12. MAHESHSWARI: The Khadgamala Devis Series

[Guest guest]

The outermost layer of the wall is white in color, and is – as we

explored in the first ten weeks of this series – guarded by the ten

Siddhis, or Powers. Having paid homage to the tenth and last of the

Siddhis, Sarvakama, we progressed inward to the second layer of the

enclosure wall, which is colored as the red of the rising sun.

 

There are eight devatas guarding this layer – they are the famous

Seven Mothers (saptamatrka), plus one added – Mahalaskmi. To learn

more about the Saptamatrikas, see our homepage:

 

http://www.shaktisadhana.org/Photo%

20Gallery/Matrikas/Saptamarkas.html

 

First we encountered Brahmi. The second of the Eight Mothers (and

the 11th of the Khadgamala Devis) is Maheshwari, of whom Sri

Aurobindo wrote: "She is Maheshwari, goddess of the supreme

knowledge, and brings to us her vision for all kinds and windenesses

of truth, her rectitude of the spiritual will, the calm and passion

of her supramental largeness, her felicity will, the calm and

passion of her supramental largeness, her felicity of illumination."

 

In the scheme of the Khadgamala, each of these Eight Mothers

represent a human passion that must be overcome and controlled

before we can enter further into Sri Chakra. We worship each passion

as an aspect of Devi, then internalize it; and when we internalize

each deity, we *become* Her, so that She is not separate from us. In

that way, we "conquer" each passion, just as – in the first enclosure

wall – we conquered each siddhi.

 

Brahmi here represents Her subtle aspect as ANGER.

 

Brahmi's mantra is:

 

aim hrim shrim MAheshwari matru devi shrI pAdukAM poojayaami

 

Continuing to circumambulate clockwise around the second layer of

the wall of the First Enclosure, turn the corner; Maheshwari sits to

the left of the gate of that wall (looking at a flat yantra facing

east, the would be the left or North-facing wall).

 

Into Maheshwari, the ten Siddhis are absorbed, along with Brahmi.

And so it shall continue till we reach Mahaalakshmi – at

which point, Mahaalakshmi will include all of the Siddhis and the

Seven Mothers.

 

We have not exhausted all there is to say about Maheshwari, of

course. But this is enough for purposes of the Khadgamala. We are

not writing full essays on all the aspects and all the mantras of

Braahmi. But again, please note that the beauty of the Khadgamala

Stotram is that NOTHING is required for its recitation except for

your time, attention and concentration: You need simply sit and

recite the Stotram. The mantra given just above is not part of the

stotram; it is offered merely for informational purposes. The entire

stotram is self-contained, as explained in earlier posts. The full

text can be found by clicking the photo on the front page of this

Group.

 

OTHER NOTES:

 

Again, the full pooja of these Devis takes hours, because at each

point we pause and do smaller, detailed poojas. Hence the sages of

yore created an ALTERNATIVE, SHORT-FORM recitation known as the

Khadgamala Stotram more suitable for the demands of modern life.

 

According to Sri Bhasurananda Natha, an accomplished Srividya upasak

as well as a member of and advisor to this group: "All of the sadhana

of Srividya can be achieved by the recitation of the Khadgamala.

Hours of long ritual compressed to less than half an hour of intense

meditation that will give you a ticket on the same plane as the great

Srividya Upasakas. Whatever your developmental stage, this is IT."

 

Even those who have not been initiated into Srividya can benefit from

the Khadgamala, which is why we chose to offer it to our members

here.

 

Once again, it is important to note that the Devis representing the

Passions are *outside* the Sriyantra proper, i.e. the RED area in

this graphic:

 

http://shaktisadhana.50megs.com/images/Khadgamala/first.jpg

 

Metaphorically, this teaches that we must get past the Siddhis and

the

Passions before we can enter the Sriyantra (the higher benefits of

sadhana) and reach Devi (the goal of Sadhana; even though each of

these Siddhis and Passions are themselves aspects of Devi).

 

[With sincere thanks and appreciation to Sri Amritananda Natha and

Sri

Bhasurananda Natha, who kindly provided detailed and substantive

content for this commentary.]

 

Aum Maatangyai Namahe