Matangi - part 3

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Meditation Form

 

Matangi's meditation form is as follows:

 

Playing a ruby-studded vina, ecstatic, delighting in

sweet speech, I remember the daughter of the sage

Matanga, who has soft dark-emerald limbs.

Who has four arms, and wear the crescent moon for

an ornament, with uprisen breasts, anointed with the red

kumkum powder, who carries a sugar-cane bow, a noose,

a hook, and flower arrows in her hand, I honor you, the

One Mother of the universe.

 

~Shyamaladandakam 1-2

 

Matangi is dark emerald green in color, the color of deep knowledge and profound

life-energy, which is also the color of the planet Mercury that governs

intelligence. She plays the vina, a stringed instrument like a sitar, which

shows her musical and vibratory power. She is beautiful and carries various

weapons with which to fascinate and subdue us. In this regard she has the same

ornaments and weapons as Sundari. She is often said to have a parrot in her

hands, which represents the powers of speech as inherent in nature. She sits on

a throne made of gems.

~

 

Mantra

 

Matangi can be worshipped by the mantra Aim, which is the mantra sacred to

Sarasvati and is the seed-syllable of wisdom, learning, teaching and hence the

very voice of the guru or inner guide. Matangi herself possesses a longer mantra

of twenty syllables, which includes Aim.

 

Om hrîm aim srîm namo bhagavati ucchistacândâli

srî matângesvari sarvajanavasankari svâhâ!

 

The mantra begins with Om hrîm aim srîm, Om being the infinite, Hrîm

transformation, Aim knowledge, and Srîm glory. The mantra itself means:

"Reverence to Adorable Matangi, the outcast and residue, who gives control over

all creatures." As the residue she is the Divine Self that is left over when all

things perish. Through her mantric force she gives us the power over all

creatures, who by her delight become our friends and companions. The Matangi

Yantra can be used along with the mantra.

~

 

Meditation Approaches

 

The main worship of Matangi is to recite the teachings, particularly great

scriptures, like the Vedas, which embody the power of sound. The power of the

mantra is connected with its sound. This power cannot be received through mere

translations and their recitation. Such chants should be done in their orgininal

language.

Chanting of the Sanskrit alphabet is one of the best ways to worship Matangi.

The letters of the alphabet represent unmanifest sound, as opposed to the

manifest differentiation of sound as various words. Chanting the Sanskrit

alphabet can be allied with the petals of the chakras and used to help open

them. Such chanting begins with the vowels corresponding to the Throat Chaktra

and continues through the alphabet down to the Root Chakra. In other words, it

begins with Matangi.

Another way to worship Matangi is to reflect upon the meaning of the teachings,

particularly the word of the guru. This requires contemplation of the teachings

and seeing how they relate to our own life and experience. Mantra has much more

power if we understand it not merely intellectually but according to the cosmic

principles by which it vibrates.

Music and song are other aspects of the worship of Matangi. She is specifically

a Goddess of musicians. Yoga paths emphasizing music or the sound current, like

Nada Yoga, relate to her, Meditation upon Matangi gives all powers of art and

artistic expression.

Yet in her highest role we must recognize Matangi in her transcendent meaning as

the silence of the Self-nature, which is the real essence and power behind all

words and thoughts. Matangi is speech and art energized toward transcendence, to

make the visible world, Samsara, a realm of Nirvana.

~

 

 

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Addition:

 

Once upon a time, Vishnu and Lakshmi went to visit Shiva and Parvati. They

gifted Shiva and Parvati fine foods, and some pieces dropped to the ground. From

these remains arose a maiden endowed with fair qualities. She asked for leftover

food (uccishtha). The four deities offered her their leftovers as prasada (food

made sacred by having been tasted by deities). Shiva then said to the attractive

maiden: "Those who repeat your mantra and worship you, their activities will be

fruitful. They will be able to control their enemies and obtain the objects of

their desires." From then on this maiden became known as Uccishtha-matangini.

She is the bestower of all boons.

This legend stresses Matangi's association with leftover food, which is normally

considered highly polluting. Indeed, she herself actually arises or emerges from

Shiva and Parvati's table scraps. And the first thing she asks for is sustenance

in the form of leftover food (uccishtha). Texts describing her worship specify

that devotees should offer her uccishtha with their hands and mouths stained

with leftover food; that is, worshippers should be in a state of pollution,

having eaten and not washed. This is a dramatic reversal of the usual protocols

for the worship of deities. Normally, devotees are careful to offer particularly

pure food or food that the deity especially likes. After the deity has eaten it,

the food is thought of as blessed and returned to the worshipper to partake, and

is believed to contain the grace of the deity. The ritual give-and-take in this

case emphasizes the inferior position of the devotee, who serves the deity and

accepts the deity's leftover food as something to be cherished. In the case of

Matangi however, worshippers present her with their own highly polluted leftover

food and are themselves in a state of pollution while doing so.

 

In some rituals she is known to have been offered a piece of clothing stained

with the menstrual blood in order to win the boon of being able to attract

someone. Menstrual blood is regarded as taboo in the performance of religious

functions, but in the case of Matangi these strict taboos are disregarded,

indeed, are flaunted.

 

 

 

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