Lalita Jayanti is the second appointment in our year-long series dedicated to the Dasha Mahavidyas (the Wisdom of the Ten Goddesses). Amonst the Mahavidyas, Lalita is commonly known as Tripuria Sundari, The ‘one who is beautiful cross the three worlds’. Sundari means the ‘beautiful woman’ and Tripuri are the ‘three worlds’ (of the earthly, conscious & subconscious planes).

Lalita is the cooling receptive lunar energy, Tejas, that balances the heating active solar energy, Agni. Agni is the opposite of Tejas; it is the heating fire that fuels our active actions ambitions which, if not balanced with the cooling fire of Tejas, burns up the subtle and receptive powers of both the spirit and the body.

Both are needed in the balance of existence. Lalita is the Goddess energy that helps us to find the contentment in the simplicity of life.

Lalita is the stepping back
from the flames of physical & psychic fire
so that more subtle & silent qualities
can gain admittance to our being.

Lalita’s cooling Lunar fire offers us a receptive, comforting place in which to cool down into the very simple and innocent sweetness, perhaps forgotten and secret in today’s modern, busy world. Lalita’s mantras, which we shall practice on this ritual, are soothing; the opposite of her sister Bhairavi’s, which are heating. They are cooling and softening, as to melt into the magical corners of our being. Yet, her Darshan (vision) of the simplicity of receptive being can not be captured through the fires of ambition and urgency that may surround us.

Active energies and impulses may well be grabbing our attention in our lives, but if Lalita is to reveal herself to us, such fires must first be balanced and cooled to make way for her. Hers is the rising sun that has been cooled by the night forces. Her seat rests upon a lotus flower that grows out of the Nabi Chakra (navel) of Shiva. The forces of fire are implied by this lotus emanating from the fire Chakra and Lalita is the cooling Moonfire of Tejas that sits atop the hot fire of Agni.

Lalita’s beauty is the Soma (cooling moon fluid) which is alchemically produced thought the union of Agni and Tejas. Poems and scriptural verses describe her as having a milky complexion, along with full breasts and a smile that can break the trance of Shiva’s concentrated meditation. She is the ultimate alluring beauty and lunar promise. Triple meanings Tripuri Lalita, as she is called, means the one who is beautifully delicate and soft in the three worlds.

She is the beauty
on the third element
hidden between
two extremes of opposites.

Lalita has a twilight gaze! When night and day unite they create the mystical magic of twilight. When Rajas and Bindu unite – that is, the red blood and egg of the woman with the white seed of the man – then they create Soma, which is life. This Tantric law of circuitry holds true on all levels of divided opposites in all the worlds.
Tripuri Lalita then is the Beauty of these three worlds of Rajas, Bindu and Soma. For this, she is known as Raj Rani or Rajeshwari, which means ‘Queen of Kings and Kingdoms’.

She represents Mata, the subject.
She represents Mana, the instrument.
She represents Maya, the object.

These three M’s represent the secret of all yogic investigations. Upon the ritual full Moon night of Lalita, we shall approach Lalita, she will approach us just as a moonlit mirror, reflecting the deepest, softest and most magical beauty of all.

This ritual night is very much about reclaiming the innocence of receptive being, just like a child in the arms of the great mother who receives the nourishing Moon milk. The ritual worship of Lalita is softening and melting to the places of psychic and physical tension that might have become a familiar state of normality. Lalita touches us with the hand that relieves rigidity.

Lalita is the end of all struggle and self-proving. She is the great nourishing respite and the secret of beauty. Not an imposing made-up beauty that flaunts and sells itself, but hers is a beauty seen only by the cooling lunar eye, the eye that sees beyond the fires that burn the soul’s vision. Lalita’s voice is powerful in its silence, her voice is so powerful that it is heard only in the power of receptive softness.

Check out the whole Mahavidya Series to learn about the other 9 aspects of Goddess Wisdom.