Rajarajeswari Polali DT Nt pg 8 - Page 13

Carried away by this vision of her favourite god, Valli worshipped him with devotion. Kartikey told her that she was, in fact, the daughter of Tirumal.a great Siva devotee and ascetic. Valli's inhibitions are warded off. She looked up and smiled at the handsome God, she worshipped all along. She accepted his love and they loved each other ardently . Nothing bothers them now. The Magic of love spread its spell around them ,they lost themselves in each other.

A friend of Valli questioned the girl about her absence and the striking change in her appearance, but Valli answered evasively.

Soon after that, Kartikey. again came to meet Valli in the form of a hunter.,When he appeared in front of the two girls, Valli's friend observed that Valli and the hunter exchanged amorous looks.

Therefore, she demanded that the hunter reveal himself before her.Kartikey then admitted his love for Valli and he warned her friend that, if she would not help them to meet and enjoy their love, he would have his own way to posess Valli. The friend agreed to help the lovers meet often.

As the harvesting time approached, the Nampi called Valli back to home and the lovemaking was interrupted.With a heavy heart Valli returned to the house of Nampi.

Valli's clandestine love affair with the god ended. Her mother noticed Valli's unhappiness and invited soothsaying women who stated that Valli was possessed by the evil forces and a ceremony in honour of god Murugan should be organized.

Kartikeya went to the millet field and, not finding Valli there, he came, at midnight, to Valli's house., With the aid of her friend Valli and her divine lover eloped.They went off in the darkness of the night..

Next morning Nambi's wife discovered Valli's disappearance. The furious hunter-chief organized a party of hillmen in pursuit of the fugitives. When they reached them, they discharged their arrows at Kartikeya but the divine cock of the god crowed and the hunters fell dead.

Valli lamented their death, but Kartikeya consoled her and took her along. On their way they met Narada who explained to Kartikeya that he should have obtained the consent of the parents.

Kartikeya then assumed his true divine form and made the hunters get back to life.Amazed and awed, the hunters worshipped him and begged him to return to Nambi to be married in accordance with the custom of the tribe.

The whole village rejoiced. The young pair was seated on a tiger-skin. Nampi placed the hand of Valli into the hand of their beloved God Murugan and declared them married while Narada assisted.

At that moment, Shiva and Parvati along with Ganesh and the gods appeared in the sky and blessed everyone.

Nambi then offered a feast with- plenty of honey, millet flour and jungle fruits. After a short stay Murugan and Valli returned to Skandagiri where they were welcomed by Devasena.Kartikeya's first wife.

Kali

Kali Karala vaktranta kamakshi kama sevita

Among the ten mahavidya said Kali comes first, for she represents the power of consciousness in its highest form. She is at once supreme power and ultimate reality, underscoring the fundamental Tantric teaching that the power of consciousness and consciousness itself are one and the same.

The earliest descriptions of Kali belong to the Puranas, and they place her on the battlefield. The Devimahatmya vividly depicts a scene with Kali and her associated goddesses ready to take on an army of demons. Here, Kali has emerged as the personified wrath of the Divine Mother Durga. She appears emaciated, with her dark flesh hanging loosely from her bones. Her sunken eyes glow red in their sockets. She is clad in a tiger's skin and carries a skull-topped staff. A garland of human heads adorns her neck. Her gaping mouth shows her to be a fearsome, blood-thirsty deity. The battle culminates with the slaying of two demon generals, Canda and Munda, and this act earns her the name Camunda.

In the next episode Camunda takes on the demon Raktabija. His name means, "he whose seed is blood. Whenever a drop of his blood falls upon the ground, another demon of equal size and strength springs up. In the battle, he sheds blood profusely until the world is teeming with Raktabijas. Just when the battle looks hopeless and the onlooking gods despair, Camunda roams the battlefield, avidly lapping up the blood and crushing the nascent demons between her gnashing teeth. Finally, drained of his last drop of blood, Raktabija was killed by Ambika , ( Parvati)

On the surface this appears to be a grisly tale, but it symbolizes profound insight. Raktabija's amazing replicative ability symbolizes the human mind's ordinary state of awareness. The mind is constantly in motion, and one thought begets another in an endless succession. The mind rarely rests and is never fully concentrated.

In the light of Patanjali's Yogasutra, we can understand Camunda as the power to restrain the mind's endless modulations, to stop them altogether. When all mental activity (cittavritti) ceases, that state is called yoga: consciousness resting in its own infinite peace and bliss. In that state of ultimate absorption, represented by Camunda's imbibing of every drop of blood, the soul regains knowledge of its own original divinity. Camunda shows the mankind how to evolve ,possessing control over wavering mind.

Away from the battlefield Kali assumes more benign forms. As Dakshinakali, she is portrayed as young and beautiful, standing on the supine, ash-besmeared body of Siva, who looks up at her adoringly. Siva is absolute consciousness, ever blissful in its own glory. Kali is consciousness in motionthe overflowing joy that projects, sustains, and withdraws the universe. Consciousness and its power are one and the same reality.

With her lower right hand the four-armed Dakshinakali displays the varadamudra, the gesture of boon-giving. Her upper right hand makes the abhayamudra, reassuring us to have no fear. The upper left hand wields the bloodied sword of knowledge. This is the capacity we can call upon to cut through all appearances and perceive the underlying reality. It is the power of mental discrimination (viveka) essential to spiritual practice and growth. From Kali's lower left hand dangles the freshly severed head of a demon. This represents the human ego the small, false sense of individual selfhood that binds us to this world. It is our crippling limitation. Once it is out of the way, awareness expands to infinity. We become one with the Divine and are liberated.

Kali's nakedness signifies her boundlessness. Nothing can contain her who is infinite. Her loose, flowing hair also represents freedom, in this case the freedom from materealisic aspirations

Around her neck Kali wears a necklace of skulls. All appearances to the contrary, this is a symbol of creative power. It is the varnamala, the garland of letters. Each skull represents a sound of the Sanskrit alphabet, a particular manifestation of energy.

Kali's iconography in its various forms invites deep contemplation, and that leads to ever-deepening insight. In general, we can say that all the dualities of life, the light and the dark, the beautiful and the fearsome, are united and reconciled in Kali. She represents supreme nonduality, for she is none other than Brahman. At the same time, the duality of this world is nothing other than her own self-expression.

Two incidents in the life of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa validates this fact.As a young priest at Dakshinesvar, Ramakrishna developed an unbearable longing for the vision of Kali. One day, feeling he could stand it no longer, he seized the Mother's sword from the wall in the shrine room, intending to end his life.

Just then Kali revealed herself. In that moment the temple and all surroundings vanished, and Ramakrishna beheld only an endless, radiant ocean of consciousness. Feeling he was to be engulfed by the onrushing waves, he lost awareness of the outer world but continued to experience a steady flow of undiluted bliss.

Kali had revealed herself as the Absolute. But she is also the relative. On another occasion in the same shrine room, Ramakrishna beheld the image, the altar, the worship vessels, the doorsill, the marble floor, and everything else as nothing but vibrating consciousness even a cat, to whom he fed the Mother's food offering! In that experience Kali revealed to him that it is she who has become everything.

From the Absolute to the relative and from the relative to the Absolute, Kali represents the power of transformation. For us, who wrongly think ourselves to be mere mortals, she holds out the promise of transformation from the human to the Divine.If we follow the path shown by her,we will experience the ultimate bliss.

Tripura Sundari

Tripurasundari is sometimes spoken of as an adimahavidya, or primordial wisdom goddess, which puts her in the company of Kali and Tara as representing one of the highest experiences of reality. She is not the ultimate, absolute, or nirguna state devoid of all qualities; still, she represents the experience of consciousness in a high state of divine universality.

Her other names include Sodasi, Lalita, Kamesvari, Srividya, and Rajarajesvari. Each of these emphasizes a particular quality or function.

According to the description in her dhyanamantra, Tripurasundari's complexion shines with the light of the rising sun. This rosy color represents joy, compassion, and illumination.

Tripurasundari has four arms, and in her four hands she holds a noose, a goad, a bow, and five arrows. The noose indicates the captivating power of beauty. The goad represents the ability to dissociate from ego-based attachment. The bow represents the mind (manas), and in this case it is no ordinary bow but one made of sugarcane. The five arrows, representing the five sensory faculties (jnanendriyas), are made of flowers. In other words, what we perceive and cognize is by nature good, sweet, juicy, and delightful. The world is a place of beauty, to be savored and enjoyed. To reinforce that idea, a profusion of jeweled ornaments adorns Tripurasundari's body, symbolizing not only her splendor but also her inexhaustible abundance.

Tripurasundari is often shown sitting on the body of Siva, who rests on a throne. Siva is the absolute consciousness-in-itself, the sole reality and support of everything that has name and form. On that sole support sits Tripurasundari, who is Sakti. This is a graphic illustration of the great Tantric teaching that without Siva Sakti would have no being, and without Sakti Siva would have no expression. Consciousness and its power are one.

The four legs of Tripurasundari's throne are the gods Brahma, Visnu, Rudra, and Mahesvara. Brahma is the power of creation or cosmic emanation (srishti); Visnu, of cosmic maintenance (sthiti); Rudra, of destruction, dissolution, or withdrawal (samhara). In a distinctively Tantric addition to this threefold activity, Mahesvara symbolizes the divine power of concealment (nigraha). When the nondual reality makes manifest the finite many, the infinite One becomes hidden from our awareness. Conversely, Siva, in the form of Sadasiva, is the power of self-revelation (anugraha), also known as divine grace. When we go beyond the appearances and division of name and form, we again experience the ineffable divine unity that is our true being. These five deitiesBrahma, Visnu, Rudra, Mahesvara, and Sadasivarepresent Tripurasundari's five divine activities (pancakritya).

In the Sakta Tantra, it is Mother who is supreme, and the gods are her instruments of expression. Through them she presides over the creation, maintenance, and dissolution of the universe, as well as over the self-concealment and self-revelation that lie behind those three activities. Self-concealment is the precondition as well as the result of cosmic manifestation, and self-revelation causes the manifest universe to dissolve, disclosing the essential unity.

With this in mind, the eighteenth-century commentator Bhaskararaya proposed that the name Tripurasundari should be understood as "she whose beauty precedes the three worlds, meaning that she is divinity in its transcendental glory. However, the name is usually taken in an immanent sense to mean "she who is beautiful in the three worlds. Present here is the idea of a triad, a grouping of three that plays out in many different aspects of the phenomenal world.

The triangle is the dominant motif of Tripurasundari's yantra, the Sricakra. The innermost triangle represents the first stirrings of cosmic evolution. This takes place within divine consciousness. Pure, nondual consciousness is aware of nothing other than itself, for there is no other. It is pure subjectivitythe ultimate "I (aham). As we learn from the Upanishads, the One, seeing itself alone, declares, "Let me be many; let me propagate myself. Within the pure awareness of "I (aham) arises the idea of this (idam). Now we have subjectivity and objectivity within the same singular reality of consciousness. And where there are two, there is always a thirdthe relationship between the two. Hence, the triangle of the knowing subject, the known object, and the act of knowing that relates them.

Tripurasundari represents the state of awareness that is also called the sadasivatattva. It is characterized as "I am this (aham idam). Cosmic evolution is the outward flow of consciousness (pravritti). Spiritual practice reverses that flow, so for the yogin this stage is a very high level of attainment, close to final realization. It is an experience of the universe within the unity of consciousness. A beautiful expression of this occurs in the Bhagavadgita (6.29): "One who is joined in yoga sees the Self in all beings and all beings in the Self; his is the vision of sameness everywhere (sarvabhutastham atmanam sarvabhutani catmani / ikshate yogayuktatma sarvatra samadarsanah). In this state a person experiences the same sense of selfhood felt within his or her own heart as pervading everything. This experience of the Self in all beings, called sarvatmabhava, takes one beyond the confines of the individual ego to the realization that "I am all this. This is the level of awareness known in the Tantra as sadasivatattva. This direct experience of the Divine simultaneously in oneself and throughout the whole of creation results in a feeling of universal love (visvaprema). One who lives in this exalted state of oneness feels no separation from others and therefore becomes a fount of compassion.

Even in our ordinary state of consciousness, Tripurasundari is the beauty that we see in the world around us. Whatever we perceive externally as beautiful resonates deep within. That is the meaning of the flower arrows and the sugarcane bow. Deep within dwells the source of all beauty, that ultimate truth of which the outer world is only a reflection, of which our experience is a recognition. True beauty lies not in the object perceived but in the light of awareness that shines on it and makes it knowable. One who lives mindful of Tripurasundari abides in a purity of consciousness and experiences a joy that can be tangibly savored. Yet if the creation is wonderful, how much more wonderful must be she who created it.

For the unenlightened the world appears imperfect. Perfection is wholeness and unity, but the world appears to be a vast assemblage of diverse parts. The unity of the divine cause is veiled by the multiplicity of its effects. We perceive beauty but feel also the pain of its fleetingness, forgetting that the source of beauty lies indestructible in the heart of our awareness as the Divine Mother, Tripurasundari.

Her sadhana is therefore the purification of our awarenesscleansing the mind of unworthy thoughts and the patterns of thinking that underlieAs the Upanishads teach, "All this universe is truly Brahman (sarvam khalv idam brahma); so too is this Self (ayam atma brahma).

Mahavidya Tara

In the group of the Mahavidyas, Tara comes next to Kali. Tara closely resemmbles Kali in appearance. And just as Kali, Tara too displays gentle (saumya) or fierce (ugra) aspects. She was a prominent goddess well before the Mahavidya cult came into being. Tara has a much wider presence outside the Mahavidya periphery, especially in the Tantric traditions of both Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism. The Tantra regards Tara as potent as Kali. Tara also figures in Jainism. In the Vaishnava lore Tara was one of the goddess who fought along with Durga to defeat the thousand-headed Ravana.

. In all the three traditions, Tara the blue goddess is a guide and a protector; and helps to tide over the stormy sea of troubles and turmoil of life (Samsara-tarini). She is Tarini, deliverer or saviour; one who saves guides and transports to salvation. Tara is the deity of accomplishments and is often propitiated by business persons for success.

Tara is associated with the speaking prowess. And, some texts equate Tara to Sarasvathi the goddess of learning; and call her Neela (blue) Sarasvathi seated on a lotus. As she is the goddess of speech, she is related to breathe that manifests sound. Breath is the primal sound of life. Breath in which the sound originates is the carrier (transporter Tarini) of knowledge conveyed through the sound of speech. Tara is the un-manifest speech that resides in breath and consciousness.

In contrast to the Buddhist Tara who is described as a benevolent, compassionate, gentle and spirited young woman, eager to help and to protect, Tara as Mahavidya is a rather fearsome goddess striking terror. She is also moody and harmful. But at times, Tara-Mahavidya can also be benevolent and compassionate.

. Tara is described as seated in the pratyalidha asana on the chest of a corpse stretched on a white lotus; she is supreme and laughing horribly; holding cleaver, blue lotus, dagger and bowl; uttering the mantra Hum. She is of deep blue colour; her hair is braided with serpents, she is the Ugra-Tara. Her tongue is always moving. Her forehead is decorated with ornaments made of bones. She bestows magical powers. A noticeable feature of Tara's iconography is the halo of light that surrounds her head. And, rising above her head is the ten headed serpent Akshobhya (the unperturbed or unshakable) symbolizing her yogic powers.

Between Kali and Tara there are some similarities as also some differences. As said earlier, Tara's physical appearance resembles that of Kali. Like Kali, she has three bright red eyes; has four hands holding sword or head chopper, a scissors, a severed head and a lotus; wears the garland of skulls; is richly is bejewelled and has snakes for ornaments; dances on a corpse. Both Kali and Tara are strongly associated with death and dissolution; both stand upon inert male figure. And, both are associated with Shiva. Brahaddharma purana mentions Tara as representing time, just as does Kali. Whereas Kali is the power of time (kala) that inexorably causes all created things to perish, Tara is associated with fire, and particularly the fires of the cremation ground.

. There are also differences in the depiction of the two goddesses. Tara's complexion is blue whereas Kali's can be black or deep blue. Tara holds a bowl made from a scull in one hand, a pair of scissors in another, a blue lotus in the third hand and an axe in the fourth. The scissors and sword in the hands of Tara are tools to remove the ego, the sense of mistaken identity that defines, limits, and binds. They are not weapons of death and destruction. Tara is draped in tiger skin around her waist; and is not naked unlike Kali who symbolizes absolute freedom. Unlike Kali, whose hair flows loose and wild, Tara's hair of tawny colour is carefully bunched into a topknot (jata). Whereas Kali's hair represents absolute freedom from constraint, Tara's is a symbol of yogic asceticism and restraint. Kali represents the highest form of wisdom or liberating knowledge; and Tara is related to the discipline of yogic Tantra

Bagala mukhi

Bagala is the second Mahavidya. as per some Shakti worshippers Once the creation was in turmoil and being destroyed in many places. Brahma became worried about His creation and wondered what the outcome of this turmoil would be.

He then meditated to bring peace to the universe. Not succeeding, He then performed severe tapasya to obtain the blessings of Tripurambika " the Mother of the Three Worlds. Pleased with His austerities, She appeared before Him as Mother Bagala in a yellow form and gave him a boon

. Bagala grants all kinds pofperfection to devotees who pray to Her. Here is another story of Her origin. Once an asura named Ruru, the son of Durgam, performed severe penance to win the favor of Brahma. Since Ruru was already very powerful, the Gods became very apprehensive of what might happen if he obtained a boon from Brahma.

So they did aradhana (propitiation) to yellow water yellow intuitively means peace Pleased with their tapasya, the Divine Mother appeared as Bagala. Bagala is the Goddess who stops all motion at the appropriate time, silences the mouths and words of all evil beings, and controls their tongues.

May that Goddess bless us with stillness when it is appropriate!

We seek the help of God when we are in trouble. With the divine intervention of Ma Bagalamukhi, the troubles are reduced. When a person has a malefic intent of Mars in the birth chart or an antardasa (specific period of suffering), then they can do the pooja of this Goddess.

The pooja helps in overcoming the difficulties in the form of obstacles, enemies or severe problems in personal and professional life. It is also a protective gear for accidents, unnatural events and other disasters which are life threatening.

Bhuvaneswari

Goddess Bhuvaneswari the mahavidya is the substantial force of Parashakti, which she manifests as the phenomenal and materialistic worlds. She possesses all elements of the physical cosmos and its extension beyond. Her holy name literally is the compounded form of the words Bhuvana and Ishwari, meaning Goddess of the Worlds.

The tri-bhuvana (3 worlds) consists of bhuh (earth), bhuvah (atmosphere) and svah (heavens). Thus, even the Gods regard her to be the Queen of the Universe and the Realm of Beings or the Governess of Creation. Goddess Bhuvaneshwari is associated with Mother Earth, Prithvi according to the sacred hymns of the Rig Veda. In the Puranas, she is intrinsically connected with the Varaha Avatar of Vishnu. She is also the creator of Prakriti or nature.

There is an interesting story about her birth. In the beginning only the Sun God Surya was the master of the sky. The sages and seers begged him to create more worlds and offered prayers and ambrosia in return. Lord Surya used his Supreme Energy to manifest lokas or bhuvanas meaning the worlds. This Supreme Energy formed the shape of the great cosmic deity Goddess Bhuvaneshwari.

She is personified as having three eyes (depicting her knowledge of the three worlds), with very large breasts (symbolizing the nourishing of all beings with the essence of life) and a compassionate face with red lips like bimba fruits. Her glory is symbolized as pure radiation with a halo, resembling Lord Surya's energy and the moon pouring her soma (ambrosia), the divine nectar of the Gods. She thus carries the three worlds in the form of the blossoming of her self-nature. Therefore her body represents the macrocosm of the universe, while the countless beings said to arise from her are depicted in the form of her precious jewels, ornaments and adornments

Through the worship of Bhuvaneswari One can over come the illusory traits of Maya, which becomes a play of Leela. She reclaims humans from the grips of delusion. This results in a sea change in body chemistry and the psyche with the attainment of enlightenment.

Goddess Parvati in fact is the Saguna Rupa or benevolent face of Goddess Bhuvaneshwari. Like Goddess Lalita, Goddess Bhuvaneshwari has a mandala in her honour that devotees pray to.

The name Bhairavi means "frightful, "terrible, "horrible, or "formidable. The basic idea here is fear. Ordinarily we associate fear with darkness. It is not uncommon to be afraid of the dark, or rather of the dangers that lurk there unseen, but that is not the sort of fear that Bhairavi provokes, for she is said to shine with the effulgence of ten thousand rising suns.

Bhairavi may be terrifying, but she is anything but dark. If this is puzzling at first, we need to find another example where brilliant light and terror meet face to face.

That example is found in the eleventh chapter of the Bhagavadgita. Arjuna had been urging Sri Krishna to reveal himself in his supreme, universal form, but when Krishna complied and Arjuna beheld it, the experience was too much for him.

The Gita describes the divine glory as the splendor of a thousand suns rising at once in the sky. In that blazing radiance Arjuna beheld the boundless form of the Divine with arms, eyes, mouths, and bellies without end. Arjuna saw gods and celestial beings and whole worlds looking on with dread and wonder, some praising, some trembling in fear. On every side he saw worlds disappearing into fiery mouths, like moths hurtling into the flames of their destruction. In this overwhelming experience of the Divine, Arjuna came face to face with the birthless, deathless, infinite reality in which universes are born, subsist, and die. He was so struck with terror that he begged to see his beloved Krishna once again his familiar, gentle human form.

This experience of Lord Visnu's universal form, his visvarupa, closely parallels the experience of the Divine Mother as Bhairavi. Just as Visnu's forms range from the cosmic to the personal, so do Bhairavi's. Reality is One, but it appears to us as many.

We can think of Bhairavi in cosmic terms or in an individualistic sense. As a cosmic goddess Bhairavi is closely identified with Durga in her fierce form, known as Chandika. Because Durga presides over the birth, sustenance, and death of the universe, she projects three primary facets, called Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, and Mahasarasvati.

These extremely subtle and immeasurably powerful aspects of consciousness manifest on the material level as the three gunas, the basic building blocks and driving energies of the universe.

In her individualized aspect, Bhairavi is the power of consciousness dwelling in every human being. Then she is known as Kundalini. Basic to both the cosmic and individual aspects is identification of Bhairavi with tremendous power. In other words, in either aspect she can appear as overwhelming.

Though Bhairavi can be disconcerting or even downright frightening, she is in the end beneficent. Again, we are reminded that she is the color of fire, and what does fire do? At the physical level it burns. Its blaze of heat and light consumes whatever has form, and in this awesome manifestation of destructive power it is both magnificent and terrifying.

Yet when controlled, fire can be beneficial, warming us when we are cold, cooking our food, and so on.

Fire as the light of consciousness likewise can be frightening or reassuring. This light of consciousness is sometimes called tejas, which means "resplendence. It is through the light of awareness that we have knowledge of the world, that we experience our own existence, for better or for worse.

In the Mahabharata Vyasa defines the highest tapas precisely as "fixing the mind and perceptive faculties one-pointedly on a single object, the indwelling Self. Vyasa's definition of tapas Because Bhairavi is so powerful, we must proceed with due caution. She dwells in each of as Kundalini, but we must not force her to rise, lest we harm ourselves. The best tapas is not any esoteric practice but simply the repeated attempts to rein in the mind and direct it toward the Divine. The rest will take care of itself.

Each of the Mahavidyas has more than one form. Most have a variety of representations and a proliferation of names, but none can claim as many as Bhairavi. Accordingly her images are widely divergent, and there is no single iconography to define her.

Sometimes she is in the cremation ground, seated on a headless corpse. Like Kali, she has four arms. With two of her hands she holds the sword of knowledge and the demon's head that represents the destruction of the ego. Her other two hands may display the abhayamudra, urging us to have no fear, and the varadamudra, the gesture of granting boons. More often they hold a mala, signifying devotion, and a book, signifying knowledge. The trident represents the pervasively threefold nature of her manifestation and can be interpreted in a variety of ways.

It is often said that Bhairavi represents divine wrath, but it is only an impulse of her fierce, maternal protectiveness, aimed at the destruction of ignorance and everything negative that keeps us in bondage. In that aspect she is called Sakalasiddhibhairavi, the granter of every perfection.

It is the Mother's light that shines on every facet of our existence, making it knowable. That light sustains the created order, even though we find shadows here and there in this realm of duality. When the light grows stronger it roots out darkness from every corner. It eventually grows so bright that the created forms dissolve into pure radiance, and what remains is the state of spiritual illumination in which we have no more individuality, no more limitationonly our identification with the Infinite.