Durga -  The Warrior Goddess

The Asuras had not always been mean. But some of them desired to possess the same kind of superpowers that the Devas had. So they would often pray to the three powerful Gods - Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and ask for clever boons. These Gods granted them such powers, because they could not say no to someone who had prayed to them sincerely. Once they got such powers and boons, the Asuras would use their new powers to trouble the Devas and even throw them out from Devalok. Over time, these Asuras became very cruel. So much so that, instead of being known as ‘mighty beings’, the Asuras came to be called ‘Demons’.

Durgam was one such Asura. He wanted to be the King of all three worlds -Deva Loka, Prithvi Loka and Patala Loka (the world where the asuras lived). So he prayed to Lord Brahma.

‘I am pleased with your prayers,’ said Brahma, as he appeared in front of Durgam. ‘What do you wish for?’ Durgam was a smart Asura and he knew exactly what to ask for. ‘I want to be a hundred times stronger than Devas. Also, I want all four Vedas ', he said. ‘Granted!’ Brahma declared. Durgam was now excited and thrilled.

He had asked for the four Vedas - Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva because he knew that the Gods got the strength and power to go about their work only when the sages recited the Vedas. Now that he had the Vedas, the Gods could do nothing! The Vedas were not just sacred texts from which the sages read; they had great knowledge and their own set of powers. They realised what Durgam was up to. So they appeared before Brahma, in the form of humans, and made a request.

‘O all-knowing Brahma,’ Rig began.

‘Please don’t give us away to Durgam,’ Sama continued sadly.

‘Don’t you see, he’s an asura. He may have evil plans!’ cried Yajur.

‘Don’t grant this wish of his. Please!’ pleaded Atharva finally.

But Brahma only said, ‘I’m sorry, O sacred Vedas. I understand your fear, but Durgam’s prayers were sincere. So, for good or for worse, his wishes must be granted. That’s the law of the Universe!’

The Vedas were disappointed. For, like they had expected, Durgam grew very proud of the new powers Brahma had blessed him with. The Vedas warned him that his pride will lead to his fall.

But Durgam only laughed. ‘It’s my time to rule the three worlds,’ he said. ‘Of course, I am proud. And of what use is your knowledge and power, when by an Asura you’ve been cowed?’ Saying so, Durgam chained the four Vedas and imprisoned them.

‘Mark our words,’ Rig began.

‘You’re no longer Durgam,’ Sama continued sadly.

‘You’ve turned into a demon. A proud demon!’ cried Yajur.

‘From now on, everyone will remember you as ‘Durgamasura’!’ declared Atharva finally.

But Durgamasura did not care. He began disturbing all the sages as they sat to perform penance or important rituals. And because the Vedas were locked up in Durgamasura’s palace, they could not help the sages conduct their prayers. Soon, the sages began to forget how to recite the Vedas. They tried to remember on their own, and even asked each other for help, but none of them could recall a thing. When the sages had completely forgotten who or what the Vedas were, the Gods began to grow weaker and weaker, until, one day, they could no longer do their duties.

The situation became so bad that Varuna (the God of rain) and Indra (the God of thunder) could not create any rain and thunder. With no rain, slowly, all the water on Prithvi Lok dried up. All plants, animals and humans were in a sad state. When it looked like the drought would never end, the people of Prithvi Loka did the only thing they could do to help themselves. They prayed to the gods. In turn, the gods in Deva Loka cried, ‘O Adi Shakti, help us! Save us! We’re powerless and cannot help Prithvi Loka.’ When Adi Shakti saw the state of Prithvi Loka, she was moved. 

Hundred eyes appeared on her body, leading her to take the form of the Goddess Shatakshi. Tears gushed out from all her eyes like thick waterfalls for nine days and nine nights. This made the dry rivers, lakes and oceans on Prithvi Loka overflow with water. After giving back water, Shatakshi became Shakambhari (the goddess of vegetation) and gave them grains, fruits and vegetables.

Now Durgam was angry at what the Goddess had done. ‘How dare someone act more powerful than I, Durgam, the ruler of the three worlds?’ he fumed, and immediately came with a large army to fight her. Seeing him ready for a war, the Goddess appeared in her warrior form. And after a long fight, just as she was about to defeat the Asura, she told him,

‘It’s the golden rule, Durgamasura! If you want your powers to stay, you must throw your pride away!’ Just moments after the victory, the Vedas were freed from Durgamasura’s prison. The four of them came back to Brahma.

No sooner had they returned than the sages were able to recall and recite the verses. And once again, the gods could do their duties as they had before.

‘Long live the supreme warrior!’ Rig began.

‘The one, who stands between evil and the universe like a strong fortress,’ Sama continued happily.

‘The one whom everyone will worship from now on as the goddess of the earth!’ cried Yajur.

‘The one who will be known as the ‘destroyer of the proud Durgam’!’ pronounced Atharva finally.

‘And for having defeated him, I shall be called Durga!’ the warrior-Goddess announced.

‘Praise the Mother Goddess! Praise Durga!’ the Devas and the Vedas chanted in joy.

‘Durga!’ the Goddess repeated to herself and smiled, ‘I like the name!’

Kali - The Dark Mother

It happened once, that the world was threatened by the Asuras (demons). The demons rallied together to overthrow the Gods and gain control of the earth. The leader of this uprising was Raktabeeja the demon-general. Through the practice of austerities, Raktabeeja was granted a boon. This boon, granted by Brahma, allowed Raktabeeja’s power to increase by a thousand every time a drop of his blood was spilled.

The demon soldiers, led by Raktabeeja came forth and the Gods trembled with outrage. The demons ravaged the earth and its inhabitants. Who would rid the world of this monster? In desperation the Gods turned to their Shakti (female energy) counterparts.

The great and beautiful Goddess Durga stepped forward. She had protected them before and was obliged to do it again. Armed with the weapons of the Gods, Durga rode into battle on a tiger, her champion mount. She switched Goddess forms many time during battle, slaying demon soldiers as quickly as they advanced until all that remained was the demon-general.

The battle between Raktabeeja and the Devi ensued. Durga charged again and again; Raktabeeja's blood spilled everywhere. From each drop of blood a thousand more demons like him sprang up. Full armies arose from the puddles of Raktabeeja's blood. Demons advanced on the Goddess by the thousands. They rode on elephants and horse drawn chariots. They laughed and shouted at the Goddess’ dilemma.

Upon seeing this, Durga became enraged. She knitted her brows in absolute fury. From this concentration came Kali, the Terrible One.

The whole universe shook with the thundering roar of this powerfully terrible Goddess. Those demons who stood nearest the mighty Devi were consumed within the roaring rage of energy. Kali emerged, naked except for a covering of tiger skin. Her skin was of the deepest black, and hung loosely on Her bones. This mad skeleton of a hag was armed with a skull topped staff, a noose, and the sword of Vengeance. She appeared most frightening with her blood red eyes, sunken deep into her skull, wild with raw power anxious to be unleashed and a third eye flaming brilliantly from her forehead. Her entangled black hair blew wildly above her shoulders.

She turned her furious gaze upon the demon armies; half fell lifeless from the deadly grip of Her stare. She let out a loud and petrifying shriek and more fell dead to the ground at Kali’s feet. With wild cackling, she advanced on her enemies. She reached out with her claw-like hands and shoveled some of the remaining demons into her gaping mouth.

The rest turned away in fear of this ferocious Devi. The skies were filled with the sound of Her shrieking laughter. But Kali didn’t stop at that. She stretched out Her bright red tongue and swallowed all of the elephants and their riders as they tried to run. The horse drawn chariots disappeared with another mouthful into the abyss of Dark Goddess.

With his armies fully destroyed, again the great Devi faced off with Raktabeeja. Kali pierced the demon in the side and quickly caught the flowing blood with her tongue and drank it greedily. The life energy of Raktabeeja flowed out with his dripping blood like wine from a bottle. This time he was not given the chance to raise more demons from his blood. He was helpless in the face of this terrifying hag. Kali lifted him high in the air so she could more easily drain the blood from his body. Finally, drunken with the blood of victory, Kali, threw away the demon-general’s corpse. The world was saved . . . . .almost.

It was time for Kali to begin her victory dance among the demon corpses. By now She was drunk from Raktabeeja’s blood and the effect it had on Her caused her to dance wildly. As She danced She threw Her head back and again filled the skies with her shrill cackling.

Soon the demon corpses were reduced to mush, yet Kali continued dancing. It seemed as though nothing would stop Her, and again the world was on the verge of collapse. Something had to be done, and soon. The Gods begged Lord Shiva to intervene and calm Kali before it was too late.

Lord Shiva called out to Kali, but She could not hear him, such was the fever that raced through Her. She continued pounding what was left of demon flesh into oblivion. She rattled her staff and shook her great head. Her hair whipped wildly about causing great winds to carry off a few of the gods that were nearby. She turned about, and lifted her arms to the sky, laughing crazily all the while. Nothing could stop this display of raw energy.

Lord Shiva called out again, but again His words went unheard. Finally in an act of complete desperation, Shiva threw Himself down beneath Her feet. 

Kali continued her frenzied dancing, pounding the life out of her husband. It was a few moments more before She realized that it was indeed Her husband, Lord Shiva, who lay flattened at Her feet. This quickly brought Her out of Her trance, and She was once more the calm Devi.
Once more the world was saved from total destruction. Shiva’s quick and selfless thinking had balanced the Devi’s dance of destruction. With the world now safe, the Gods returned to their regular routines.

How Goddess Durga came to be known as 'Mahishaasuramardini'?

Long time ago, there was a demon named Mahishasur. He used to trouble the people very much. Once, he fought with Deity Indra, defeated Him and took over his throne. On defeating Deity Indra, he developed an immense pride and started behaving disrespectfully with everyone. As the outrage of Mahishasur started increasing day by day, all the Deities gathered together and prayed to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and pleaded them to solve this problem and to teach Mahishasur a lesson.

The three Deities came together. They combined all their energies and created a new kind of energy, the Devi (Goddess). The Devi’s face was formed by Shiva’s energy, Her hands were formed by Vishnu’s energy and Her three eyes were formed by the energy of Agni (Fire). In this way, every Deity formed one body part of the Devi and thus, Durga devi was born. All the Deities gave their weapons to Her. Shiv gave Her the ‘Trishul’, Vishnu gave Her the ‘Sudarshan Chakra’ and Indra gave Her the ‘Vajra’.

Thus, the ultimate powerful Durga devi who was formed by combining the energies of the three Deities, took a destructive form to kill the demon Mahishasur. An intense battle took place between Durga devi and Mahishasur for 9 days. Durga devi killed Mahishasur with Her trishul and hence, she came to be known as ‘Mahishasuramardini’, which literally means ‘Slayer of Mahishasur’. 

We celebrate the festival of Navratri for 9 days to rejoice the victory of Durga devi over Mahishasur.

How Renuka became Yellamma Devi

Goddess Yellamma is a popular Hindu deity in South India especially in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and in parts of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. She is the Hindu Goddess of the poor and downtrodden and is popularly associated with the Devadasi concept. The story of origin of Yellamma is unique and is associated with Goddess Renuka the mother of Parashurama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

According to legend, Renuka, the wife of Sage Jamadagni, was famous for her devotion and chastity. It is said that her chastity was so powerful that she had the divine power to collect water even in unbaked pots.

But once she happened to see a king making love to his wife on the riverbank and she had adulterous thoughts. She lost her divine powers and her husband Sage Jamadagni came to know about this.

The sage had five sons and in anger he ordered them to cut the head of Renuka. Four of them refused but Parashuram, the fifth son readily agreed to cut the head of his mother.

When Parashuram raised his axe to kill his mother, she ran and took refuge in the house of a low-caste poor woman.

Parashuram followed his mother and while performing the act of beheading, he also accidentally chops of the head of the low-caste poor woman who tries to prevent the matricide.

Pleased with his son’s devotion, Sage Jamadagni asked Parashuram to accept a boon. He immediately said that he wanted his mother alive. Sage Jamadagni readily agreed and gave him a pot of water to be sprinkled on the corpse.

In a hurry to bring back his mother life, Parashuram accidentally placed the low-caste woman’s head with his mother’s body. Sage Jamadagni accepted this new form of his wife Renuka.

The original head of Renuka was from then onwards worshipped as Yellamma. And thus the Goddess is referred as Renuka Yellamma.

Even today, symbolically the head of Renuka is worshipped by attaching it to a pot or basket in rural Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. There is also a symbolic meaning to the entire episode which is often left to listener of the story to interpret.

How Parvati became Goddess Gouri

Once upon a time, two demons Shumbha and Nishumbha performed severe penances in order to please Lord Brahma. After performing austere meditation, they could please Lord Brahma who blessed them saying that no males will ever be able to slay them. Later on, the demons puffed by such divine powers began devising their immoral schemes to lord it over the world at any cost. As a result the entire earthly planet came under their ruthless laws that oppressed the innocent. However, this act of subduiung the world proved to be insufficient, they then started for celestial planets where the demigods resided. Upon reaching there, they challenged the demigods and threatened to drive them out, indeed Shumbha and Nishumbha did what they declared. Seeing their divine abodes deserted by the demons, the demigods went to Lord Brahma at once.

Upon hearing their grievances, Lord Brahma became aggrieved and immediately went to Lord Shiva who was in deep meditation at Kailash Mountain. Brahma informing Lord Shiva on the demons’ divine powers that made them invincible against male powers asked him to find a way to kill them. Brahma suggested that a female power to be born of Goddess Parvati’s body that can slay the demon at once.

Yes I will, replied Lord Shiva.

Later when Lord Shiva addressed Parvati as Kali, she felt enraged as Kali means black or dark. She said: Why did you marry me if you though I was dark? Why do you pretend to love me?  Cursed is the women who is not loved by her husband. I am going to perform an austere tapasya so that I may become fair. I am going to pray to Lord Brahma.

For years Goddess Parvati performed her penance faithfully in a secluded glade in jungle. One day a tiger emerged out of the dense forest and saw her in deep meditation. He was of evil nature. Hoping to have a meal from her, he stationed himself in from of her.

Goddess Parvati sensed the presence of the tiger and thought that the tiger, being one of her devotees is guarding her from dangerous beasts. With mystic powers, she entered his soul, vanishing all his animalistic thoughts. Meanwhile, Lord Brahma arrived to find out where Parvati was meditating. Parvati said that she wanted to become Gouri, someone who was fair. She was sick and tired of being addressed as Kali. Brahma finally granted the boon.

Parvati shed off all the dark cells (Kosha) from her body and became Gouri.From the cells emerged a dark hued goddess named Koushiki. Parvati handed over Koushiki to Brahma. Endowed with weapons from Lord Brahma, Koushiki killed Shumbha and Nishumbha, saving the heavens of demigods.

Parvati returned to her husband as Gouri. When she enquired from Lord Shiva about the tiger, Shiva said that he turned the tiger into a man who was then employed by Nandi as one of the guards naming him Somanandi.

Kamakhya Devi

Daksa, father of Sati is said to have offered to make peace with the gods once, according to tradition. No invitations were extended to Sati and Shiva because Sati’s father, Daksa, did not regard them as he disliked Lord Shiva. When Sati and her husband fought, she ignored him and went to the yajna. Daksa’s harshness was on display, and he ridiculed his own daughter in front of everyone. As if it wasn’t bad enough, Daksa also criticised Shiva. Sati couldn’t take it any longer. To escape the grief and humiliation she felt from her father, she leapt into the yajna’s blazing flames.

As a result, when Lord Shiva learned of the incident, his rage beyond all boundaries. She had been burned beyond recognition, and her husband was overcome with grief. Starting with the dance of destruction, known as “Tandava,” he began to ravage the planet.

Other gods were frightened by Lord Shiva’s power. They realised that if it went on for a long time, the entire world would be destroyed. Lord Vishnu came up with a remedy after assessing the problem. To soothe the angry deity, he unleashed his chakra, which dismembered the body of Monther Sati. According to legend, Sati’s body was scattered over the land in 108 parts. Shakti Peeths are the names given to the sites.

Legend has it that when Lord Vishnu’s ‘Sudarshan Chakra’ pierced the body of Mother Sati, the vagina of Sati fell in Pragjyotishpur, presently known as Assam. The result of which was a temple dedicated to Devi Kamakhya.

For three days during Ambubachi, Mother Sati’s vagina has fallen to the ground, causing her to have her period. Deviants think that just like women go through their menstrual cycle, the Goddess does as well. Thus, during those three days, the temple’s doors were shut. Despite this, the devotion of the devotees increases during this period. It’s a celebration that attracts people from all around the world, making it even more special.

Kamakhya’s name is derived from the Hindu deity Kamadeva, the God of love. Shakti’s womb and genitals were sought after by God after being cursed with a lack of masculinity. In honour of Shakti and her abilities to calm Kamadeva down, the Kamakhya temple was built in her honour. Until today, Kamakhya Devi is revered as a deity in India.