God As Mother, Divine Life Society

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God As Mother, Divine Life Society

 

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 sword 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.

 

Excerpt from God As Mother, Divine Life Society,

Shivanandanagar, 1991 (pp. 13-20).