Wisdom of Yoga

Sidelights on Tantra

DEVI-PUJA

Devi-Mahatmya

THE THIRD CHARITA

    There comes the last or uttama charita, the best story, of the Mother.

    Two brothers, Shumbha and Nishumbha, sons of Sunda and Upasunda, the well-known Asuras of the house of the demon Hiranyakashipu, were engaged in severe austerities from their very boyhood and by the sheer force of their tapas, succeeded in getting audience of Brahma, who granted them all their desires in addition to the boom ( at their own request ) that they would not meet death at the hands of gods or men except at the instance of a kanya, a virgin, who was not born of a mother’s womb, ayonija. Then puffed up with pride and power, the brothers challenged Indra, took away his rights and privileges enjoyed in yajnas, sacrifices, displaced him from his position as king of the gods, established their rule everywhere, enjoying the rights and positions of the Devas.

    The gods assembled and remembering the promise of the Devi to come to their help when needed, went to the Himalayas and offered their prayers to Her in their distress, invoking Her presence and help.

    The Mother was moved. She made Her appearance before them in a very attractive form, at once luminous, charming and graceful.

    The Asuras were there, the leaders, messengers and the party of the demons king Shumbha; they were infatuated by the melting beauty of Her form and made overtures to Her to become the spouse of their king. Many generals were sent for the purpose, but no one returned with his life. Among the most important generals that were playfully done away with the Mother, Dhoomralochana was the first. Next came the turn of Chanda and Munda, two generals who met their fate at the hands of the laughing Mother who is therefore called Chamunda. Then came to the field Raktabija who was so called because every drop of his blood touching the ground would produce an Asura, a fighter equal to him. But without allowing a drop of blood to fall on earth, the Mother finished with him.

    Then last came in person Shumbha and Nishumbha who attacked the Devi in vain, and were struck down by Her.

    It is to be noted that Her encounter with Shumbha was preceded by the destruction of his brother Nishumbha, who embraced the fate of millions of the Asura forces that were all dealt with by the ‘Little Mothers’, matrikas, who were emanations and vibhutis of the great Mother who at last called back and gathered all these powers and Mother-Personalities into Her own Body and killed the demon-king Shumbha, taking up his challenge to fight with him single-handed. Virile and vehement in Her attacks, She is referred to as Chandi or Chandika.

    The Saptashati is full of descriptions and details, and of names of weapons and of Asuras and Devi-Murtis.

    When the work of the Devi was finished, the gods adored Her many manifestations and of Her motherly heart. The Goddess was pleased and once again gave Her word of assurance to stand by the side of the gods in times of need and stress, and also declared that She would ever be present in places where these hymns were read and used in prayers. Finally the Devi spoke of Her future incarnations.

    This is the story of Mahasarasvati ( called Shumbhadamani ), the Goddess who presides over sattva, the balancing quality of universal Calm amidst all activity and tribulations of external nature or in the inner existence.

CONCLUSION OF THE DEVI-MAHATMYA

   Hearing the greatness of the Divine Mother as exposed by the sage Medhas and revealed in those stories of Her three great personalities of Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasarasvati, the king and the merchant were convinced that nothing was impossible for the Supreme Goddess and decided to worship  Her and become the recipients of Her gracious blessing. Receiving instructions from the sage as to the method and secret of worship, they retired to the solitudes of the forest, and lived an austere life for three years, fully engaged in tapas using for japa, the mantras of the famous Vedic Hymn, the Devi Sukta of the Rig veda – devi suktam param japam.

    At the close of the three years, Chandika, the Goddess who is the upholder of the World, Jagaddhatri, appeared before them, expressed Her pleasure to grant them their desired ends.

    By the boom he got, the king regained his lost kingdom and in the next birth , he became the Savarni Manu with his unfailing regime throughout  the cycle of time named after him,  Savarni Manvantara.

    At his own request Samadhi, the merchant, received from the Divine Mother that knowledge by which real detachment from worldly objects and desires is effected and the sense of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ is dissolved into the ever blissful state of consciousness of the Divine, the Supreme Truth, the Absolute.

    This is the gist of Saptashati, the Devi-Mahatmya, the closing chapter of which recounts the good, worldly and other-worldly, that accrues to the benefit of those that perform the Durga Puja, especially in the beginning of sarat, the Autumn, and chant in their prayers the hymns addressed by the gods in their invocations of Chandi.

T. K. Kapali Sastry

From : COLLECTED WORKS OF T.V.KAPALI SHASTY – Volume 1 – THE BOOK OF LIGHTS-I

PUBLICATIONS – Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Pondicherry – India

Sidelights on Tantra

DEVI-PUJA

The worship of the Devi

The Universal Festival

      There is no festival other than the Dasarata that is annually celebrated for ten days with an unsurpassed grandeur and enthusiasm, with religious sentiment and appeal, with the exhibition of the country’s skill in craftsmanship and aesthetic creation presented in the shape of art productions and artistic designs  adorning India’s temples and Mutts and homes in their thousands and millions. All over this subcontinent, over this ancient land of Bharata Varsha, from Kanyakumari to Himachal, from Kamarup to Dwaraka, the several sections of Hindus, whatever their differences in caste, creed or social stratum, share the rejoicings of this country-wide jubilee. They offer their worship in accordance with their domestic practice or communal custom and thus maintain the hoary tradition of laying their offerings at the alter of the Divine Mother, in a temple, in a Mutt or Mandir, in their own homes where a sacred and sanctified quarter is set apart for the purpose or in any other manner in obedience to the promptings of their arts.

      All agree that it is the Divine Mother to whom the pay their homage and offer themselves to Her, invoking Her blessings to shower upon Her children. To the Shaivite, She is Shiva-Shakti, the consort of Shiva 0or the ardhanga, the inseparable half, of the very body of the great god, Mahadeva.

      To the Vaishnavite, She is Sri, the eternal Splendour abiding in the heart of Vishnu, the Supreme Being who maintains the manifestation of this cosmic existence.

      To the fullblown Shakta She is the great Goddess, the Mother of all creation, of all the gods and their worlds, who creates, preserves and dissolves, who constitutes and directs all the activities of the universe. She veils Her own truth – the Absolute Truth beyond – from the vision of Her creatures, gods as well as men, and also by Her own Grace unveils Herself, Her transcendental Truth to their vision and experience for the final beatitude, for crossing the Ignorance, for their liberated and illumined life or for their absorption in Her own Blissful and Absolute Being.

      Many are Her names, for many are Her aspects, many Her parts and cosmic functionings. But the one Name by which India as recognized and worshipped Her for untold centuries is Durga –the Goddess whom it is difficult to approach with all the thought-vision, the devotional seeking and yogic efforts of man. She is the Devi whom Arjuna at the bidding of Sri Krishna worshipped on the eve of the Mahabharata war, receiving Her blessing and the boon of victory, confirmed by the assurances of the Lord, as it is mentioned in the Bhishma-Parva of the great Epic.

      At this distance of time, it is difficult to fix the exact period when the Durga-Puja, the worship of the Divine Mother, began to be celebrated for the first nine nights, navaratra, or ten, dasara, of the lunar month of Ashwin. But there is a tradition that Arjuna took back is Gandiva and other weapons that were lying asleep during the life in incognito of the Pandavas on the tenth day, dasami, of Ashwin at the commencement of Sharat, the autumnal season which, as it progressed, witnessed the great battle of Kurukshetra. Hence, the tenth day that completes the Navaratra Festival of our times is called Vijayadasami, Vijaya being the epithet of Arjuna, the victorious.

T. K. Kapali Sastry

From : COLLECTED WORKS OF T.V.KAPALI SHASTY – Volume 1 – THE BOOK OF LIGHTS-I

PUBLICATIONS – Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Pondicherry – India

The image of  Durga on white background is from Internet.

The image of Durga carved on wood is of the Wisdom Cultural Association.

Sidelights on Tantra

DEVI-PUJA

Devi-Mahatmya

THE SECOND CHARITA

    In the second Charita of the Devi, Medhas the sage narrates the story of Mahalakshmi. Mahishasura, the buffalo-faced demon, as a result of his mother Diti’s austerities and penance, was born powerful, growing impetuous and endowed with a world-shaking passion for power over gods. Conquering the gods, he established his power in heaven. The vanquished gods headed by Brahma approached Shiva and Vishnu for consultation.

When the latter learnt of the plight of the gods, they got so much enraged that their wrath emitted fire; powerful lights of splendor emanated from the bodies of Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Indra and other gods, forming into a vast mass of Light that took the shape of a woman whose radiant effulgence filled the three worlds. The forceful light of each of the gods formed into a particular limb of the woman – her face was shaped by Shiva, hair by Yama, her rounded breasts by Soma, waist by Indra, shoulders by Vishnu and other limbs similarly by other gods. She was also provided with the respective weapons of the gods. This is the Devi, the Goddess Mahalakshmi, who appeared and challenged the Asura with a thundering roar that shook the three worlds. The gods rejoiced when She slew the Asuras with her weapons  and get close to Mahishasura and pressing him under Her feet, thurst the trident, shula, into his body.

The gods regained their lost kingdom, adored the Devi and sang Her glory.

Highly pleased, the Goddess promised to come to the rescue of the gods whenever there was need or they were put to trouble by the asuric forces, the demons.

Thus ends the second Charita, the story of Mahisasuramardini, the title of Mahalakshmi, the Goddess who presides over Rajas, the cosmic quality and power of all action.

T. K. Kapali Sastry

From : COLLECTED WORKS OF T.V.KAPALI SHASTY – Volume 1 – THE BOOK OF LIGHTS-I

PUBLICATIONS – Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Pondicherry – India

Images from Internet

Sidelights on Tantra

DEVI-PUJA

DEVI-MAHATMYA

THE THIRD CHARITA  

There comes the last or uttama charita, the best story, of the Mother.

Two brothers, Shumbha and Nishumbha, sons of Sunda and Upasunda, the well-known Asuras of the house of the demon Hiranyakashipu, were engaged in severe austerities from their very boyhood and by the sheer force of their tapas, succeeded in getting audience of Brahma, who granted them all their desires in addition to the boom ( at their own request ) that they would not meet death at the hands of gods or men except at the instance of a kanya, a virgin, who was not born of a mother’s womb, ayonija. Then puffed up with pride and power, the brothers challenged Indra, took away his rights and privileges enjoyed in yajnas, sacrifices, displaced him from his position as king of the gods, established their rule everywhere, enjoying the rights and positions of the Devas.

The gods assembled and remembering the promise of the Devi to come to their help when needed, went to the Himalayas and offered their prayers to Her in their distress, invoking Her presence and help.

The Mother was moved. She made Her appearance before them in a very attractive form, at once luminous, charming and graceful.

The Asuras were there, the leaders, messengers and the party of the demons king Shumbha; they were infatuated by the melting beauty of Her form and made overtures to Her to become the spouse of their king. Many generals were sent for the purpose, but no one returned with his life. Among the most important generals that were playfully done away with the Mother, Dhoomralochana was the first. Next came the turn of Chanda and Munda, two generals who met their fate at the hands of the laughing Mother who is therefore called Chamunda. Then came to the field Raktabija who was so called because every drop of his blood touching the ground would produce an Asura, a fighter equal to him. But without allowing a drop of blood to fall on earth, the Mother finished with him.

Then last came in person Shumbha and Nishumbha who attacked the Devi in vain, and were struck down by Her.

It is to be noted that Her encounter with Shumbha was preceded by the destruction of his brother Nishumbha, who embraced the fate of millions of the Asura forces that were all dealt with by the ‘Little Mothers’, matrikas, who were emanations and vibhutis of the great Mother who at last called back and gathered all these powers and Mother-Personalities into Her own Body and killed the demon-king Shumbha, taking up his challenge to fight with him single-handed. Virile and vehement in Her attacks, She is referred to as Chandi or Chandika.

The Saptashati is full of descriptions and details, and of names of weapons and of Asuras and Devi-Murtis.

When the work of the Devi was finished, the gods adored Her many manifestations and of Her motherly heart. The Goddess was pleased and once again gave Her word of assurance to stand by the side of the gods in times of need and stress, and also declared that She would ever be present in places where these hymns were read and used in prayers. Finally the Devi spoke of Her future incarnations.

This is the story of Mahasarasvati ( called Shumbhadamani ), the Goddess who presides over sattva, the balancing quality of universal Calm amidst all activity and tribulations of external nature or in the inner existence.

CONCLUSION OF THE DEVI-MAHATMYA   

Hearing the greatness of the Divine Mother as exposed by the sage Medhas and revealed in those stories of Her three great personalities of Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasarasvati, the king and the merchant were convinced that nothing was impossible for the Supreme Goddess and decided to worship  Her and become the recipients of Her gracious blessing. Receiving instructions from the sage as to the method and secret of worship, they retired to the solitudes of the forest, and lived an austere life for three years, fully engaged in tapas using for japa, the mantras of the famous Vedic Hymn, the Devi Sukta of the Rig veda – devi suktam param japam.

At the close of the three years, Chandika, the Goddess who is the upholder of the World, Jagaddhatri, appeared before them, expressed Her pleasure to grant them their desired ends.

By the boom he got, the king regained his lost kingdom and in the next birth , he became the Savarni Manu with his unfailing regime throughout  the cycle of time named after him,  Savarni Manvantara.

At his own request Samadhi, the merchant, received from the Divine Mother that knowledge by which real detachment from worldly objects and desires is effected and the sense of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ is dissolved into the ever blissful state of consciousness of the Divine, the Supreme Truth, the Absolute.

This is the gist of Saptashati, the Devi-Mahatmya, the closing chapter of which recounts the good, worldly and other-worldly, that accrues to the benefit of those that perform the Durga Puja, especially in the beginning of sarat, the Autumn, and chant in their prayers the hymns addressed by the gods in their invocations of Chandi.

T. K. Kapali Sastry

From : COLLECTED WORKS OF T.V.KAPALI SHASTY – Volume 1 – THE BOOK OF LIGHTS-I

PUBLICATIONS – Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Pondicherry – India

Images from Internet

Sideslights on Tantra

DEVI-PUJA

DEVI-MAHATMYA

THE FIRST CHARITA

    Near the hermitage of the sage Medhas in a forest, two persons of ill-luck met, one of whom was a Kshatrya, Suratha by name, and the other Samadhi, a Vaishya. Suratha had lately lost his kingdom as a result of its invasion by another king whose victory was achieved by intrigue of Suratha’s ministers and disloyalty of his subjects. The Vaishya had his own tale of woe, for he had been a wealthy merchant and was later abandoned, driven out of the home by the members of his own family – by his wife and sons and relatives from their greed of power, wealth and influence. After an exchange of knowledge of their pitiable plight, both of them decided to approach the sage who was living nearby and place before him their difficulties in which there was a common element. After paying their respects to the hermit, they narrated the story of their misfortune and then put this question to the sage.

The king spoke : “Great sage ! Though I have lost my kingdom and have nothing now to do with it, my heart still clings to the sense and feeling of ‘mine’, mamatva, in regard to my former associates, in the ministry and military, officers and subjects. Why should this ego-feelings of ‘mine’ still persist while there is no justification or truth for its basis ? And here is the merchant ( pointing to Samadhi ) who is no longer required by his relatives who have abandoned him; still he sails in the same boat as I, with his heart clinging to his wife and daughters, sons and relatives and past associations. What is the mystery ? What is the cause of this incorrigible delusion, moha, to which we are victims ? We are not fools unaware of what is wrong and evil; still knowingly we are drawn by a compelling force to this enchantment of mamatva, ‘mine’. Is there a cause ? Is there a remedy ? Deign to come to our rescue, O sage.”

THE ROOT CAUSE

    Medhas, the sage replied, expounding the root cause of all suffering and pointing out the remedy :

“All creatures have a consciousness of their own and are instinct with the desire to preserve themselves and their knowledge is spread over the objects of senses. Of the created beings, some are day-blind, some night-blind, while others are, day and night, of equal vision. The knowledge of man is in no way better than that of birds and beasts which show great skill in preserving themselves and  what is theirs. Here again, the sense and feeling of ‘mine’ is spread over all creation – man and beast alike. Know then, the cause of all this is ignorance, avidya, which is not the creation of any being on earth or in heaven. It is a product of the workings of mahamaya, the great illusory Power of Lord Vishnu. She is the power for bondage as well as for liberation, for ignorance and for knowledge. By Her the whole universe is set in motion revolving incessantly and containing in it all that is mobile and immobile. She, in short, is the Power of Hari, the Lord of the Universe, called

yoga-nidra, the Sleep-Power of Yoga or the super-conscious poise of the Supreme Being.”

Requested by Suratha to speak more about Her, the sage proceeded :

“Though She is eternal, immanent in the whole universe which is Her embodiment, She takes birth again and again, incarnates Herself in a special form of Her choice for the successful regime of the Gods, Devas – for establishing Divine Principles in the world-order so that its functionings may increasingly harmonise with the eternal verities and higher laws of the creative Godhead.”

At the close of a former cycle when the cosmos was asleep in the Oceanic Being of its own Cause, and Vishnu, the Lord, also was in his supra-cosmic sleep, yoga-nidra, two Asuras, Madhu and Kaitabha were born of the ear-dirt of the Lord and tried to kill Brahma, the creator residing in the navel-lotus of Hari. Upon this, Brahma sought the grace of the goddess of Sleep lodged in the Lord’s eyes and sang the praises of the Devi. In response, Mahakali, the terrible ruler of the Night, the pitch Dark, tamasi ratri, granted Brahma’s prayer in rousing Vishnu from the sleep and caused the destruction of the two Asuras : this is how She came to be titled Madhu-Kaitabha-Nasini.

Thus ends the first Charita, the story of Mahakali who is the Goddess presiding over the Divine tamas.

T. K. Kapali Sastry

From : COLLECTED WORKS OF T.V.KAPALI SHASTY – Volume 1 – THE BOOK OF LIGHTS-I

PUBLICATIONS – Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Pondicherry – India

Images from Internet

Sidelights on Tantra

DEVI-PUJA

The worship of the Devi

The universal festival

    There is no festival other than the Dasarata that is annually celebrated for ten days with an unsurpassed grandeur and enthusiasm, with religious sentiment and appeal, with the exhibition of the country’s skill in craftsmanship and aesthetic creation presented in the shape of art productions and artistic designs  adorning India’s temples and Mutts and homes in their thousands and millions. All over this subcontinent, over this ancient land of Bharata Varsha, from Kanyakumari to Himachal, from Kamarup to Dwaraka, the several sections of Hindus, whatever their differences in caste, creed or social stratum, share the rejoicings of this country-wide jubilee. They offer their worship in accordance with their domestic practice or communal custom and thus maintain the hoary tradition of laying their offerings at the alter of the Divine Mother, in a temple, in a Mutt or Mandir, in their own homes where a sacred and sanctified quarter is set apart for the purpose or in any other manner in obedience to the promptings of their arts.

All agree that it is the Divine Mother to whom the pay their homage and offer themselves to Her, invoking Her blessings to shower upon Her children. To the Shaivite, She is Shiva-Shakti, the consort of Shiva 0or the ardhanga, the inseparable half, of the very body of the great god, Mahadeva.

To the Vaishnavite, She is Sri, the eternal Splendour abiding in the heart of Vishnu, the Supreme Being who maintains the manifestation of this cosmic existence.

To the fullblown Shakta She is the great Goddess, the Mother of all creation, of all the gods and their worlds, who creates, preserves and dissolves, who constitutes and directs all the activities of the universe. She veils Her own truth – the Absolute Truth beyond – from the vision of Her creatures, gods as well as men, and also by Her own Grace unveils Herself, Her transcendental Truth to their vision and experience for the final beatitude, for crossing the Ignorance, for their liberated and illumined life or for their absorption in Her own Blissful and Absolute Being.

Many are Her names, for many are Her aspects, many Her parts and cosmic functionings. But the one Name by which India as recognized and worshipped Her for untold centuries is Durga –the Goddess whom it is difficult to approach with all the thought-vision, the devotional seeking and yogic efforts of man. She is the Devi whom Arjuna at the bidding of Sri Krishna worshipped on the eve of the Mahabharata war, receiving Her blessing and the boon of victory, confirmed by the assurances of the Lord, as it is mentioned in the Bhishma-Parva of the great Epic.

At this distance of time, it is difficult to fix the exact period when the Durga-Puja, the worship of the Divine Mother, began to be celebrated for the first nine nights, navaratra, or ten, dasara, of the lunar month of Ashwin. But there is a tradition that Arjuna took back is Gandiva and other weapons that were lying asleep during the life in incognito of the Pandavas on the tenth day, dasami, of Ashwin at the commencement of Sharat, the autumnal season which, as it progressed, witnessed the great battle of Kurukshetra. Hence, the tenth day that completes the Navaratra Festival of our times is called Vijayadasami, Vijaya being the epithet of Arjuna, the victorious.

T. K. Kapali Sastry

COLLECTED WORKS – Volume 1 – The book on Lights-I

PUBLICATIONS – Sri Aurobindo Ashram – Pondicherry – India

Durga image on white background is from Internet

Durga image on wood

is of the Wisdom Cultural Association

Sidelights on Tantra

DEVI-MAHATMYA

    The sacred text that is most important and universally used in the Worship of  Durga especially during the Dasara is called Devi-Mahatmya, “The Glory of the Goddess”, or Chandi as it is popularly known in Bengal. It covers thirteen chapters of the Markandeya Purana  ( Chs. 76-88 ) containing seven hundreds verses, Saptashati and is narrated by the sage Markandeya to Kroshtuki. Though it forms part of a Purana, the Tantras recognize its deserved preeminence in the field of sacred literature devoted to the worship of Shakti, the Female Energy or Mother of the Worlds; and in fact, the Katyayani Tantra treats each of the seven hundred verses as a mantra mentioning its use in accordance with the formulae prescribed  for the elaborate ceremonials in Tantric rites. The Saptashati is held in so much reverence that the very text is worshipped  as identical with the Goddess, manifest in its mantras or inspired verses. Even on ordinary days, its parayanam, sacred chanting, goes on in many households, for the warding off of evil influences, for the invoking of the blessings of the Devi, for the removal of earthly sufferings or for the attainment of higher and lasting happiness. Always it is the initiate alone who is competent to do the parayanam and others are prohibited.

There are three Charitas or Stories of the Devi contained in these seven hundred verses and the whole Saptashati is read every day, if possible; or one Charita, every day is read finishing the text in three days, or again in some parts of the country as in Kerala, the reading of the whole text of thirteen chapters is spread over the seven days of the week in the order of 1, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1, 2, chapters beginning every Sunday and completing the text every week; year in and year out this convention is preserved in the code word pa tho yem vi pra ka rah.

The three Charitas of the Goddess in the Devi Mahatmya are indeed illustrations of the Glory of the three outstanding Personalities and Aspects of the Mother, viz. Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati; and it is these three that are spoken of respectively in the first, second and third Charitas of the Chandi. The first Charita devoted to Mahakali is complete in the first chapter which commences the story. The second Charita is the story of Mahalakshmi given in the next three Chapters and the third, the story of Mahasaraswati, is given in the remaining chapters of the Saptashati.”

T. K. Kapali Sastry

COLLECTED WORKS OF T.V.KAPALI SASTRY – Volume 1 – THE BOOK OF LIGHTS-I

PUBLICATIONS  – Sri Aurobindo Ashram – Pondicherry – India