Hari Om,
Today is Tuesday and I just finished reading the English translation of the Devi Mahatmyam for the first time. For those unfamiliar with this, the Mahatmyam tells of the actions and glories of the Divine Mother. It is an important text for any devotee of the Goddess.
My book contains the original Sankrit verses with English translation of each chapter written by Swami Sivananda. I started reading it a while ago and then unfortunately got distracted by other things and stopped after a few chapters. I suddenly felt like reading the rest of it today.
I can read Sanskrit (the Devanagari script) but am a beginner student of this language (doing an online course) so it takes me a while to learn to recite new slokas properly. I can read shorter prayers in Sankrit like the Aditya Hridayam and Narayana Suktam reasonably well but feel a bit daunted by the sheer length of the Devi Mahatyam. I would like to slowly learn to recite the whole thing in Sanskrit but this is a long-term project.
For now I read the Saptasloki Durga, a short summary of the entire Mahatmyam. And today, I read the remainder of the Mahatmyam in English. I read about Durga's battle with Dhoomralochana, Chanda, Munda, Raktabija, Shumbha and Nishumbha.
Gurudev Swami Sivananda tells the story very charmingly in English....including phrases like "the hosts of Asuras were nicely chewed between Kali's jaws". :)
I love the fact that Devi is described as more beautiful than the most beautiful, and more terrible than the most terrible. In other words, She is an absolute terror to evil in whatever form in exists. It is a relief to imagine that God can be dreadful to cure and punish evil.
One feels fear when one imagines the horrible evil things that go on on this planet of ours. The dreadful crimes one reads about in the news. Also one's own mind can be afflicted with foolish and ignorant thoughts- despite realising this, the thoughts will not easily go away. Samskaras of thousands of lifetimes are not easy to defeat.
All these problems would make one feel utter despair at the futility of it all- were it not for the Power of God. It is such a relief to think that God's Power is so much more powerful than all the nasty things in our minds and in the world. It is so good to think that mere chanting of the Names destroys to ashes all this nasty stuff floating about in our consciousness and in that of others. That the Names bring peace and good fortune to all.
In the Mahatmyam, the Divine Mother promises that She will manifest whenever and wherever evil and adharma rear their ugly heads and destroy them. We really need Her presence here on earth today.
It was so interesting to read of Her various manifestations in the battle against the evil Asuras described in the Mahatmyam:
-Brahmani, the consort of Brahma, arrives on a Swan, and uses the water from Her kamandalu (water pot) to stun the baddies.
-Varahi, the counterpart/Power of Vishnu's avatar Varaha, is terrible with Her tusks.
-Narasimhi, the Shakti of Vishnu's avatar Narasimha, with terrifying teeth and claws wreaks utter havoc amongst the Asuras.
-Indrani, wife of Indra, is devastating with Her Vraja divine thunderbolt.
-Lakshmi, consort of Vishnu, arrives majestically on the divine eagle Garuda, with Her Discus, Conch and Mace and unleashes utter destruction amongst the Asuras
-Finally, Kali - an absolutely extraordinary form of the Divine Mother, frightens the Asuras simply by Her very appearance. Her actions prove to the Asuras that they were quite right to be frightened! Wearing a garland of Asura heads, with dreadful eyes and a lolling tongue, She consumes them like fire consumes a dry forest.
-In the midst of all this chaos, Durga or Ambika Herself is charming and playful- and destroys the Asura army almost like a little girl destroys her toys when she is tired of them. Incredible and awe-inspiring.
The symbolic meaning of this great battle is explained by Sivananda. This battle according to the yogis actually takes place in our minds.
The demi-gods represent our noble thoughts: kindness, humility, wisdom, self-control, selflessness, diligence, regularity, patience, faith, devotion, goodness, truthfulness, generosity, will-power, self-discipline, willingness to improve ourselves, ability to take good advice and many more.
The asuras of course represent the harmful thoughts in our minds (thoughts that harm us and others): such as pride, anger, greed, excessive cravings, selfishness, cruelty, falsehood, pretentiousness, stinginess, laziness, procrastination, heedlessless, doubt, poor self-esteem, being unneccesarily critical of others, self-centredness, narcissism, refusing to see our own faults and so on.
As spiritual aspirants, our initial task is to vanquish the asuras in our minds and estabilish the devas there so that we may then be fit to experience the Supreme God ever-present within us. But as in the stories, our devas or good thoughts are all too easily vanquished by our asuras or bad thoughts. Laziness overcomes hard work, pride overcomes humility, anger overcomes patience, critical nature overcomes love of others, falsehood overcomes truth....and so the tragedy continues. This is what is happens in us and is also taking place all over the planet today.
But things take a turn, when like in the stories, we go running to God for help. Many Vedic stories begin with the noble devas being miserably defeated by the powerful nasty Asuras. The devas realise their efforts have failed and invoke the Supreme God to come to their aid. Once the Supreme enters the picture, the Asuras' days are numbered. It is only a matter of time before they are all destroyed and the devas are once again restored to their rightful places.
If one does not recognise the Asuras and does not go running to God for help, then the Asuras take over our consciousness and wreak havoc. This is what we see everywhere today and is the root cause of all misery on our planet.
As spiritual aspirants we have no hope at all against the asuras within us without the help of the Divine. Calling the Divine is what we do when we do japa, puja, homam and other worship. We are asking God to come and remove the nasty undivine elements in our minds, and to establish the divine devas there.
This is in order to attain that Supreme God Him/Herself, whose nature is ineffable peace, wisdom and beauty.
So God is the goal and God is the way to that goal.
I personally feel utterly appalled when I see the thoughts that often appear in my mind. Anger, impatience, irritation, greed, cravings -all these and more awful thoughts and feelings assail me fairly regularly. I have noticed a small but significant improvement over the last ten years since I started doing sadhana, particularly the last three years when I have been doing sadhana regularly.
One improvement is that at least I have some awareness that I have a problem. Half of society (perhaps more) have no idea of the asuras they harbour in their minds. As I have at least some self-awareness, I feel a need to call upon God to help rid me of the asuras in my mind.
Here the thought of Durga cheerfully destroying all the Asuras brings me great relief. I feel that if I call Her, She is bound to nicely destroy all my asuras, and clean me up mentally. Despite all my failings, I feel confidence that all will be well. Because of one reason alone- the Name of God exists and is within my easy reach.
It is important to remember, we are not our thoughts. It is our duty to clean up our thoughts yes, but we are not them. We are not the good thoughts in our minds, and we are not the bad thoughts either. Our true nature is beyond the mind, beyond thoughts.
We are pure stainless consciousness and are ever one with the Divine. We are doing sadhana in order to recognise this- as the yogis say, to see this as plainly as one might see a fruit sitting in one's hand. Knowing that our true nature is pure and divine, no matter how disturbing our thoughts are, let us not feel despair, guilt or shame, but with hope and determination, valiantly continue the practice of calling the Name of God.
When we do this, all is well. Spiritually, I feel like an very small infant in very dirty diapers- not at all advanced. The dirt is the asuras in my mind. Is this just humility? Or is this the truth? It feels like it is the truth! Naturally therefore I need to call my Mother to help me out. And truly, I feel She listens when She is called. :)
Here is a nice rendition of the Sapta Sloki Durga by Anuradha Paudwal. This sloka is easy to recite even for a beginner. All days are good for recitation, especially Tuesdays and Fridays (days of Goddess as per Vedic Astrology).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7y0p8d3MHM
Om Dum Durgayai Namah.
Hari Aum Tat Sat
Today is Tuesday and I just finished reading the English translation of the Devi Mahatmyam for the first time. For those unfamiliar with this, the Mahatmyam tells of the actions and glories of the Divine Mother. It is an important text for any devotee of the Goddess.
My book contains the original Sankrit verses with English translation of each chapter written by Swami Sivananda. I started reading it a while ago and then unfortunately got distracted by other things and stopped after a few chapters. I suddenly felt like reading the rest of it today.
I can read Sanskrit (the Devanagari script) but am a beginner student of this language (doing an online course) so it takes me a while to learn to recite new slokas properly. I can read shorter prayers in Sankrit like the Aditya Hridayam and Narayana Suktam reasonably well but feel a bit daunted by the sheer length of the Devi Mahatyam. I would like to slowly learn to recite the whole thing in Sanskrit but this is a long-term project.
For now I read the Saptasloki Durga, a short summary of the entire Mahatmyam. And today, I read the remainder of the Mahatmyam in English. I read about Durga's battle with Dhoomralochana, Chanda, Munda, Raktabija, Shumbha and Nishumbha.
Gurudev Swami Sivananda tells the story very charmingly in English....including phrases like "the hosts of Asuras were nicely chewed between Kali's jaws". :)
I love the fact that Devi is described as more beautiful than the most beautiful, and more terrible than the most terrible. In other words, She is an absolute terror to evil in whatever form in exists. It is a relief to imagine that God can be dreadful to cure and punish evil.
One feels fear when one imagines the horrible evil things that go on on this planet of ours. The dreadful crimes one reads about in the news. Also one's own mind can be afflicted with foolish and ignorant thoughts- despite realising this, the thoughts will not easily go away. Samskaras of thousands of lifetimes are not easy to defeat.
All these problems would make one feel utter despair at the futility of it all- were it not for the Power of God. It is such a relief to think that God's Power is so much more powerful than all the nasty things in our minds and in the world. It is so good to think that mere chanting of the Names destroys to ashes all this nasty stuff floating about in our consciousness and in that of others. That the Names bring peace and good fortune to all.
In the Mahatmyam, the Divine Mother promises that She will manifest whenever and wherever evil and adharma rear their ugly heads and destroy them. We really need Her presence here on earth today.
It was so interesting to read of Her various manifestations in the battle against the evil Asuras described in the Mahatmyam:
-Brahmani, the consort of Brahma, arrives on a Swan, and uses the water from Her kamandalu (water pot) to stun the baddies.
-Varahi, the counterpart/Power of Vishnu's avatar Varaha, is terrible with Her tusks.
-Narasimhi, the Shakti of Vishnu's avatar Narasimha, with terrifying teeth and claws wreaks utter havoc amongst the Asuras.
-Indrani, wife of Indra, is devastating with Her Vraja divine thunderbolt.
-Lakshmi, consort of Vishnu, arrives majestically on the divine eagle Garuda, with Her Discus, Conch and Mace and unleashes utter destruction amongst the Asuras
-Finally, Kali - an absolutely extraordinary form of the Divine Mother, frightens the Asuras simply by Her very appearance. Her actions prove to the Asuras that they were quite right to be frightened! Wearing a garland of Asura heads, with dreadful eyes and a lolling tongue, She consumes them like fire consumes a dry forest.
-In the midst of all this chaos, Durga or Ambika Herself is charming and playful- and destroys the Asura army almost like a little girl destroys her toys when she is tired of them. Incredible and awe-inspiring.
The symbolic meaning of this great battle is explained by Sivananda. This battle according to the yogis actually takes place in our minds.
The demi-gods represent our noble thoughts: kindness, humility, wisdom, self-control, selflessness, diligence, regularity, patience, faith, devotion, goodness, truthfulness, generosity, will-power, self-discipline, willingness to improve ourselves, ability to take good advice and many more.
The asuras of course represent the harmful thoughts in our minds (thoughts that harm us and others): such as pride, anger, greed, excessive cravings, selfishness, cruelty, falsehood, pretentiousness, stinginess, laziness, procrastination, heedlessless, doubt, poor self-esteem, being unneccesarily critical of others, self-centredness, narcissism, refusing to see our own faults and so on.
As spiritual aspirants, our initial task is to vanquish the asuras in our minds and estabilish the devas there so that we may then be fit to experience the Supreme God ever-present within us. But as in the stories, our devas or good thoughts are all too easily vanquished by our asuras or bad thoughts. Laziness overcomes hard work, pride overcomes humility, anger overcomes patience, critical nature overcomes love of others, falsehood overcomes truth....and so the tragedy continues. This is what is happens in us and is also taking place all over the planet today.
But things take a turn, when like in the stories, we go running to God for help. Many Vedic stories begin with the noble devas being miserably defeated by the powerful nasty Asuras. The devas realise their efforts have failed and invoke the Supreme God to come to their aid. Once the Supreme enters the picture, the Asuras' days are numbered. It is only a matter of time before they are all destroyed and the devas are once again restored to their rightful places.
If one does not recognise the Asuras and does not go running to God for help, then the Asuras take over our consciousness and wreak havoc. This is what we see everywhere today and is the root cause of all misery on our planet.
As spiritual aspirants we have no hope at all against the asuras within us without the help of the Divine. Calling the Divine is what we do when we do japa, puja, homam and other worship. We are asking God to come and remove the nasty undivine elements in our minds, and to establish the divine devas there.
This is in order to attain that Supreme God Him/Herself, whose nature is ineffable peace, wisdom and beauty.
So God is the goal and God is the way to that goal.
I personally feel utterly appalled when I see the thoughts that often appear in my mind. Anger, impatience, irritation, greed, cravings -all these and more awful thoughts and feelings assail me fairly regularly. I have noticed a small but significant improvement over the last ten years since I started doing sadhana, particularly the last three years when I have been doing sadhana regularly.
One improvement is that at least I have some awareness that I have a problem. Half of society (perhaps more) have no idea of the asuras they harbour in their minds. As I have at least some self-awareness, I feel a need to call upon God to help rid me of the asuras in my mind.
Here the thought of Durga cheerfully destroying all the Asuras brings me great relief. I feel that if I call Her, She is bound to nicely destroy all my asuras, and clean me up mentally. Despite all my failings, I feel confidence that all will be well. Because of one reason alone- the Name of God exists and is within my easy reach.
It is important to remember, we are not our thoughts. It is our duty to clean up our thoughts yes, but we are not them. We are not the good thoughts in our minds, and we are not the bad thoughts either. Our true nature is beyond the mind, beyond thoughts.
We are pure stainless consciousness and are ever one with the Divine. We are doing sadhana in order to recognise this- as the yogis say, to see this as plainly as one might see a fruit sitting in one's hand. Knowing that our true nature is pure and divine, no matter how disturbing our thoughts are, let us not feel despair, guilt or shame, but with hope and determination, valiantly continue the practice of calling the Name of God.
When we do this, all is well. Spiritually, I feel like an very small infant in very dirty diapers- not at all advanced. The dirt is the asuras in my mind. Is this just humility? Or is this the truth? It feels like it is the truth! Naturally therefore I need to call my Mother to help me out. And truly, I feel She listens when She is called. :)
Here is a nice rendition of the Sapta Sloki Durga by Anuradha Paudwal. This sloka is easy to recite even for a beginner. All days are good for recitation, especially Tuesdays and Fridays (days of Goddess as per Vedic Astrology).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7y0p8d3MHM
Om Dum Durgayai Namah.
Hari Aum Tat Sat
Thanks Shravya. Mother Durga is indeed available to all as our very own mother. The link to the Durga mantra is a nice one. Best wishes with your sadhana.
ReplyDeleteI’m awe struck by the level of your knowledge, devotion and dedication yet humble. Thank you for guiding through these wonderful posts.
ReplyDeleteI have heard about the Markendeya purana in pravachanas, but your post inspired me to read the saptashloki which I plan to start today.
Btw, do you know why there are 7 hymns here?
May Ma Jagadamba bless us all and protect us refugees🙏🏾
Thank you for the kind words. I'm not sure why there would be 7 verses specifically in this prayer, however, the number 7, 8 and 9 seem to be of some importance in our scriptures. E.g. 700 slokas in the Gita, 8 verses in many prayers (known as ashtakam). I'm not an expert on numerology (something that I should probably study at some stage, thank you for the inspiration) but I think it is related to the principles of sacred numbers.
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