Adi Sankara’s Saundarya Lahari reveals the greatness of Devi as the non-dual Supreme Reality which is synonymous with the inseparable Siva and Sakti who are personified to represent the power source and the manifestation of power respectively. The acharya accepts that he has undertaken a task that is well nigh impossible, namely, to describe the greatness of Devi which is truly immeasurable and beyond compare, pointed out Sri B. Sundarkumar in a discourse.
Being a poet at heart, he declares that all the comparisons and analogies drawn form the entire created universe can never fully describe her greatness or her supremely beautiful form. But still he tries to capture her glory in his poetry for the benefit of the pious devotees.
For, meditating on her form can be a starting point for them to become sensitive to the cosmic grandeur and purpose inherent in her being. For instance, the opening and closing of her eye lids is symbolic of the creation and dissolution of the universe. Her compassionate looks have the power to grace the jivatmas struggling in samsara, and her kataksha, like the moon’s rays that fall impartially on all places, does not make any distinction between the virtuous and the vicious. Now the poet confesses that he is at a loss to describe the redness of Devi’s lips. So he resorts to an assumed analogy, stating that perhaps the redness of her lips could be suitably described if at all the coral creeper could ever bear a fruit with surpassing redness. He then thinks of the bimba fruit but realises that this redness is only a pale reflection of her red lips.
In his Subramanya Bhujanga, in a similar vein he visualises an impossible situation — when there are six moons and always in full moon state and also devoid of kalanka — to bring out the beauty, brightness and effulgence of the Lord’s six faces.