(contd. from previous one)
SECOND NIGHT

The Destroyer Of Destructive Forces

SALUTATIONS again and again to the blessed divine mother, the Supreme Inscrutable Power, the mysterious Achintya Shakti of para Brahman. Salutations to the great Devi who is the source of all manifestation and embodiment. Salutations to the great Divine Power, Divya Shakti, from whom have flowed forth all the countless, innumerable universes, in whom all manifestations have their being and into whom all names and forms dissolve and vanish, and through whom all beings attain their eternal union with the great reality, the Supreme Transcendental Being, Para Brahman.

This conception of the great power, the Cosmic Spirit, as the Mother is very easy to understand. For the first impression of any soul who has come out into this world is that of the mother. The earliest recollection which a being can ever have is that of lying in his or her mother’s lap and perhaps looking up and gazing into the love-filled eyes of the mother. To the child, in the mother is centered a whole world of tenderness, of love, of nourishment and of care. It is the ideal world from where one draws sustenance, where one runs for comfort, which one clings to for protection and nourishment; and there he gets comfort, protection and care. Therefore, the ideal of love, care and protection is, in the conception of the mother. Therefore, this notion transferred to the Cosmic Being is the most natural, most logical and most easy-to-be understood step, and thus it is that the glorified conception of the great mother who loves all, nourishes all, cares for all and protects all, has come into being in the philosophic conception of the Hindu.

Today we shall devoutly offer our humble worship at the Mother’s Blessed Feet in the form of a few words describing some aspects of Her glory. In doing this, let us ever be aware that even this privilege of worshipping Her; glorifying Her and dwelling upon Her greatness is only due to Her compassion and Grace. Without Her Grace, most difficult it is to get an opportunity to think of Her, to remember Her, and to speak of Her, and to utter Her glorious names, calling upon Her as Mother. All-gracious is She, infinitely compassionate is She; love is her Nature and thus She has bestowed upon us all this great blessing and the joy to dwell upon Her in thought and through word to devoutly adore Her upon this most auspicious and glorious day.

The Mother is whatever is. The essence of pure existence is the Supreme Being or Para Brahman. Mother is whatever is that we know. That which is beyond our knowledge, that is the Purusha, the Supreme Being, the transcendental Para Brahman. That which we know through our mind and senses is nothing but the manifestation of Mother. She is not only the Universe which we know, this little world and the countless stars, the sun and moon—all these the terrestrial and the stellar, the lunar and the solar systems that comprise this little universe; all this is but an infinitesimal speck in the vastness and infinity that Mother is. Innumerable such universes have their rise and fall within Her infinite nature. She is all-power and also the great transcendental power at the back of all manifestation, the primal cause for all manifestation and embodiment. She is the very creatrix not only of this world but even the creator, preserver and dissolver of the world. Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara have their being in the Mother. She is the Mother of all, countless Brahmas, Vishnus and Maheshwaras. In as much as She is all-power, all powers are Her play; and therefore all the three dynamic manifestations Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara also are modifications of Mother as Adi-Shakti. She is also Brahma-Shakti manifest to us in and through the form of Saraswati, Vishnu-Shakti manifest in and through the form of Lakshmi, and also Siva-Shakti manifest in and through the form of Parvati.

Delusion and Deliverance

In this aspect of all power, She has a twofold form. The devout Hindu worships Her as both. It is a beautiful conception: and what a wonderful depth of significance there is in this conception of Mother in Her twofold aspects—that of the Cosmic Delusion as well as of the Cosmic Deliverance! She binds down all to this mysterious illusory appearance, this world-play, and turns them in her own playful manner in the wheel of birth and death. As such She is known by the name Avidya, the delusion that is opposed to spiritual wisdom or knowledge. She is also the Cosmic Deliverance. In this aspect She smiles upon Her children and She releases them from the delusion of Her other aspect Avidya. In Her aspect as this Cosmic Deliverance, we know of the Mother as Vidya-Maya. Artists have therefore visualised Her in the form of a radiant being, a Goddess, having in one hand a noose or a type of rope by which She binds, and in the other hand a sharp knife by which She snaps the bondage if She is propitiated. Thus she is a mysterious combination of Avidya Maya and Vidya Maya. Therefore, She is called Indescribable.

In both these aspects She has set up the Drama of universal phenomena. Lovers of the Mother who have worshipped Her and obtained Her Grace and have been vouchsafed with a vision of Her real nature have lovingly depicted Mother and Her play in this secret way. We all know that as children when in a group we gather together, we wish to play; and not knowing how we may carry on this play we approach the grandmother of the house. Lovingly she consents to show us a game; and thus she sets going a game of hide-and-seek. She tells the children: Children, run about and play. The children engage themselves in play. They run; they catch each other and the game of hide-and-seek goes on. But, then, should some child feel that it has had enough of the play and wish that it may be released from the play, tired of running here and there it has only to run up to the grand dame and lay its hand upon her. One who touches the grand dame cannot now be caught. Even as the grand dame brought about this play, watches the play in progress, and takes care of the children at play, and in the end touching her the child is released from the play,—even so, this universe is but a child’s play to the great Mother. Anyone who is fed up with this constant running about in this wilderness of the sense-world and longs to be out of the play, he has but to run up to this great Mother and touch Her; and once for all he is released from the bondage of this play. Thus have devotees of the Mother sweetly and intimately conceived of this world-play with the Mother as both; one who initiates it and one who ends it.

The Puzzling Kali

When we step into the further consideration of particular aspects of the Devi immediately we are confronted by a terrible problem. For the very first conception of the Mother, especially as it is done during the Devi Puja is in a form and in an aspect which leaves ordinary minds quite bewildered—not only those who are foreign to our culture and genius but even Indians, even Hindus, many of them enlightened and educated, are unable to understand what is this conception of divinity whom we call mother as an all-destructive, terrible, and fearful being?
In Bengal, the whole of the Dussera worship is the worship of Durga and Mahakali. To very many people Kali is a name that strikes terror. We Hindus even think that Kali-worshippers are Tamasic and that Kali is a dread deity. I can say from my own personal experience that if a picture of Mahakali with Her dark body, lolling red tongue, with Her garland of skulls, dressed in a skirt made of severed human hands, with a sword dripping blood in Her hand—if such a picture is kept in an orthodox South Indian house, the ladies of the house will see that the picture is forthwith removed from the house. If their feelings about the divinity as Kali was right, then how comes this conception of Kali as the mother? How can you worship Her?

It is a natural mistake which requires to be corrected. Mother is never terrible, never fearful, is always all-loving and all-compassionate. The explanation for the divine Mother Parashakti being conceived of, among other aspects, also in Her aspect as Kali is a very simple one. It is not difficult; it is not deeply metaphysical; it is not obscurely philosophical; it is very natural and very simple.

I shall first start by giving a very up-to-date and modern, and therefore, easily graspable analogy. We have the modern antibiotics the various mycins and also Penicillin. They are called the life-savers of the modern age and millions of people look upon them with feelings of gratitude. But though these life-saving drugs which are benign and cure disease, are the benefactors of humanity, I shall show how they may be also regarded to be terrible and destructive. They are destructive to the germs which they attack in the system and destroy.

You get infected; your body is filled with germs; they cause disease. You take penicillin and it goes and destroys all the germs; and by thus annihilating and destroying these germs, the disease is removed and you become well. Would it be correct to call these life-saving antibiotics very destructive? If it were right to call them destructive and terrible, then you may also be equally right to call Kali the mother, terrible and destructive.

Destroys to Save

For, She destroys but to save. She destroys ignorance, nescience, in order to bestow knowledge. She destroys darkness so that we may realise light. She destroys all pain, all sorrow, all misery and all the earthly travails and tribulations; and bestows upon us bliss, joy and immortality. Thus She is a destroyer of all those factors that bind the Jiva to this terrible Samsara. She is a terrible destroyer of all terrible things and the benign bestower of blessedness and beatitude.

Thus it is that the Mother is conceived of as the destroyer of one of Her own aspects; just as by the power of will—and will is also a portion of the mind—we overcome certain weaknesses and evils in the same mind. As Vidya-Maya, Mother using Her aspect as Kali, destroys Avidya and takes us to the transcendental Brahman.

Thus we find that Mother Kali stands for a glorified being, a Mother who is intent upon giving deliverance from delusion. It is in this aspect that the lover of the Mother worships Her as Kali.

He calls upon Her: “Oh compassionate Mother! I am at the mercy of this all-powerful mind. I am tyrannised by the ego and the senses. I have become enslaved by the Shad-Ripus and this whole army of Vasanas, Vrittis and Samskaras. They are ever battling against me. Therefore, Thou alone can’st save me from these terrible foes.” He invokes Her aid and power to help destroy all these factors, so that when he cannot battle and overcome them, he gets the strength of the Mother and She graciously comes to his aid and in Her symbolically terrible form She helps him overcome the senses and attain mastery and victory over the mind.

This indeed is the content of the Durga Saptashati, the scripture which we read during these nine days. It contains thirteen chapters which describe this process of the Mother giving battle to, on behalf of divine beings, and destroys the entire array of cosmic nescience, of wickedness, of all that is a negation of the Supreme Truth. Each aspect of this negation of truth is depicted in this great scripture which is a wonderful allegory, by some particular demon; and these demons are given appropriate names and forms according to those aspects of nescience. And the thirteen chapters describe how Mother using numerous forms annihilates all the aspects of evil, of nescience, ignorance and this cosmic delusion. And at the end the Supreme Victory to the powers of wisdom and knowledge is achieved and the Jiva is freed for ever from ignorance.

This is not peculiar to the Shakti cult or Devi-worshippers. We will find this allegory in all the religions of the world. We have God and Satan in Christian theology; Satan represents the antithesis of all that is divine, all that is of Light. We have the Ariman and Ahura Mazda in the Zoroastrian religion; and in that religion Ariman stands for forces corresponding to the conception of Satan in Christianity. We have the Mara in Buddhism. Even so we have in Hinduism the force of evil, call it Maya, ignorance or Asuric forces, which stand for all that is the antithesis of light, knowledge, wisdom and Atman. They are called in Vedantic parlance the Anatman, to be overcome by the Knowledge of Atma. That is the central theme of this great scripture—the Saptashati—where Mother enables Her sons to do away with Evil with the help of Her aspect as Mother Kali.
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