Dimensions of Devi Related Mythology

June 5, 2005

Dear Friends,

I came across this article regarding Devi Maa - One Soul - Different Names.

I hope you will enjoy reading the same as much as I did.

Sorry , that its a long article.

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Babitha

Dimensions of Devi Related Mythology

The primitive concept of the Divine Female seems to be that of a non-operative boon giver votive deity who the primitive man realized iconically but did not humanize. The Puranic Devi, or the Mother Goddess, despite the related metaphysics, is more a humanized Being with an abundance of mythology woven around Her. After the Puranas vested in Her operative attributes, they conceived Her not only in various roles but also with innumerable personality aspects and in different manifestations. There grew around Her theories of Her origin, myths of Her manifest and incarnate forms, fables of Her various exploits and annals of Her acts of charity and benevolence.

As to Her origin, there prevail innumerable myths, although only two of them are more quoted and have greater relevance to the over-all Devi cult. One of them points out towards Her exploits against evil and restoring righteousness and in the other She is conceived as preceding all of the Gods-Trio (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva).

In one case, She was created out of the gods' celestial powers with all their attributes vested in Her. In the other, She had always existed but appeared as and when required.

As the tradition has it, a buffalo demon Mahishasura ruled the earth. The tyrannous demon inflicted upon all creatures great atrocities and rendered life miserable. He even invaded heaven, the seat of Indra and other gods and drove them out of the holy place. Under a sanction from Brahma Mahishasura was invincible against any male, a beast or human born. After Brahma made the disclosure of his boon, gods decided to seek a female warrior for eliminating the buffalo demon. When they found none capable to accomplish their object, they decided to create such one out of themselves and by their own powers. They decided to create a female warrior, who was unique in might and unparalleled in beauty and charm, as she could be required to

bewitch and beguile the demon also by them. Accordingly, her head was formed by the powers of Shiva, her hair by those of Yama and her arms, breasts, waist, feet, toe-nails, fingernails, nose, teeth, eyes, brows and ears respectively with those of Vishnu, Moon, Indra, Brahma, Sun, Vasu, Kuber, Prajapati, Agni, Twilight and Vayu. Her glittering jewels and ornaments were Ocean's gift and her necklace inlaid with celestial gems that of the great Serpent Shesh.

The Devi emerged with three eyes and eighteen hands carrying in them various celestial weapons, the instruments of war and destruction- Shiva's trident, Vishnu's disc, Varuna's conch, Vayu's bow, Agni's dart, Yama's iron rod, Surya's quiver, Indra's thunderbolt, Kuber's mace, Brahma's rosary and water pot, Kala's sword and shield, Vishwakarma's battle axe and many others. Himvana gave her a lion to ride. The enthused gods rejoiced and in gratitude prostrated before Mahadevi, as they called Her. Mahamuni Narada then narrated to Her the plight of gods, hearing which She proceeded to annihilate Mahishasura and killed him in no time.

As significant is Her other cult. The text called Devi Bhagawat was the first to propound it. After the Great Deluge Vishnu emerged as a child floating upon a fig leaf.

In dismay, he asked himself as to who he was, who created him and why he was there. Suddenly there emerged a celestial voice that announced- all that is, it is me. Me alone is eternal. Puzzled he looked around and saw a celestial female with four hands emerging before him. She carried a conch, disc, club and lotus, wore divine clothes and jewels and was attended by twenty-one powers, more important ones being Rati, the goddess of love and erotic, Bhuti, the goddess of riches and prosperity, Buddhi, the goddess of wisdom, Kirti, the goddess of credibility, Smriti, the memory, Nidra, the sleep, Daya, the compassion, Gati, the movement and pace, Tusti, the contentment, Pusti, the growth and affirmation, Kshama, the forbearance, Lajja, the grace and Tandra, the lethargy. Vishnu realized that She was the Adi Shakti Mahadevi and bowed to Her in reverence.

Devi's Symbolism

In one mythological tradition, Devi's emergence has been linked with Mahishasura. Mahishasura is not the beast in man but rather the human face taking to the face of a beast, and that too, to none else but to that of a buffalo, the most insensitive, self-contained epitome of evil. This suggests total human failure, which none of the gods, equipped only with this or that attribute or representing just this or that virtue, could repair. Only Devi, the supreme virtue equipped with all weapons and means of war, the Divine Totality, could change such state of affairs.

The other myth suggests that Devi preceded Gods Trio. She not only annihilated evil and paved the way for virtue and good to prevail but also revealed cosmic mystery. Her multi-arms suggest Her multi-fold protective umbrella and role. When Mahishasura, the male, contains energy, it leads to evil, the self-centered unguided might breeding ego, greed to acquire and possess more, an ambition to conquer and rule, but when contained in a female frame, it is only the guided power eradicating evil, perpetuating good and virtue and despite that She held arms and resorted to killing, She has attending upon Her only virtues and celestial attributes. She is multi-armed but has a single head, that is, whatever the number of operative organs, the guiding faculty that breeds determination, is just one and single.

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