The Matrkas ( A repost )

[Guest guest]

nora55_1999

 

They are indeed an interesting group of goddess, and in the hindus

perception of divine feminine, they occupy an important place. Who

are they? What is their role? What are their characterictics?

 

Nevertheless the myth about the Matrkas does not only confine in vast

hindu pantheon, but also in the others culture.

 

" Mother womb

create of destiny,

queen of the earth mountain

queen who allots the facts

Queen who bear

Women who open the womb"

[ from an ancient Iraqi invocation over clay pieces of the Seven

creating

women and seven childbearing woman]

Its seem hard not to associate these invocation to the SaptaMatrkas.

 

 

Again it is said that the 51 skulls that's Kali wears represent the

51 Matrkas [ letters of the Sanskrit Alphabet ] which constitutes

the Goddess in the form of sound. These letters too are shown on the

petals of the six charkas.

 

And according to the lore of Tantra Yoga, "The Matrkas are sure to

gather round the Yogi who unwaveringly clings to the meditative

solitude" [ biography of Milarepa]

 

So this brings us back to the main questions : Who are these Matrkas?

Their association ? Their Characteristic and their functions?

 

Candamunda [ I am in the process of writing an article about HER]is

one of the Matrkas and also one of the 64 yoginis who are themselves

daughters of the SaptaMatrkas.

 

There are many different myths about the origins of the Matrkas.

They are being mentioned several times in several text namely the

Mahabrahta, Devi Mahatmya, Linga-purana, matsya purana, Bhagavata

purana and Visnudharmottara purana

 

They have a common attributes namely the auspicious and the

inauspicious form. More often they are being known for their

inauspicious form. By and large they always function as a group and

shared a common attributes. And they are unspecified in numbers.

 

As auspicious form they function as a supportive role in maintaing

dharmic cosmic order as 1) Warrior Goddesses.

 

a) In Devi Mahatmya : As Seven Mothers, they battle together with

Durga, Sivaduti and Camunda against Subha and Nisumbha.

 

b) Matsya purana they assist Siva in combating against Andhaka.

 

c) In association with Karttikeya [ Murugan], they fought with him

against demon.

 

In relation to the battle they fought together with Karttikeya, some

of these Matrkas are described as having lovely form, cheerful, fair

skin and youthful. Others are often depicted as having long nails,

large teeth and protruding lips. They inspire their foes with terror,

and they are like Indra in battle. They live in trees, at crossroads,

on mountains, at

spring, in burning grounds, and they speak a variety of language.

More often they are dark skin.

 

2) As Mothers, there several myth about the role the Matrkas played

especially with Hanuman and Karttikeya

 

a) Karttikeya : Its is said Karttikeya was born from the spark of

Sivans third eye into six babies. He was looked after by six Mothers

[ possibly gauris ] till he is a young boy. Parvathi then came, and

merge all these six babies into One : Murugan. These six mother then

became stars. And it is said that during Karthegei night, these six

stars are visible in the night sky.

 

b) A myth tells a story of two sisters give birth to half a child,

they abandoned the deformed creatures at cross roads. Jara, a demon

goddess { she feeds on flesh and blood } take the child away,

combined the two infants into a whole being and she gives the whole

child to the king. In gratitude the king orders that she be

worshipped throughout the region at a great festival in her honour.

 

As inauspicious form ( of which they are commonly referred to ) they

are often depicted as ferocious , terrible , dangerous to children

and pregnant woman. There are several myths to this association with

children, more often with Karttikeya

 

The Matrkas are being send by Indra to kill the youth Karttikeya

shortly after his birth. When they approached the child, however

their breast ooze milk and they asked him to adopt them as his

mothers. Two of these goddess are described as

a) born of anger and to carry a spike on her head

b) bad tempered of red complexion, a daughter of the sea and live on

blood.

 

Another myth in association with Karttikeya : mention about a host

of ferocious and terrifying ones , born from the child when Indra

strikes hi with his thunderbolt. These goddess are as follows : Kaki,

Halima, Malini. Brhali, Aryu, Palala, and Vaimitra. Karttikeya

eventually adopt them as his mothers.

 

 

With regards to the Six mothers who take care of baby Karttikeya,

there is another myth to the story. It is said that the six mothers

who take care of Karttikeya are the wives of six sages. They have

been wrongly accused for being Karttikeya real mothers. They are

being divorced by their husbands. They came to Karttikeya and appeal

to him to adopt them as their mother. As a group they are being

called the MahaMatrkas [ the great mother]. He agrees to become

their adopted son and asked them if they have any wishes . They made

two wishes namely to be recognized and worshipped as the great

goddess and to live off the children of men because they themselves

have been divorced and cheated of having a children of their own.

Karttikeya however refused to grant them the second wish, but instead

told them that they can play a "protective" role as mothers to these

children. Karttikeya later told them that they can torment children

until they reach 16 year old.

 

Another group of 10 goddess are also being mentioned : Vinata,

Putana, Raksasi, Aditi ( or Revati ), Diti, Surabhi, Saraa, Karu,

Lohitayani, Arya. These group of goddess are said to afflict children

or pregnant women.

 

Its hard to think of goddess inflicting on Children and Pregnant

Women. As goddess they should be a protective, but the reverse with

regards to these group of Matrkas. But if you think about it

especially in India where there is lack of medical facilities

[especially in rural areas] and inoculation especially for children,

and there is increase in infant death, in such an unfair situation,

you have to blame on someone.

 

Accepting death of a child is always hard. Children are more prey to

disease, and the silent thieves in the night that steal their lives

away need to be given faces and some reason to their death. Its

something they can rail against and direct their anger towards.

 

So who else can take the blame and anger but the Goddess

themselves.!!!

 

It is said they prey on children until they reach sixteen years old

when they go through a reversal and become protectors. Once a child

survives into adulthood [ sixteen yrs of age] they fall under the

Matrkas protection. Then they become benevolent surrogate mothers to

these almost-adults.

 

Perhaps this explain the famous quotation : What does not kill you

makes you stronger.

 

devi_bhakta

 

Nora, in one of your earlier posts on the Seven Mothers, you point

out that "they are born when the Devi loses control of her

concentration. This suggests the Matrkas' essentially uncontrolled

natures. Born from lack of mental control, they lack control

themselves." In another post, you list their association with the

human vices.

 

Just as Maryamman is associated with disease, the Matrikas are seen

as being behind the illness and death of children.

 

Since Devi is All, it is inevitable that some of Her forms will

represent the most fearful elements of Nature.

 

The Hindu scholar Devdutt Pattanaik notes that the Seven Mothers are

the "handmaidens of Chandi [Durga or Parvati], Who "declared Her

seven handmaidens would be worshipped as virgin mothers."

 

Pattanaik adds, "The cult of the Seven Mothers is found all over

India. ... Pregnant women and nursing mothers worship them. When

these goddesses are angry, they make women barren and strike newborns

with fatal fevers. When they are appeased, they ensure the health

and happiness of children."

 

This is what I don't understand: If the Matrikas "lack control

themselves," how are we supposed to appease them? Should we even try?

It seems to me that they are an acknowledgement that the whims and

disasters of Nature cannot be avoided. So why do we approach them at

all? Why do we not focus all of our energies on more positive images

of Devi? Thanks to Nora and any other members for their thoughts on

this question!

 

Aum Maatangyai Namaha

 

 

nora55_1999

 

" If the Matrikas "lack control themselves," how are we supposed to

appease them? Should we even try?

 

Well they say the same for Maa Kali

 

"… is a goddess who threatens stability and order. Although she

may

be said to serve order in her role as slayer of demons, more often

then not she becomes frenzied on the battlefield, usually becoming

drunk on the blood of her victims, that she herself begins to destroy

the world that she is supposed to protect"

 

And Maa Kali is not short of admirers what more faithful followers.

Why would any one wants to worship Maa Kali in the first place if she

too always seems to "run out of control herself" and as we know she

did not "run out of control" for a long time, because then comes

Siva, who somehow finds a way of how to encounter Kali's fury and

wrath.

 

a) Siva becomes a corpse: to stop her rampage, Siva lay down on the

battlefield like a corpse so that when she dance on his body she

would stop, recognizing him as her husband.

 

b) Siva becoming an infant: by invoking the maternal instinct of

Kali. As a true mother, as soon as Kali heard the cries of an infant

in distress, she stopped her dancing, pick up the infant and nurse

him.

 

These two instances tell us that we can therefore approach Maa Kali

in two forms: as a corpse or as an infant. As infant: approaching Maa

Kali as a helpless child. Even though the mother can be fearsome and

sometime hostile, a child would still cling and return to the mother

for protection, security and warmth. As the saying goes: you can

never separate the bond between a child and a mother.

 

"Though she beat it, the child clings to its mother

crying, "mother Ramprasad.

 

The infant too symbolizes the benign energy needed to counteract and

maintain the "equilibrium" between the negative and the positives

forces.

 

As a corpse: Maa Kali herself conveys death, destruction, fear and

terror. Like in my previous post on Camunda, basic psychological

message convey is 'to overcome the fear". The fear of death itself.

Corpse too symbolizes our detachment from the materialistic world.

Because once you are dead: you become the ashes (if cremated) or just

a skeleton (buried). Your entity or your "self" ceased to exist. You

became part of the universal or the great soul.

 

The corpse too is food for Maa Kali. She is said to adorn herself

with pieces of human corpse, baths in river of blood, and uses human

skull as drinking vessels. Having said all that about Maa Kali, lets

get back to the Matrkas. To me the behaviors of the Matrkas are no

different than what is portrayed of Maa Kali. The Matrkas are too

part of Mother. In Devi Purana they are said to be the multiform of

the Mahavidyas. Now to say that the Matrkas are totally out of

control is not true because they too have their limitations. Its when

they go beyond the limits that they become Demons and Asuras,

thereafter need to be punished. The following instances explain as

to why I say the Matrkas is not totally uncontrollable:

 

1) After the battle the Matrkas announce they will now proceed to

devour all the gods, demons and people around the world. Siva

commands them not to do this, but they ignore him and begin a

rampage of destruction. Siva summon Narasimha, Vishnu's man-lion who

creates a host of benign goddess, they in turn calm down the terrible

Matrkas and stop their destruction, of which they did.

 

2) The demon Sumbha has accused Devi of false pride an haughtiness,

for in the foregoing encounters she has relied not on her own

strength but on that of others. At this point, Devi proclaims her

relation to the apparently heterogeneous forms of the Goddess: " I

alone exist here in the world, what second, other than I, is there? O

wicked one, behold these are my hierophanies (or extraordinary

powers) entering back into me…. Thereupon, all the goddesses, led

by

Brahmani, went to their resting place in the body of Devi, then there

was just Devi alone. Subsequently, Devi throws own the gauntlet for

the final combat:"when I was established here in many forms, it was

by means of my extraordinary power. That is now been withdrawn by

me. I stand utterly alone. May you be resolute in combat"

 

So back to the question as to: should we even try?

 

Its not 'try" but do we want to. It still boils down to each

individual as to weather they feel connected to the Divine Mother in

her auspicious form like Saraswati, Lakshmi, Parashakti etc, or in

her inauspicious form like Kali and Camunda. In her inauspicious

form, we are reminded to look beyond the terrifying and fearsome

physical appearance. If you were in love with someone, you would not

care as to how she/he looks like, but what that persons mean to you.

The same for Maa Kali , Maa Camunda and the Matrkas too. It is true

that we cannot avoid the whims and disasters of Nature, but in my

opinion, the Matrkas too is like a reminder to us that the state of

stability and peace is not permanent. Often we forget this. To think

that this stability is permanent is an illusion/Maya. This is to

tell us that Mother can strike us in her most merciless form like

earthquake, floods, droughts etc and able to kill thousands. It is

how we handle such disaster. We are well aware that such natural

calamities are not permanent. It usually occurs for short period of

time after which we will find a way of how to overcome it or to

rebuild our lives back again.

 

Now go down to a personal level. How do we handle personal crises?

When we are faced with for example a sudden death of a loved one or

have lost our property etc.

 

 

OM ParaShaktiye Namaha