251. Kāmeśvaramanaḥpriyā कामेश्वरमनःप्रिया

Śiva mentally likes Her (expression of true love) or She pervades the mind of Śiva.

This nāma can be interpreted like this. Śiva’s Power is Śakti. Śiva has unique power known as svātantrya śakti, His independent Power of Autonomy. This power is unique to Him and He has transferred this Power to His Consort Parāśakti. She is addressed as Parāśakti because She has the Supreme Power of Śiva known as Parāśakti. In other words, Parāśakti is not a separate entity but reflects svātantrya śakti of Śiva. There is no difference between Śiva and His power Parāśakti.

Śiva’s mind is pervaded by Parāśakti and in order to attain Śiva, human mind should also be pervaded by Parāśakti. Merger can take place between two objects of similar nature and in the same way, for liberation, human mind should be pervaded by Parāśakti. Thus, She also becomes the giver of knowledge about Śiva (Lalitā Sahasranāma 727 Śiva-jñāna-pradāyinī).

252. Kāmeśvaraprāṇanāthā कामेश्वरप्राणनाथा 

Prāṇanātha means Consort or lord of life. She has Kāmeśvara as Her Consort. It can be explained that Śiva has created Her through His prāṇa, which means vital force. In other words, She represents Śiva’s prāṇa. Lalitā Sahasranāma 373 Kāmeśvara-prāna-nāḍī says that She is the vital force ofKāmeśvara, the Supreme form of Śiva. This nāma is taken from Veda-s. Śrī Rudraṁ says (Yajur Veda IV.v.10) “O! Rudra! We invoke the auspicious form of yours, that is auspicious and ever healing along with the great auspicious form of Śaktī”.

Purity of mind and purity of prāṇa are directly related. For example, mind becomes purified if we live in a pollution free place and on the contrary, if we inhale polluted air, prāṇa is also afflicted with pollution and as a result, mind also becomes polluted. Hence it is said that meditation, prāṇāyāma, etc should be done early in the morning when the surroundings remain pure. When one practices prāṇāyāma during this time (between 03.30 hrs to 05.30 hrs), he inhales pure air and pure prāṇa which energises the body.

253. Kāmeśvaravimohinī कामेश्वरविमोहिनी

Vimohin means perplexing or bewildering. Śiva is baffled by Her performance. Possibly Śiva would not have expected Her to act so meticulously and methodically. In other words, He is immensely pleased with Her performance in upholding the universe. This is because, She never breaks “Law of Karma” which is also known as “Law of the Lord”.

254. Kāmeśvarabrahmavidyā कामेश्वरब्रह्मविद्या

Śiva is Brahman and knowledge about Him is known as Brahmavidyā. Brahmavidyā is explained in many Upaniṣad-s and other Sacred Scriptures like Brahma Sūtra, Yogasūtra-s of Patañjali, Vivekacūḍāmaṇi, etc. The essence of Brahmavidyā is “I am Brahman”.

This nāma can be explained in two ways. She is the cause for knowledge about Brahman, as Śiva declares ways and means to attain Him through various Tantra Śāstra-s only through Her persistent questioning. This type of knowledge is directly revealed by Śiva. Alternatively, She played an important role in making great saints and sages to declare Brahman through various Scriptures such as Lalitā Sahasranāma, Lalitā Triśatī, Upaniṣad-s, etc. Further, entire Sanskrit alphabets originated from Her (She is Matṛkā-varṇa-rūpinī, says Lalitā Sahasranāma 577) and thus, She becomes the source of sound. Only through sound and alphabets, Brahman is revealed.

255. Kāmeśvaragṛheśvarī कामेश्वरगृहेश्वरी

This nāma can also be interpreted in different ways.

This nāma says that She presides over the home of Śiva. When it is said that Śiva is omnipresent, obviously it means that the entire universe is His Abode and She presides over the universe, as explained in the previous nāma-s.

The alternative interpretation is given in Lalitā Sahasranāma 578 Mahā-kailāsa-nilayā which is given below.

Mahā-kailāsa is the abode of Śiva. This is far away from the existing Kailāsa Mountains.  In fact, Mahā-kailāsa is beyond human comprehension.  Śiva has various forms and Mahā-kailāsa is the abode of Paramaśiva.  Since Lalitāmbikā is always present with Śiva, Mahā-kailāsa is referred to as the abode of Lalithāi as well.  This interpretation is given in epics.  The orifice (bindu) in sahasrāra is known as Mahā-kailāsa.  Sahasrāra is beyond the six-cakra-s (mūlādhāra to ājñā) in the human body.  Śiva is visualised here in the form of a bindu (dot). Since She conjoins Śiva here in Her subtlest form kuṇḍalinī, it is also referred as Her Abode.  

256. Kāmeśvarāhlādakarī कामेश्वराह्लादकरी

Hlāda means pleasure, delight, joy, etc. She is the source of Śiva’s joy.

This nāma along with 254 explained the Cidānanda state of both Śiva and Śakti, which is their state of Knowledge and Bliss, two out of the three important stages of Brahman, the other one being Truth (also known as existence sat-cit-ānanda). When She is the source of happiness and joy for Śiva, She is the source of Bliss for us. The place around the bindu in Śrī Cakra is the cause for bliss and this is the reason for calling this innermost triangle of Śrī Cakra as sarva-ānanda-mayī (sarvānandamayī).  Śiva is in the form of the bindu, a dot inside this triangle. In other words, He is surrounded by Her in the form of Bliss. This message is subtly conveyed through this nāma.

Liṅga form of Śiva is based on this principle.

257. Kāmeśvaramaheśvarī कामेश्वरमहेश्वरी

She is the Supreme Consort of Śiva. There are two nāma-s in Lalitā Sahasranāma (208 Māheśvarī and 750 Maheśvarī) which refer to Her Supreme status and is explained thus:

Wife of Māhesvarā, a form of Śiva is Māheśvarī.  Mahānārāyaṇa Upaniṣad (XII.17) says, “He is the Supreme Lord who transcends ॐ which is uttered at the commencement of the recital of the Veda-s and which is dissolved in the primal cause during contemplation.”   His wife is Māheśvarī.   Māheśvara form of Śiva is the Supreme form.  He is beyond the three guṇas- sattva, rajas and tamas. Liṅga form of Śiva is Māhesvara form.  Liṅga Purāṇa says that all the deities are present in Liṅga form of Śiva, a resemblance to Śrī Cakra.

258. Kāmeśvarī कामेश्वरी

This nāma can be interpreted in two ways. She is the Chief of all desires. This explains Her Mahāmāya form, which is the Divine Power of illusion. Due to the effect of māyā, Her Divine Potency, even an advanced aspirant considers himself different from the Self. Afflicted with māyā, an advanced aspirant gets deluded and gets attached to the material world. In such a state, his mind is not pervaded by the Self and there are still traces of impressions from the sensory organs, which manifests in the form of desires, etc.

Another possible interpretation is that She is worshiped by Kubera as Kāmeśvara also refers to Kubera, lord of wealth. Kubera worshiped Her through His own Pañcadaśī mantra (ha sa ka e  ī la hrīṃ, ha sa ka ha e ī la hrīṃ, sa ha ka e ī la hrīṃ |). In this context this nāma says that She is worshiped by Kubera.

There is another interpretation for Kāma, which refers to Manmatha (Cupid). She is also worshiped by Manmatha and his Pañcadaśī mantra is popularly known as Kādividyā (ka e ī la hrīṃ, ha sa ka ha la hrīṃ, sa ka la hrīṃ |).

259. Kāmakoṭinilayā कामकोटिनिलया

This nāma can be explained through Lalitā Sahasranāma 589 Kāmakoṭikā.

The Brahman has two forms. One is Śiva (nirguṇa Brahman or Brahman without attributes and another is Śaktī (saguṇa Brahman or Brahman with attributes). The Śivaśaktī aikya form is known as Brahman. Śiva-Śaktī aikya happens in two forms. One is Śaktī sitting on the lap of Śiva and another is Ardhanārīśvara form, where one vertical form is Śiva and another is Śaktī. This is referred to in this nāma. Kāma refers to Śiva and koṭi means vertical.

260. Kāṅkṣitārthadā काङ्क्षितार्थदा

Kāṅkṣin means desiring or longing, which refers to the desires of Her devotees. She gives whatever is asked for by Her devotees. She fulfills all the desires of Her devotees.

Lalitā Sahasranāma 63 is Kāmadāyinī and is interpreted thus: She fulfils whatever is desired.  There are several interpretations for this nāma.  Kāma means Kāmeśvara, a form of Śiva.  Dāyini means giver.  It has been discussed earlier that Śaktī alone leads to Śiva and there is no direct access to Him. She takes Her devotees to Śiva, the supreme prakāśa form, the nirguṇa Brahman (Brahman without attributes).  She is like a veil around Śiva and unless this veil is removed, Śiva cannot be realized.  This veil can be removed only at Her will.