Shakti Sadhana Programme for Navarathri [ Day Nine ]

[Guest guest]

CHAPTER 11 : Hymn to Narayani

 

The Rishi said:

1-2. When the great lord of asuras was slain there by the Devi,

Indra and other devas led by Agni, with their object fulfilled and

their cheerful faces illumining the quarters, praised her, Katyayani:

 

The devas said:

3. 'O Devi, you who remove the sufferings of your suppliants, be

gracious. Be propitious, O Mother of the whole world. Be gracious, O

Mother of the universe. Protect the universe. You are, O Devi, the

ruler of all that is moving and unmoving.

 

4. 'You are the sole substratum of the world, because you subsist in

the form of the earth. By you, who exist in the shape of water, all

this(universe) is gratified, O Devi of inviolable valour!

 

5. 'You are the power of Vishnu, and have endless valour. You are the

primeval maya, which is the source of the universe; by you all this

(universe) has been thrown into an illusion. O Devi. If you become

gracious, you become the cause of final emancipation in this world.

 

6. 'All lords are your aspects O Devi; so are all women in the world,

endowed with various attributes. By you alone, the Mother, this

world is filled. What praise can there be for you who are of the

nature of primary and secondary expression regarding (objects)worthy

of praise?

 

7. 'When you have been lauded as the embodiment of all beings, the

Devi (the effulgent one), and bestower of the enjoyment and

liberation, what words, however excellent, can praise you?

 

8. 'Salutation be to you, O Devi Narayani, O you who abide as

intelligence in the hearts of all creatures, and bestow enjoyment and

liberation.

 

9. 'Salutation be to you, O Narayani, O you who, in the form of

minutes, moments and other divisions of time, bring about change in

things, and have (thus ) the power to destroy the universe.

 

10. 'Salutation be to you O Narayani, O you who are the good of all

good, O auspicious Devi, who accomplish every object, the giver of

refuge, O three eyed Gauri!

 

11. 'Salutation be to you, O Narayani, you who have the power of

creation, sustentation and destruction and are eternal. You are the

substratum and embodiment of the three gunas.

 

12. 'Salutation be to you, O Narayani, O you w ho are intent on

saving the dejected and distressed that take refuge under YOU. O

you, Devi, who remove the sufferings of all!

 

13. 'Salutation be to you, O Narayani, O you who ride in the heavenly

chariot yoked with swans and assume the form of Brahmani, O Devi, who

sprinkle water with Kusa grass.

 

14. 'Salutation be to you, O Narayani, O you who bear the trident,

the moon and the serpent, and ride a big bull, and have the form of

Mahesvari.

 

15. 'Salutation be to you, O Narayani, O you who are attended by

peacock and cock, and bear a great spear. O you, who are sinless and

take the form of Kaumari.

 

16. 'Salutation be to you, O Naraayani, O you who hold the great

weapons of conch, discus, club and bow, and take the form of

Vaisnavi, be gracious.

 

17. 'Salutation be to you, O Narayani, O you who grasp a huge

formidable discus, and uplift the earth with thy tusk, O auspicious

Devi, who has a boar-like form.

 

18. 'Salutation be to you, O Narayani, O you who, in the fierce form

of a man-lion, put forth your efforts to sly the daityas, O you who

possess the benevolence of saving the three worlds.

 

19. 'Salutation be to you, O Narayani, you who have a diadem and a

great thunderbolt, are dazzling with a thousand eyes, and took away

the life of Vrtra, O Aindri!

 

20. 'Salutation be to you, O Narayani, O you who in the form of

Sivaduti slew the mighty hosts of the daitya, O you of terrible form

and loud throat!

 

21. 'Salutation be to you, O Narayani, O you who have a face terrible

with tusks, and are adorned with a garland of heads, Chamunda, O

slayer of Munda!

 

22. 'Salutation be to you, O Narayani, O you who are good fortune,

modesty, great wisdom, faith, nourishment and Svadha, O you who are

immovable O you, great Night and great Illusion.

 

23. 'Salutation be to you, O Narayani, O you who are intelligence and

Sarasvati, O best one, prosperity, consort of Vishnu, dark one,

nature, be propitious.

 

24. 'O Queen of all, you who exist in the form of all, and possess

every might, save us from error, O Devi. Salutation be to you, Devi

Durga!

 

25. 'May this benign countenance of yours adorned with three eyes,

protect us from all fears. Salutation be to you, O Katyayani!

 

26. 'Terrible with flames, exceedingly sharp destroyer of all the

asuras, may your trident guard us from fear. salutation be to you, O

Bhadrakali!

 

27. 'May your bell that fills the world with its ringing, and

destroys the prowess of the daityas, guard us, O Devi, as a mother

protects her children, from all evils.

 

28. 'May your sword, smeared with the mire like blood and fat of

asuras, and gleaming with rays, be for our welfare, O Chandika, we

bow to you.

 

29. 'When satisfied, you destroy all illness but when wrathful you

(frustrate) all the longed-for desires. No calamity befalls men who

have sought you. Those who have sought you become verily a refuge of

others.

 

30. 'This slaughter that you, O Devi, multiplying your won form into

many, have now wrought on the great asuras who hate righteousness, O

Ambika, which other (goddess) can do that work?

 

31. 'Who is there except you in the sciences, in the scriptures, and

in the Vedic sayings the light the lamp of discrimination? (Still)

you cause this universe to whirl about again and again within the

dense darkness of the depths of attachment.

 

32. 'Where raksasas and snakes of virulent poison (are), where foes

and hosts of robbers (exist), where forest conflagrations (occur),

there and in the mid-sea, you stand and save world.

 

33. 'O Queen of the universe, you protect the universe. As the self

of the universe, you support the universe. You are the (goddess)

worthy to be adored by the Lord of the universe. Those who bow in

devotion to you themselves become the refuge of the universe.

 

34. 'O Devi, be pleased and protect us always from fear of foes, as

you have done just now by the slaughter of asuras. And destroy

quickly the sins of all worlds and the great calamities which have

sprung from the maturing of evil portents.

 

35. 'O Devi you who remove the afflictions of the universe, be

gracious to us who have bowed to you. O you worthy of adoration by

the dwellers of the three worlds, be boon-giver to the worlds.'

 

The Devi said:

36-37. 'O Devas, I am prepared to bestow a boon. Choose

whatever boon you desire in your mind, for the welfare of the world.

I shall grant it.'

 

The devas said:

38-39. ' O Queen of all, this same manner, you must

destroy all our enemies and all the afflictions of three worlds.

 

The Devi said:

40-41. 'When the twenty-eighth age has arrived during the

period of Avaisvsvata Manu, two other great asuras, Sumbha and

Nisumbha will be born.

 

42. 'Then born from the womb of Yasoda, in the home of cowherd Nanda,

and dwelling on the Vindhya mountains, I will destroy them both.

 

43. 'And again having incarnated in a very terrible form on the

earth, I shall slay the danavas, who are the descendants of

Vipracitti.

 

44. 'When I shall devour the fierce and great asuras descended from

Vipracitti, my teeth shall become red like the flower of pomegranate.

45. 'Therefore when devas in heaven and men on the earth praise me,

shall always talk of me as the 'Red-toothed.'

 

46. 'And again when rain shall fail for a period of hundred years,

propitiated by the munis I shall be born on the drought-ridden earth,

but not womb-begotten.

 

47. 'Then I shall behold the munis with a hundred eyes and so mankind

shall glorify me as the 'hundred-eyed.'

 

48. 'At that time, O devas, I shall maintain the whole world with

life -sustaining vegetables, born out of my own (cosmic) body, till

rains set in.

 

49. 'I shall be famed on the earth then as Sakambhari. At that very

period I shall slay the great asura named Durgama.

 

50-53. 'Thereby I shall have the celebrated name of Durgadevi and

again, assuming a terrible form on the mountain Himalaya, I shall

destroy the raksasas for the protection of the munis. Then all the

munis, bowing their bodies reverently, shall praise me, and thereby

I shall have the celebrated name of Bhimadevi. When the (asura)

named Aruna shall work great havoc in the three worlds, having taken

a (collective) bee-form, consisting of innumerable bees, I shall

slay the great asura for the good of the world.

 

54-55. 'And then people shall laud me every where as Bhramari. Thus

whenever trouble arises due to the advent of the danavas, I shall

incarnate and destroy the foes.'

 

Here ends the eleventh chapter called 'Hymn to Narayani' of

Devi-mahatmyam in Markandeyapurana, during the period of Savarni, the

Manu.

 

>From DEVI MAHATMYAM.

Glory of the Divine Mother.

700 Mantras on Sri Durga.

English Translation by Swami Jagadiswarananda.

Sri Ramakrishna Math, 11th Impression.

I pray to the Divine Mother to shower HER blessings on those who

read this MAhAtmaya.

[Guest guest]

I forgot one phase: after lance, should come drain, then flush, etc.

 

Synchronicity: this came up on the Ammachi list yesterday, where she

speaks to this subject of wounds.

 

"The mind is an outsider. He is a stranger in your real abode - the

Self. The mind, being a foreign element, creates an irritation which

itches. The itching is the desires of the mind. It is just like the

sensation you sometimes get to scratch an itching wound. As you

scratch the area, you find it soothing, and so you scratch it

repeatedly until the wound and the surrounding area become red and

infected. And with that, the pain of the wound increases.

 

The mind creates such an itch when it is full of desires and

emotions. So you keep on scratching, until finally, your whole life

becomes a big pus infected wound. All that pus needs to be squeezed

out of your wound; only then will the wound be healed. It is Amma's

duty to treat the wound and squeeze out the pus. That is how Amma

shows Her compassion towards you, but when She does, you call it

strange. But Amma isn't bothered by your reaction, for it is only

due to your lack of understanding. You would call Amma normal if She

just kept on soothing the wound and allowed you to continue to

scratch it. The choice is yours. If you want the wound only to be

soothed and not healed, it is all right with Mother, but you will

suffer later. "

 

.... Question: "Amma, You compared the mind to a foreign element. Why

is it foreign? Could You please elaborate on this point?"

 

"Mother: "Whenever a foreign element enters into our lives we

ruthlessly try to reject it. For example, if there is a dust

particle in our eye we want to remove it. Why? Because it is not

part of the eye. It doesn't belong to us. What about an illness?

Even if it is a headache or stomach ache we will want to get rid of

it, because it is foreign to us. The body wants to reject it, for it

is not part of our nature. Similarly, the mind is a foreign element,

a complete stranger, that we need to get rid of.

 

Everybody wants to be happy and peaceful. There are no arguments

about that. But, to attain real peace and happiness one has to go

beyond the mind and its desires. It is the mind that causes the

sorrow and the itching.

The mind is like a wound. Every time a desire crops up you feel

an 'itching' sensation of the wound of the mind. Fulfilling the

desire is like scratching the wound, and your itch is relieved for

the moment.

But you are completely unaware of the truth that by yielding to your

desires, you are making the wound of the mind deeper. It becomes

more and more infected. But the mind will constantly continue to

demand and desire, and you will continue to fulfill those desires.

It is like a continuous scratching of the wound of the mind, which

only makes the wound increasingly larger.

 

If you vigorously keep rubbing the dust in your eyes instead of

removing it, your pain and irritation will only increase. Remove the

dust and you will be all right. Similarly, the mind is like dust in

the eye, a foreign element. Learn to get rid of the mind. Only then

will you achieve perfection and happiness.

 

To be happy and peaceful is the goal of all human beings. But they

choose the wrong ways to attain it. Almost everyone knows that they

are not experiencing real peace and happiness. They are lacking

something in their lives and they try to fill that gap by acquiring

and possessing. But the real problem exists within your mind.

 

The mind is a stranger that needs to be eliminated. But who can do

this? Only a complete stranger to your mind can eliminate it. The

Master is that Stranger. The Mahatma, the Perfect Master, is perhaps

incomprehensible to your mind, but he knows your strange mind and

its strange ways perfectly well. He is the Master of all minds, but

to your mind he is a very strange phenomenon indeed.

 

As long as your mind exists, you will judge the Mahatma's ways as

strange, but when you slowly start to control the mind and thoughts,

you will realize that there was nothing strange at all about the

Mahatma, it was only your mind that was strange. "

--

Max Dashu

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