"The Descent of Goddess Durga"
Dec 03, 2024
The Hindu religion is based on realization.
It is real and self-evident.
According to it, God is realized through knowledge.
Action, knowledge, and devotion are possible “means of realization”.
Man, alone can fully realize Him, because his body and mind are so constituted that in accordance with his desire he can ascend to higher or descend to lower stratum of evolution.
He can become Good and identify with the Divine, He can become bad, and identify himself with the Evil.
Thus, man is the epitome of the immense potentiality. He is the master of his own destiny.
This is the basic teaching of Hinduism.
But at present, Hinduism has become outwardly gorgeous. It becomes a hedonistic institution. Various objectionable elements have unduly infected it.
Its sacredness is subject to pollution now. Yoga, Pranayama, bhutasudhi and antarmatruka-nayasa which are the specialties of Hinduism are now under-rated.
Therefore, the modern youths are unfortunate not to find the scientific elements in Hinduism and are very reluctant to place confidence in it.
Kolkata, India
The only way to dispel our misfortune is the worship of the Goddess Durga.
It is not true to say that in the olden days alone the Gods and demons were fighting against each other. Now also the fighting is on.
Bharatavarsa is the land of Gods.
Here the worship of Durga has been accepted as the only inevitable way to destroy the demons.
The rishis of the antiquity have preserved the hidden treasure of Durga-puja in the religious and philosophical texts.
It is our earnest duty to unravel that wealth which will render immense service to us.
According to Chandi Purana, once all the Gods were conquered by the demons. The demons occupied their divinities. Gods became restless. They were in crisis. They were immersed in the thinking of their survival. They meditated for finding a way out.
The demons were also afraid of this reaction of Gods.
They approached the devotee of Siva, the Sambartasur and express their griefs.
Sambartasur readily reacted to the prayer of the demons. He worships Siva for the safety of the demons.
Thus, there was a test of power between celestial and demonical forces.
The collective endeavor of divinity succeeded in creating an effulgence of light which descended from the mountain top and slowly approached the water of Ganges.
The water of Ganges was illuminated gradually the assumed the form of a deity.
She is Maheswarei, Asurdalini, Durgati-nashini Durga.
This theory of Durga is the theory of the body.
By the perfect practice of Yoga in the strict instruction of a guru, through Yonimudra and Jyotimudra, the theory of Durga can be easily intelligible.
Our five sense-organs are the seats of five Gods. The Siva, the sound-God is seated in the sound-organ, the ear. The twaka, the skin is the shelter of God Vishnu. The eye, the sense-organ for vision is the place for Sun. Similarly, the sense-organ for taste is place for Saraswati who is Vkdevi. The olfactory sense is the abode of Ganesh.
But due to our ignorance we mis-utilize the sense-organs in various worldly enjoyments and undermine the significance of the respective Gods.
We hear sweet sounds, but do not mind to realize Siva, the sound God. We hanker after the sweet physical contact but are unmindful of Vishnu the God of touch. Similarly, the sense-organ for vision is misused, the Sun-God is forgotten. The taste-sense-organ instead of realizing the Saraswati, is misdirected for tasting the sweetness of ephemeral things of the world. The olfactory sensation, being the seat of Ganesh, becomes the entrance of sweet smell wearily.
The term “Deva” has come from the Sanskrit root “div” which means Sunya “kutastha”, God is Kutastha Nityam. He lives, moves, and has his being in all.
Jiva and Kuta are equivalent terms.
From this “Kuta”, God is controlling the respective deities being seated on different sense-organs. But the five sense organs are exported to external worlds.
As we receive knowledge of the external world through these doorways, we are naturally unmindful of the God at the center.
Due to kusamskara, the Jivas are inclined to the grandeur of the external objects.
Consequently, we are diverged from the inner God.
This is the instance of demonic conquest over the divine force.
Maha-Kriya Yogi
By Yoga perfectly practiced we can negatively halt the function of the sense organs, and through Jyoti-mudra we can positively channelize their activity towards the center.
Their energy is conserved and converted to work in the inner center.
Immediately the respective Gods at different sense organs will be awakened.
They will collectively endeavor to serve their natural purpose such that the mighty power at muladhar will emerge on earth.
That power will reach the sushumna, the Ganges of the body will reach the bottom.
This is the descent of Durga on earth.
In the meantime, the Jiva will be completely transformed to a higher being.
This is the realization of Durga in this life.
This will have tremendous impact on the individual and social life. Individual and society will be divine.
This transformation of ones’ being to divinity, the realization of ones’ potentiality to its’ realistic extreme.
This is only possible through Kriya Yoga.
And Kriya Yoga is the real worship.
By Swami Hariharananda Giri
~ KRIYABAN ~ (A Quarterly Journal on Kriya Yoga) ~ VOL.II ~Autumnal Equinox ~ October ~ 1981 ~
