Guest guest Posted July 30, 2004 Report Share Posted July 30, 2004 There are eight devatas guarding the second layer of the outer enclosure wall (the Ninth Enclosure), which is colored as the red of the rising sun. 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 The SIXTH the Eight Mothers (and the 16th of the Khadgamala Devis) is MAHENDRI. Mahendri is sometimes identified with Indrani -- a Vedic goddess form characterized by wrath and jealousy, who is beautiful and has a thousand eyes. She is associated with lions and elephants; and is the mother, by Indra, of Arjuna, Jayanta, Midhusa, Nilambara, Ribhus, Risabha and Sitragupta. (MAHENDRI is also one of the 36 Yakshinis described in the Uddamareshvara Tantra, together with Her appropriate mantras and ritual instructions.) In the scheme of the Khadgamala, each of the 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. In keeping with Her Indrani association, MAHENDRI here represents Her subtle aspect as JEALOUSY. MAHENDRI's mantra is: aim hrim shrim MAhendri matru devi shrI pAdukAM poojayaami Continuing to circumambulate clockwise around the second layer of the wall of the First Enclosure, turn the corner and MAHENDRI sits at the next corner ahead of you (looking at a flat yantra facing East, the would be the upper lefthand or NORTHEAST corner). Into MAHENDRI, the ten Siddhis are absorbed, along with Brahmi, Maheshwari, Kaumari, Vaishnavi and Varahi. 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 MAHENDRI, 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 MAHENDRI. Let your intuition and visualization guide you more deeply into Her meaning for you. As we often state, 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 of the KS (along with a FAQ that answers most common questions about it) can be found by clicking the photo on the front page of this Group, then selecting DOCUMENT from the menu that appears. [With sincere thanks and appreciation to Sri Amritananda Natha and Sri Bhasurananda Natha, who kindly provided detailed and substantive content for this commentary.] Aum MAtangyai NamaH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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