Lalita Trishati

Yesterday I read and chanted the Lalitā Triśatī Stotram, the Song of 300 Names of the Playful Mother Goddess.  I use Swamiji's transliteration and translation in the book Shree Maa: The Guru and the Goddess.
 
I really like the Lalitā Triśatī.  The first time I ever chanted it was with Swamiji, around the fire at the Devi Mandir during the first Navaratri that I attended.  

Chanting anything with Swamiji is an experience of a lifetime, especially when your heart is open, but there have been certain scriptures that we have chanted together that I feel especially drawn to.  Lalita Trishati is one of them, in large part because of the 16 letter Șoraṣī mantra that you chant before and after the stotram.  The first time I chanted that mantra with Swamiji it blew my mind.  It was unlike any other mantra I had ever heard or chanted. 
 
Not only is its sound and structure super cool, but it has a meaning to match.   In the introduction to the stotram, Swamiji explains that Șoraṣī is Śiva  and Śakti together in "undifferentiated communion." 
 
So I chanted the Lalitā Triśatī right after I chanted the Śrī Guru Gīta (they are next to eachother in Swami's book so its pretty fun to do them together).  Towards the end of my chanting, in the epilogue of the stotram that comes after the 300 names, I happened to eye the translation of a verse that was about worship without knowledge.  That inspired me to read the whole translation, which Swamiji encourages us to do.  I figured I might as well know what I'm chanting.
 
The reading was awesome.  It was really helpful and insightful.  The three hundred names come as part of a story in which the Ŗṣi Hayagrīva is given the the 300 names by the Divine Mother Herself so that he can teach them to his disciple, Agastya (He Who is Born from a Jar), and Agastya's wife, Lopāmudrā.
 
The three hundred names could have been written for Shree Maa.  I guess they were, seeing as Shree Maa is the Divine Mother....but its just amazing.  The names describe Her so perfectly.
 
Here are a few of the names that really grabbed me:

205. hrīṃkārakuṇḍāgni-śikhā - Who is the ultimate of the sacrificial fire burning on the altar of Hrīṃ (Māyā) 
208. hrīṃkārāmbhodacancalā - Who is the inconsistent  nature of the heavenly waters of Hrīṃ (Māyā) 
214. hrīṃkārāvālavallarī - Who is the fibers in the creepers of Hrīṃ (Māyā)
217. hrīṃkārakandarāsiṃhī - Who is the lioness in the cave of Hrīṃ (Māyā)
233. satyarūpā - Who is the form of truth

.....and one more....

297. hrīṃkārahimavadgaṅgā - Who is the Ganges that flows from the Himalayas of Hrīṃ (Māyā)

Jai Maa!