King Suratha loses his kingdom and goes to a forest on horseback. In that forest he finds the
hermitage of the Sage Medha. The sage requests the king to stay in his hermitage, but even
the peaceful atmosphere of the hermitage cannot restore the mental equilibrium of the king.
He continues to think of his kingdom, soldiers, treasury, etc. In such a state of mind, he
finds a morose and melancholy vaisya (merchant) coming to the hermitage. The
vaisya reveals his name as Samadhi who is driven away from home by his wife and
sons. Both the king and the merchant realise that their mind is attracted by their sons and
relations who are hostile to them. They cannot shake off this attraction, so both of them go
to Sage Medha and request him to explain to them the cause of their attachment to their
hostile relatives.
The sage replies that all animals have perception, but things perceived are revealed to the
senses in different ways. Some animals are blind in the day, some are blind at night and some
can see things equally at day and at night. Like men, lower animals also have sensation and
perception. Birds, though oppressed by hunger, put grains in the mouth of their young ones.
Men love their sons, hoping to get a return in their old age.
It is due to the influence of Mahamaya that man falls into that whirlpool of love
and attraction and forgets his true nature. Even an enlightened soul may be pushed into the
pit of ignorance by Mahamaya, the possessor of all glory and excellence. She is the
creator of the universe and man gets liberation by Her grace.
The Sage Medha asserts emphatically that the Mother binds her children and the Mother
liberates them. She is even the yoganidra i.e., sleep induced by yoga (a
state of blissful inwardisation at the time of pralaya) of Hari who protects the
universe. It is no wonder then, that ordinary mortals be under Her spell and be in bondage.
Men forget the Mother, marry, beget children and have affection for them. Indeed, man need
not be afraid of evil and sufferings, ignorance and restlessness of the mind and the bondage
of the cycle of birth and death. All these are Her gifts and She redeems one out of all evil
as soon as one surrenders to Her. She is knowledge par excellence i.e.,
Brahmavidya and is the cause of freedom. She, as Brahma creates the universe, as
Vishnu, protects its and as Rudra, destroys it. She is eternal.
King Suratha wanted to know the nature, origin and activities of Mahamaya in detail.
The sage replies that the Mother is omnipresent and has no birth or death. Yet She is born in
many ways to help the gods to conquer the demons. In other words, though formless, She
assumes various forms and appears before the gods, whenever they pray for defeating the
demons. Here the sage assures us that in our struggle against evil and sin, the benign Mother
is ever ready to help us, if we implore Her help.
The sage continues to say that during pralaya (the state of dissolution of the
world), Vishnu was sleeping on the infinite expanse of water. This sleep of Vishnu is
yoganidra, which is none other than Mahamaya. Brahma was sitting on a lotus
which sprang from the Vishnu’s naval. Two demons, Madhu and Kaitabha, arose from the dust of
Vishnu’s ears and went to kill Brahma. Brahma realised that Mahamaya is the
yoganidra of Vishnu who can be roused only by Her. So he tried to draw the favour of
the Mother by singing her glories.
The significance of Brahma’s eulogy on the Mother is that She is eternal, immutable and yet
finds expression as the universe. She is Svaha, the mantra with which clarified
butter is offered to the gods in a sacrifice. She is Svadha, the mantra which
pleases the Pitris.
She is Vashatkara, the mantra of a sacrifice. She is Vashatkara,
i.e., the fruits of sacrifices. She is consonants and vowels. She is Gayatri, the
daily prayer for knowledge of the Infiinte in the finite. She is the greatest Mother. She is
Om, Pranava, whose vibrations are all the alphabets, the Gayatri, the Vedas, Brahma,
Vishnu, Siva, and the entire universe.
The Mother is holding the universe, She is creating it, protecting it and is destroying it at
the time of pralaya. The Mother is the universe, its creation, protection and
destruction. There is nothing beside the Mother.
The Mother is knowledge or pure consciousness i.e., Brahma as pure transcendence. The Mother
also is Maya, the power or energy that forms the universe. As knowledge, the Mother
is transcendent, as Maya She is imminent into the universe of multitudinous things.
She is Vindu, the one all-pervasive static pure consciousness and she is
Nada, the dynamic, unoriginated sound finding expression as the many. She is talent,
forgetfulness, ignorance.
The Mother is the Prakriti, i.e., nature of everybody. The Prakriti of
things and beings is composed of the three gunas, sattva, rajas and
tamas with the preponderance of one of them over the other two. A saint whose
prakriti is pre-eminently sattvika is the Mother, a soldier in whom
rajas overpowers the other two elements in the Mother and a lazy fellow steeped in
tamas is also the Mother. The Mother again is Kalaratri, Maharatri and
Moharatri, the dissolution of satva, rajas and tamas respectively.
As Kalaratri, Maharatri and Moharatri, the Mother is terrible, this
terrible aspect of the Mother is very attractive to the aspirant for union with Her. The
rajas and tamas are demons distracting the mind and standing in the way of ascent.
The Mother kills these demons, destroys evil and sin and raises the devotee into her blissful
lap. Finally, when perfection is reached, even sattva is transcended. The perfect soul is
above the three gunas and is one with the Mother as pure transcendence.
The Mother is fortune, power, and shame, cognition revealing objects, and knowledge or pure
consciousness. She is aversion to blame, stoutness, contentment and forgiveness. But when Her
sons forget Her for power and fortune, She chastises them in various ways and appears to be
terrible. She hurls Her weapons against them. But for those who can realise that the Mother
is the cause of everything and a man is but Her instrument of action, the Mother is
beautiful, more beautiful and the most beautiful. She is beautiful to those who understand
intellectually that all names and forms are the expressions of the Mother; She is more
beautiful to those who have dedicated their lives to Her; She is the most beautiful to the
yogi whose mind has completely taken refuge in the Mother. Such a yogi sees the
Mother everywhere. The Mother to him is ever present, both internally and externally. The
beauty of men and other living beings is the Mother, the beauty of the lotus and the moon is
the Mother, the Mother is more beautiful than all the beauties put together.
The Mother is adorable not only to men and gods, but also to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. She is
the greatest of all, controller of all. The Mother is pleased with the eulogy of Brahma and
appears before him. Vishnu is now free from yoganidra and kills the demons, Madhu
and Kaitabha. The inner significance of Brahma being attacked by the two demons is that a man
aspiring for union with God finds that the seeds of his karma are the greatest obstacles.
These seeds can be destroyed only by the grace of the Mother. The Sage Medha thus proceeds to
say how the Mother kills the demon Mahisasura who drove away the gods from heaven and
occupied Indra’s throne. The gods go with Brahma to Vishnu and Shiva and narrate the evil
deeds of Mahisasura. They request Vishnu and Shiva to devise ways and means of killing the
demon. Hearing all this, they become angry and fire emanates from their lustrous bodies. Fire
also emanates from other gods and the Mother appears before them, taking Her shape from all
these fires pervading the universe. Every god draws out of his weapon a similar weapon and
the Mother is armed with all these weapons. She rides a lion given by Himayan and Her war cry
shakes the earth, the mountains, the seas and the heavens. Mahisasura accepts the challenge
and the Mother kills him with his allies.
After the death of Mahisasura, Indra and other gods utter a eulogy on the Mother. The
substance of what they say is that the Mother pervades the whole universe and is adorable to
all the gods and sages. She has infinite power, crushes the evil forces of demons and saves
the universe. She is happiness and fortune in the house of those who have acquired merit by
performing good deeds, She is misfortune in the house of the sinful, She is
buddhi i.e. knowledge which is above doubt in a clear and transparent mind and She
is faith in scriptures of the honest. Her dazzling beauty and immeasurable power which
destroys demons are beyond conception. She is the cause of all moving bodies. She is the
three gunas and yet is above three gunas. She is transcendent and immanent.
She is the support of all. The universe is batting Her part. She is the root
prakriti evolving into different things and yet She is eternally the same. The sages
who have completely controlled their senses and are free from love and hate, worship the
Mother to get liberation. The ever-merciful Mother is Brahma-Vidya, the
all-pervasive Light which repels the darkness of ignorance and therefore is absolute freedom.
The Mother is the talent revealing all scriptures, is inscrutable and raises the devotee from
the sea of births. She is one without a second. The Mother is Shri and Gouri, the better
halves of Vishnu and Shiva. Honour, riches, fame, religious acts and obedient sons, wife and
servants are the gifts of the Mother. The Mother is the fruit of all karmas. Men can
attain heaven only through Her grace. The Mother removes the fear of all living beings
whenever they implore Her help in danger. She grants metaphysical knowledge to the seeker of
truth. She has a very soft heart for the poor and the oppressed. Her mercy extends even to
demons. She kills them in a footrace fight so that they may go to heaven. She is terrible in
war and yet merciful to the opponent. She is unique. The gods, then, worship the Mother with
devotion and offer to Her flowers, sandal paste, burning incense, etc. The Mother grants them
the boon that She will remove all their danger and fear whenever they will seek Her help. The
gods also request the Mother to increase the wealth and happiness of men who will please Her
with the said eulogy. The Mother agrees and disappears.
The Sage Medha then narrates to Suratha and Samadhi how the Mother assumes the form of an
exquisitely beautiful goddess and kills the two demons, Sumbha and Nishumbha. These two
demons drove away Indra from heaven and snatched all power and position from the gods. The
gods go to the Himalayas and offer a eulogy to the Mother.
The Mother, the gods say, is the consciousness in all creatures. She is the
buddhi of all. The Mother is present as sleep in all beings. She is hunger,
ignorance, power, thirst and forgiveness that we find in all individuals. The Mother is the
universal abiding in particulars. She is peace, faith in Scriptures, beauty in all living
beings and their fortune. The Mother is present in all individuals as their occupations. She
is memory, kindness and contentment. She is the mother of all living beings. The Mother is
forgetfulness. She is the presiding deity of sense-organs of all creatures. She is pervading
the entire universe as consciousness. The gods pray to the Mother for extending Her grace and
to deliver them from their peril. The Mother appears before them and from Her body comes out
the god Shiva. Her unparalleled beauty attracts Chanda and Munda, two servants of Sumbha and
Nisumbha. They inform their masters about the Mother. Sumbha sends an ambassador named
Sugriva to the Mother.
Sugriva politely narrates the glories of Sumbha to the Mother and requests her to follow him.
The Mother replies politely that Her vow is to marry Her victor. Hearing this, Sumbha sends
the demon Dhumralocana to drag Her to him by holding Her hair. Dhumralocana is turned into
ashes by the thunderous cry of the Mother. Then the demons Chanda and Munda come to fight the
Mother with a vast army. The Mother gets angry and Her face turns black. From Her forehead
emanates the fierce Kali. Filling the space with Nada and killing and eating demons,
she kills Chanda and Munda and offers their heads to the Mother who says in sweet words that
Kali will be known in the universe as Chamunda, as she has slain Chanda and Munda.
Sumbha now mobilises all his forces and attacks the Mother. At this moment, the powers of the
gods issue out of them as goddesses, and join the Mother to fight the demons. There appears
Brahmani with weapons of Brahma, Maheshwari with the dress and weapons of Maheshwara, Kaumari
riding on a peacock, Vaishnavi on Garuda like Vishnu, Aindri on the king of elephants with
all the weapons of Indra and so on. From the body of the Mother too a terrible force comes
out crying like hundreds of jackals. The unconquerable Mother requests Shiva to carry to the
demons Her message that they should return the kingdom of heaven to Indra and leave for
patala (the nether regions) and that if through power and pride they would like to
fight, then may Her jackals get satisfaction by eating their flesh. As the Mother appoints
Shiva as a duta (messenger), She is known in the universe as Shivaduti.
The demons reject the offer of the Mother and the fight begins. The Mother kills Raktabija,
the general of the demon king. From every drop of Raktabija’s blood, a demon like him is born
and thousands of Raktabija’s surround the goddesses. The Mother asks Chamunda to drink the
blood of this demon and strikes him with Her arms. He falls down on the earth absolutely
bloodless. Then Nisumbha is killed by the Mother. Seeing his brother killed, an enraged
Sumbha tells the Mother that She fights by depending on others and therefore She has nothing
to be proud of. The Mother replies that She alone exists in the universe and that She is One
without a second. They are Her glories which merge in Her. Then the demon king and Mother
engage in a terrible fight. Gods and demons watch this wonderful battle. Soon Sumbha is
killed and peace and tranquility reign again in the universe.
The gods then sing the glories of the Mother. The Mother, they say, is the earth, water and
shelter of the universe. From Her arises the universe, She is the cause of bondage as well as
of liberation. She is knowledge in all its branches. She pervades the whole universe. She
resides in all beings as their buddhi. She is time and change and can destroy the
universe. She is the power of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. She is the support of the
gunas as well as the gunas themselves. Poverty, misery and danger do not
torture the person surrendering to Her. The Mother is pleased with the eulogy of the gods and
promises to kill the demons, whenever necessary assuming different incarnations.
The Sage Medha thus finishes the narration of the various incarnations of
Mahamaya and asks Suratha and Samadhi to worship Her for enjoyment of heaven or
liberation. They go to a riverside, erect an image of the Mother and begin worshipping Her by
the japa of Devi sukta
(hymns to the Mother in the Rigveda). They perform hard austerities for three years. The
Mother appears before them. They see Her as one man sees another. The Mother speaks to them
and grants them the boon which they want. Suratha gets back his kingdom and after death
becomes the 8th Manu by the grace of the Mother and Samadhi gets knowledge, i. e., the
realisation of Brahman.
The realisation of Suratha and Samadhi is a potent reply to this question, “Can God be seen?”
God can be seen with our eyes. He assumes a body which is a condensed form of light and out
of grace, appears before the devotee. After such a vision, the devotee is gradually taken
through various spiritual levels by God Himself and finally knowledge or realisation of
Brahman dawns on him.
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