The Inexpressible Sweetness of the Divine Mother
घृतक्षीरद्राक्षामधुमधुरिमा कैरपि पदैर्विशिष्यानाख्येयो भवति रसनामात्रविषयः ।
तथा ते सौन्दर्यं परमशिवदृङ्मात्रविषयः कथंकारं ब्रूमः सकलनिगमागोचरगुणे ॥
ghṛtakṣīradrākṣāmadhumadhurimā kairapi padairviśiṣyānākhyeyo bhavati rasanāmātraviṣayaḥ |
tathā te saundaryaṃ paramaśivadṛṅmātraviṣayaḥ kathaṃkāraṃ brūmaḥ sakalanigamāgocaraguṇe ||
(revelation...) O Supreme Divine Mother, whose infinite attributes are entirely beyond the reach of all Vedas and objective scriptural knowledge [sakalanigamāgocaraguṇe]! Just as the distinct sweetness [madhurimā] of ghee [ghṛta], milk [kṣīra], grapes [drākṣā], and honey [madhu] remains indescribable [anākhyeyaḥ] by any words [kairapi padaiḥ] and is purely an object of direct subjective experience of the tongue alone [rasanāmātraviṣayaḥ]—similarly [tathā], Your divine beauty and blissful radiance [te saundaryam] is solely the object of the ultimate vision and direct cognition of Paramashiva, the Supreme Consciousness [paramaśivadṛṅmātraviṣayaḥ]. How then can we, with our finite minds and speech, ever describe or express It [kathaṃkāraṃ brūmaḥ]?
Swamiji, I have spent years studying the sacred scriptures, trying to understand the Divine Mother intellectually. But instead of bringing me closer to Her, all this reading has only filled my mind with doubts and anxiety. How can I move from just reading these sacred texts to actually living them?
Understand, accumulating vast scriptural knowledge is simply not enough to grasp the ultimate reality of the Divine Mother. Even the Vedas and Agamas, though they are the supreme infallible authority revealed by Paramaśiva through His five faces, cannot fully contain Her infinite attributes. She is sakalanigamāgocaraguṇe—entirely beyond the reach of all objective scriptural knowledge. The moment you try to utter something in words, the whole truth is reduced; a four-dimensional experience is compressed into a mere two-dimensional picture. Accumulating vast superficial knowledge only generates anxiety and doubts rather than true clarity. Mere intellectual study of the Mother yields nothing. You must directly bite into the reality yourself! The Upanishads are not meant to just be read, they are meant to be lived.
Swamiji, when I try to connect with the Divine, my mind keeps analyzing and trying to calculate everything. How can I transition from this state of constantly thinking, to a space where my mind completely dissolves into the experience itself?
Listen to this profound truth: if your mind sustains the process of knowing and retains its original form, it is merely the process of knowledge. But if your mind drowns and dissolves in the very process of knowing, it becomes pure experience—existence, Brahman, Sadashiva! The sweetness of the Mother is purely an object of direct subjective experience, rasanāmātraviṣayaḥ. Just as the distinct sweetness of ghee, milk, grapes, and honey remains completely indescribable by any words, you cannot approach this sacred experience with the calculating mind of a researcher. The ultimate truth is not objective data; it is a direct, subjective explosion of bliss on your own tongue!
Swamiji, during my prayers, there are moments when a profound silence washes over me and all my words simply disappear. I find myself unable to speak or even think. Is this silence a true connection with the Divine, or am I somehow losing my way?
My dear, listen. Certain spiritual truths completely lose their essence and are degraded when they are verbalized. When you touch the highest state, speech simply stops. The Upanishads declare: 'Where the eye goes not, the speech goes not, nor the mind and the intellect, we do not know, we do not understand, how That Reality can be taught.' This truth is untouched by the mind or the tongue through which it rolls out, just like Mother Meenakshi’s immaculate birth from the chidagni kuṇḍa, the conscious fire pit. Even the greatest incarnations physically struggle to verbalize this ultimate reality. You simply cannot fit the boundless, multi-dimensional ocean of Her consciousness into the tiny, two-dimensional cup of human language. That silence is the ultimate state.
Swamiji, if the Divine Mother's ultimate beauty can only be fully seen by the infinite consciousness of Paramashiva, how can a finite seeker like me ever hope to experience Her?
I reveal this truth to you: Her divine beauty and blissful radiance is indeed solely the object of the ultimate vision of Paramaśiva—paramaśivadṛṅmātraviṣayaḥ. Paramaśiva is anaadi-nitanah—eternal, infinite, without beginning and without end, and eternal bliss, nitya ānanda, is the core, innate quality of His pure consciousness. Only His infinite consciousness has the capacity to fully cognize Her boundless beauty. Therefore, you cannot study this reality as an external object; you must realize it as the ultimate Subject. You must discard the faded flowers of ignorance and realize that the Knower within you is none other than Shiva Himself! Through prema bhakti—a divine, sacred sentiment of love that transcends all verbal definition—you establish a feeling connection with the Mother. When you realize She is the source of you, She becomes responsible for everything you do. The Divine Mother responds to the intensity of your subjective experience, not your objective vocabulary. Your devotion must be a direct, subjective explosion of love, uniting you in the space of Oneness with Her ineffable sweetness!
The Limitations of Objective Knowledge
I tell you, accumulating vast scriptural knowledge is not enough to grasp the ultimate reality of the Divine Mother.
Joke
People come to me and say, 'Swamiji, please explain the ultimate enlightenment experience in exactly three words so I can put it on my Twitter bio!' I tell them, 'My dear child, if the Upanishads and Vedas couldn't fit the Divine Mother into all their massive volumes, how do you expect me to fit Her into 280 characters?' Even if I give you the most perfect explanation, it is like me eating a delicious, juicy grape and writing a book about it for you. Your stomach won't be filled by reading my book! You have to open your mouth and bite into the grape yourself!
The Four-Dimensional Experience of Sweetness
Understand the profound truth Shankara reveals here through the metaphor of sweetness (madhurimā).
Joke
You see, modern scientists are always trying to analyze everything. If you give them a cup of sweet, warm payasam made of milk, ghee, and honey, they won't just drink it and celebrate! No, they will take it to a lab, analyze the molecular structure, count the calories, and write a three-hundred-page research paper on the chemical composition of sweetness. But if you ask them, 'Okay, now tell me, how does it actually taste?' they will look at their charts and say, 'According to our data, it is precisely 42% sweet!' (Laughter) No! You cannot taste data! If you want to know the sweetness, you don't need a PhD; you just need a tongue!
The Silence of the Supreme State
Please listen, certain spiritual truths completely lose their essence and are degraded when they are verbalized.
Story
You see, the great master Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa would often enter the highest state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi, where he experienced the ultimate, formless reality of the Divine Mother. When he would return to normal consciousness, his close disciples would gather around him eagerly, begging, 'Master, please tell us! What is it like? What did you experience in that ultimate state?' Ramakrishna would smile, open his mouth to speak, and suddenly, his voice would choke. Literally, he would feel a physical constriction in his throat and could not utter a word! He later explained to them, 'My children, I want to tell you everything! I want to describe the infinite glory and sweet radiance of the Mother. But the moment I try to bring that multi-dimensional truth down into the two dimensions of human language, the Mother Herself comes and presses Her hand over My throat! She says, "Do not try to fit the boundless ocean of My consciousness into the tiny cup of human speech." Just as you cannot explain the distinct sweetness of honey to someone who has never tasted it, the ultimate experience of the Divine Mother cannot be spoken—it can only be lived!'
Paramaśiva’s Direct Vision
I reveal this truth to you: Her divine beauty and blissful radiance (te saundaryam) is solely the object of the ultimate vision of Paramaśiva (paramaśivadṛṅmātraviṣayaḥ).
Story
In the sacred Upanishads, there is a beautiful dialogue where Sage Maitreya climbs the sacred, snow-capped peaks of Kailash, the ultimate abode of consciousness. He approaches Mahadeva, the Great God, bows down with deep reverence, and asks, 'O Lord, please reveal to me the secret of the Supreme Truth. Where is it? How do I describe it?' Mahadeva looks at him with infinite compassion and says, 'O Maitreya, the body itself is spoken of as the temple, and the jiva, the soul residing within, is none other than Shiva Himself! Discard the faded flowers of ignorance—the ideas that you are separate, that the Divine is somewhere far away. Worship Him with the direct subjective experience of your own oneness.' You see, Maitreya went looking for a grand, objective explanation that could be written down in books. But Mahadeva pointed him right back to his own subjective consciousness. The ultimate truth of the Divine Mother and Paramashiva cannot be studied as an external object; it is the very Subject, the Knower within you!
The Subjective Explosion of Devotion
How then can we, with our finite minds and speech, ever describe or express Her (kathaṃkāraṃ brūmaḥ)?
Story
There is a beautiful, deeply touching story of a monk who was forced by circumstances to live in a Buddhist monastery, where worshipping the Shivalinga was strictly forbidden. But his heart belonged only to Mahadeva! Every single day, he would secretly walk out to a hidden Shivalinga in the forest. Because he could not carry flowers, milk, or traditional offerings without raising suspicion, do you know what he did? He would pick up rough stones from the ground and hurl them at the Shivalinga! But in his inner space, with tears of intense devotion, he was visualizing those stones as the most fragrant, softest flowers being offered to his beloved Lord. He did this for years with absolute, unshakeable connection. One day, other monks discovered him and were shocked, thinking he was desecrating the deity. But at that very moment, Mahadeva, the Supreme Consciousness, manifested directly from the Shivalinga in all His radiant glory! Shiva embraced the monk and said, 'Your stones reached Me as the sweetest blossoms, because your devotion was not a matter of external rituals or words—it was a direct, subjective explosion of love.' This is the ultimate truth: the Divine is not captured by outer rules or scriptures, but by the direct, sweet experience of your own inner space!