states are determined by temperature (fire) and can only exist within space.

Then Viṣṇu and Lakṣmī nourished and protected the creation, and Śiva and Gaurī dissolved it back into its source (verse 29). Note that Medhas relates this in the past tense, as if to say that all this happened, happens, and will happen again in a never-ending pulsation of evolution and involution. The Devī is both the ever-changing forms of existence and the formlessness of pure being (verse 30)—that is the pre-eminent secret. According to her manifestations, she is known by many names, yet no name can reveal the fullness of her true nature, which is the infinite Self (verse 31).