This post originally from March 2015, has been revised on February 2018 to eliminate the first person from the text and the audio has been re-sung and recorded to sound better.
The above photo of Shree Meenakshi Devi with Shiva Lingam is from the pooja room.
While perusing the internet for writings by Sri Maha Periyava of Kancheepuram, He has mentioned the greatness of an ancient shloka called Soundarya Lahari, which essentially means "Waves of Beauty". This praises Devi Parvati who is Lord Shiva's consort. The mind got curious; it was discovered that this is quite a POWERFUL shloka. It has one hundred verses; there are wonderful stories about Soundarya Lahari and the credit for the composition goes to Sri Adi Shankara, with the Ananda Lahari portion going directly to Lord Shiva. Each shloka produces specific material and spiritual benefits to the reciter. Instead of re-writing these, links are given at the end of this document to those that are interested, so one can go to the source rather than read copied material here.
It was found however, that there are no easy to locate places on the internet that instruct how to recite this shloka so it sounds wonderful; hence this post. Soundarya Lahari is written in the Sanskrit metre called Shikharini -- which itself means "peak". It is a wonderful metre and sounds really beautiful if recited in the form: t R T r T R || t r t r r || T R t r r R -- t R T r T R || t r t r r || T R t r r R. Here, the five syllables in between the || lines have to be clubbed together. It is felt that singing this shloka in a carnatic music style or simply reciting the words one after the other like Sanskrit prose does not give "some" an elevated feeling of glorifying and praising a Goddess. When recited in the format given here, you will feel elevated yourself, it is felt.
Now the audio rendering of Soundarya Lahari which is 38 minutes 5 seconds long:
(Mobile Devices: Click Download; then play. )
NOTE: BECAUSE THIS IS A VERY LARGE FILE ABOUT 35 MEGABYTES, YOU WILL HAVE TO DOWNLOAD AND THEN LISTEN. On mobile devices and some computers, you may get the message -- This file is too large for Google to scan, download anyway? -- You will have to answer "YES" and then listen after download. On some computers, when you hit the play button, if nothing seems to happen, click the Download arrow at the top, click download anyway and then listen. Sorry for the inconvenience -- but this is a big file and praise to Sri Adi Shankara and Lord Shiva for giving us such a VAST OCEAN of beauty !
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iaHIQ6KI9uFrvmV8J2NK9e_GGchcLPau/view?usp=sharing
Many sources are available for lyrics in various languages. Sanskrit lyrics can be also be found at:
http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_devii/saundaryalahari.pdf
The Sanskrit lyrics, English lyrics and translation along with specific yantras for each of the shlokas along with the results obtainable by reciting each shloka can be found at: ( the meaning, yantras and detailed results specific to each shloka are found AFTER the sanksrit lyrics and English transliteration in the document)
http://www.aghori.it/soundarya_lahari_eng.htm
Detailed explanation in English that runs several pages long transcribed from speeches by Maha Periyava Swamigal of Kancheepuram about every aspect of Soundarya Lahari can be found at:
http://www.krishnamurthys.com/profvk/gohitvip/DPDS.html
Om Shree Adi Para Shakthi Devi Namo Namaha !
