Darasmera-mukhāmbujā दरस्मेर-मुखाम्बुजा (924)

Her face is adorned with smile, comparable to fully blossomed lotus flower. Her entire form is described as a lotus flower in nāma 460 Nalinī.  Even Śiva was attracted by Her smile as said in nāma 28 ‘mandasmita-prabhāpūra-majjatkāmeśa-mānasā’. Nāma 602 also describes Her smile. The cause of the smile is described in nāma 878 svātmārāmā meaning ‘She rejoices in Her own Self’.  Rejoicing in one’s own self gives eternal happiness that gets beamed as smile. 

Darasmera also means a shining conch shell.  Here, Her teeth are compared to shining white conch shell.  It also refers to Her neck where there are three lines. These three lines are said to be the three alphabets of OM (a, u, m). Triśatī nāma 157 compares Her neck to a conch shell. Saundarya Laharī (verse 69) refers to three lines in Her neck. The verse says te gale tisraḥ rekhāḥ meaning ‘three lines on Your neck’. 

Even during the times of fear (the great deluge also known as annihilation) Her face remains shining. When Śiva performs the cosmic dance causing annihilation, She remains as a witness without showing any signs of fear.  Even during the terrible annihilation, She continues to smile. This means that She is not afraid of anything.  One does not fear for anything as long as he is svātmārāmā (nāma 878).

{Further reading on the cosmic dance of Śiva:  At the time of annihilation, signalling the end of a cosmic cycle Kālāgni Rudra embraces the universe in dance of death and destruction. This is called tāṇḍava (refer nāma 232).  Śiva dances to the drum beats causing every single object in all the universes merge into a divine unity.  The fire that burns the universes dissolves into water, water into wind, wind into akash, akash into multitude of deva-s and deva-s into the Brahman.  At this stage puruṣa and prakṛti are separated and merge into Śiva.  Śiva alone exists witnessed by Śaktī. This dance of Śiva is called pulsating process of creation and annihilation.}

Kaulinī-kevalā कौलिनी-केवला (925)

Kaulinī has already been discussed in nāma 94 and kevalā has been discussed in nāma 623.

The knowledge of Śiva is known as kevalā or pure. Śiva Sūtra (III.34) says, tadvimumtastu kevalī which means “established in his real self, freed from pleasure and pain” (refer nāma 878 svātmārāmā). Kevala and svātmārāma are the terms that are used to refer a person whose consciousness is always established in the Brahman. In this stage, dualities do not exist. When the mind becomes devoid of dualities, it has the inherent capacity to stay connected with the Brahman perpetually. Opposites are the perceptions of the mind, when it gets associated with senses. Therefore Kevala means the doctrine of the unity of the Spirit. 

Kaulinī is the one who follows kaula mārga (nāma 441).  Kaula is the doctrine and practices of the left-hand Śākta-s. 

This nāma can be explained on the basis of Spanda-kārikā (I.8) which says “The empirical individual (here referring to Kaulinī) cannot derive the urge of desire.  But by coming into contact with the power of the Self (kevalā – meaning Śaktī here), he becomes equal to that principle.”  In śāktā worship, Śaktī is called kevalā. 

This nāma means that Kaulinī-s transform into kevalā because of worshipping Her.  She helps this transformation. 

Anarghya-kaivalya-pada-dāyinī अनर्घ्य-कैवल्य-पद-दायिनी (926)

Anarghya means invaluable, kaivalya means the stage of beatitude leading to emancipation and dāyinī means giver.  Nāma 625 is kaivalya-pada-dāyinī. This nāma is the reconfirmation of nāma 625.  The only difference between these two nāma-s is the prefix anarghya in this nāma.  This prefix stresses the importance of kaivalya or ceasation of the process of transmigration. In addition to what has been explained in nāma 625, kaivalya also means the existence of soul in essence.  The knowledge of understanding that soul and prakṛti are different from each other, leads to kaivalya or emancipation. Kaivalya is also known as mokṣa or mukti. 

Kaivalya, a term used in sāṃkhya philosophy, is the perfect isolation not only in human existence but also in angelic existence. It is an unfettered, omniscient and perfect state of existence of soul or jīva.   The isolated and pure spirit does not succumb to bondages of saṁsāra and hence released from transmigration.  The final stage of discriminative knowledge is called Kaivalya jñāna and this is achieved in nirvikalpa samādi (nirvikalpa means devoid of changes), the highest state of consciousness. Kaivalya jñāna is also known as illumination, Self-realisation, enlightenment, emancipations, liberation, etc.

Sage Patañjali in his yoga sūtra (IV.36) says, kaivalyam dharma dharmiṇaḥ puruṣasya. The interpretation of this sūtra is ‘The freedom of liberation is the very state of this substance or the being.  It is not to be attained, not that you experience something new, that liberation is the very nature of the being.” Kaivalya stage is already embedded in the soul, but efforts are not initiated to realise it.  Yoga teaches the path of realising it.

This nāma says that without Her help kaivalya stage cannot be attained. 

Stotra-priyā स्तोत्र-प्रिया (927)

Stotra means praise, eulogium, a hymn of praise.  Texts or verses, which are sung is stotra as opposed to the śāstra-s, which are recited.  Stotra is classified into six types – salutation, benedictions, extolling the accomplishments, praising feats, rehearsing glory and prayer for prosperity. The entire one thousand nāma-s of this Sahasranāma are based on these six types.  Nāma-s 627, 928, 735, 79, 658 and 692 are quoted as examples.

This nāma says that She is fond of praise by verses like Śrī Devi Māhātmyam, or Vedic verses like Śrī sūkta, Durgā sūkta, etc.

{There is a treatise called Vanadurgā Vidhānā also known as Vanadurgā saptasatī consisting of seven hundred verses.  The recitation of this treatise is said to eliminate all misfortunes and miseries. Unfortunately, this is not widely prevalent now, though a few printed editions are available. The recitation will be difficult as it contains more bīja-s and mūla mantra-s than verses.}

Stuti matī स्तुति मती (928)

Stuti means praise, mati means knowledge.  If She is praised through stotra-s as mentioned in the previous nāma, he gets knowledge that is required to realise the Brahman.

Matī can be split into mati + i.  Mati means knowledge and i refers to wealth.  If She is praised, one gets both knowledge and wealth.