The Great Cosmic Power of love,
beauty and godly harmony
The third of the Ten Supreme Godly Powers (Dasha Maha Vidya) is known in Tantra as Kamakala or the Great Cosmic Power Tripura Sundari. In the spiritual tradition, the Great Cosmic Power Tripura Sundari is considered to be the Great Cosmic Power of Divine Beauty, Complete Harmony and pure Endless Love.
The Sanskrit term tripura can be translated into English by the phrase “the three (tri) fortresses (pura)”, and sundari is the feminine form of the Sanskrit term of the male genus sundara, which can be translated into English as “beauty”, “perfection“,”splendor“. These Godly Attributes can be considered a corollary of the perfect integration into the Creative Godly Will. Thus, Tripura Sundari means “the one whose beauty or godly perfection is known in all three fortresses (cities)“.
The “cities” or “fortresses” (pura) are in fact a metaphor; in reality, they designate the “three Worlds” or gigantic spheres of God’s Creation: the Physical World, the Subtle (astral) World, and the Causal World. Due to the perfect correspondence between the structure of the Human Microcosm and that of the Macrocosm, these three “cities” (pura) can be identified in the human being with the three bodies: the coarse or the physical body, the astral body and the causal body. From another perspective, this correlation highlights the sovereignty of the Great Cosmic Power Tripura Sundari on the realms of matter, energy and thought, at the level of the whole Creation.
Referring to the term tripura as a triad (trinity), it symbolizes that the Great Cosmic Power dwells in any triad of the Manifestation (both at microcosmic and at the universal, macrocosmic level) and she can be found in absolutely any triple aspect, such as: the subject, the object and the perception that unites them; the knower, the known and the knowledge that unites them; the measure, that which is measured and the one who measures etc.; the three Worlds, the three fundamental states of consciousness (the wake state, the dream state and the dreamless sleep), the three fundamental energies of the Godly Consciousness (Iccha Shakti - Energy of Will, Jnana Shakti - Energy of Knowledge and Kriya Shakti - Energy of Action) etc.
Hypostases of the Great Cosmic Power Tripura Sundari
The Great Cosmic Power Tripura Sundari is also called Raja Rajeshvari (Queen of All Queens, Eternal Empress of All the Worlds, Supreme Sovereign of all sovereigns), the one who surpasses in beauty, grandeur, purity and elevation any created aspect. Another tantric aspect of the Great Cosmic Power Tripura Sundari is called Shodashi - “The One Having 16 Aspects”, or “The 16-Year-Old Girl”. Shodashi or Bala embodies the infinitely transfiguring Light of God, as well as the purity of consciousness untainted by lower desires. “The 16-year-old” is the representation of Life that has begun to bloom fully and has not been touched at all by inferior and uncontrollable desires; it is both the perfection of life at its beginning and the ultimate goal of the spiritual search.The Great Cosmic Power Tripura Sundari is also known as Lalita („The playful one”). The Hindu spiritual tradition states that the entire Creation is nothing but the game full of beauty and sublime thrilling of the Godly Mother. Lalita embodies the Supreme Godly Ecstasy, the ever-flowing spring of all states of happiness. It also represents the endless Godly Love - the central and essential force that gives meaning to the Manifestation, the original impulse - which springs from the depths of our hearts - towards spiritual liberation.
The Moon and its Godly nectar
Because she is directly and intimately associated with the energy of beatitude and the godly nectar of spiritual immortality (soma or amrita), Tripura Sundari is depicted as a visible embodiment of the transcendental beauty and happiness of the Moon (soma, in Sanskrit). From this point of view, Tripura Sundari offers the ecstatic experience of the overflowing godly nectar (or godly “ambrosia”) into the aspirant’s inner universe, as well as the occult resonance that is sublimely identifying with the most elevated aspects of God’s Conscience.In essence, Tripura Sundari is the ultimate beauty of the perfectly pure perception, which occurs when we become able to see in the depths of our being (in our fully revealed Godly Self) the whole manifestation as a direct reflection of the reality of God’s Conscience. Through the constant adoration of Tripura Sundari, the human being gradually finds out a spiritual path full of beauty and Godly Love, a way full of happiness and harmony through which they become able to find at every moment the “guiding thread” in the labyrinth of illusion that envelops this world. Thus, through the endless Grace of this Great Cosmic Power, the persevering yogis and yoginis full of fervour reach the mysterious and sacred centre of the labyrinth of life - in other words, they attain the identifying knowledge of the Supreme Godly Truth and the plenary revealing of the Godly Immortal Self, Atman.
The delicious splendor of life
The whole manifestation is subjected to the Godly Love and Beauty, attributes that are eternally emanating from the Great Cosmic Power Tripura Sundari. She expresses the astounding and fascinating beauty of Manifestation, as well as the charm of God’s endless creative power. When pure Happiness mirrors and manifests fully and harmoniously in a certain form, its expression is Beauty. Also, emanating from the mysterious godly Transcendence, the infinite godly Love has an absolute power in the whole Manifestation. Goodness, kindness, compassion, consideration, sympathy, affection, eros, friendship, affection, happiness intimacy, ecstatic communion - are all and each in varying degrees of intensity and depth, pale reflections on the Earth of the godly Love giving birth and sustaining them permanently.Since the Great Cosmic Power Tripura Sundari manifests within God’s Creation the Endless Energy of Godly Love with all its wonderful nuances that are mirrored both at the macrocosmic level and at the microcosmic level in the inner universe of every human being, a fundamental way of accessing the endless Grace of this Great Godly Power is the amplification and manifestation of pure love as constant and as deep as possible in our life. Emotional attraction, refined sensuality, elevated passion, elective affinities, friendship, gentleness, kindness, tenderness, romanticism, delicacy, happiness, joy, enthusiasm and many other aspects or forms of love spring from the gigantic sphere of force of the Great Cosmic Power of Godly Beauty, Absolute Harmony, Pure Infinite Love, which is Tripura Sundari, and for that very reason they can constitute privileged and direct paths of ecstatic and sublime identification with her.
Even in the midst of the most delicious pleasures or the most fascinating experiences that life can offer us, delightful and fully aware enjoyment of these experiences under the love and graceful guidance of the Great Cosmic Power, Tripura Sundari, can awaken tremendously rapidly our super-mental consciousness, and can thus lift us at lightning speed above the level at which these experiences unfold, transcending them.
