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Devi
by Rita Smith
“
"By you this universe is borne, By
you this world is created, O Devi, by you it is protected."
(Devi-Mahatmya).
Throughout India, devotees honour Devi in their temples and
at
wayside shrines. Flowers garland her image with brightness,
the light of countless lamps illuminate her presence and the
blood of thousands of animals stains the stones of her
altars crimson.
The Goddess is older than time, yet time itself. She is
formless, yet to be found in all forms. Her presence is in
all things, yet she
transcends all things. She is ever-changing, yet eternally
changeless. She is both the womb from which all life flows
forth and the tomb to which all life returns. Devi the
Shining One source of the life-giving powers of the
universe, who is experienced by her ecstatic worshippers as
the Primal Cause and Mother of the World.
Roots
Pre-dating the patriarchal Male Trinity by thousands of
years, the
Goddess was once worshipped throughout the ancient world.
Now, only in India does her cult remain widespread and part
of a vibrant, living tradition in which her presence
empowers and stirs the hearts of her devotees with adoration
and devotion.
The veneration of Devi can be traced as far back as 20,000
BC. A bone image of the Great Mother was discovered at
Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh ating back to that period. She was
also revered at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley
from 2,500 BC.
Closely associated with the land itself, villagers in rural
India
paid tribute to the Earth Goddess, adorning branches of
trees and
placing shrines within them which carried her image. Smooth,
oval-shaped stones also marked her sacred sites.
Women were her channels and it was through them her rituals
were performed, rites for the dead and ceremonies to promote
fertility and fruitfulness of the land.
The Goddess reigned supreme until the patriarchal Aryans
invaded the country in 1500 BC. The Harappan culture
declined as these nomadic herding people initiated a new age
in which their male Gods became predominent. But the worship
of Devi could not be entirely suppressed. It was absorbed
and transformed to accommodate the new situation.
The Goddess became united in a Divine Marriage with the Gods
of the Male Trinity: Sarasvati with Brahma, Lakshmi with
Vishnu, and Parvati, Kali and Durga with Siva. Once given a
priestly blessing, veneration of the Goddess as the God's
consort was incorporated in the regular rituals. As Sakti,
she became the powerful spiritual energy without which the
God was unable to act.
Facets
The Goddess is multi-faceted, known by myriad names and
personified in many forms. As well as responding to the
names of Parvati, Lakshmi, Sarasvati and Sakti, she also
manifests under the titles of Gauri, Uma, Sati, Aditi, Maya,
Ganga, Prakriti, Gayatri, Tara, Minaksi, Mahadevi,
Kundalini, Durga, Kali, Chamunda and in many other guises.
The great mountain peaks of the Himalayas Annapurna, Nanda
Devi and Chomo-Lung-Ma (known to Westerners as the world's
highest mountain, Everest) all testify to her divine
presence.
Like the facets of a diamond, these varying forms of the
Great
Universal Energy that is Devi are merely reflections of the
countless aspects that make the whole, the Absolute.
Creator and Preserver
As Virgin and Mother, the Goddess is considered to be the
very spring from which every kind of love flows into the
world. From the vast ocean of her being the morphogenetic
field that produces all forms the Goddess gives birth to all
living things. The pouring forth of this love-energy from
her timeless, formless source into the field of time
constitutes a sacred mystery.
Representations of the Goddess as a crouching woman giving
birth to the manifold forms of her creation can be found in
Indian art. As the Sky-Goddess Aditi, she pervades all space
and is mother to the Gods so revered by the Indo-Aryans.
Maya the Sanskrit word for "magic" and "illusion" describes
her role as the originator of all material things, all that
is perceptible to the senses.
Displaying the protective and maternal side of her nature,
she revels in her multitudinous manifestations and joyfully
embraces the bounty of her gifts. Sculptures adorning Hindu
temples frequently depict the Virgin Goddess as a young,
beautiful and voluptuous woman. Sometimes she stands on her
own, at others she is paired with her God-consort.
As Earth Mother, she is also a deity closely associated with
Nature
and fertility. Images of her priestesses, the Yoginis and
Saktas,
often incorporate organic forms such as branches or vines,
symbolising Nature in its most instinctive form, proliferous
and
fruitful. Plants, leaves and flowers are commonly used in
Indian
medicine and, when they appear in portrayals of the Earth
Mother they are considered to reflect the magical powers
with which she is endowed.
Although on one level, her naked body signifies the physical
beauty and attraction of the Eternal Feminine, it also
symbolises the discarding of illusion and, therefore,
freedom from attachment.
Adorned with jewels and ornaments, she represents all that
is
precious. She alone is the eternal jewel whose brilliance
encompasses and illuminates the universe.
Carved images of the Goddess and her Yoginis formulate the
visual language which conveys the essence of the philosophy
lying at the core of her worship, which is so little
understood by most
Westerners. Gazing at sculptures depicting the joyous
physical
expression of love, they tend to miss the symbolism of the
divine
ecstasy associated with the union of male and female
energies that transcend, transform and liberate the soul
from the wheel of karma.
One of the most ancient cults of the Goddess is that of
Sarasvati,
who is both worshipped as a sacred river of the same name
and as the instigator and protectress of the spoken word, as
well as all
intellectual and artistic pursuits.
One of the most recent forms of her manifestation is that of
Bharat Mata, Mother India, a militant aspect of the Goddess
that is much concerned with the cause of Hindu nationalism.
Another manifestation is that of the beneficent Lakshmi,
bringer of prosperity and abundance. During the autumn
festival of Diwali, people all over the country light lamps
in her honour to guide her into their homes.
The Goddess is also revered as Sati the pre-Vedic Virgin
Bride who
epitomises the loyal and virtuous wife who is faithful to
her husband even unto death. This idea of wifely perfection
is dear to the Indian way of thinking. Although in a
metaphysical sense it means Sati is totally at one with her
own true being, it is also an ethical concept. Sadly, the
idea of the "perfect wife" who is faithful unto death
developed into the practice of suttee, in which a dutiful
spouse was expected to accompany her husband to the world
beyond through self-immolation voluntarily or otherwise in
the flames of his funeral pyre.
In her aspect of the Great Mother, Devi's devotees believe
the
presence of the Goddess exists within all her creations. She
is their Mother. She gives them life. She nurtures them
through her physical manifestations and she is present in
their times of need. Through her worship, too, her devotees
can transcend the world of illusion and reach out to her
true being.
To know the Goddess is to experience Being-Consciousness and
bliss itself. But Devi demands total surrender on the part
of her followers before she condescends to reveal herself in
her divine state. Her fervent devotees must learn to see her
presence in all things. She must become the bedrock and the
meaning of their life. Then, and only then, can they aspire
to experience her blessings in their
totality.
Even as
in the psychological process of accepting the dark side of
our own nature to achieve a harmonious wholeness, it is
necessary to understand the Goddess in her terrible aspect
also. For even as she is the bestower of life, as Kali the
personification of all-consuming Time she is also its
destroyer, to whom, at the appointed time, all manifested
things return. They are absorbed into her being, there to
await rebirth in yet another cycle of cosmic creation.
Destroyer
As Devimahatma, Mahadevi or Durga (one of her most ancient
titles), the eternally existent mother who nurtures and
protects her offspring, the Goddess's influence swept across
North India and was particularly popular in the regions of
Bengal and Rajasthan.
Famous for her prowess in battle, Durga the Unassailable
used the strength of her will, her knowledge and force of
action, to defeat the purveyors of evil and to vanquish the
demonic forces upsetting the balance of the universe.
Riding on a lion or tiger, her multiple arms wielding
auspicious weapons, she was Cosmic Energy personified. When
her mission was fulfilled she returned to her mountain home,
promising to nourish the earth and protect her worshippers,
only returning should her divine force be needed again.”
Devi
http://www.philhine.org.uk/writings/tt_devi.html
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