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Shakti Puja and Sree Ramakrishna

Is This Moral

Maa Kali - the Symbol of Knowledge

Maa Durga: The Symbol of Unity in Diversity

akla Jatota Pari

Maa Kali - the Symbol of Knowledge

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Shakti Puja and Sri Ramakrishna

Shakti Puja and Sri Ramakrishna

By Swami Ishatmananda

Prabuddha Bharata, June 2010, The Tantra Way – II, Vol. 115, No. 6, pp 365 – 371.

https://advaitaashrama.org/Content/pb/2010/062010.pdf

“Yeh kya daivi maya; what divine miracle is this!”—these words remind us of a wonderful incident in the life of Sri Ramakrishna: It was midnight. A heavily built sannyasin with matted locks was standing in the middle of the Ganga somewhere between Baranagar and Dakshineswar.

Though in the middle of this mighty river, he could not find sufficient water to submerge his frame. This sannyasin was Totapuri, Sri Ramakrishna’s Vedantic preceptor, who had stepped into the river to end his life and get relief from unbearable bodily pain. All of a sudden, the Ganga was merely knee­deep and he could not drown himself. Awestruck, Totapuri cried: ‘Yeh kya daivi maya.’1 How could this happen? The one responsible for this miracle was standing on the bank of the Ganga at Dakshineswar. He was overjoyed at having convinced his illumined master about the existence of Shakti, of Kali.

…

‘The future’, Swami Vivekananda believed, would  ‘call Ramakrishna Paramahamsa an Incarnation of Kali.’ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I think there’s no doubt that She worked up the body of Ramakrishna for Her own ends.’ Swami Ramakrishnananda observed:  ‘It was the Mother of the universe, Kali, who incarnated as Sri Ramakrishna to bestow knowledge and devotion to her sons and daughters.’  One may ask, if Sri Ramakrishna was himself the Divine Mother, then whom did he pray to and call ‘Mother’? Was he praying to himself ? To answer in his own words, ‘I saw Satchidānanda come out of this sheath. It said, “I incarnate Myself in every age.” I thought that I myself was saying these words out of mere fancy. I kept quiet and watched. Again Satchidānanda Itself spoke, saying, “Chaitanya, too, worshipped Śakti.”’ He also said: ‘There are two persons in this [his own body]. One, the Divine Mother—yes, one is She. And the other is Her devotee’ .

The same divinity practised austerities as Sri Ramakrishna and also bestowed the vision of Mother Kali upon devotees. Why did this divine play take place? Because of his love for humanity. Sri Ramakrishna used to call both the subtle and the gross universe the kingdom of Shakti. By worshipping Shakti he awakened the spiritual energy inherent in humankind and also showed it the realm beyond this universe of Shakti.

Maa Durga: The symbol of Unity in Diversity

Durga Puja – the unique system of reaching formless, impersonal, all-pervading Godhead through image worship.

Durga Puja, held in autumn every year, has become a national festival in India. People, forgetting all differences, join in this celebration. As mother never makes any difference among her children, similarly in the Puja of Devi Durga all classes of people without any distinction of caste, creed, color, language participate. In fact, the real essence of Hinduism is expressed through Maa Durga.

Creation of Durga symbolizes unity, unity of different Gods, Faiths, Paths. This subtle knowledge, this abstract idea is depicted in the image of Maa Durga. The clay which is used to make the image of Maa Durga comes from the door steps of a Brahmin, a King and a Prostitute. The brahmin is the symbol of high caste, the symbol of Sattva. The king represents khsatriya caste and Raja. The prostitute is the symbol of low caste and Tama. This shows that the Divine Mother is present equally in high and low, upper caste and lower caste. There is no difference for Divine Mother.

Her ten hands is the symbol of Omnipresent God – She is everywhere. The different armaments in her hands depicts the fact that she is all-powerful. The intelligent hindu, through symbol teaches that the divinity is present even in animals & birds. The lion & the rat with image of Goddess Durga symbolizes the whole gamut of animals similarly the peacock & the owl symbolizes the whole range of birds. The Divine Mother is present even in these creatures. The divinity is also present in the reptiles that is symbolized by the snake she is holding and the small plantain tree covered with different varieties of creepers signifies that the divinity is present in the plants and trees. The truth which has been expressed in Upanishads – Isha Varsam Idam Sarvam. (The whole universe is covered by God); in Gita – Sarvatha pani padam tat, Sarvatha akshi Shira Mukham etc., (All varieties of manifestation is the expression of one God); is crystallized in the image of Goddess Durga.

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Maa Durga

Maa Durga is being worshiped as personal goddess by millions of people for thousands of years. The beauty of Hinduism is that it expresses the  most subtle and complicated religious truth, philosophy in a very simple and attractive way so that even a very ordinary person can understand and get interest in developing higher mental attitude, spirituality.

There was a just and a kind king, name Suratha. Though he was an excellent warrior and a good ruler, loved by his subjects, he was defeated in a long bloody battle with Kola, a ferocious group of people. Because of treachery of his ministers, the king went into a deep jungle to save his life. There he suddenly came across another gentleman seating alone inside that deep jungle.

Who are you?  the King asked.

My name is Samadhi. I am a big merchant, he replied.

Why, then, you are here in this jungle? The King asked.

The merchant in a pensive tone said, I have been cheated by my own wife, children and relatives. They have thrown me out from my own house.

The king was taken aback on hearing the reply of the merchant. He felt as if he was listening to his own story. 

Inside that jungle there was a beautiful Ashrama School headed by a very learned sage, Medha. Both the King Suratha and the merchant Samadhi went to that Ashrama and met Medha muni, the sage. Both of them told the sage how they were cheated, insulted, defeated and deprived of their own property by their own people. Then they asked the sage, a very interesting question -

O venerable sir, please tell us why we are still feeling so much attachment for those who have done so much harm in our life? Why can’t we forget them? Why we are not able to control our mind?

From here, in fact, begins the famous book of Sri Sri Chandi which is also known as Durga Saptasati.  Sri Sri Chandi is a part of Markendya Purana. From 81 chapter up to 93 chapter, a total of  13 chapters of Markendya Purana are known as Sri Sri Chandi. Like Bhagawat Gita, it has 700 mantras. Sri Sri Chandi is containing the core teachings of all the tantra scriptures.

In reply to the question of King Suratha and the merchant Samadhi, sage Medha said, if you really want to overcome your problems and be successful, you have to worship Goddess Durga, the primal power of the universe. If she becomes gracious on anyone, she can give everything including the liberation from the circle of birth and death.

The King Suratha then asked, respectable sir, please tell us who is that Goddess? How she came into being?

In reply, the sage said, once upon a time a war broke out between Devatas (Gods) and Asuras (demons). After a long fearful war unfortunately the Asuras defeated the Devatas. The Asuras due to their cruel mentality could not forgive the Devatas, rather they brutally tortured them. The vanquished Devatas then rushed to the creater, the sustainer and the destroyer of the universe, the great Gods, Brahma, Bishnu and Maheswara.

Indra, the head of the Devatas, narrated in a touchy language the plight and the horrible condition of the Devatas. Hearing that the three great Gods, Brahma, Bishnu and Maheswara became terribly angry and their faces became red and their divine power came out as fire. All other gods and goddesses also joined their respective divine powers with that and the sum total of that power was seen as a huge burning mountain. That divine power slowly turned into a beautiful Goddess and all the gods and goddesses decorated Her with their ornaments and armaments. Thus bright golden complexion, big compassionate eyes, smiling face, ten hands, sitting on the Lion beautiful Maa Durga took form. The ancient sages wonderfully described Her as – the most beautiful among all the beautiful things in the world.

In Sri Sri Chandi details has been given how the Goddess Durga killed one after another terrible demons including Mahisasura. One may read in Chandi the detailed description of the unique war. Unique, because only one Goddess with her divine power alone destroyed the whole army of fearful demons.

Maa Durga is worshiped as a personal goddess by millions. But the Mantras, Slokas, about Maa Durga mentioned in Sri Sri Chandi clearly indicate that she is impersonal. The creation of Durga, about which we have already mentioned also indicates that she is the consciousness, all pervading, Omnipotent, Omniscient.

The image which is worshiped as personal Goddess, if carefully noticed, can be found that symbols of impersonal aspect is clearly expressed. The clay which is used to make the image of Maa Durga comes from the door steps of a Brahmin, a King and a Prostitute. The Brahmin is the symbol of high caste, the symbol of Sattva. The King represents middle caste, Raja. The prostitute is the symbol of low caste, Tama. This shows that the Divine Mother is present equally in upper caste and lower caste. There is no difference for Divine Mother.

Her ten hands are the symbols of Omnipresent God – She is everywhere. The different armaments in her hands depict the fact that she is all-powerful. The intelligent hindu, through the symbols teaches that the divinity is present even in animals and birds. The lion and the rat with the image of Goddess Durga symbolizes the whole gamut of animals, similarly the peacock and the owl symbolizes the whole range of birds. The Divine Mother is present even in these creatures. The truth which has been expressed in Upanishads – Isha Varsam Idam Sarvam (The whole universe is covered by God). In Gita – Sarvatha pani padam tat, Sarvatha akshi Shira Mukham etc., (All varieties of manifestation is expression of One God); is crystallized in the image of Goddess Durga.

In Sri Sri Chandi it says :-

-The Goddess who is known as Consciousness in this world

In the verse below we get an indication of the transcendental nature.

-That Goddess who pervades all beings as the intellectual faculty.

-That Devi who is present in the whole world as power.

Bhagavad Gita says, “Of the strong I am the strength – devoid of desire and attachment”

-That Goddess, who is present as peace in all beings.

All these clearly indicates that through Form, human mind should be gradually taken to the vast and subtle concept of Formless. If from the beginning, ordinary human being is forced to understand and concentrate on Formless, Impersonal aspect of God, there is no doubt that he will not only misunderstand the idea about all-pervading God but also degrade in morality.

Maa Durga is the best and perfect symbol of personal Impersonal God.

Human the most precious creature in nature - Part I

Try to imagine the days when the primitive human was standing surrounded by hostile nature. The nature did not give him the huge bodies like the elephant, rhinos or the strong jaws and paws of the big cats, not even the wings of the birds to save himself. In that venerable situation, without food, dress and shelter the poor creature's only thought was, we can well imagine, survival.

Nature did not give huge, powerful bodies to human being but bestowed a wonderful gift to human. And nature's gift to human is his brain. By utilizing the brain the tiny little creature, human, not only saved and survived but also conquered the whole nature. That is why, it is said, man is the most precious creature in nature.

By utilizing the brain, i.e. the discriminating and decisive  faculty  man observed nature and discovered the secrets of nature which is called Education or Jnanya. To define education we can say :
Education is the combination of five actions -

1. Observation
2. Discrimination
3. Utilization
4. Preservation
5. Transmission

Where from Jnanya or knowledge comes?

All knowledge comes from nature. Nature is the repository, the store house of knowledge.

That is why the Hindus worship goddess Kali, the image of knowledge. Some other day we may discuss about goddess Kali.