Devi Mahatmyam – An Ode to the Goddess-Part 1

In the run up to Navratri, the nine nights of celebrating the Goddess, I find myself
drawn once again into the endlessly fascinating exploration of her being. The
mystique of the Goddess pulls me in.
She is not a plain, one dimensional figure and I like that. For which woman is?
The Goddess is heroic, erotic, impetuous, wild, kind, ruthless, terrifying, loving. I
can see why she appeals to me. She is a little like me and I want to be more like
her. But I wonder why she occupies such a prominent place in all of the Hindu
psyche.
Almost all religious traditions have feminine imagery and feminine aspects of the
divine, however they remain mostly on the fringes these days eclipsed by their
male counterparts. Not so in the Hindu tradition where the Goddess reigns
supreme.
Which begs the question, how did that come to be?
In my quest for an answer I start with the Devi Mahatmyam literally translated as
The Glory of the Goddess. I have often heard bits of it  chanted during various
festivals and rituals so it seems like a good first stop. Turns out it is.
The Devi Mahatmyam I find out very quickly is one of the key Hindu texts and
lies at the very centre of the Shakti tradition of Hinduism. It was composed in
Sanskrit around 400-500 CE by the rishi (seer-sage) Markandeya and is part of the
longer Markandeya Purana.
And the interesting thing is, even though it comes from a purana (an ancient text
or tale that supplements the Vedas), the Devi Mahatmyam enjoys the exalted status
of a shruti or revealed knowledge which is otherwise accorded only to the Vedas!
Each of its 700 verses, Spatashati, are seen as powerful mantras and the whole text
one great Mahamantra.
“Just as the Vedas have no beginning, so is Spatashati considered”
— Bhuvaneswari samhita
So here was a text of Vedic stature dedicated entirely to the Goddess, extolling her
powers and virtues. In it somewhere, I thought I’d find the answer to my question.
Imagine my delight then when I discover that the Devi Mahatmyam is the
answer. This 5th century text is what shaped our view of the Goddess.
Find out how it did that in the following posts.

In my quest to find out why the Goddess plays such a significant

role in Hinduism I make a fascinating discovery. I find that while
the worship of the devi, mother goddess of a clan or a village
dates back to ancient times, her transformation into the Supreme
Goddess, the all-pervading Shakti ( cosmic energy) as we know
her today, only happened in the 4th century CE. Thanks to
the Devi Mahatmyam!
The scene for it however, is set almost half a
millennia before that.
The History
Around 3rd century BCE, nearly 200 years after the
death of Buddha, Buddhism saw an unprecedented
rise in popularity thanks to Emperor Ashoka.
Alongside it Jainism also flourished. By 2nd century
CE, their influence had spread far and wide. The
ripples of which touched Hinduism too, giving rise to the Bhakti
Movement among the Shaivite and Vaishnavite cults of South
India. The path of Bhakti or personal devotion as a means to
attaining the Divine now became as important as ritual worship.
By the 4th century CE, Buddhism and Jainism had started to
decline while the Bhakti Movement had spread all the way up to
the North.
It was during this period of resurgence when Hindus were
establishing new personal relationships with their gods that
Markandeya composed the Devi Mahatmyam. He assimilated for
the first time all the various mythic, cultic and theological
elements of different goddesses across the subcontinent and put
them together in a single narrative.
Now the many goddesses, the devis, become the one Mahadevi,
the Great Goddess. She is greater than the sum of all her avatars
and most importantly greater than the sum of all the gods. Even
the great Gods did her bidding. Her’s is the cosmic womb that
gives birth to the entire universe. She not only begets the
universe but resides in it through the power of her veiling.
Behind the veil of a myriad forms she is the One Formless Being,
the primordial Prakriti( Nature). For the first time in Hinduism’s
history, people see the Supreme Goddess in all her glory. And,
for the first time Divinity is defined as an all-pervading feminine
Shakti.
This was a big leap in the Hindu thought but it would have had
little impact without the genius of Markandeya.
Dr. Satya Prakash Choudhary writes,
Part narrative and part hymn, the Mahatmyam combines
beautifully the strengths of both the oral and written traditions.
On one hand it is a synthesis of many myths from many sources,
skilfully integrated into a single narrative in the best of the
puranic tradition. On the other hand it also displays the bardic
style of the vedas in the hymns. While the heroic tales of the
Goddess captivate and fill the listener with awe, the beautiful
hymns lift the spirits and inspire devotion.
But it wasn’t just the stories or the hymns that made the
Mahatmyam important. It was what lay hidden in those stories
and hymns that gave it its true significance. So profound is the
text that it is believed Markandeya could only have seen it with
the inner eye of  his intuition.
The Significance
On the face of it the Mahatmyam is simply a chronicle of the
battle between the Goddess and her divine manifestations on one
side and the demons (asuras) on the other. Each episode
narrates a different battle that becomes increasingly complex as
the story unfolds. But, like all sacred myths, this battle too does
not happen on the physical earth plane. It happens at another
level of reality, on another plane, revealing different layers of
truths as we are led through its labyrinth.
Part myth and part philosophy, the stories address some very
important existential questions that have plagued mankind since
the beginning of time. Their deeper, philosophical and esoteric
interpretation leads us to the realization of God as the impersonal
supreme reality. While the hymns inspire devotion to the
personal form of God as Mother!
The text speaks to us on so many levels and so many still remain
hidden, say the sages. “Only those who have inner eyes will
perceive the hidden truths; others know not.”
The Meru tantra proclaims that even Vishnu knows only three-
quarters, Brahma knows half, Vyasa only a quarter while others
know only a fraction of the true significance of the Devi
Mahatmyam.
Sri Bhaskararaya named his commentary on the Devi
Mahatmyam ‘Guptavati’ referring to its hidden and highly
occult tantric nature.

It is safe to say then that I won’t be decoding the Mahatmyam

anytime soon. But I am looking forward to bringing you the key
stories and hymns from it over the next few days. You are
welcome to dip your toes or dive into it.
Wishing you all a sublime Navratri!

In the previous posts, Devi Mahatmyam- An Ode to the

Goddess Part 1 and Part 2, I have been exploring this fascinating
5th Century text. If you’ve ever heard a hymn or a mantra
dedicated to the Goddess or even a story of one of her epic
battles with the asuras, they most likely came from this text. It is
the definitive text on the Devi.
In the next few posts over Navratri I glimpse into the book, its
stories and their inner meaning.
The framing narrative of Devi Mahatmyam presents a
dispossessed king, a merchant betrayed by his family, and a
sage whose teachings lead them both beyond existential
suffering.
The sage instructs by recounting three different epic battles
between the Devi and various demons.

Sage Medhas instructing King Suratha and the merchant

Samadhi
Lost and beaten by a cruel twist of fate a king named Suratha
and a merchant called Samadhi chance upon a sage named
Medhas, the wise one. In despair and anguish they turn to him
for solace and for answers.
Pray help us, pleads the king, we were betrayed by ones we love
and have lost everything that once belonged to us. Hurt, we
turned our backs on them but our minds still cling to all that we
have left behind. How is it that we are so deluded? Why can we
not find the strength to cut the bonds that tear into us.
The rishi moved by their plight replies, it is not your fault. Men,
birds and beasts alike are hurled into a whirlpool of attachment
by the great Goddess Mahamaya. It is she who pulls a veil of
delusion on all that lives so the cycle of life and birth may
continue.
Who is this  devi  you call Mahamaya? asks the merchant. We
wish to know, O knowing one.
So listen then, says the wise sage. I will tell you…
But before we can hear what the sage has to say, a quick look at
the three characters central to the narrative.
The characters and what they mean 
The King, the merchant and the sage represent the body, the
mind and the intellect.
Suratha, is one who has a good chariot (su: good, ratha:
chariot).”The Self is the rider, and the body the chariot; the
intellect is the charioteer and the mind the reins.” (Katha
Upanishad 1.3.3)
In this long cycle of innumerable births called samsara chakra,
man journeys through countless lives with the chariot of his
body. The cycle of samsara and its inevitable sufferings go on as
long as man does not realise that it is the Self(Atman) that is the
rider and not the body or the mind.
Born a warrior (Kshatriya), Suratha is endowed with a strong
physique, a good body. By virtue of his strength, he is capable of
protecting himself as well as others. However, without Self
realisation he is not truly a “Su”ratha or a one with a good
chariot.
Samadhi, on the other hand is a merchant (Vaishya). The word
samadhi denotes a focused mind, a mind in meditation. As his
name indicates, Samadhi, the merchant is single minded in his
pursuits of material wealth. This too is not a true samadhi.
The king and merchant are good by nature. The king protects his
subjects like his own children while the noble merchant shares
his prosperity with his whole family. But power and riches are not
permanent in this eve-changing world. As is often the case, both
of them lose their hard earned and well deserved power and
riches.
Having experienced deceit and heartbreak, the king and the
merchant are deeply disappointed but not disillusioned. Their
hearts and mind still cling to their old associations, to the very
things and people that have abandoned them. They are unable to
untangle themselves form the conditionings of the past.
The king and the merchant are archetypal characters. We are all
a bit like the king and the merchant. We brood rather than reflect
over our losses and hurts. This is our predicament.
Thus Suratha (a good body) and Samadhi( a focused mind)
cannot find true happiness till they meet the guide Medhas
(intellect or insight), who can lead them to the Goddess, the
Supreme Self.
Eventually at the end of the narrative, under the guidance of the
seer-sage, the king and the merchant are fully inspired to seek
the Goddess. Retiring to the bank of the river, they mediate upon
the Divine Mother. After three years she appears to them and
offers each a boon.
Suratha, who has unfinished business, asks for the return of his
earthly kingdom, followed by an imperishable kingdom in the
next life.
The merchant Samadhi, on the other hand, has grown wise and
dispassionate. He has become free from worldly attachment. His
mind is now fixed only on the Goddess. So he asks for the
Supreme Knowledge that will dissolve the bondage of worldly
existence in true Samadhi.
The Slaying of Madhu – Kaitabh – Devi Mahatmyam Part 4

The First Battle and the Beginning of  Time

Who is this devi you call Mahamaya? asks the merchant. We wish
to know, O knowing one.
So listen then, says the wise sage. I will tell you…
A kalpa ( a cycle of creations, destructions and re-creations) had
ended, dissolved into nothingness and nothing existed anymore,
no universes not even time nor space.
Vishnu, manifested from the all pervading Narayana lay in deep
slumber on Adi Sesha, the primal serpent of Time which
stretched without end upon the silent cosmic waters. Shakti, the
Goddess Mahamaya with her powers of delusion had induced this
mystic sleep (yoganidra) upon the Great God.
Vishnu lost in primal sleep on the Serpent of Time
And so he lay there, the Great Vishnu lost in Time, oblivious to
everything. He knew nothing of Brahma, the Creator who had
sprung forth from his navel nor of the two demons Madhu and
Kaitabh who had emerged from his ear wax. The demons
sought to vanquish Brahma who was preparing to create the next
cycle of the universe.
Seeing the demons, Brahma who was seated on a lotus at
Vishnu’s navel sang to Devi Mahamaya. He pleaded her to
withdraw from Vishnu so he may awaken and slay the two
demons. Hearing the Brhamastuti*, the Goddess withdrew from
every part of Vishnu’s body and mind and appeared before
Brahma.
(*Brahmastuti – The song sung by Brahma praising the Goddess
is the first of the fours hymns in the text.)
Vishnu now freed from the influence of Maya, woke up and saw
the mighty demons threatening all creation. For five thousand
years Vishnu fought the demons using his arms as weapons. Now
frenzied and blinded by their might Madhu – Kaitabh exclaimed,
Vishnu we are pleased by the fight you put up. Ask us for a boon!
Such was their delusion caused by power and might.
 
The Goddess waking Vishnu from his sleep.
Seeing the Goddess’s play, Vishnu replied, I ask that you may be
slain by me. The demons caught in their own trap and bewitched
by the Devi looked around to see only an ocean stretching
endlessly.
Slay us then at the spot where the world is not
flooded with water, they said to Vishnu who
lifted them on to his lap suspended above the
waters and slayed them with his discus.
The Goddess, so praised by Brahma had come
to his rescue and restored order to the
Cosmos.
Here ends the first tale of the Devi Mahatmyam as recounted
rishi Medhas.

Vishnu slaying demons Madhu and Kaitabh

The Inner Meaning of the Madhu -Kaitabha Myth
In this tale the Goddess as the primal Shakti is central to the
creation myth.
According to the Vedic philosophy there are three traits (gunas)
in Nature and in all living things – tamas (darkness, destruction,
chaos), rajas( action,passion, confusion) and sattva(positivity,
purity, harmony).
All the three states(gunas) are born simultaneously before the
beginning of a Kalpa. A Kalpa happens by the sankalpa, will or
resolve of the Supreme Being.

Just as Brahma springs forth form Vishnus’s navel, Madhu and

Kaithabh emerge from the wax in Vishnu’s ears. The ears are
symbolic of the sound or Sabda that marks the start of the
cosmogenesis.
The first tale reveals the primordial Mother in her dark, deluding
aspect of tamas that ensnares humankind. The psychological
afflictions of ignorance and attachment are the influence of
tamas.
Maha Vishnu has to awaken from his primal sleep in order to
overcome the original demonic forces of tamas and rajas.
The asuras Madhu – Kaitabh declare, ‘by us is all this covered
in tamas and rajas.’ They try to overcome Brahma, the creative
and sattvic force.
However Brahma calls to the Goddess and she rescuses him.
The message to the King and the merchant here is that we need
discretion and dispassion to see through the veil, the play of the
Goddess. Only then will we break the bonds of attachment and
delusion.
And this can only happen through Divine Grace, through the
grace of a guru or by attaining merit through many lives.
……….