God as Mother - The Power Of The Transcendent Reality

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shriadishakti , " jagbir singh "

<adishakti_org> wrote:

> CONTENTS

>

> Publishers' Note

> Prayer to Mother

> The Indian Concept of the Divine Mother

> The Worship of the Divine Mother

> The Power Of The Transcendent Reality

> The Destroyer Of Destructive Forces

> Destruction: The Springboard To Construction

> Lakshmi: The Supreme Sustainer

> The Path Of Prosperity

> Goddess Of Auspiciousness At Home And At Heart

> Creation: The Music Of Mother's Veena

> The Goddess Of Success

> The Path To Final Liberation

> The Great Goal And Its Attainment

>

>

>

 

FIRST NIGHT

 

The Power Of The Transcendent Reality

 

PROSTRATIONS again and again to the blessed Divine Mother who is the

source, substratum and the ultimate goal of all creation. The Mother

is a mysterious, indescribable power of the Supreme Being. She is

the dynamic aspect of the Supreme, Transcendent Being, which is

infinity, eternity and ineffable peace, beyond the cognisance of the

senses and the mind. Upon this very solemn and holy occasion which

marks the commencement of the sacred annual nine-day worship of the

Deity in Its aspect as the Supreme Mother, the first day of the

Navaratra culminating in Vijayadasami, popularly known as the

Dussera, it is a great mark of divine grace and blessing that we

have the privilege of gathering together and glorifying the Mother,

speaking a few words about the Divine Mother, adoring Her and

worshipping Her and praying for Her Grace, the Grace which alone can

enable us to attain success and fruition in all endeavours be they

material or spiritual, secular or sacred; by which alone a seeker is

able to reach the end of his quest, and the Sadhaka is able to

achieve the Thing for which he strives, the soul is able to attain

perfection and to realise the Infinite. The Grace of the Mother is

an indispensable factor to attain Moksha-Siddhi. Upon this sacred

occasion, let us try to know a few things about the Indian

conception of the Divine Mother and about the significance as well

as the traditional background of this nine-day worship.

 

In India the Hindus fall under four or five broad religious

divisions. There are the worshippers of the Supreme Being in its

aspect as Siva; we call them the Saivites. Then there are the

worshippers of the selfsame Supreme Being in its aspect as Vishnu.

Them we call Vaishnavas. There is still a third section of people—

and quite a number of them—who worship the One God, the Supreme

Being, but as manifest in the form of the great Goddess, the Devi

Shakti. They are referred to as Shaktas. There again are two less-

known sects called the Ganapatyas who worship the Supreme Being as

Ganapaty, and the Souryas or the worshippers of the Supreme Being

manifest as the splendorous light as embodied in the visible orb of

the sun, the giver of light, the sustainer of the life-process in

this world of ours.

 

The Navaratra worship of the Devi is eminently a Shakta-worship, and

it has come down to us through the Shakta-tradition. A very great

section of these Shaktas are localised in the Province of Bengal and

Assam. Their supreme scripture, glorifying the Divine mother, is

known as the Durga Saptashati or the Devi Mahatmya. It is known by

the name Saptashati because it is a book of 700 verses. In Bengali

it is familiarly known as the Chandi; also in these

parts—Garhwal—people refer to the reading of the Devi

Mahatmya as Chandi-Patha. This is derived from one of the names of

the Divine Mother Herself who is called Chandika.

 

The reading of the scripture is done in a very scientific manner.

There is a strict procedure laid down by the Shastras. In the first

part which was read today there is a detailed exposition of the Devi

Tattva. The setting is in the form of a story; and the exposition is

given by a sage to a king and a merchant. It is full of deep

philosophic truth in regard to the aspect of the Deity, Her nature,

how She is and what She is. There are sublime, elevating hymns

glorifying the Mother; and the ways of propitiating Her are given.

The very reading of the scripture from start to finish is itself a

very great and effective Sadhana in the Shakta mode of worship and

spiritual practice. I shall just give in a few words the essence of

the scripture.

 

Essence of Devi Mahatmya

 

It begins this way. A king of the Surya Vamsa to which Lord Rama

also belonged, named Suratha, is overcome and overwhelmed by his

foes, who compel him to flee his kingdom. He takes shelter in a

forest. He is deeply afflicted and dejected, deprived of all his

wealth and retinue; and he is wandering forlorn, destitute of

everything, in a very wretched condition. His mind again and again

goes back to the bitter fate which he has suffered. Thinks of his

kingdom, his wealth, his ministers and the way in which the kingdom

is likely to be governed under the new rulers. While he is in this

state of mind, he happens to come to the vicinity of the hermitage

of a great God-realised sage, called Rishi Medha. He sees the

hermitage with all its beauty, the disciples of the

Rishi—everything pervaded by serenity, calmness and purity; and

he stays there.

 

While he is in this hermitage he comes across a fellow-sufferer, a

brother-in-distress, a man named Samadhi, belonging to the merchant

community, who has also similarly run away from his home because of

misfortune. He had lost all his wealth to his own relatives; and his

own family had turned him out of the house. He is thus forced to

wander into the forest. He also takes shelter at the feet of the

sage.

 

They find that they are more or less in the same predicament,

deprived of their wealth and ousted from their home, with their own

people turned against them; and in spite of all this unkindness of

their own people, both of them are intrigued and deeply puzzled to

find that with all the hostility and enmity of their people, yet

their minds go again and again back to these very people, to the

very things which have been the cause of their sorrow, of their

grief, of their deep disappointment and dejection.

 

They try to discuss this between themselves; what is this mysterious

nature of the mind which harkens back again and again and clings to

those self-same things and people from whom they have had nothing

but pain and sorrow. Unable to solve this riddle, they go and humbly

entreat the Rishi Medha to throw some light upon this problem. They

ask the Rishi: " O Wise One, pray throw some light upon this

problem; we are greatly puzzled to find this mind still clings to

those very objects, is attached to those very persons, from whom it

has received the greatest pain and sorrow; it knows there is no

pleasure in those things, yet it will not give up its attachment to

them—what is the reason for this, how do you explain this

peculiar delusion of the mind? "

 

In answer to this query which, though it has been put into the mouth

of Raja Suratha and Vaishya Samadhi, yet is a universal question

which agitates the minds of all thinking men and women all over the

world, Rishi Medha gives his wondrous exposition of the greatness of

the Devi. He says; " O my children! A mysterious delusion dwells

in the mind of man, by which his pure reason is blinded, by which

delusion he is again and again made to cling and go back to those

very objects and persons from which he is subject to so much pain

and suffering. This delusion, this veiling power, is really the

mysterious power of the divine Mother. It is She who is the cosmic

illusion. It is She who is at the back of projection of this very

universe itself. It is with Her mysterious veiling Power that the

one seems to have become the many, the formless seems to have taken

numerous forms and the unmanifest seems to have become manifest and

this mysterious power is the indescribable power of the Supreme

Being itself. It is Brahma Shakti; it is the Mahamaya or the great

Cosmic Illusory Power which emanates from the Lord Himself, and it

is through this power that the Lord sets going this universal drama

of projection of creation, preservation and once again the ultimate

dissolution of all names and forms back into its pristine

transcendental state of Pure Being. "

 

The King Suratha and Vaishya Samadhi want to know more about the

mysterious power which Rishi Medha has referred to and to know more

about this cosmic power which is at the back of all manifestation.

In response to this request of theirs Rishi Medha goes into the

detailed exposition of the nature of the divine Mother; and the 700-

versed scripture contains this exposition. In the end, having

expounded the mystery and secret of the supreme nature of the

divine Mother Rishi Medha advises Suratha and Samadhi to go and

practise Yoga, worship the Divine Mother, pray to Her and meditate

upon Her and propitiate Her. Thus propitiated She becomes manifest

to them and bestows Her Grace upon both the king and the merchant

and their heart's desire is fulfilled.

 

This in short is the import of this supreme scripture of the

Shaktas—Devi Mahatmya.

 

Maya and Brahman Are One

 

This exposition of the Devi Tattva goes to explain to us how the

Supreme Shakti is all in all. It tells us that whatever we see,

whatever we perceive in this phenomenal universe before us, is

nothing but the outcome of this supreme power of the Para Brahman,

viz. the primal force. She is called the Adi-Shakti. She is also

known as the transcendental power—Para-Shakti. She is known as

the superlative, the great power—Maha-Shakti.

 

What exactly is the relationship between this great-Divine Power and

the ultimate Supreme Being the Almighty, is a question that is very

interesting and which occupies the minds of all great thinkers.

Varied explanations have been given but sages of realisation have

stated in illuminating terms the secret of this relationship between

the deity as they conceived of in its aspect of Supreme Mother and

the deity in its transcendental aspect. We are told how the Para

Brahman and His Supreme Mysterious Power of World-illusion whom we

call Maya or Devi are in fact one and the same in essence. They are

apparently different, but yet they are one. It is a distinction

without a difference in fact. That is the relationship between them.

As it were they are the obverse and the reverse of the self-same

coin. You cannot conceive of the Para Brahman without conceiving of

the Devi; and the conception of the Devi automatically pre-supposes

the conception of the Para-Brahman. They explain to us how the Devi

or the Supreme Divine Mother is the mysterious link between the

manifest and the unmanifest. She is the medium that connects the

un-manifest with the manifest. For instance, there is an effect and

a cause which is responsible for this effect—but what is the

thing which connects the effect with the cause and the cause with

the effect? There is some mysterious link which connects these two

and makes them one. Though apparently two, they are in reality two

terminals of the self-same process. This process of the cause

becoming manifest as the effect, this power that makes the cause

appear as the effect is known as the Maya, the illusion or the Devi.

 

The Supreme Brahman is also described as perfectly beyond all

movement and motion because being of the nature of limitlessness and

infinity the very question of motion does not arise. The Supreme

Power whom we call Devi is described as the dynamic aspect of the

Para Brahman. They say that they are as inseparable as the whiteness

of the milk and the milk; as the heat and fire; as a snake and its

zigzag motion. The moment you think of milk, automatically you think

of whiteness. The moment you think of fire, you posit also the heat.

 

If the burning property is taken away from fire, you can no longer

call it fire. Even so, Para Brahman and Shakti are as inseparable as

the burning property of fire and fire itself. If Brahman is fire,

Shakti or Devi is the burning property of fire. A more up-to-date

analogy which we can draw to illustrate the mysterious connection

between Maya or Prakriti or Shakti and Brahman is this. We have the

power of electricity when it is inside a battery. When the power of

electricity is here within the battery, it is not manifest. It is

not dynamic. It is static. The battery can be taken from place to

place: no one will know that it holds within itself the tremendous

force. There is no indication to give us an idea that it contains

within itself this marvellous power. But the moment this self-same

electric current is made to spring into dynamism through a system of

wiring through a circuit, we find this static force springs into a

wonderful dynamism. It travels with lightning speed; it is able to

give a shock; or to make an electric bulb spring into incandescence

and manifest as light; it manifests itself as the whirling motion in

a fan; it manifests itself as freezing cold within the refrigerator

and as abnormal power of heat in an electric heater; it is able to

burn things; it manifests as sound in an electric siren—this

power which is held in a static form within a battery becomes

manifest as light, motion, heat, cold, sound and any number of

aspects manifest and tangible and perceivable through the senses.

 

Even so the Supreme Power in its transcendental motionless static

aspect known as the Para Brahman is nameless, formless, unmanifest

and the self-same supreme power when it springs into manifestation,

into creativity, is projected as names and forms, into countless

dynamic forces which pervade the entire phenomenal world. Mother is

electricity, the brightness of the sun, the depth of the ocean,

movement in the hand, the smell and fragrance in flowers, the

musical note in sound, everything in this universe, invisible as

well as visible, all motion, all force, all movements; and She is

present in the human being as intelligence, as mind, as Vrittis, as

emotions—everything that we perceive in this world either

within the individual or without in the forces of nature. She is the

very life of the universe. She is the very source, the sustainer and

ultimate dissolver of the universe. Sarvam Shaktimayam Jagat; this

is the ultimate truth. Whatever there is in the universe from the

grossest thing to the subtlest, the least to the greatest —

everything is the variegated manifestation of the Supreme Mother

Herself, the Transcendental Power of the Supreme Being. It is this

cosmic Power who appears as all names and forms, who is the very

source of all embodiment, of all manifestation. It is on account of

the Mother that manifestation is made possible. It is this Supreme

Force that we worship during the nine days through the medium of

certain forms.

 

This great power of all powers is conceived of by the devout

worshipper in certain distinct aspects—in her three aspects as

Mahakali or Durga, Mahalakshmi and as Mahasaraswati. The nine-day

worship is divided into three groups of three days each—the first

three days we worship the Mother as manifest in and through the form

of Mahakali or Durga. During the second group of three days we

worship the Divine Mother as manifest in and through our conception

of the form of Mahalakshmi. And during the last three days we

worship Her in and through the form of Mahasaraswati. This

particular order of the worship has got a very deep and very vital

meaning, about which we shall refer during the subsequent days.