Mahihasura Mardina
Mahavatar Babaji Quote of The Day:"It is said that lightening does not strike in the same place twice. Well, it is possible and has happened. So it is that the Christ Light has come again and again to each of you in various lifetimes. In Atma Kriya, we transmit this Christ Consciousness Light to you in the initiation. Therein both Swami Vishwananda and I are present, and you feel and experience us in the Shaktpath offered to your receptivity." – Babaji http://atmakriya.org/
Durga in the form of Mahihasura Mardina. . .
On the ninth night of Navaratri, Sri Swami Vishwananda dances: depicting Mahishasura Mardina--Durga in the form of Mahishasura Mardini—the slayer of the demon Mahisha. Swami teaches us that the demon represents the pride and ego of mankind.
STORY of Mahishasura Mardini:
Mahisha, a great demon (asura), has undertaken extraordinary austerities, and thereby accrued such vast power that even the Gods can no longer defeat him. In successive battles, they lose the three worlds to Mahisha's superior might -- and the Cosmic Order in thrown into disarray.
Clearly, a hero and savior is needed -- but who can defeat an enemy that is mightier than the Gods? Answer: The Power (Shakti) that created both the Gods and the enemy in the first place. In order to access that Power, the Gods must reverse the downward unfolding of Divine manifestation, i.e. the cosmic tattvas. Not coincidentally, this is also the goal of any sadhana undertaken by a human devotee. To help understand the lesson offered here, think of Mahisha as the individual human ego.
Accordingly, all the Gods simultaneously offer Their own individual powers back to their common Source. And as They do so, They behold an extraordinary sight, as the Source begins to materialize before their eyes:
An exceedingly fiery mass like a flaming mountain
Did the Gods see, filling the firmament with flames.
That peerless splendor, born from the bodies of all the Gods,
Unifying and pervading the triple world with its lustre, became a Woman.
(Devi Mahatmyam, 2.11-12)
She is Maha Devi, the Great Goddess, the Mother of all beings, divine and mortal. Taking the warrior form of Her avatar, Goddess Durga, She departs on Her lion mount to meet the demon. A battle of nine days and nine nights ensues, during which Devi decimates Mahisha's armies using lesser Goddesses produced from Her own body.
At last, She and Mahisha alone remain standing on the corpse-strewn battlefield. Of course, Mahisha cannot win, but he takes the forms of many powerful beasts as he tries. While he is in mid-transformation from Buffalo back to Human form, Devi finally slays him, thus saving the Universe, restoring the Cosmic Order -- and earning the title, Mahishasura Mardini.
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