From the clouds of the heavens descends the all-encompassing strength of the universe, of all the Gods. A fury within the mind, vigor in the heart that crashes through space and descends into the battlefield of desire and illusion now almost clothed in a veil of death and gore of the self. One form of strength is the tiger* that growls, thundering through and is almost deafening to the ears. The other form of strength, is within those eyes* that see just one form to destroy that is the demon of desire. And yet a third form is that of my fortress*, the walls so thick that no evil can penetrate when I surrender to Her.
She is all power, She is potency, and She is energy in a feminine form, for all to see, feel, experience and worship. It is an enchanting moment when the silent energy of Lord Shiva now takes form, bringing down grace, beauty, power, goodness, warmth, faith, trust and surrender to this earth. It’s like the first raindrops on dry parched land that almost dies waiting, for the Lord’s grace to wake its soul and bring life to it.
The earth tremors to escape the gaping moment of doom, when the Mother descends to protect the world. The conqueror of desire, She rages ahead gracefully to protect our souls and destroys evil demons with one slash to tear up their very beings, to see Shumbha, Nishumbha, Mahishasura and Dhumralochana fall dead at Her merciful feet.
This glorious moment She presents when She yields Her trishul to dig it into the heart of Maya and destroy it forever, relieving us from this never ending cycle of misery called life.
To the Mother I play, to the Mother I offer myself, who saves me from the demons of my own mind that claw at me every moment through the waking hours of my day. Oh Mother, who protects the weak, who takes me as a child in her arms and destroys every form of misery that stops me from merging into You.
So small am I, so feeble is my being, so lost is my mind that I do not know what to feel even when You hold me in your arms. To me You show the world of green, of flowers and life, of peace and victory over the desires of my mind, and yet my miserable self fails to see Your ever shining grace on me. I pray to You O Mother, save me and grant me victory over this misery called me.
Ma Jayant Jayanti Jayanti
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*Tiger - Her Vahana, * Eyes - The powerful eyes of the Goddess, *Fortress - The very name Durga stems from the word Durg which means the fortress that protects the Self from the demons of desire.
13 comments:
A nice presentation, through an Indian classical dance form, of the Hindu thought of various forms of tehunique force, the universal energy - as 'Jagadamba', that is, 'mother of earth', (or Shiva), as the one who clears 'dhumra', that is, the smoke of ignorance from human heads!
It is a beautiful presentation Kavitha. Your blog is getting more and more innovative.
Keep it up
In very brief, Mother Kali/ Sati refers to Shakti or energy at the core of the composite earth/ heart of Shiva. Like a ‘durg’, that is, a ‘fort’ protects its inhabitants from external enemies, the mysterious Moon protects the earth. And, their relationship is like that of Mother & Child (Parvati-Ganesha/ Mary-Jesus)…
And, considered together, through another view-point Moon represents Ma Durga and Earth as Her 'Tiger' who together act as Guru or Superior most source of knowledge to drive away the smoke-like darkness of ignorance that otherwise doesn't permit 'Apsmara Purush', that is, an average 'forgetful man', to recall supreme energy recorded within the self!
The ancient Hindus (brahmins) used yellow coloured sacred threads across their body/ like a bangle in the arms of all and sundry in alternate bands of red and yellow, symbolic of the protective force or a bullet-proof-like 'Durga's Kavach'...
HAPPY RAKSHABANDHAN! TO ALL.
It is interesting to learn that the word ‘Rakshasha’, generally translated as ‘demon’ - in the ‘present’, that is, Kaliyuga or the era of relatively the highest ignorance compared to the era of ‘Truth’ that is Satyuga - evolved from ‘Raksha’ that is ‘defence’…Thus the ancient wise Hindus apparently realized the importance given to all devtas/ rakshasas in the drama of human life – just as planet Venus, as one of the believable eight important members of ‘our’ solar system - considered as one composite system - with its poisonous atmosphere could perhaps be realized as playing an important role in the interest of sustenance of ‘life’ on earth as part of a grand design by the Formless unique energy…
Kavitha, I give below 'my' reaction as a Hindu by thought to 'my' newspaper for your information too...
Reference "Personal Invite: Lead India"
DEMOCRACY - as a wild guess perhaps evolved from the name of one of the satellites of planet Mars (three-in-ome Ganesha to Hindus) , i.e., Demos, while leaving Mars (Lord of war and fire) and also its other satellite Phobos alone perhaps because of some phobia - theoretically sounds a nice word, but in practice it is confusing...
Maybe Toi's favourite, ST, or some Saint could tell why on the same planet earth it should have different meaning to different people and nations (like Hindus worship mouse to elephant) - after all we the people of the entire planet are humans ...Thinking like the so-caled 'headless chickens', why UNO then doesn't, once for all, decide to write a common Constitution for all countries to follow so that, for example, Indians (Left or Right, or Centre) wouldn't then have had any problem understanding the implications of the nuke deal - as a typical example!
Do we not see the hand of the mischievous Formless Creator behind this? His unwritten Constituion, if understood by His believably superior most creation, MAN, perhaps could then have helped humans to know how He is able to manage the entire universe for billions of years despite the destructive nature of man, who is apparently bent upon desroying His best creation - our Mother Earth!
My LEADER that ever leads INDIA (evolved from Indu/ Shashi/ Diana/ and so on - the different names of MOON) is Natkhat Nandlal, for whom moon was just a plaything and who ultimately reached his supreme form as Shiva that is EARTH-MOON as model of the unique universal force!
Let us forget about 'Gandhigiri' and pray like Mahatma Gandhi to give 'Sadbuddhi' (nothing to do with sadness!) to all! That is, "Lead the kindly light." And, let us start 'looking inwards' to test the veracity of the ancient 'Truth', that is, God lives within every human being, or, in fact, every physical form is a reflection of the Formless Creator...
Rakhi (purnima) special :0)
With the background knowledge that human brain is an analogous computer that works based on innumerable symbolic languages, (as it also gets reflected in appearance of dreams), it perhaps becomes easier to ‘enter the mind’ of the ancient Hindus…
Just as a digital computer reads information with the help of various software programmes to convert data in to ‘machine language’, and vice versa - fed to it in alphanumeric languages or images - utilizing only permutations and combinations of numerals 0 & 1 of the ‘binary system ‘(current or no current), the ancient Hindus, similarly, appear to have expressed the human form as union that is yoga of/ marriage between the energies, virtually dormant in the formless, and that which is gone into the appearance of the form, i.e., the soul and the body (Moon-Earth, and perhaps therefore the belief of abode of God(s) in the sky)…
However, although each human form was believed to be a completely independent system - as the Yogis or ‘brahmacharis’ apparently demonstrated in the ‘past’ – but, for the illusion part, or the 'lila' that is 'drama in animal life', average man believably is made to act as a ‘social animal’, although there would be exceptions seen to exist at all times – like there are exceptions to generally stated laws in the field of ‘science’ also…
And, at any given point of time, because of the ever changing universe/ earth in which old forms apparently helplessly disappear and new forms hopefully (re)appear, such that each and every thing/ person apparently plays an important role (as per a grand design), similarly, in the animal world also, among humans every ‘new generation computer’ appears to perform better, and still better, than the older designs while the lesser life in the wild continue to exhibit no change in their behavioural function. And, as ‘specialists’ in similar fields of expertise each animal life form appears superior to man, for unlike humans they generally don’t need any external aid…For example, fish and many other aquatic life forms continue to live in oceans since time immemorial at depths where man is yet to reach in the ‘present’ despite believable ‘advancement’...
However, Hindu Mythology indicates Yogis in the ’past’, based on the realization that man, as the superior most among animals, has unlimited potential energy that generally remains dormant, unless it naturally gets activated when the time is ripe, or it needs to be activated at any other time other than the Satyuga to the maximum that is achievable in the concerned Yuga…
In the’present’, hadn’t it been for the ‘scientists’ we would’t have ever come to know about many of the secrets of the cosmos as those are being regularly released from time to time in the last few centuries via the 'west'. And, thus we wouldn’t have realized that - although expressed in a language and terminology that was prevalent at a certain time for the benefit of common man even – ‘unlike in the present’ the mythological stories apparently convey the same truths and even greater truths than those and, in fact, the ‘absolute truth’ about ‘Maya’ that is illusion…
With the background knowledge that is now available to all and sundry about moon being a satellite of planet earth, and also better comprehension of its not yet understood mysterious nature as the protector of earth and apparent possessor of extraordinary power by the’Hindus’, perhaps one can visualize the significance of yellow coloured threads used by ‘Hindu brahmins’ across their shoulders, and also on the wrist that generally happens to mark the ’mooladhar’ level as a separate entity of energy, both threads together representing the different ‘chakras’, or ‘bandhas’, or ‘locks’ indicating energy locked at different levels - on Rakshabandhan day…
Unlike in the present, the ‘brahmins’ were supposed to possess knowledge of the Formless Creator (represented by Moon, as also reflected in their use of lunar cycle for multiple uses, viz. for drawing horoscopes that indicate the positions of planets as they exist in the sky at one’s time of birth, in 12 houses wherein the basic characteristic is determined with respect to the house number, from 1 to 12, where moon exists. And thereafter to determine time related likely important events in the life of an individual expected due to interaction between different planets), and all apparent physical forms also as its different illusory images…
Hi Joshi Uncle
I thought i had commented before to one of your comments but it doesnt seem to have been posted.
I liked the way you phased "apasmara purusha" as forgetful man for Dhumralochana. Could it have any connotations with dhumrapan in terms of losing control of sorts?
It is also a very significant thing for us to tie a yellow thread in the hand of Varalakshmi Puja, which we had a few days back at home. The idea of a kavach is indeed profound and makes me realize a lot of things that i took for granted.
Regds
Kavitha
Hi Kavitha,
The literal meaning of Dhumralochan is the one whose eyes are blinded by smoke. The essence of Hindu mythological stories indicates that the ‘truth’ is all the time right in front of our mind’s eye, which we as forgeful men aren’t able to recall and read beause of our mind’s eye being covered with dust - as on the surface of a mirror making the image hazy - or smoke/ a flimsy curtain that needs only a little amount of effort, or ‘inclination’ on our part (for the Creator) to lift it from in front of the mind’s eye…
Similarly, Mahishasur, that is, a demon in the form of a buffalo, also symbolically conveys an illiterate and ignorant selfish ‘outward looking’ physically powerful person - who doesn’t care to ‘look inwards’ despite receiving advice from various sources - and for whom letters in black (on white background – Kali & Gouri the two basic energy forms representing 0 & 1) literally are like a dark buffalo…
Kavitha, life being realized as symbolic, the ancient used all kinds of symbols to indicate the drama as illusory, like a dream or ever changing thoughts within the pin-head of the super conscious Formless or ‘Divine Spirit’, that is, Bhootnath…
Thus the entire innumerabke members, which constitute the apparent infinite physical universe, in reality believably are akin to characters in one’s dream or thoughts that in reality represent some particular aspect of His ‘imperfect’ past before He apparently achieved perfection in the form of the composite character named Shiva, the Yogeshwar, who is a physical model or reflection of illusory or ‘mithya Jagat’, that is, the composite earth that reflects the true image of the immortal and all rounder Formless, as its perfect physical form, which is in turn supported from all directions by other members of the solar system acting as His ‘kavach’ or defence force, as the eight hands of Durga, reperesenting Moon the Guru, that is, the Superior force that has yellow colour as its essence that represents the life-giving Formless Creator – Peetamber Krishna, who with Neelamber or the blue form of energy acting as the mischievous ‘rakshasha’ result in the neutral Green earth, and in combination with surplus Red results in Orange colour that represents planet Mars whose essence is housed in the ‘mooladhar’!
From the above-mentioned one can notice how the apparent destructive force in the red colour at the core of the earth is virtually suppressed by combining surplus red with part surplus yellow (essence of Moon) to result in neutral orange colour, the essence of planet Mars (Ganesha) housed at the Mooladhar Chakra, the energy/ information related with it locked up there as it is communicated in the mythological story of Gaja-Graha, that is, a powerful elephant held firmly within the jaws of yet another powerful animal, crocodile…both attaining ‘moksha’ or liberated by Lord Vishnu, the Formless appearing personally at the scene…
It is this energy that believably needs to be released by a Yogi through thoughtless state/ detachment while remaining attached to receive the greater part of the supreme knowledge/ information that otherwise remains unavailable to an average ‘Apsmara Purush’…
Similarly, surplus poison represented by blue colour, held under the neutral top-soil of earth (that supports the various life forms), is suppressed by combining rest of the surplus yellow colour with it to result in the neutral green colour, the original essence of neutral earth housed in ‘Ajna Chakra’ at the third-eye level as the essence of the universe that – just like a commander of army – acts as the ‘decision maker’, being Mahakal or the controller of time and events related with it – concerning an individual or a nation, primarily with His Own (globe’s/ Mahabharat’s) selfish interest in mind! I have noticed how in hte old times it was a practice to start a letter to the bread-earner by his dependents, to teheffect, "Take proper care of the self/ Only then would you be able to take care of us too!"
Talking of Creator’s apparent design I give below certain personal observations.
Whenever ‘I’ have traveled by train to Mumbai from New Delhi and back, it being the relatively more familiar of the two cities, ‘I’ start packing up when Nizamuddin station is reached, although like a river before draining into the sea becomes slower, the generally slower speed of the train thereafter initially used to irritate me that eventually led me to surrender in the IR, which to my surprise turned out to be the reflection of advice given by Krishna in the Gita – to ‘surrender in Him’!
At some stage I recalled that ‘I’ had observed similar reaction as a child in New Delhi whenever ‘I’ happened to walk towards India Gate. That is, after reaching the Raisina hill end, although because of optical illusion India Gate appeared so close, and yet it took much more time than anticipated (with my the then relatively immature head) to reach there physically!
And, a similar observation also was made when ‘I’ watched, on TV, sky-divers jumping out of aeroplanes with their parachutes closed, and initially - with the background knowledge acquired as a cricketer in the younger days in school/ colony that a ball thrown up to a great height returns speedily because of gravity towards the earth and strikes hard on the ground/ palms that sometimes resulted in injury to finger(s) of the fielder - ‘I’ used to imagine the outcome if the parachute didn’t open to retard the fall!
Of course, accidents (natural or man-made) do happen sometimes, but those do not deter the sportsmen/ commuters as new inventions are consequently apparently made/ promised by concerned to avoid future recurrence of such accidents, thus egging on humans to acquire more and more knowledge about ‘Mother Nature’ to eventually enable one to live happily as one of the innumerable integral parts of it – or of Krishna who claims his supreme form, Earth, as the cause apparent of the illusion that is ‘Maya’!
Some more thoughts on 'Kavach'...
Observation of massive structures in masonry, viz. Pyramids (literally, ‘fire within’) and places of worship (with domes, vimanas etc.) constructed by the ancients that have stood the vagaries of ‘Nature’ for centuries, besides the large variety of selected food items animals consume for their sustenance with a view to attaining a happy and long life on earth, and so on (even heating/ cooling of air, with or without control of humidity), indicates that the ancients realized need for right form of energy to enter their form at different times…
The practice of using coloured threads accompanied by chanting of some ‘mantra’ even (and also coloured gemstones), carried on ritually since long, through many generations, indicates that the ‘wise’ ancients had realized sound energy as the primordial energy used in the apparent creation of physical forms...And also, the various colours to reflect the variety of the unique energy - as they are observed in the rainbow, or ‘Indra-dhanush’ in Hindi (literally the bow of the King of devtas that is Sun), and ‘Rama-Dhanu’ in Bengali (literally the bow of Lord Rama, that is a model of expert-archer-like Sun as the source of white sunlight that apparently contains all other colours too!)
What a gorgeous blog!
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