AdvaitaVedanta

lalatam lavanya dyutivimalam abhati tava yad
dvitiyam tan manye makuta ghatitam candra sakalam
viparyasya nyasad ubhayam api sambhuya ca mithas
sudhalepasutih parinamati rakahimakarah

I fain would treat Your forehead, shining with radiant beauty,
A second crescent to that other frail one fixed to Your crown;
So that, reversed in position, both knit as one to one,
Results the form of a fully matured moon, emanating soft ambrosial essence.

Verse 46 speaks in terms of two inverted crescents. The forehead here could make a crescent with its horns turned downward. The crescent fixed to the crown of Shiva or Parvati, as the case may be, has to be turned 180 degrees before the magic intended here could take place. We are familiar with this turning at two right angles in various contexts of physics and mathematics. For instance, polarized light gives different interference figures when the polarizer and the analyser are placed at angles between 45 and 180 degrees. The magic of the interference of double-polarized lights adds wonder to the beauty of mineral crystals.

In this verse it is a question of being able to see Absolute Beauty, and not just beauty as a unilateral value. Therefore Sankara indulges in giving detailed instructions to the reader so that the perfect Beauty-value intended here could result from common sense vision fully revised and corrected in the light of Advaitic doctrine. The raw materials and the finished product have to be put together unitively. In the theological context, it is enough to decorate Shiva and Parvati with a thin crescent at the Omega Point. But Vedanta is not limited to theological adorations. It must reveal the plenitude of an Absolute Value in the context of immortality and not in the context of relativistic samsara ( the process of cyclic becoming). It is not enough to worship either Shiva or Parvati as exalted divine personalities, abstracted and lifted out of the world of necessity. It is the normalized vision of plenitude that counts, although one-sided versions might still be dear to religious or theologically- minded persons who want a favourite deity (ishta devata) to adore.

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