Left:
Durgadas with student Kalidas at Durga Temple in Rajasthan, NW India.
Durga is the great Goddess and origin of even the great Goddess Kali. She is the power of Maya (Illusion) and is herself the power (shakti) behind the great god Shiva, representing the Self-Soul. Without Shakti, Shiva is powerless.
Durga is the Power who takes us beyond difficulties or obstacles.
Goddess Kali was born from Durga, and herself has Ten Manifestations: Kali (She who is Time), Tara (She who deliver us), Bhuvaneshwari (She who is the Universe), Lalita (She who plays), Bagalamukhi (She who bridles the mouth), Chinnamasta (She of the Severed Head), Bhairavi (She who is fierce), Matangi (She who is daughter of Matanga Rishi, outcaste goddess), Dhoomawati (Smokey One), Kamala (The Lotus One).
The ancient text Tripura Rahasya describes the greatness of the Goddess, and how envelopes the conditioned soul is Illusion - the illusion that the world is real. The Goddess herself covers the reality of the Soul with the manifest world and physical body, which we think is real. But that is only the ego making us think so. The Goddess helps take us beyond the ego and kills it, helping us realise the reality of the world as an Illusion, and the reality of the Self or Soul.
So also, all spiritual aspirants must seek the grace of the Goddess in their spiritual practices. In her manifold forms, she grants various special powers, called siddhis (Yoga powers), which include telepathy, levitation, speech-power etc.
In Yoga, the Goddess is required as the power of Mantra-Shakti or the power of Mantra or sacred chants, the mantras being her own manifest sounds, her special powers, through beeja (seed) sounds. The Goddess, as being the form of the Cosmos itself, and the Illusion also, can hence grant all powers and connect us to the greater Cosmic Powers such as the Rishis, as also grant us Nirvana-Shakti or the power of Enlightenment.
She has the power to transform the ignorant into the wise and the dead restored to life. It is hence she who all Yogis must go to for the power to transcend time and space, or transcend her Illusion itself. She gives us the power to awaken not only our deeper inner shaktis or powers, but also to awaken from the delusion that the world is real - she shows us it is a mere Magic show of hers, and contains the power within her to awaken our own Soul-Self,our TRUE being, beyond darkness and night, beyond good and bad - beyond names, forms and religions!
OM DUM DURGAYAI NAMAHA!
Durgadas with student Kalidas at Durga Temple in Rajasthan, NW India.
Durga is the great Goddess and origin of even the great Goddess Kali. She is the power of Maya (Illusion) and is herself the power (shakti) behind the great god Shiva, representing the Self-Soul. Without Shakti, Shiva is powerless.
Durga is the Power who takes us beyond difficulties or obstacles.
Goddess Kali was born from Durga, and herself has Ten Manifestations: Kali (She who is Time), Tara (She who deliver us), Bhuvaneshwari (She who is the Universe), Lalita (She who plays), Bagalamukhi (She who bridles the mouth), Chinnamasta (She of the Severed Head), Bhairavi (She who is fierce), Matangi (She who is daughter of Matanga Rishi, outcaste goddess), Dhoomawati (Smokey One), Kamala (The Lotus One).
The ancient text Tripura Rahasya describes the greatness of the Goddess, and how envelopes the conditioned soul is Illusion - the illusion that the world is real. The Goddess herself covers the reality of the Soul with the manifest world and physical body, which we think is real. But that is only the ego making us think so. The Goddess helps take us beyond the ego and kills it, helping us realise the reality of the world as an Illusion, and the reality of the Self or Soul.
So also, all spiritual aspirants must seek the grace of the Goddess in their spiritual practices. In her manifold forms, she grants various special powers, called siddhis (Yoga powers), which include telepathy, levitation, speech-power etc.
In Yoga, the Goddess is required as the power of Mantra-Shakti or the power of Mantra or sacred chants, the mantras being her own manifest sounds, her special powers, through beeja (seed) sounds. The Goddess, as being the form of the Cosmos itself, and the Illusion also, can hence grant all powers and connect us to the greater Cosmic Powers such as the Rishis, as also grant us Nirvana-Shakti or the power of Enlightenment.
She has the power to transform the ignorant into the wise and the dead restored to life. It is hence she who all Yogis must go to for the power to transcend time and space, or transcend her Illusion itself. She gives us the power to awaken not only our deeper inner shaktis or powers, but also to awaken from the delusion that the world is real - she shows us it is a mere Magic show of hers, and contains the power within her to awaken our own Soul-Self,our TRUE being, beyond darkness and night, beyond good and bad - beyond names, forms and religions!
OM DUM DURGAYAI NAMAHA!