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Devi: The Devi Bhagavatam
Retold
The Devi is essentially benign. She is the guardian of the Dharma and the mankind seeks refuge in her grace particularly in the months of Asvina and Chaitra, when the sickness and death ranges all over the earth. Indeed, when she sees her bhaktas suffering, she profusely pours down tears through her thousand eyes. That is why she is called Sataksi. But it does not mean that she is a helpless and silent onlooker. To restore Dharma, she kills Mahishasura, Sumbha, Nisumbha, Raktabija, Chanda, Munda and many other monsters. She is the Mahamaya. When the masculine gods fail to dispel the evil, she appears as the accumulated Shakti of all the male gods taken together. Fair Ambika, dark Kalika, and grotesque Bhadrakali—all are her figurations initiated according to the need of the moment. The contrary elements of the Archetypal Feminine create confusion in the minds of the monsters. Either the Devi should manifest herself in the shape of dark Bhadrakali, fit for a savage battle or she should eschew the war-path if she has anything to do with the gorgeous and delicate form of Ambika. The monsters do not understand that the Archetypal Feminine imbibes the configurations which are essentially diametrically opposite. The Devi is beautiful as well as ugly. She is ferocious as well as gentle. Such are the inscrutable ways of the goddess. She is of so fundamental a significance that without her assistance no sacred offering is transmitted to gods. So potent is the spirit of the Devi that every part of geography became saturated with some aspect of her. She is the daughter of the Himalayas. As the rivers—Ganga and Saraswati—she releases the sinners from their sins. She is Tulasi to heal the wounds and she is Gayatri to bring the peace in the three sessions of the day. The present volume deals with all these aspects of the Devi. The questions of self, Sanatan Dharma, magic, immortality, meditation, lust, and Kundalini are also taken up. We also come to know how Siva’s tears became rudraksh, and Vishnu, owing to a curse, turned into shaligrama, and how Narada came to acquire a monkey-face. There are also many interesting anecdotes about the rivalries between eminent rishis and jealousies among Shaktis. The book is a good source of mythological knowledge, particularly, for those who do not have a direct access to the original texts. It might not give us much literary pleasure but it is an exhaustive work, well presented.
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THE mysteries connected
with the Devi are dealt with in 83 chapters of this book. She is the
representative of the Archetypal Feminine which has been illustrated
through different inter-connected narratives, symbols, and
configurations. Her involvement in the creation, nourishment, and
protection of the mankind is inevitable. Through a gradually evolution
and all enveloping structure of myth, her central significance in every
phase of human life, in every little chore, and in all highly sacred
rituals becomes well established. Gods or sons of gods can cause
creation but not without inspiration from the Devi—the Mula Prakriti.
She has, at her behest, a great amount of transformative generative
energy. Such is the prowess of this energy that when Brahma, Vishnu, and
Rudra get confounded and do not know how to create, she changes them
into her own feminine self and reverts them to their masculine selves
only after generating her three Shaktis—Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Uma.
Now the conditions are ripe for creation.