Navaratri - Celebrating the Symbolic Vision of the Goddess

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Hare Krishna, Navaratri - Celebrating the Symbolic Vision of the GoddessThe killing of a demon by a deity is not mere physical annihilation, but rather liberation, a manifestation of divine grace. Rama liberated Ravana, and Krishna did the same with the vile Kansa. This is however the maximum they could give to the villains. In none of their worshippable images are they ever shown with these demons. It is only the supremely compassionate Goddess Durga who gives space in her image to the principal demon she has killed, thus ensuring that he too is worshipped along with her. If this is the grace that the goddess showers on a villain, then can there be a measure of the blessings she will bestow on her

loving devotees?The ongoing festival of Navaratri (nine nights) is a celebration of this Great Goddess, in which the actual worship is divided into three parts, where the goddess is worshipped in her three essential forms. The two principal scriptures of the goddess - The Devi Mahatmya and the Devi Bhagavata Purana, highlight these aspects with highly instructive and symbolic stories.On the Verge of Creation - The First Form of the GoddessBefore the creation of the world, Lord Vishnu lay in deep meditative sleep on his serpent coiled in the form of a couch. A lotus then sprang from his navel, on which was seated the god of creation Brahma. No sooner had this happened than two demons named Madhu and Kaitabh also sprang from the earwax of Vishnu, intending to kill Brahma.Brahma tried to awaken Lord Vishnu by shaking the stalk of the lotus he was sitting on, but in vain. He then realized that

the sleep that had settled on Vishnu's eyes was the Great Goddess in her form of Mahamaya, an expression of the divine mother's power of delusion. Brahma then worshipped her with an inspiring hymn of praise, asking her to release Vishnu from his slumber. The ever-compassionate goddess obliged.Awakening, Vishnu held Madhu Kaitabh and engaged them in a combat, which went on for five thousand years. The two demons then puffed up with pride, thinking themselves invincible. It was at this moment that the great goddess struck at the duo with her maya, making them vain enough to say to Lord Vishnu himself:"We are pleased with your power and strength. Go ahead and ask for a boon."Vishnu immediately seized the opportunity and asked for the boon that they be slain by him then and there. Indeed, one should always watch out for those moments of pride, which are the opportune instances for maya to delude

us.Thus cornered, the duo realized their folly; but seeing water everywhere, they were wise enough to ask that they be killed only in a dry place. Vishnu then sat down in the water itself. However, like the auspicious lotus remains untouched by the water it grows in, similarly did Vishnu's lotus like body remain untainted. He then proceeded to place both of them on either thigh, and cut off their heads.The Symbolic Meaning of Vishnu's Encounter with Madhu and KaitabhMadhu actually means honey and he represents attachment (raag) to this world, which seems sweet to us. Kaitabh means a pricking thorn and signifies our aversion (dvesha) to things we deem as unpleasant. Both of these traits, which do much to make up our overall nature or temperament (prakriti or svabhav), is a residue carried over from numerous previous births. Both are

products of maya and need to be annihilated.In another interpretation, Madhu is honeyed praise, while Kaitabh is sour criticism, both of which enter through our ears, but are two side of the same mayic coin and need to be discarded. In either of the interpretations, the two demons attack our intelligence, symbolized by Brahma who is the patron deity of intellect. The Bhagavad Gita says:"When your intellect, though perplexed by what you have heard, shall stand immovable and steady, then shall you attain self-realization". (2.53)The goddess as restful sleep is an apt metaphor signifying her motherhood. When a mother sees her small child tired after playing in the fierce sun, she catches hold of him, feeds him and pats him to sleep, even against his own wishes, knowing very well that the sleep will restore his energy. Indeed, while our whole day is spent in emptying our shakti, the compassionate

goddess takes it on herself to continue replenishing it. So she puts Vishnu to rest, tired after the exhausting task of maintaining the universe, and when the next creative cycle begins, relieves him from his slumber.However, we cannot win over the two demons of attachment/aversion or praise/criticism, relying solely on our own powers, like Lord Vishnu who was unable to defeat them even after many years of fierce battle. The only way to win over maya is to surrender ourselves to Mahamaya, the goddess who created it in the first place. The fact that the two demons asked to be killed in a dry spot is also loaded with spiritual symbolism. Both these pairs of traits can only be destroyed on the ground of Vairagya (disenchantment), which is the dry state of existence, devoid of all worldly rasa.However, the state of the goddess symbolized by sleep is not her brightest manifestation. The Gita

says:"The pleasure arising from sleep is known as tamasic." (18.39)The Three-Fold Vision of the GoddessShakti is energy, which is the fundamental building block of matter. The one basic energy, for purpose of human comprehension, is envisioned as of three types - tamas, rajas and sattva.Tamas is inertia and signifies heaviness, dullness and ignorance. Rajas is activity, and manifests as restlessness, urgency and passion. Sattva is calmness. Tamas veils, sattva reveals and rajas allows these two energies to interact. These three are the basic forces operating in the universe, and determine everything from the structuring of the physical world to the subtleties of human behavior.On a first look one may regard inanimate matter as devoid of consciousness. It needs to be realized however that their obscured consciousness is very much observable in the movement of their atomic and

subatomic structure. The Great Goddess is an expression of the whole universe, whether moving or inert, where nothing is devoid of consciousness (energy). For example, matter perceived as solid objects in space and time is in fact nothing but a relatively stable form of energy, deftly made of bundles of energy known as 'quanta.' Overall, modern science and Indian philosophy agree in viewing the physical universe as a manifestation of energy.In the Devi Mahatmya, the initial characterization of the goddess in her tamasic character inspires philosophical contemplation on the nature of reality. The next depiction celebrates her rajasic aspects, revealing a vision of the goddess actively involved in the world she has created. Here too she has the touch of a compassionate mother, worthy of intense devotion, and additionally, she is also a protective warrior intent on the victory of good over

evil.Goddess: Compassionate in Heart, Ruthless in BattleOnce upon a time, the negative forces in the universe, led by a demon in the form of a buffalo named Mahisha, defeated the gods and drove them out of heaven. The villain considered himself invincible since he had received a boon from Brahma that no male, but only a woman could kill him. Proud of his brutish physical power, Mahisha had no fear of women.The male gods then assembled and projected their collective energies, which soon became a conflagration and transformed into a fiery goddess with eighteen arms, each of whose nine hands on one side represented the two Navaratris in a year.The supremely beautiful goddess then proceeded near the grounds of Mahisha's city and let out a roar of terrifying laughter. The demon's generals reported to him that a woman, perhaps the most beautiful in the world, was the source of the disturbance.

Mahisha was immediately tempted to possess her and instructed his army to go and fetch her by appeasement or force. One by one the generals of the king, who approached the goddess, were killed by her, and then finally Mahisha came face to face with the goddess herself.The dialogue between the goddess and some of the demon's generals and finally between her and Mahishasur form one of the most interesting portions of the Devi Bhagavata Purana, and sheds a clear enough light on the essential nature of the goddess, as no dry philosophical treatise can manage to do.The whole thrust of the demon's dialogue with the Devi was to remind her that she was essentially a woman, who must take on a suitable husband at the right time of her life. The goddess smiled at this naivety and said:"Did you think before addressing my feminine nature? Am I not a Purusha? Actually, I am the Purusha in women."The word

Purusha is generally translated as male, but that is an incomplete meaning. The Upanishads clearly say that Purusha is a city (pura) where the Supreme Reality rests (shayan). Thus meaning the entire manifested world, since the divine element is present equally in each and everything.The goddess further says:"I am not an ordinary woman looking for a husband. My husband is ever present. He is the One and only Nirguna Shiva, who is always near me. Fools, I do not ever become anybody's wife."In the Shiva purana too the Goddess Parvati asks anybody who meditates on her as a woman to be annihilated. Indeed, how can She, who is the mother of all, become anybody's wife?Doubt: The Devi Mahatmya says that the goddess was born from the bodies of the gods (sarva deva sharira 2.13). Does this mean that the Devi is somehow derived from the gods? How

do we reconcile this with the fact that she is the mother of all, including the gods?Resolution: It must be realized that the energy emanating from the gods was not their creation but already an indwelling presence. What coalesces into the goddess' magnificent form is actually her own power, previously fragmented amongst the various deities and now reuniting. Additionally, the gods do not become depleted of energy after they have used it to form the goddess, but continue to act as conduits for various powers that are ultimately hers, even while those individualized powers are reunited in the vastly more potent person of the Devi. This is but a vivid statement of the principle of simultaneous immanence and transcendence.Mahishasur represents unrestrained physical desire (kama), a formidable enemy which can be tamed only by the consolidation of all the forces we can muster. The creation of Devi by the

combined energy of the gods also signifies that whoever worships the goddess has already worshipped all the 330 million deities of the Hindu pantheon, since she has but emerged out of the combined essence of all these deities.The Devi's constant refusal of his propositions and her taunts made Mahisha tremble with uncontrollable rage. Actually, it is kama which leads to anger, and in Sanskrit literature, anger is often referred to as 'Kamanuja,' or the younger brother of kama. In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks Krishna:"Impelled by what force does a man sin? Even though it is against his wishes?"Krishna replies:"It is voracious desire (kama), O Arjuna, born of rajas, which begets anger. Know it to be the enemy." (3.36-37)To combat Mahishasur' rajasic passion, the goddess too appears in her rajasic aspect, as the inherent splendor (tejas) of the gods. When she engages him in a one to one

battle, he changes many forms including that of man, elephant, lion, buffalo etc. This indicates the many forms our desire takes, bedeviling us in one way or the other, until it is recognized for what it is. Actually, it is one single basic desire for pleasure that expresses itself in myriad forms through our various actions. The Great Goddess finally pinpoints this basic form of our desire, and annihilates it with a sharply directed swing of her sword.The Third and Highest Manifestation of DeviThe next time the gods were defeated by the demons, they appealed directly to the goddess. When they were praying thus, the goddess Gauri - meaning 'bright and beautiful', who was on her way to bathe in the Ganges, saw the supplicant gods. Immediately from her body emerged the auspicious form of Goddess Mahasaraswati, the embodiment of sattva

guna.The Goddess Mahasaraswati then proceeded to the capital city of the demons and stopped in an garden just outside the city walls. There she sang out a melodious song, enchanting the birds in the trees and bewitching the villains in the city. This is but the sweet wisdom of knowledge (vidya), represented by Goddess Saraswati; and the last remaining villain she destroyed was none other than avidya or ignorance, the subtlest of the three enemies.Thus the three forms of the goddess are visualized in the following manner:1). Tamasic Goddess Mahamaya is depicted as shackling Vishnu with sleep.2). Rajasic Goddess is born from the combined energy of all the gods.3). The Sattvic Goddess emerges from the body of the goddess herself.The last signifies that sattva guna is the nearest to the goddess, in fact, it is the closest we can approach the Devi. Sattva is however not reality

itself, but it points towards reality. In truth, no philosophy can take the human beyond the finitizing principle of maya to encompass the infinite, all-transcending consciousness. This is the last threshold, which reason cannot cross, where wisdom becomes silence, and inexpressible experience alone can reveal its truth.ConclusionActually, the whole of the text of Devi Mahatmya is a blueprint for the path of sadhana, which is nothing but the unveiling of maya to reveal our own true selves; maya being none else than the goddess' divine power of self-concealment, concealing the infinite consciousness of the supreme reality, restricting us instead to the finite world of names (nama) and forms (rupa). This maya is a three-fold shakti, each of which needs to be overcome by the grace of the Mother Goddess herself:1). The Tamasic Avarana Shakti - The power that veils the individual

consciousness.2). The Rajasic Vikshepa Shakti: The power with which the manifold nature of the world projects itself on the individual consciousness perplexing it with its multiplicity, making it forget its essential unity with the One Supreme Consciousness.3). The Sattvic Jnana Shakti: Finally, this is the liberating power of knowledge. Thus we see that the Great Goddess is not only the confounding power of maya, but also the only means to overcome it - namely vidya or knowledge.References and Further Reading:Chinmayananda, Swami. The Holy Geeta: Mumbai, 2002.Dehejia, Vidya. Devi. The Great Goddess (Female Divinity in South Asian Art): Ahmedabad, 1999.Kali, Devadatta. Devimahatmyam In Praise of the Goddess (Commentary on the Devi Mahatmya): Delhi, 2006.Pandey, Pandit Shri Deen Dayalu Ji. Matri Tattva (Discourses on

the Devi Bhagavata Purana): Jabalpur.Pandey, Shri Pandit Ram Tej (tr.). Shrimad Devi Bhagavatam (Sanskrit and Hindi): Delhi, 2004.Poddar, Hanumanprasad (ed). Shakti Anka (Special Issue of the Spiritual Magazine Kalyan): Gorakhpur, 2002.Ram, Shri Ramayandutt Ji Shastri (tr.). The Durga Saptashati with Hindi Translation: Gorakhpur, 2004.Ranchan, Som. Durga Rahasya A Key to the Eternal Feminine (Devi Mahatmya) New Delhi, 2001.Vijnanananda, Swami (tr.). The Srimad Devi Bhagavatam (English) New Delhi, 1998.

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