Devi – Part 2

Satsang by Swami Sivananda

Shakti is that by which we live and have our being in this universe. In this world, all the wants of the child are provided by the mother. The child's growth, development and sustenance are looked after by the mother. In the same way, all the necessities of life and its activities in this world, and the energy needed for it, depend upon Shakti or the Universal Mother. The human mother is a manifestation of the Universal Mother. All women are forms of the Divine Mother.

You are more free with your mother than with anybody else. You open your heart more freely to your mother than than to your father. There is no God greater than Mother. It is the mother who protects, nourishes, consoles, cheers and nurses you. She is your first guru. The first syllable that almost every human being utters is the beloved name of the mother, Ma. She sacrifices her all for the sake of her children.

A child is more familiar with the mother than with the father because the former is very kind, loving, tender and affectionate, and looks after the wants of the child. Mother is the personality that appeals most to the human heart. Whenever the child wants anything, it runs with outstretched hands to the mother, rather than to the father. If the mother hears the cry of the child, she leaves her domestic work and runs immediately to attend to the child.

In the spiritual field also, the aspirant - the spiritual child - has a more intimate relationship with Mother Durga than with Father Shiva. Shiva is quite indifferent to the external world. He is absorbed in contemplation of the Self. He has handed over power of attorney to his consort, Durga. It is Mother Durga only who looks after the affairs of the world. Lord Shiva gazes at Durga, his Shakti. She engages herself in creation, preservation and destruction.

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Durga is Shakti manifested as the creative, preserving and protecting principle in the created world. This great principle is adored as the Divine Mother, as Maha Kali, Maha Lakshmi and Maha Saraswati, representing the aspects of tamas, rajas and sattwa, the three modes of prakriti.

It is one's duty to propitiate the Divine Mother, for she rules supreme over the health and wealth of the universe. You are filled with Shakti. You cannot exist independently of Shakti. The whole universe is energy, and energy is Shakti. In revealed form God is Shakti or power. In the unmanifested aspect God is chit shakti, the consciousness force that is working everywhere as the material cause of everything.

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Love is the only transforming power, and Devi is the inexhaustible fountain of divine love. The mother's love for her young ones is unparalleled. It is the prerequisite for all growth, progress, evolution and transformation. Fear (another form of hate) stunts growth and arrests progress; love promotes growth and accelerates progress. Love sustains creation. Divine love is the true manifestation of the Divine Mother.

Let there be nothing but love in your heart. It will remove obstacles and speed up your spiritual progress. It will transform your enemies into friends. It will shower the Devi's richest blessings on you in the form of peace, plenty and prosperity. It will confer upon you the highest award - moksha. Cultivate dispassionate love towards all beings, then you will have truly enthroned the Para Shakti in your heart. Then there will be peace, happiness, prosperity and harmony on earth. May the blessings of the Mother be upon you all!

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The Divine Mother is everywhere triple. She is endowed with the three gunas, sattwa, rajas and tamas. She manifests as will, iccha shakti, action, kriya shakti, and knowledge, jnana shakti, the three forms of power by which the world is ruled. She is Brahma Shakti (Saraswati) in conjunction with Lord Brahma, Vishnu Shakti (Lakshmi) in conjunction with Lord Vishnu, Shiva Shakti (Maha Kali or Durga) in conjunction with Lord Shiva.

Saraswati is cosmic intelligence, cosmic consciousness, cosmic knowledge. Lakshmi does not mean mere material wealth, like gold, cattle etc. All kinds of prosperity, glory, magnificence and joy, exaltation or greatness come under Lakshmi. Kali is the transformative power of divinity, the power that dissolves multiplicity in unity.

The Devi assumes many aspects according to the tasks to be performed by her, sometimes sweet and tender, and at others, terrible and devouring; but she is always kind and gracious to her devotees. Arjuna, the Pandava hero, worshipped the Goddess before starting the fight against the evil-minded Kauravas. Sri Rama worshipped Durga at the time of the fight with Ravana to invoke her aid in the war. He fought and won through her grace.

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The Divine Mother is the symbolic power behind creation, preservation and dissolution. The whole universe is the manifestation of this power. Devi is synonymous with Shakti or the Divine power that manifests, sustains and transforms the universe as the one unifying force of existence. Since Shakti cannot be worshipped in its essential nature, it is worshipped as we conceive of it. In relation to the three functions of creation, preservation and destruction, Shakti is Saraswati, Lakshmi and Kali. These are not three distinct Devis, but the one formless Devi worshipped in three forms. The Devas corresponding to these are Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara, who in the same way are not three Devas, but the forms of the one Supreme Deva who is formless. May the Divine Devi, the Mother, bless you all!
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Navaratri or the nine nights symbolizes the victory of the higher divine forces over the lower, negative qualities which find their expression in injustice, oppression, greed, selfishness, hatred and a host of other un-divine forces that add to the suffering of man.

Outwardly, Navaratri is in the nature of a victory festival offered to the Mother for her successful struggle with the formidable demons. But to the spiritual aspirant, the division of Navaratri into three sets of three days to adore different aspects of the Supreme Goddess - Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati - teaches a very sublime yet thoroughly practical truth. In its cosmic aspect it epitomizes the stages of the evolution into God, from jivahood to Shivahood. In its individual aspect it shows the course that one's spiritual sadhana should take.

The central purpose of existence is to recognize your eternal identity with the Supreme Spirit, to grow into the image of the Divine. First you have to get rid of the countless impurities and undivine elements that have come to cling to you in your embodied state. Then you have to acquire auspicious divine qualities. Thus purified and rendered full of sattwa, knowledge flashes upon you like the brilliant rays of the sun upon the crystal waters of a perfectly calm lake.

This process of sadhana implies resolute will, determined effort and arduous struggle. Strength, infinite shakti, is the prime necessity. The Divine Mother, the Supreme Shakti, has to operate through you.

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