The Glory of the Goddess-Devi Mahatmyam

The vanquished gods collectively surrendering to the Devi
The gods first approach Brahma who leads them to Vishnu and Shiva. There is a significance
in the gods first approaching Brahma. As per Hindu mythology Brahma was born from a
lotus that grew at Lord Vishnu’s navel. Here Vishnu signifies Consciousness while the lotus
signifies flowering or blossoming of Consciousness. Brahma being born from the nabhikamala
(navel chakra) of Vishnu is clearly a Puranic allusion to Kundalini and the Chakras.
The nabhi is the vedic equivalent to what is known as known as the Manipura chakra in the
tantric system. Below the manipura chakra is asura kshetra (field of demoniac
consciousness), while daiva kshetra (field of divine consciousness) starts from manipura.
Thus the very awareness of the conflict between the righteous and unrighteous samskaras and
the need to overcome asuric samskaras, starts with the manipura. Now that spiritual
awareness has started blossoming it will lead to the coming together of all the spiritual
samskaras, the coming together of the powers of the gods. Brahma leads the gods to Vishnu
and Shiva. Vishnu and Shiva too symbolise specific psychological functions like the other
gods. In the symbolism of Devi Mahatmyam, the Devi is obviously the Supreme Being or
Supreme Self, whereas Vishnu and Shiva symbolise prana shakti and gnana shakti
respectively.
What happens when all the powers of all the gods come together? As the Devi Mahatmyam
reveals, all the radiance from all the gods coalesced into the auspicious form of the Goddess.
The tejas that emerges from the gods is not their creation but the Devi’s natural indwelling
presence. Thus what coalesces into the Devi’s auspicious form is actually Her own power.
The gods do not relinquish their power or weapons, even as their varied powers reunite in the
Devi. This is a sublime philosophical abstraction of simultaneous divine immanence and
transcendence. Now that the collective power of the gods is united against Mahishasura and
his armies, the gods can be assured of their inevitable victory.
Mahishasura and his Generals- Rajo-guna and its Asura sampada
Mahishasura symbolises the powerful combination of human competence and beastly nature.
As already stated he stands for Rajo-guna. While Kaitabha is also rajas, he comes as a twin of
Madhu (tamas), at the level of origination. Unlike Kaitabha who is of the nature of rajas,
Mahishasura is the epitome of Rajo-guna. He has sixteen asuras who lead various battalions
of armies. They stand for various demoniac traits or tendencies and are Mahishasura’s assets
or wealth. Together they are all asura sampada or demoniac wealth or assets (see the chapter
on Daiva sampada and Asura sampada for more).
If Mahishasura has to be subdued his generals have to be eliminated first, his demoniac
wealth has to be destroyed first. But the asura armies vastly outnumber the gods.
Commenting on the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad’s (1, 3) account of a similar conflict between
the gods and the demons Adi Shankara tells us that the gods are always less in number while
the demons are more. So what to do? There is only one way out- absolute surrender to the
Supreme Goddess. Nothing less than total surrender will bail them out of their difficulty. And
this is precisely what the gods do.
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