Mahavidya, Devata and Graha

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हरे राम कृष्ण

Dear Narasimha, Sarbani, Arpad et. al, Namaskar.

In the entire discussion on Mahavidya and Grahas, I wished to point out

that the simplicity with which Narasimha pointed out the Mahavidya and

their equivalents was lacking proper comprehension of the concept of

Graha and Devata.

 

Two points I saw were mainly lacking. One philosophical and one Jyotish

point.

 

Firstly, Narasimha, you equate Mahavidya with: 'she who which helps

overcome duality'. I didn't like this explanation yet I took it to

myself to ask some Sadhakas who have practised Mahavidya mantras for

the last couple of years. None of them agreed to this and they pointed

out that if God is both dual and non-dual then it is only that the

Mahavidya is overcoming our concept of duality or non-duality,

whichever is stronger in us. This made me understand that your

statement is solely in the eyes of the beholder... in this case you or

the one who told you this.

My next point is linked to this.

 

Secondly, Narasimha, the means through which you linked the Mahavidya

to the Graha is very far away from any way that I have seen Grahas and

Devata linked. Lets take something simple, i.e. Why is Sun equated to

Shiva? Really Sun is not Shiva, how can we say that the cooling and

soothing Shiva mantras are like that hot hot Sun? Impossible really. At

most you can say that Agni is the closest equivalent to the Sun or

Suryadeva himself. In truth we are all taught that in the Pancha Devata

puja that Shiva purifies and balances the Vayu Tattva and therefore

also symbolises the strength of the Maruts which he is always so

closely linked to in the Puranas. Because of this some astrologers TEND

to equate Shiva with Shani as he is able to overcome the worst

Vaata-disturbances, calm the mind and also remove all fears and sorrow,

but that doesn't mean that Shiva is Shani but does have the power to

overcome the Tattva that Shani represents. This by no means implies

that we can prescribe Shiva mantras for all Shani problems, not at all.

Nor does it mean that Rudraksha is advised by the Rishis for all Devata

represented by Surya, far from it.

So again, how did Shiva get equated with Surya when we came to the

Graha level? It is because Shiva is able to enlighten the self of its

true identity and since the Sun represents this self or Atma as an

individual (vayu causes separation), Shiva SHOULD be worshipped to

correct this main issue with the self. Its good for you to worship

Shiva to overcome these issues with (non)duality.

You know this, so why didn't you think in similar terms with the

Mahavidya? i.e. What is the purpose of the Mahavidya and what is the

Mother really doing to us?

 

You could have stuck to iconography (sva/lagna-approach) of the

Mahavidya and then surely gone wrong but at least come to something

useful. I.e. Rahu represents the female widower and hence Dhumavati

SHOULD be represented by Rahu, whilst Ketu represents the one depicted

without a head one and therefore SHOULD at a very base level be

represented by Ketu. Again note that we are sticking to iconography

here.

But, we are not looking for Graha-representation as this cannot be

within the concept of Mahavidya. Mahavidya implies at its root that

there is some vidya and some a-vidya and the Mahavidya is giving

complete knowledge of all of these and also correcting wrong vidya

(another way of looking at a-vidya).

In the first year of Jaimini Sutras (feel free to listen to it online)

we are taught that the concept of Avidya is linked to Badhaka, a

principle enforced by the words of Harihara, author of Prasna Marga.

Using this understanding, principally Ketu is corrected by the

Mahavidya whose iconography resembles Rahu, and therefore only

Dhumavati is worshipped to overcome the A-vidya of Ketu. This concept

was revealed to a select few of us in Vineland, New Jersey in the

summer of 2003.

Similarly, you will hear statements such as, the worship of Tarini

makes one the best student (Mercury), and the worship of Tripurasundari

makes one able to continue the Sampradaya (Jupiter), and therefore ALL

traditions of India stay alive due to the worship of Sri

Tripurasundari. Yet, in practice Tripurasundari is advised to correct

the faults of Mercury and Tarini is worshipped to correct the faults of

Jupiter, and thereby enable the relationship of the teacher and student

to be the best... again see that Mercury and Jupiter are natural

Badhaka's to each other in the charts.

This implies that Mahavidya is really a means of removing the natural

Badhaka of the Graha as that is the place of A-vidya of that Graha. We

affectionately say that Tarini is the Mother of Jupiter and that

Tripura is the Mother if Mercury... but is not Mercury.

 

Maharishi Vashishta, father of Shakta and grandfather of Maharishi

Parashara, worshipped Sri Tarini Devi for thousands of years, as

described in the Tara Tantra, to attain the fruit of good children. He

had suffered on account of the demise of his son Shakta, and the direct

lineage was broken. It was because of Tara's blessing that he attained

an illustrious progeny which we today consider the fountain head of all

knowledge of spirituality. So, should one question the age and practice

of the Mahavidya's, we can go very very far back. This further confirms

that Sri Tarini is worshipped to correct the flaws in Jupiter and is

therefore appropriately praised as Sri Kuleshvari by many. Further, in

practice ladies and men with great blockages and doshas with respect to

children have seen all such problems removed through the worship of Sri

Tarini confirming this.

 

Should we then go into how the Grahas are linked to Jyotirlingas or

even Avataras? Point is that simple justification will not suffice to

describe the Devata's and brings the lists given without such

consideration to much question.

 

I hope my points will bring clarity to teachers and students alike.

Yours sincerely, Visti Larsen

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Jyotish Guru (Vedic Astrologer)

www: http://srigaruda.com

@: visti