So today, without any further ado, we’re going to go right into the thousand names, and look at the first two names. The first line of the Lalitā-sahasranāmam goes:

श्रीमाता श्रीमहाराज्ञी श्रीमत्-श्रीमत्सिंहासनेश्वरी ।

śrī mātā śrī mahārājñī śrimat siṁhāsaneśvarī

So we’re only going to do the first two. Śrī Mātā is the first name, and of course mātā means Mother; so the Goddess, Tripura, is the Mother of the whole universe. She’s not just ordinary mother, Mātā; She’s Śrī Mātā, meaning that She is the Mother of all: the universal Mother. And not only that—She’s an extraordinary Mother. An ordinary mother has no power to reduce or eliminate the suffering, and trials and tribulations of life. I mean, maybe she can give a little bit of relief; but Śrī Mātā can completely remove those sufferings.

The end of all suffering is liberation, mokṣa: the relief of material existence, the end of saṁsāra, repeated birth and death. So She can grant this; it’s within Her power. In fact, it’s only Hers to grant. But why is that? Because as the Mother of the universe, She is the universe. She is the trap; She is Māyā. So Māyā can also remove māyā, you see? Just like a thorn can take out another thorn. But in Her case, we don’t want to throw the thorns away because She is our Mother, and full of love and affection for all Her children.

(So let me check my notes here.) So She is in one way the creator of the universe. She creates the material elements, space, time, dimension and the mahāt-tattva, the source of all the five elements. And then at the end, She also dissolves Her creation, see? Who makes it can also dissolve it; and this is why She can give liberation too.

So this cycle of saṁsāra that we’re all stuck in, is like an ocean. In the ocean there are very strong currents and tides. It’s very difficult, actually impossible, for an ordinary human being to swim against them. So in other words, one has to be rescued by the ocean itself. Maybe the tide will wash you up on the beach somewhere. But in the case of saṁsāra, it’s the Mother Herself; so She is also the one to grant liberation.

The problem is, you see, saṁsāra the current of material existence, is produced by the senses. When the senses interact with their objects we become overwhelmed by all these impressions, and we’re swept away, we’re swept along by it. We don’t have the strength to resist it. Especially early in life, when our habits and thought patterns are being formed, we have nothing solid. We are always at the effect or under the influence of externals. So therefore, we become patterned, we become conditioned by them; and we start to think of ourselves as a material thing, and of course this is called identification.