An episode in an unremembered tale,
Its beginning lost, its motive and plot concealed,
A once living story has prepared and made
Our present fate, child of past energies.
The fixity of the cosmic sequences
Fastened with hidden inevitable links
She must disrupt, dislodge by her soul's force
Her past, a block on the immortal's road,
Make a rased ground and shape anew her fate.
A colloquy of the original Gods
Meeting upon the borders of the unknown,
Her soul's debate with embodied Nothingness
Must be wrestled out on a dangerous dim background:
Her being must confront its formless Cause,
Against the universe weigh its single self.
A Colloquy of Yoga Maya and Brahma
Savarni the son of Sun-God belongs
to the eighth Manvantara, he presiding over it. The Rishi during that era
speaks of the divine Goddess Yoga Maya, the conceptive-creative
Consciousness-Force of the Divine, she who has no birth but who appears when
the Gods approach her with due respect and prayers; she is then said to be
born. Once, when Vishnu the Sustainer of this Creation was absorbed in the
Sleep of Yoga, came out two fierce Asuras, Titans, named Madhu and Kaitabha,
ready to kill Brahma the Creator himself. Brahma then started offering praise
to the divine Goddess, the Protectress of the Worlds, the Battle-Warrior and
Conqueror Durga. He said: “You are Swaha, the Fire-Offering made to All-Gods,
and you are Swadha, Food-Offering to the Manes, the deceased ancestors, you are
the embodiment of the threefold Mantra and you are the unknown and
indescribable half syllable. You are Savitri, and you are the Mother of the
Gods. By you is protected this universe. You are at once All-Knowledge, and
Nescience also, the Great Night. You are the Cause of everything, all that
exists in Time and that is not in it. You are Durga armed with sword, spear,
club, conch, bow, arrows, slings, iron mace, you are fearsome and you are
pleasing also. It is you who gave birth to me and to Vishnu and to Shiva. But
presently has arisen a great danger, in the appearance of two mighty Asuras the
Titans of irresistible strength. We are helpless and the world will come to an
end. I pray you to let Vishnu come out of his Sleep of Yoga and eliminate the
danger that has sprung up. Please wake him up from this Sleep” It was the time
of Pralaya and Lord Vishnu woke up, and himself killed the two Asuras.
A Colloquy of the Cosmic Gods with the supreme Goddess
A battle raged between the Titans
and the Gods for a full hundred years, the Titans led by Mahishasura and the
Gods by Indra. But Indra was defeated and the Titan assumed control over Surya,
Indra, Agni, Vayu, Chandra, Yama and Varuna, and other Gods. The vanquished
Gods led by Brahma rushed to Vishnu and Shiva. Thence issued forth an intense
light from the face of Vishnu and of Brahma and of Shiva and also from the
bodies of other Gods. It gathered into an extreme blaze, the concentration of
light like a mountain, jwalantimiva
parvatam. It pervaded all the three worlds with its splendid lustre. By the
light of Shiva was formed the face of the Goddess, by Yama's her hair, by
Vishnu's her arms; and by Chandra's her two breasts; by Indra's light her
waist, by Varuna's her shanks and thighs and by earth's light her hips were
formed. By Brahma's light her feet came into being; by Surya's light her toes,
by Vasus her fingers, by Kubera's her nose; by Prajapati's light her teeth. By
Agni's light her three eyes were formed. The light of the two twilights became
her eyebrows, the light of Vayu her ears.
The Gods were pleased with her presence. And then Shiva presented to her a
trident, Vishnu a discus, Varuna a conch, Agni a spear, Maruta two quivers full
of arrows; Indra gave her a thunderbolt and from his elephant Airavata a bell.
Yama gave a staff, and Varuna a noose; Brahma himself gave a string of beads
and a water-pot, kamaņdalu. The gift
of Surya the Sun-God were his own rays and that of Time, Kala-Purusha a shining
sword and a shield. A pure necklace, beautiful garments, crest-jewel,
ear-rings, bracelets, armlets shining anklets, rings on all the fingers were
the gifts she received from several other Gods. A lustrous axe and strong
armour came from Visvakarma the God-smith. The Lord of the Oceans offered her
unfading lotuses and the mountain Himavat made available to her a lion to ride
in the battle. The gift of Kubera was a drinking cup filled with wine, and of
the King of Serpents a serpent-necklace bedecked with exquisite jewels.
Pleased with these winning gifts the Goddess, Durga in the form of the
Terrible, Chandika, was now ready to wage a battle with the Titan and his
hordes.
With the killing of the armies of Mahisasura Durga won the great victory for
the Gods. It all happened during the Age of Savarni, the Manu. The Gods offered
to the Devi their thanks in the form of a hymn
yā dévī sarvabhūteşu matŗrūpéņa sansthitā|
yā dévī sarvabhūteşu śaktirūpéņa sansthitā|
yā dévī sarvabhūteşu śāntirūpéņa sansthitā|
namastasyai| namastasyai| namastasyai| namo namah||
O Goddess, present in every being,
the embodiment of the supreme Mother,
O Goddess, present in every being,
the embodiment of the Power and Energy,
O Goddess, who is present in every
being, the embodiment of the Peace,—
I bow to thee, I bow to thee, I bow
to thee.