Mother destroys to save

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Mother destroys to save

>From the

talks of Swami Chidananda

Saraswati

 

 

 

 

 

Excerpt from

God As Mother, Divine Life Society,

Shivanandanagar, 1991 (pp. 13-20).

 

 

 

 

Salutations again and again

to the blessed Divine Mother, the

Supreme Inscrutable Power, the

mysterious achintya-shakti

(inconceivable power) of Para-

Brahman (the Supreme Absolute).

Salutations to the great Devi

(Goddess) who is the source of all

manifestation and embodiment.

Salutations to the great divine

power, divya-shakti, from whom

have flowed forth all the countless,

innumerable universes; in whom all

names and forms dissolve and

vanish; and through whom all beings

attain their eternal union with the

great reality, the supreme

transcendental being, Para-

Brahman.

 

This conception of the

great power-the cosmic spirit as the

Mother-is very easy to understand.

For the first impression of any soul

who has come out into this world is

that of the mother. The earliest

recollection which a being can ever

have is that of lying in his or her

mother's lap and perhaps looking up

and gazing into her love-filled eyes. To

the child, in the mother is centered a

whole world of tenderness, love,

nourishment and care. It is where one

runs for comfort, clings to for

protection and nourishment-and

there he gets comfort, protection

and care. Therefore, the ideal of

love, care and protection is in the

conception of the mother.

Therefore this notion transferred

to the cosmic being is the most

natural, most logical and most easy-

to-be understood step, and thus it is

that the glorified conception of the

Great Mother who loves all,

nourishes all, cares for all and

protects all, has come into being in

the philosophic conception of the

Hindu.

 

Today we shall devoutly

offer our humble worship at the

Mother's blessed feet in the form of a

few words describing some aspects

of Her glory. In doing this let us ever be

aware that even this privilege of

worshiping Her-glorifying Her and

dwelling upon Her greatness is only

due to Her compassion and grace.

Without Her grace, most difficult it is

to get an opportunity to think of Her,

to remember Her, to speak of Her,

and to utter Her glorious names,

calling upon Her as Mother. All

gracious is She, infinitely

compassionate is She. Love is her

nature and thus She has bestowed

upon us all this great blessing and the

joy to dwell upon Her in thought and

through word, to devoutly adore

Her upon this most auspicious and

glorious day.

 

The Mother is

whatever is. The essence of pure

existence is the Supreme Being or

Para-Brahaman. Mother is whatever

we know. That which is beyond our

knowledge, that is the purusha, the

Supreme Being. That which we know

through our mind and senses is

nothing but the manifestation of

Mother. She is not only the universe

which we know, this little world and

the countless stars, the sun and

moon-all these the terrestrial and

the stellar, the lunar and the solar

systems that comprise this little

universe-all this is but an infinitesimal

speck in the vastness and infinity

that is Mother. Innumerable such

universes have their rise and fall

within Her infinite nature. She is all

power and also the great

transcendental power at the back

of all manifestation, the primal cause

for all manifestations and

embodiment. She is the very creatrix

not only of this world but even the

creator, preserver and desolver of

the world. Brahma, Vishnu and

Maheshwara (Shiva) have their

being in the Mother. She

is the

Mother of all-of countless Brahmas,

Vishnus and Maheshwaras. In as

much as She is all power, all powers

are Her play; and therefore all the

three dynamic manifestations-

Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara-

also are modifications of Mother as

Adi-Shakti (the primordial power).

She is also Brahma-Shakti, manifest

to us in and through the form of

Saraswati; Vishnu-Shakti, manifest

in and through the form of Lakshmi;

and also Shiva-Shakti, manifest in and

through the form of Parvati.

 

 

Delusion and Deliverance

 

In

this aspect of all power, She has a

twofold form. The devout Hindu

worships Her as both. It is a beautiful

conception-and what a wonderful

depth of significance there is in this

conception of Mother in Her twofold

aspects-that of the cosmic delusion

as well as of the cosmic deliverance!

She binds down all to this mysterious

illusory appearance, this world-play,

and turns them in Her own playful

manner in the wheel of birth and

death. As such, She is known by the

name Avidya, the delusion that is

opposed to spiritual wisdom or

knowledge. She is also the cosmic

deliverance. In this aspect She smiles

upon Her children and She releases

them form the delusion of Her other

aspect, Avidya. In Her aspect as this

cosmic deliverance, we know of the

Mother as Vidya-Maya. Artists have

therefore visualized Her in the form

of a radiant being, a goddess having

in one hand a noose or a type of rope

with which She binds, an in the other

hand a sharp knife by which She

snaps bondage if She is

propitiated.

Thus She is a mysterious combination

of Avidya-Maya and Vidya-Maya.

Therefore She is called

indescribable.

 

In both these

aspects She has set up the drama of

universal phenomena. Lovers of the

Mother who have worshipped Her

and obtained Her grace and have

been vouchsafed with a vision of Her

real nature have lovingly depicted

Mother and Her play in this secret

way. The devotees of the Mother

sweetly and intimately conceived of

this world-play with the Mother as

both the one who initiates it, and the

one who ends it.

 

The Puzzling Kali

 

 

When we step into the further

consideration of particular aspects

of the Devi, immediately we are

confronted by a terrible problem.

For the very first conception of

Mother, especially as it is done during

the Devi Puja, is in a form and in an

aspect which leaves ordinary minds

quite bewildered-not only those who

are foreign to our culture and

genius, but even Indians, even

Hindus, many of them enlightened

and educated, are unable to

understand what is this conception

of divinity whom we call Mother as an

all-destructive, terrible, and fearful

being.

 

In Bengal, the whole of

Dussera is the worship of Durga and

Maha-Kali. To very many people, Kali is

a name that strikes terror. We

Hindus even think that Kali-

worshipers are tamasic and that Kali

is a dread deity. I can say from my own

personal experience that if a picture

of Maha-Kali--with Her dark body, lolling

red tongue, with Her garland of

skulls, dressed in a skirt made of

severed human hands, with a sward

dripping blood in Her hand-if such a

picture is kept in an orthodox South

Indian house, the ladies of the house

will see that the picture is forthwith

removed from the house. If their

feelings about Kali are right, then

how comes this conception of Kali as

the Mother? How can you worship

Her?

 

This is a natural mistake

that requires to be corrected.

Mother is never terrible, never

fearful, is always all-loving and all-

compassionate. The explanation for

the Divine Mother, Para-Shakti,

being conceived of, among other

aspects, also in Her aspect as Kali, is a

very simple one. It is not difficult; it is

not deeply metaphysical; it is not

obscurely philosophical; it very

natural and very simple.

 

I shall

first start by giving a very up-to-date

and modern, and therefore easily

graspable analogy. We have the

modern antibiotics. They are called

the lifesavers of the modern age and

millions of people look upon them with

feelings of gratitude. But though

these life-saving drugs which are

benign and cure disease are the

benefactors of humanity, I shall show

how they may be also regarded to be

terrible and destructive. They are

destructive to the germs that they

attack in the system and destroy.

Would it be correct to call these life-

saving antibiotics very

destructive? If it were right to call

them destructive and terrible, then

you may also be equally right to call

Kali the Mother terrible and

destructive.

 

Destroy To Save

 

 

For She destroys but to save. She

destroys ignorance, nescience, in

order to bestow knowledge. She

destroys darkness so that we may

realize light. She destroys all pain, all

sorrow, all misery and all the earthly

travails and tribulations, and

bestows upon us bliss, joy and

immortality. Thus She is a destroyer

of all those factors that bind the jiva

(individual soul) to this terrible

samsara (wheel of birth and death).

She is a terrible destroyer of all

terrible things and the benign

bestower of blessedness and

beatitude. Thus is that the Mother is

conceived of as the destroyer of one

of Her own aspects; just as by the

power of will-and will is also a portion of

the mind-we overcome certain

weaknesses and evils in the same

mind. As Vidya-Maya, Mother as Kali

destroys avidya (ignorance) and

takes us to the transcendental

Brahman.

 

Thus we find that

Mother Kali stands for a glorified

being, a Mother who is intent upon

giving deliverance from delusion. It is

in this aspect that the lover of the

Mother worships Her as Kali. He calls

upon Her: "Oh compassionate

Mother! I am at the mercy of this all-

powerful mind. I am tyrannized by the

ego and the senses. I have become

enslaved by the six enemies (anger,

hatred, fear, greed, pride, &

jealousy) and this whole family of

vasanas (mental modifications),

vrittis (mental waves) and

samskaras (metal habits). They are

ever battling against me. Therefore,

Thou alone can'st save me from

these terrible foes." He invokes Her

aid and power to help destroy all

these factors, so that when he

cannot battle and overcome them,

he gets the strength of the Mother

and She graciously comes to his aid

and in Her symbolically terrible form

She helps him overcome the senses

and attain mastery and victory over

the mind.

 

The Real Worship of

Mother Kali

 

 

 

Excerpt from A

Guide to Noble Living, Divine Life

Society, Shivanandanagar, 1991.

 

 

The phenomenon of destruction

necessarily preceding a new birth is

found in every aspect of creation

and evolution upon this earth.

Similarly, in the realm of the spirit,

when the seeker has set himself to

rise into the transcendental state of

paripurnata or perfection, fullness,

bliss, eternal life and infinite peace,

light and joy-when he starts upon this

process, he finds that he is bound

down by many things which do not

allow him to rise up to that desired

state of spiritual felicity and bliss.

Numerous elements of this old human

self, many undesirable factors of the

lower aspect of mundane life, hold

him down, trying perpetually to keep

him bound to ignorance, darkness,

delusion and anatmic (un-divine)

tendencies. This lower aspect of the

individual soul is known by the name

papa-purusha (man of sin) or pasu

(beast)-which needs be destroyed

and given as pasu-bali (animal

sacrifice) on the altar of Daivi-Shakti

(the Divine Mother or Power).

 

 

 

 

If an aspirant really and

earnestly desires to attain to

supreme peace and bliss, then he

must be resolutely prepared to do

the preliminary breaking process

that is absolutely essential before

he can be free to rise up from the old

personality and soar into the

empyrean realm of spiritual

consciousness, full of bliss and peace.

If his earnestness makes him ready

to die to his lower self, then he can be

called a real worshiper of Kali, the

fearful Mother Divine, the consumer

of all the blackness in the form of the

impurities of the soul. She wields Her

sword and Her terrible form in order

to destroy that which stands as an

obstacle to our attainment of

spiritual bliss. She is terrible, fearful

and destructive to all that is lower in

us, impure and unspiritual in us, and all

that is base and bestial in us.

 

The

individual finds that he cannot fight

and overcome these enemies of the

higher self through his own puny

individual efforts. Therefore comes

the necessity and the meaning of

Mother worship. He invokes that

aspect of this supreme divine power

that might be capable of doing this

process of pasu-badha (animal-

sacrifice) in his own individual case.

Therefore he turns to the Mother

and lovingly addresses Her: "O

Mother! Come to me as the terrible.

Come to me with your fearful sword.

Come to me as a destructive power in

Thy fearsome aspect which will be

capable of destroying in me that

which is unspiritual, unholy, and that

which is animalistic and base and

anantmic (un-divine)." He welcomes

the terrible so that She may release

him from the clutches of the evil and

the impure that is in him-the papa-

purusha that is in him. This is a

voluntary invitation of the

destructive aspect of Divine Shakti

so that She may, out of love and

compassion for us, do the work of

destroying all the

six-fold enemies in

us, our egoism, our impurity, our

attachment and all the hosts of

things that form the lower aspect of

the individual.

 

Therefore the

worship of Kali is a little bit difficult,

because we find that while one part

of the seeker, out of his aspiration

and desire for liberation, feels that

he should free himself from the base

aspect of his personality, yet there is

the power of delusion and

attachment in him, and this aspect

makes it difficult for him to

completely destroy his lower self, his

attachments and cravings with a

resolute mind. While he wants

Mother Kali to come and do the work

of destruction, at the same time he

yet clings to his lower self! Therefore,

his worship of the Divine Mother Kali is

not wholehearted.

 

He is the real

worshiper of the Divine Mother who

sets himself resolutely to crush out

all attachments, to crush out his

delusion, to crush out his cravings, to

crush out likes and dislikes, to

annihilate his egoism, and thus

actively cooperate with the power

which he invokes through Mother

worship. Else it will be a hypocritical

worship.

 

A real seeker and

worshipper of the Divine Mother

should ever exercise his vichara (self-

inquiry), viveka (discrimination) and

vairagya dispassion) with a resolute

and determined mind. It is the

exercise of all these higher faculties

in order that the lower faculties may

completely be destroyed, that

forms the real worship the Divine

Mother. The sadhana (spiritual

practice) which the seeker does in

order to destroy the impurities of his

mind and heart; the sadhana which

he does to burn up his egoism and

attachments of the lower nature

constitute the real worship of the

Mother for him. It is the doing of one's

sadhana with wholeheartedness,

intense sincerity and with the entire

integral being that constitutes the

real worship of the Mother.

 

 

 

In

every seeker this worship of the

Mother is a process that constantly

goes on. To the extent to which he

resolutely opposes the cravings and

attachments that try to keep him

bound down to his lower existence-to

that extent also he daily succeeds in

doing a real worship of the Divine

Mother.

 

Let us all pray to the

Divine Mother that She may give us all

the necessary strength, inspiration

and inner power to put ourselves

wholeheartedly upon Her side and

join in the work of the Divine Shakti in

regenerating us, in annihilating our

pasutva (animal instincts) and

bestowing upon us Divya-Jyoti

(Divine Light).

 

 

 

 

Join my

of Goddess

Mahasaraswati Mahalakshmi

Mahakali and

Hinduism.

 

divyabhakti