The Force of Ma Pratyangira and Swami

She weaves the Shakti web in mysterious ways. I am having countless mystical experiences. It is difficult to write about what is happening. But it feels important to express what I can, to share the Shakti that has graced my life from Amma and Swami's visit.


On Saturday night Amma and Swami gave darshan at a local Unitarian church. Despite the inclusiveness of this denomination of the Christian religion's views, the energy in the church felt cold and oppressive. Despite its openness, its roots lie in a patriarchal institution that has excluded women or demonized them for centuries. And even where women have been included, they have been de-sexualized. When the Divine Mother arrives in one of such places, the energies are inevitably formidable. And She, Durga can certainly slay the demons. While Ammas embodies Pratyangira other goddesses like Durga, Kali, Varahi, Lalita all come through her. The Goddess whose qualities are needed comes. And Amma is the blessed receptacle for these energies that are available to all of us. Amma always reminds us that She has come here to help us recognize Goddess in ourselves and each other. We too can harness such amplified energies, but serious yogic practices are necessary in order for our physical bodies to be able to contain the energies.


A workshop on the Sri Vidya tradition and practices to Pratyangira was offered on Sunday. Amma commented on how strong the force of Goddess was in my temple space. How all those that were present had brought Her there, and how because of the devotion I have for Durga, Durga in Her various forms is coming through me and opening my home to others who share this path. We all received an initiation that evening and five us were invited to go deeper into the tradition and to be initiated at another level.


And then Amma went into her bhava. We had put a large mat in the center of the room. It has the yantra or geometric form of Goddess painted on it in orange, red and yellow. This yantra is a portal into other forms of consciousness. In this tradition the yantra is Goddess Herself. Amma and Swami performed a puja, offering water, rice, incense, fire, sandalwood oil, red vermilion paste, tumeric, bhajans, mantras, and prayers . Amma called us up to the center of the mat, one by one. Her devotees would stand on the bindu of the yantra while Amma would place her finger on their third eye. Two of us initiates were asked to stand on either side of the devotees receiving darshan. We needed to catch them if they started to fall and help those who needed it to their seats. And people would fall back, their eyes closed, and we would be there to push them upright until finally Amma reached for them (with the aid of Swami as She was totally in trance) and hugged them for darshan. Her hands perform mudras or sacred hand gestures that invoke and honor divine energies. Her tongue stretches out and her eyes roll back. She mutters mantras or cackles . Some devotees She locks in the fiercest embrace and they shake, laugh and sometimes cry. All in my living room. Standing in the mat for the entire darshan was intense. The energy was electrifying.


How can I doubt the forces that have guided and informed my life, especially what I felt while Amma and Swami were here? What really happened this past weekend? Will I ever know, or can I just shed the mind that is trying to rationalize and explain? How can I even explain these extraordinary experiences and feelings?


Goddess was here. Goddess is here. Can you feel Her?

Mata Pratyangirae and Diwali

Amma Pratyangirae is coming to my house for Diwali. Diwali is known as the festival of lights and will take place on the dark moon on November 9^th this year. At this time Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of Spiritual and Material Abundance, Harmony, and Beauty is celebrated and worshiped in the homes. People pray for the success of their businesses and peacefulness in domestic life. Hundreds of candles of lit, footsteps are drawn on the path leading to the front door, and inside flowers, sweet foods, incense, music, and devotees await Her…

Mata Pratyangirae is a fierce primordial goddess of over 2000 lion heads. She is ancient and all powerful. She has appeared to us in the 21^st century in the body of a Tamil Indian woman from Singapore. While Durga removes difficulty and fear, Lakshmi brings abundance, and Kali helps us deal with our anger, Pratyangirae is the Goddess we call on to help us remove negative karmas. She has come in human form to "eat" our fears, worries and problems and help us to find and live our true light. It is not that she takes all the difficulties away from us, but with her guidance a challenging situation may suddenly be less formidable, or a bad habit may release its hold on us. We cannot sit back passively waiting for all the stress to dissipate from our lives even when we are blessed to be in the presence of a realized being like Amma Pratyangirae or Swami. We must also do the Work and we can begin with opening our hearts.

Diwali is the perfect ritual for accessing the blazing radiant light of our souls. The candles we light are symbolic of the flames that burn within each of our hearts. This is yet another sacred time in the autumnal season of death and decay, where we have an opportunity to dispel the darkness of our ignorance and suffering through ritual practices. Such rituals teach us of the inherent cycles in our lives. Everything has its season. Life is a constant battle-
or it is a dance between the tensions of opposites that are continuously at play within our lives. All things that are born will eventually die. This is a seemingly simple truth, and yet most of us in the West have trouble accepting the reality of death. We run from it, deny it, repress the fact of its inevitably. We do so much to try to prolong and enhance this life and to keep a firm hold on all of our attachments. What if we took a different approach? What if we understood our lives as a preparation for perhaps the greatest spiritual initiation there is, death of our physical bodies? Our physical death is going to happen to each of us, so how can we live more consciously, so that in the end, we can die more consciously? Every day we experience death-whether of the moment, a feeling, a relationship, time, or even a loved one. In this season of lessening light, rituals like Diwali help us to stay connected to our inner light.

During the Durga Puja and fall equinox we celebrate the fruits of our labor from the past 9 months. But the bounty of the harvest too will pass. Fall is a season of celebration and letting go. Here in the Northern hemisphere as the days get shorter and the nights longer, a ritual like Diwali or even sitting in the presence of a Spiritual Teacher can aid us in preparing our hearts and our minds to approach death in her myriad guises in a more present way. To me this season is a time of preparation for dissolution. I may or may not be conscious of what I need to release, but I have come to respect the often cold harshness of these days as a time to go within myself, to hibernate and reflect. A sacred time when the veils between the worlds are thin and messages from our ancestors come streaming in...I I take comfort in fall's cold inky darkness and these opportunities to contemplate the mysteries of death and life. It is a wondrous blessing that Amma and Swami are coming here to perform these rituals.

Over the past several weeks, I have experienced numerous synchronicities pointing to Amma Pratyangirae’s arrival. Too many to share, but they continue to occur whether through 'out of the blue' phone calls, seemingly random encounters, or 'odd' experiences that have a numinous essence. I merely observe and surrender to them- trying not to judge or interpret. A female saint is coming to my home, but not as an award nor as a punishment. I, my ego mind has no idea why we are hosting the ritual gatherings here, and it does not matter. I am not sure what it all means and hope to be able to open to the spiritual potential for deeper awakening. Still, I remain awestruck by the blessing that is being presented. Being in their presence I have the sense of being with two very wise and realized souls. Grace, peace and love permeate my experiences with them. May this be true for all who encounter them.

Last Friday I saw Amma Pratyangirae in San Francisco. Swami, Amma’s Shiva (for they are indeed the embodiment of Shiva and Shakti!), performed a flower puja and Amma went into her bhava or “mood.” When someone enters a bhava they usually exhibit mystical qualities, signs of spiritual states of consciousness. Amma’s eyes roll back till only the whites show between her trembling eyelids, her voice changes, she performs mudras in a trance-like state, then gives darshan-or a blessing, and sometimes offers prophecies. The energy in the room intensifies. It feels hot, electric, enlivening. Everyone present is captivated by the sacred play or Lila. Amma is here to awaken our own divinity, which she describes as Love. One by one we sit or kneel before her and she presses sacred ash on each devotee’s forehead-right between the eyebrows. Sometimes she mutters mantras to various goddesses like Aum Bhubaneswaryay Namaha or Kali Kali Kali Kali, or She emits a deep throated AUM whose resonance seems to shake the walls! Occasionally she cries out, PHET! in a very fierce deliberate tone—for cutting or severing emotional and mental afflictions. This one is quite startling as the vibration of the syllables coming from Amma cut through the thick waves of Shakti circling around us and for a moment I experience a state of dissolution. Hearing PHET! makes me shudder—perhaps my own negative tendencies do not want to be banished and are raising up in protest. Nevertheless almost instantaneously the Shakti resurges and continues to stir the energies within and around us. Sometimes the energies make us cry, others laugh—we never know what to expect. These Shaktified experiences truly are different than ordinary reality. And yet it is pretty amazing how “easy” it is for us to access the Shakti. Ultimately it is within each of us, waiting to be stirred and awakened.

When it was my turn to kneel before Amma, I began to cry (which does not happen to me out of sadness or joy, but out of a profound sense of recognition and relief). “Hey Mata”, Amma said to me. Hello Mother, which she has called me from the moment we first met. She has greeted many women I know in this way-to Amma we are all the Mother. Amma tells us she is here to help us find Pratyangirae in our self and all others. It was such a relief to be in her presence again. Everything around me dissolved and for a moment, I found a refuge from the chaos of life. Amma placed her finger on my third eye and my head fell back. All my thoughts disintegrated, crumbled and collapsed. There were things I had wanted to pray for, offerings of gratitude I wanted to give, blessings I had hoped to ask to receive, but no words came into form, all of my thoughts turned to dust. I became part of a vast blanket of emptiness. I felt deep peace and tranquility. Tenderness and sweetness. There was nothing to do, I could just Be. I drank it all in and a part of my consciousness clicked in and made an imprint of this serene awareness that I would call forth in stressful times in waking life.

After many seconds (that to me had stretched into hours), I heard Mata Pratyangirae chanting, Ambika-Durgayay, Ambika- Durgayay. I was called back to ordinary consciousness. When I awaken from such states it takes me a moment to remember where I am. My eyes rested on Amma's physical form. Beautiful Amma Pratyangirae standing before me, beaming. It felt as if we had never been separated even though a year had passed since we last met. I cherish such moments of ease and freedom. Presence. I moved away filled with sweet gratitude and then received a blessing from Swami.

On Diwali, people begin new business ventures, and this year I will begin one too. A couple weeks ago I began making special amulets out of silver and glass boxes and circular lockets within which I secured two different images of the Goddess. I wanted to talk to Swamiji and Amma about selling them and donating a percentage to the Ekatvam organization, so I wore one the night I went to their puja. Swami noticed it right away and was astonished that this locket held an image of Mother Pratyangirae. When I showed Amma, she was very excited. She told me the Mother had just been saying three days before that they needed to have an amulet of Her image to sell on the website and at events. And here I was wearing the amulet. We had both received the same guidance. Here is a sweetly divine opportunity for us all to invoke more Lakshmi energy into our lives.

***My dear new yogini sister, Sri Acala called just now! I must share this synchronicity as this is exactly the kind of thing that keeps happening. These subtle, yet powerful messages of alignment, of flow. SriAcala was the lead priestess of the Durga Puja I attended. A CLEAR EMBODIMENT OF DURGA MAA HERSELF. This woman has SHAKTI. Her friendship has been one of several great blessings that have evolved since the Durga puja. Acala called as I sit writing about Mata Pratyangirae to tell me how one of her jyotish teachers just emailed his list of 2000 people about how powerful Amma and Swamiji are and how they must try to meet them in Berkeley. He also had tremendous experiences with them. This, yet another fabulous synchronicity in a mala of Goddess-infused prayer beads…Jai MAA!

If you live in the Bay Area and wish to join us on November 9th and 11th, please email me and I will send directions. For more info on Mata Pratyangirae and Swamiji go to www.ekatvam.org

Tantra as Spiritual Practice

How can tantra help a woman enhance her inner qualities?


Thank you, Bobbin Cat, for posting this question. I have been thinking about it since last night and want to respond in this blog. In short, Tantra is a mystical path of commitment, devotion and dedication to transformation and liberation.


Tantra is about harnessing and amplifying our inner power, our Shakti. The word tantra means to weave and involves a process of weaving/blending opposite qualities or tensions and experiencing the unity of their common essence. There are various forms of practices in Tantra: mantra, yoga, pranayama, meditation, yantra worship, ritual. Through these practices we learn to experience our mind as a stream of thoughts and emotions. A yogini (or yogi) learns to break the thought patterns through repetitious chanting, focusing the mind on a deity or sacred symbol. Sometimes emotions or thoughts become amplified. Whether one considers them bad or good, one needs to approach them consciously, looking for the root of the feeling/thought, then once it is discovered, holding it with reverence. Tantra teaches us many tools to engage in this process. The energetic properties of mantra, for example, stimulate us on a cellular level and balance and synchronize our energies. Yoga helps open our nadis or energetic channels and leads us to conscious embodiment. Ritual and deity worship help us align with the divinity and find Her/Him within ourself. These practices take us out of our daily often unconscious routine. Our approach to life deepens and becomes imbued with meaning. The universe responds and we notice how It reflects our thoughts and desires. (see www.suddenlyhersoul.blogspot.com Mystery: Death Happens) Signs and synchronicities abound, thereby strengthening the qualities within us that know and remember our divine interconnected essence.


Nandu told me that a yogini does not react to a difficult situation, but responds. She learns to stay balanced and calm in the face of any adversity. And as another one of my teachers told me this week, sometimes a yogini retreats. Periods of meditation, contemplation, solitude and creative expression are necessary. What we need to access our power within varies at different times. Most important is that we do not become all consumed or obsessed with the emotion/experience and do practices to remain conscious of the lila or play we are experiencing.


To enhance my positive inner qualities, or my Shakti, I attempt to confront and embrace any negative thought or emotion. Sometimes I sit with it and let it run its course for days or weeks, but then eventually I do sadhana-spiritual practice to work with the energies that are inhibiting me from accessing and expressing my Shakti. As the remover of fear and difficulty, Durga teaches us not to run away from that which is difficult, but to face it with composure. Yoga, meditation, mantra, ritual all can help. By transmuting the negative charge of certain mental and emotional experiences we inevitably empower ourselves. When we live in accordance with our intuition, when we have focused our intention on releasing any binding thoughts and commit to transforming limiting patterns, we are able to shine as the divine beings that we are.


Nandu Menon (or Amarananda Bhairavan, author of Kali's Odiyya and Medicine Wheel of Light) teaches about four fundamental principle of Tantric Mysticism.


1. Non-violence and non-judgment

2. Humility and surrender

3. Unquestioning faith in the Goddess within

4. Unconditional Love for the Goddess within


Embodying these principles leads us to the enhancement of our most beneficent inner qualities.

Astami and Navami and Living Goddesses

On her ninth day, Navami, we ask for blessings for our tools and instruments. It is still one of Saraswati’s days and all the implements She inspires us to use are worshiped. Books, pens, my computer, beads and jewelry tools, anything that is necessary for my Work goes on the altar.

Saturday was the last morning ritual of the festival. I felt a little sad to know this daily ritual that has brought such a deep sense of power and grace to my life, is coming to an end. According to Durga’s myth, after the victory celebrations on the tenth day Durga returns to Her sacred abode in the mountains. It is not that She is no longer with us, She will always come when called. However, every year after the puja, the intensity of Shakti wanes, and we are asked to integrate the myriad lessons, insights and feelings we have opened to during the puja. Durga reminds us that She will always return-all we must do is call out Her name. I know this is true, but I will miss the warmth and empowering resonance that these rituals have provided. I will miss the mystifying ways the various Goddess energies and mantras have felt in my body. It has been very healing and restorative. For the past 9 days I have woken before dawn and have fully offered my Self to these pujas. I have felt Her strongly. She comes through in so many awesome ways. I sense that because of this regular worship I am more aligned and conscious of Her different expressions. I am deeply amazed by the ways Her energies are playing out in my life.

On the eighth and ninth days the battle Durga is fighting heats up. The myth tells of Her battle with Mahisasuramardini, the shape-shifting buffalo demon. In Nepal, these final three days belong to Kali (while Saraswati receives homage during the first three days). In any case, we must battle the remaining asuras or vestiges of negative thoughts, and open to the tremendous wisdom that Saraswati promises us.

On Friday, the eighth day after puja one of the devotees at this local temple gifted me with a copy of the Mahisuramardini Strotram. A wonderful chant/song narrating Durga’s battle with the demon. Actually, She is called Ambika, Chandika, and Parvati before She takes the name Durga, the Invincible One. Durga is the name of the demon She slays and liberates to its essentially divine essence. By assuming the name of a demon, Goddess shows that even that which we consider bad or negative is ultimately a part of Her. Like Durga, we can free ourselves from its limiting stronghold. Every morning we have sung this 15 minute chant and some have even danced. The words themselves induce a trancey energy. I find it impossible to sit and just read the words to the music. My body instinctively moves, sways, pulses with Shakti. This is Saraswati’s grace. Music, art, dance. The gift of this music from a sister devotee really touched me. I can now listen to it whenever I like. Although I do not know this woman, I have seen her almost every morning at the ritual and we both have recognized Durga in each other. It is an honor to make these connections with women, especially when I consider how a significant theme of the Durga puja in South Asia is that it is a reunion between mothers and daughters. Despite the patriarchal brahmanic overlays, I have experienced this festival as a ritual celebrating the bonds between women-which my own research has shown is its true origin.

A few minutes later, on this same day, another woman, who has been one of the main priestesses for the puja (and who looks like Durga!!! She is radiant with Durga’s energy!), invited me to help build the Sri Yantra for the Vijaya Dashami-Durga’s Victory, the tenth day. Synchronistically, I was wearing my Lalita necklace (the Sri Yantra is a manifestation of Lalita) and knew I needed to invoke some of Her delightful energies into my life. These necklaces are not your every day adornment. They are sacred, imbued with Goddess energy, and have continuously offered me and my clients who wear them many mystical and spiritually affirming experiences. It was no coincidence that the first day I wear a Lalita necklace to the puja I am invited to co-create a Sri Yantra out of colored rice. The Sri Yantra is Goddess Herself. And this Durga priestess, L. is truly an embodiment of Her.

On one of the first mornings of the puja I looked at this priestess and saw Her as a living emanation of this beautiful Chandi/Durga mask a friend in Bombay had given me. She has Shakti, and her presence has felt very familiar to me. Something I can only ascribe to Maa. Then on the evening of the eighth night I learn that this priestess, L, works in a crematorium! How Kali-esque! Kali and Her bevy of fierce goddesses frequent and perform ritual practices in the cremation ground. On the Tantric path we learn and experience how life and death walk hand in hand. Death, like life, is merely a state of being. Every moment we are experiencing death, whether it is of as thought, or experience, or something larger like the loss of physical body or forms. Many of the rituals revolve around confronting those things/people/places that we fear most. When L. told me how She burns bodies and how beautiful the experience is to her, I was deeply moved. It is a tremendous blessing for these souls, who are leaving this world, to have their physical forms offered to Her sacred flames by a priestess of Durga and Kali.

One of the many gifts I have received during this puja time is to continue to recognize Her in living women. I know many women in my own chakra of yoginis who are embodiments of Saraswati, the Black Dakini Throma, Lakshmi, Chamunda, Tara, and other Goddesses. And over the past week I have been exposed to many many more living women who are integrating goddess energies into their lives and consciously living Her myths. The myths have come even more alive for me. It is clear that these stories must have been based on women’s lives and expressions of femininity/female experience. For those of us who live unconventional lives, it is especially heartening to not only hear stories of unfettered yoginis, but to actually know them and witness their radical liberated and fearless dance within this world.

Astami and Navami have brought a multitude of rich blessings this year. Before Durga's mythical battles were won during the ninth night, before the rituals commemorating Vijaya Dashami, Durga's victory day, I have personally experienced a major shift in consciousness that consequently has attracted even more profound experiences around the power of women, especially women in groups. Last night at the Bioneers conference I had the great honor of having dinner with Alice Walker and the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers. The conversations, the heart opening, the teachings I received are something I must write about soon - but at a later time as I am too bleary eyed from lack of sleep and all the blazing Shakti. Tonight is Her great Victory Celebration. I must prepare for the final puja and open my heart to the victories and awareness that are still to come.

1998 Darshan with the Kumari

In April I traveled to the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. As the pilot maneuvered the body of the plane through the narrow gap between mountains and onto what is known as one of the most precarious landing strips in the world, my heart raced with excitement. While the other passengers clapped and sighed with great relief that the plane had safely touched ground, I experienced a strange feeling that if I died at this moment, I would be content. Later, looking back at this uncanny sensation, I realize that I was about to experience a death, a death of how I had known and thought of my self. My understanding of my existence in the universal scheme of things would be challenged and – over the next nine years— deeply transformed.

I had intended on doing a month long meditation retreat which began the afternoon of my arrival, but as I surrendered to the Shakti, the divine female energy that permeated the Valley, a different path began to unfold and I found myself wandering down the infamous Freak Street toward Durbar Square— the heart of Kathmandu. The medieval red brick buildings and streets bathed in the glow of the South Asian afternoon sun were strangely familiar. Immediately I was drawn to the temple of the Kumari, who, at that time was a seven-year-old living incarnation of Goddess Durga. I entered Her temple courtyard wearing red, (which signifies the life force energy specifically known as Shakti), without realizing until later that this is part of the ritual custom in approaching Goddess here. I stood there in awe of the intricately carved temple struts, the small deity plaques above doors, the yantras (geometric forms of the goddess) carved into the ground. Within moments She appeared wrapped in red and gold glittery robes and laden with necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings.

The Virgin Goddess, who within the Nepalese political structure has even more power and authority than the king, is chosen around the age of two, put through a series of tests that only a physical body spiritually fortified for a divine being can conquer, and searched for thirty-three auspicious marks on her body. The process of choosing male lamas in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition is similar to the initiatory rites around selecting a Kumari. The power of Durga remains within the young goddess girl until she begins to menstruate. I later learned that women who have menstrual disorders go to the Kumari and pray for help. Despite her virgin purity, reproductive illnesses are part of her domain. It was no wonder that I had instinctually gone directly to her temple upon arriving in Nepal for I had been suffering from endometriosis for three years.

I was not prepared for the arresting sight of a young girl decked in rich crimson robes, and bejeweled with gold necklaces and amulets. Her forehead had been painted bright red and traced with yellow to accent the rest of her face. In the center was a carefully-placed glittering gold and black eye. Around her human eyes were thick black lines, used to ward off evil spirits. She leaned out the intricately carved window frame, held up by two attendants on either side of her, and watched me, the only person in the courtyard, with all three eyes.

Her stare went right through me; rearranged and removed some of what was inside. I received her darshan, an auspicious and very potent blessing from the deity. In many respects, darshan, which means to see and be seen by the deity, is the ultimate goal for a pilgrim. At the time I had no conscious understanding of any of the ritualistic or even spiritual significance of this. I felt Her energy and knew she was different than the other humans I had met. This young embodiment of Durga has undeniable power.

To me the Kumari is a living goddess, and yet the qualities of her human life trouble me. She is not allowed to be educated, for she is believed to be omniscient. She is not allowed to play with other girls for she is the Goddess and all reside in Her. Her feet are not allowed to touch the ground for it is deemed polluting to orthodox Hindus and Buddhists and so she is carried everywhere. Even more concerning, after her short “reign,” the menstruating girl or now, young woman, is returned to her village and essentially ostracized by the entire community, mainly out of fear that they somehow may incite the wrath of the Goddess she once was. The status of the ‘retired’ Kumari tells much about how the status of women is still maligned. There is much to be said about the fear of menstrual blood. A topic for another time. However, it is fascinating to think that in the Kathmandu Valley, even today, there is universal acceptance of this female child as divine if only for a ten-twelve year period. Since my initiation with the Kumari, I have often wondered, how my life and every other woman’s I know would be different if we knew from an early age that we are not separate from the Divine, but like the Kumari, hold this sacred power within our female bodies?

Durga's Tools and Weapons

The sacred objects Durga carries in each of her eight to eighteen hands, like the Great Goddess herself, carry the power to create and destroy. Symbolically they serve as guides and tools we can use to help us get through the inevitable cycles of death, destruction and suffering as well as life, blossoming and joy. For example, Durga’s knives are not to be used for violence, but are a symbol of liberation. The knife is a tool that cuts away; it severs or excises that which no longer serves us whether it be a destructive belief, an unhealthy relationship, or a toxic situation we find ourselves embroiled in. Her sword also points to the focus and discriminating wisdom that is necessary in life – particularly to those committed to a spiritual path. All the sharp weapons Durga carries cut through obstacles that impede our progress and clear the path for spiritual growth.

Often she carries a shield for protection, a bow for determination and focus, and an arrow for penetrating insight. When she holds a bell it is to be used to invoke mental clarity and to clear the air of negativity, when her fingers play with a string of beads (mala) her worshipers are reminded of lessons on concentration and spiritual growth. The club she wields can be used to beat a new path, and the three pronged trident pierces through the veils of the past, present and future and teaches us about birth, life and death. The conch shell represents the vibratory powers of manifestation, while the lotus refers to both spiritual and material abundance. The skull or severed head, a common motif also associated with Durga in her fiercest of forms, represents the ego and all the ways we become slaves to our egos. The ego mind conceives of situations as bad or good, positive or negative, while Durga is here to show us the paradoxical nature of our reality and the divine unity behind all existence.

Chandika-She Who Tears Apart Thought- 2nd Day of Puja

It was difficult getting out of bed this morning. Only the second day and already my mind balks at the thought of getting up when it is still dark, cold, and wet outside. As I hit snooze on my alarm, I thought, Maybe I could sleep in today and go again tomorrow? Hmmm...already my ego is making a fuss. No. I tell that part of myself. But you are not in Nepal, this asura (demon) counters. Well, I ask her, Why should I limit the extent of my devotion to puja experiences in Asia? Aren't I trying to live a more integrated life? A life in balance and sacred union regardless of where I am and what my mind tells me is and is not sacred?

While there is no drumming beginning at three a.m. to rock me out my sleep -- and no roosters telling me that light will soon come and it is time to get up, there is the thought of a temple room filled with Durga devotees and the vibratory hum of mantras to Goddess only a short walk away. Being here in Berkeley and waking before dawn to attend worship of Goddess is as much of a pilgrimage as attending those 2000 year old sites abroad.

I had planned to go back to Kathmandu for Dashain this year, but a revelation that came to me after the September lunar eclipse told me I needed to stay home. Earlier this week I had begun to feel sad that I had not made the decision to go, even though all the signs were clear that it was not to be. This morning I am suddenly struck by what seems almost miraculous -- I can attend puja in my neighborhood. And here I can actually chant along with the priestesses, priests, and other devotees. In Nepal I made the rounds to temple after temple, but rarely sat and chanted with the priest for a couple hours every day. This is a different opportunity to experience Her. Staying in my warm cozy bed does not even compare with the fiery Shakti radiance I feel when I chant to the Divine Mother.

While a part of me longs for the familiar pre-dawn sounds and smells of the Durga puja in Kathmandu, I focus my thoughts on what is around me here. As I make my way in the chilly liminal light, I notice that I am not distracted by the environment here and so I can go deeper within. I become more of a witness to Goddess within me, than how She manifests in the world around me. In Nepal, the temples, the dogs, the offerings --everywhere, chai sellers, and prasad vendors, marching musicians, rik shaw drivers-even in the dark the world is abuzz with Shakti. But here in these early twilight hours, She is still quiet, pensive, reflective. I need to know Her stillness in order to do the work of this day.

On this second puja day, we offer harmful, self-defeating, self-negating thoughts that bind us.
Om namascandikayai. We bow to the Goddess who tears apart thought.
Yikes. My thoughts have been on a rather negative course lately. My mind needs some major purification. I have become obsessed with the suffering of my past, too pre-occupied with my fears of the future. Thank Goddess I can offer my negative thoughts to Durga and Kali. But the Work feels rather daunting. I notice how I am attached to some of the stories and perceptions of my self and the world that these thoughts generate....

Rather than allowing myself to freak out by naming and judging all the afflictions in my mind, I decide to chant and allow questions to arise. Be fierce but with compassion. Durga tells me. I can try that out. What are my doubts? When have I lost my concentration and conviction? How have I become lazy in my worship? How have I not honored myself? Who is this demon of self-loathing and shame that creeps in every now and again? How is my rage directed at myself rather than channeled into constructive means of transforming self and the world? What is it that keeps me from manifesting my desires?

It is painful to witness my mind. Shocking to think how easily I stray. How do I stay committed to this path and allow myself to confront and embrace the asuras, the demons that seem to continuously appear within and around me? I struggle with thoughts of how I think my life should be. I worry about other's judgments. At times I fear the repercussions of speaking my truth. Sometimes I speak my truth and am shocked, hurt, even devastated by other's reactions. Being devoted to Her is not always the easiest, most gentle of paths. Still, it is the only path I truly know. It is a path I know I must not resist, but surrender to with an open trusting heart. But my heart feels broken and just too congested right now. It is obvious I have a lot of work to do. My mind starts to feel overwhelmed by my thoughts and the feelings that arise. I call on Chandika. The only thing I can do is chant and pray. Om namaschandikayai. Please tear apart my thoughts, Great Goddess, till only Your luminous wisdom remains.

Maha Durga She Who is Indomitable

Om. I revere MahaKali, who holds in her hands the sword, discus, mace, arrow, bow, club, spear, sling, human head, and conch; who is three-eyed, adorned on all her limbs, and sparkling like a sapphire; who has ten faces and ten feet; and whom Brahma extolled while Visnhu slept in order to slay Madhu and Kaitabha. (In Praise of the Goddess. The DeviMahatmya and Its Meaning by Devadatta Kali)

Today, Friday October 12th begins the Durga Puja. Although technically, in California we should have begun our worship on Thursday morning, since it was the first dawn after the new moon. Local yoga studios and ashrams seem to be coordinating their puja schedule with the South Asian dates, so I am willing to let go of this technicality and surrender to the truth of time being truly irrelevant. After all, Durga Kali, who is worshiped these first three days, is beyond time and space.

There is another difference in the puja practices here that my mind has had to come to terms with. In Kathmandu the first three days are acknowledged as Saraswati's days and the Goddess of Creativity, Learning, Poetry, Music and the Arts is worshiped on these first three days. But here (and in some parts of India and Nepal) it is KALI who is worshiped first (and Saraswati is worshiped the last three days). This year beginning these rituals with the fierce Mother feels in alignment with my own needs. It is during these days that I am offering all my negative tendencies, all my inhibiting karmas and preparing the ground of my being for the Goddess energies that are to come. A different approach to Her, Durga, who is often described as being inapproachable. This alternative approach is not right or wrong, merely a shift in perspective. Yes, that is something I need to invite in my life right now as I see how my thinking and some of my judgments have become stuck and are limiting me.

I have not participated in Durga puja in the US in any formal way, so the fact that daily pujas are being held at 7:00 a.m. every day during this ten day ritual period only five blocks from my home (and performed by priestesses!) feels like a tremendous blessing and invitation. An invitation to what? To entering a realm of Goddess consciousness, to experiencing a vibratory level of being in a group setting in the west. I have shied away from groups for various reasons. I have lived my life as an independent yogini for years. I have found my Matrika kula, my intimate clan group of Shaktas, but we dance in and out of each other's lives. Our devotion, although deeply shared, is often expressed through personal rather than communal experience. And my relationship to the land in South Asia defined my connection to Her. For years I felt the electrifying Shakti at the thousand-year old sites of worship that I visited in India and Nepal. I would return to the States feeling fragmented, disconnected, no longer tuned in as fully as I had been in Asia. Sometimes I would access Her realm at my altar, alone, or with my teacher, Nandu, but rarely out in the western world.

In Tantra our bodies, our being is a reflection or aspect of the macro-cosmic whole. I want to really know that HERE in my home town. If Devi is everywhere, then we should not have to travel to India or Nepal just to get those Shakti jolts. For years I have been frustrated, angry and depressed by how maligned, feared, marginalized the Divine Mother is here in the west. I have loved traveling abroad and witnessing the millions who love and adore Her. But it seems that with the beginning of this Durga puja She is revealing that there are more of us here in the west that worship Her fierceness and Her grace than I realized. She has come to us here in the west because we have called Her to us. We know She has much to teach us about justice, equality, peace and inner strength. Although I may continue to maintain my independent path of worship after this puja period, a part of me keeps thinking how I may not be as alone as I often feel and think I am. She is here. Outside of my shrine room, within myself and in every other devotee at the puja. In every tree, cat and stone.

Durga, whose name means fortress, is the Invincible One. She is unconquerable, indomitable, and fearless. In Her manifestation as MahaKali, She destroys our delusions, She pierces through the veils of our ignorance, She annihilates our arrogance. She frees us from our pain. Her eight to eighteen arms carry the tools and weapons we need to approach any conflict and challenge in our life with conviction and composure. She teaches us to enter life's struggles without losing our center. She reminds us that we are all embodiments of Her. I do not want to forget this, and yet it is a teaching that continues to unfold for me.

"I meditate upon the three-eyed Goddess, Durga, Reliever of Difficulties; the luster of Her beautiful body is like lightening. She sits upon the shoulders of a lion and appears very fierce. Many maidens (Matrikas or Mother Goddesses) holding the double-edged sword and shield in their hands are standing at readiness to serve Her. She holds in Her hands discus, club, double-edged sword, shield, arrow, bow, net and the mudra connecting the thumb and the pointer finger, with the other three fingers extended upwards, indicating the granting of wisdom. Her intrinsic nature is as fire, and upon her head She wears the moon as a crown."
(Chandi Path by Swami Satyananda Saraswati)

Simple Acts of Reverence, Durga and Her Festival

Durga Puja, the harvest festival in celebration of Goddess Durga begins the day after the new moon this week. Here is a piece from my book about my experience during Durga Puja in Kathmandu in 2000.

At the autumn equinox, the annual worship of Goddess Durga begins on the dark moon. For nine days and nights daily recitation of the Sri Sri Chandi text invokes Durga’s victory over demons that are destroying the precious equilibrium of the earth. The Chandi serves as a mythological guide demonstrating the immeasurable powers Durga embodies, which, from a tantric perspective, are inherent in each of us. The ritual re-enactment of this epic myth expresses a deep reverence for earth as Mother and honors the inseparable connection between divine and human existence.

On each morning of the nine day festival, Durga’s devotees go to one of the hundreds of Goddess temples in the Valley. They bathe in the river at a tirtha or sacred place of the Goddess to cleanse themselves of negative thoughts and emotions. Then, they collect sand from the river bank to place on their home shrine. On the first morning of the ritual, after the sand has been added to the family altar, a priest invokes the Goddess Durga into the seeds of the barley plant. The sprouts that will appear over the next nine days become symbolic of the sword Durga uses to cut away destructive forces.

On the first morning of the Durga festival in 2000, I dressed in red and went down to the river with several other women from the pilgrimage I was co-leading. We bought an offering plate of woven leaves filled with rice, red and yellow powder, oiled-wicks in ceramic cups, coconuts, flowers, especially marigolds; a favorite of Durga, rice, and ropes of incense. I soon became lost within this world. Beyond the bounds of time and space, immersed in the sacredness of every act, I found myself going from shrine to shrine as if I had done it hundreds of times before. All my senses were utilized: the act of darśan— seeing and being seen by the deity, touching their feet or foreheads, listening to chanting and bells ringing, the smell of incense and flowers floating through the air, and the taste of consecrated food.

Our small group followed the procession that wound throughout the temple complex. Inside the central gates there is an elaborate medieval pagoda style temple that houses an image of Durgā as Bhagawati. In this manifestation Her name refers to the creative power of women’s yonis or wombs/vulvas. This power does not necessarily manifest in a physical child for goddesses like Durga and many of her counterparts are, in fact, not biological mothers. Her power is the force of creativity in all its forms, but especially art, music, dance and literature.

To the right of Bhagawati’s temple, fifteen people were playing instruments and chanting to Devī under a roofed, but open-walled pavilion. The sounds of devotional music reverberated throughout the compound. We went down to the end of the line, which reached the riverbank. Women and men must wait in separate lines, and as is common in most religious rituals I have attended, the women outnumber the men two to one. A long line of vibrant red saris flowed through the temple. I entered the blood red stream and awaited my turn with Bhagawati.

In the main courtyard a group of Goddesses, the Nava Durgās, nine fierce manifestations of the Goddess Durga are carved into niches along the walls. Flowers and rice coated in blood and red vermillion paste carpeted the temple grounds. Sweet mystifying whiffs of incense filled the air. Red, orange, and yellow powder stained my fingers and was smeared on my face from brushing my hair back every time I knelt down to rest my head on a deity's smeared crimson feet. A vibrant array of colors and offerings were all over the ground and covered every deity and divine icon along the way.

Even though I am not Hindu, I was allowed inside the temple. The inner sanctum is dark, moist, and pungent with smells of the many offerings to Goddess. After placing my head on Bhagawati’s sticky red feet and giving Her my offerings and prayers, I went outside to light a butter lamp, burn incense, and ring a bell as a means of communicating with the Divine. Such gestures signal our devotion and reverence, as well as our acknowledgement of being in sacred space. I stood there in prayer for a few moments, then turned to see a middle-aged Nepalese woman warmly smiling at me. Her eyes met mine, “Jaya Mata, Victory to the Mother" she whispered to me as she touched my hand. Two women from different continents, worlds and languages apart from each other, and yet despite the superficial unfamiliarities we share, there is a deeper bond of love and devotion to Goddess. I have found unity, if even for a brief moment.
Jai Bhagawati Ma.

Pilgrimage to the Matrika Varahi

We drive for hours through the blistering heat. Bouncing along the heavily pot-holed roads, trying to find the turn-off based on natural markings in the landscape- three stones stacked upon the other and the roots of one of hundreds of banyan trees painted in a special configuration of yellow and red. How will we know which tree it is? How will we know that these are the right triad of stones? These are not easy markers as there are many such shrines along these Indian country roads. We surrender to Devi, to Goddess to lead us there. And She does. After hours of driving in the sweltering Orissan heat, we pull up to the Candasi temple. It is a sacred Tantric temple to one of my favorite aspects of Goddess Durga, Varahi- the boar-headed Matrika or Mother Goddess.

Entering a Tantric temple is to enter the womb of Goddess—literally, for the Sanskrit name of the inner sanctum is Garbha Griha or womb and temples are considered microcosmic embodiments of the Goddess’ macrocosmic Reality. Upon entering, I find the narrow vulvic passage, which leads to a small opening through which one must bow their head in reverence and essentially crawl into the pitch back inner sanctum. To me it feels like I am re-entering the womb of our Mother and yet what I discover within her stone temple body is always a mystery. This particular space exudes a mysterious somewhat frightening aura. Frightening only because this sacred womb space is pregnant with the unknown and much that is unfamiliar to this contemporary initiate. What awaits me here? I wonder.

Cautiously, I slide deeper into Varahi’s dark chambers. My eyes, accustomed to the blazing sunlight, have difficulty adjusting. Having left the security that comes with the light of day, I now feel like I have been cloaked in the darkest of night— that time just before dawn. I feel nervous and a little afraid. Varahi has a formidable presence, and I have the sense that she is watching me through the thick black silky air. All I can see is the strong, powerful outline of her huge commanding body and the piercing glare of her metallic eyes as a sliver of sunlight slices through the blackened chambers and shoots off two newly placed metal eyes.

Varahi is not delicate. She is not graceful. She is not even sensual or seductive in the way the other goddesses I have seen have been. Instead She is fierce, immense, tough—and alluring. Intimidating, yes. And even totally captivating. I become rooted to the earth before her. I want to give her the offerings I have brought, the sweets, the kum kum powder, the jasmine incense, but for several minutes I cannot even lift my arms. She has possessed me. And I must wait and listen. No one fucks with Varahi at this temple. She can rip them to shreds with those tusks, and She will.

“Merge with me.” She whispers in a gravelly voice. I cautiously place my hand on her nostrils and can almost feel her snorting warm breath. She is covered in a sari, and my hands move down her neck and onto her chest. I rest my hands on her pendulous breasts, the thick cotton fabric beneath my finger tips. Tears fill my eyes as deep longing envelops me. If only I could rest in her lap and have her cradle me in her arms…I bow my head and lean against her. I can now hear her grunting with content, love and affection for her devotee. It seems as if her warm moist breath swirls from the back of my neck and up through the air. My consciousness follows and is taken to memories of the distant past.

I begin to have visions of chakras of practitioners, chanting, praying, singing to Her. My head begins to ache as I try to take it all in and question what I am intuiting, what I could be remembering from other lives, and how or if my studies and sadhana could be influencing these visions. What is Real? Ultimately all that is Real is the magnificence and Shakti of this incredible Goddess before me. My hands instinctively move to her full round belly. This belly is pregnant with creativity, abundance, knowledge and wisdom. The folds of her fat, although made of stone, seem to meld into my hands. My hands continue their journey to her valiant thighs and knees. I stand before her, my eyes now having adjusted to the darkness, gazing into her eyes, smelling the musty moist scent of the chamber. This is the sweetened wet fragrance of Her womb. Remembering. I cry and pray. I miss Her. I miss this place. I know this place deep in my bones. I know the worship that goes on here. It is my spiritual heritage. It transcends lifetimes.The longer I remain within Her chamber, the more intense the pounding in my head becomes. It feels as if I cannot contain all the Shakti that is coursing through me, the vast energies that are being provoked, stimulated, called back to memory. My fingers fall to Her feet and feel the sweet outline of several toe rings on the very same toes as my own toe rings. Sisters in adornment, I think. Perhaps my love for jewelry in this lifetime comes in part from these rituals where Devi must be adorned. It is a deep comfort to know of any symbolic as well as esoteric connection between my contemporary western life and Varahi’s age-old divine presence.

I want to be fierce like Her. I want to be fearless and free. I long for Her confidence and conviction. I need Her strength, Her unconditional love, Her unwavering stamina and discriminating wisdom. I offer my body, my heart, my mind and my soul. Let me be in service to you, Varahi Maa. Please help me to always remember who I am. I bid my farewell and enter out into the blinding sunlight. Using the outer temple walls as a crutch, I stumble to the back of the temple to rest my head and hands against the wall right behind where She so authoritatively resides. I slide to the earth and rest my body against Hers. My head and heart pounding. My soul feeling free.

(Excerpt from my forthcoming book on Durga based on my pilgrimage experience in India, February 2002.)

Are We Divine?

This past week I attended an event where Alice Walker spoke about her newest 'children's' book, Why War Is Never A Good Idea. This book is an evocative poem that personalizes the horrors of war and the devastating effects it has on our Mother, the Earth. She questioned why, through war, we would destroy the only home we have. She reminded us that this planet is our home, a magnificent house that every single one of us shares. If we poison the earth in the Middle East, we are polluting the water and air we ourselves will eventually drink. Everyone of us must drink from the village well for we live in a global village.

During her presentation she talked about how each of us has an essential question, a question that walks beside us throughout our lives. A question that is always being raised in our every act, our every thought and experience. Our question and the answer to our question is our offering, our medicine or wisdom for this planet and all Her inhabitants.

Alice's question, which she writes about in both "Possessing the Secret of Joy" and "Warrior Marks" is Why are the children crying? When I heard this I caught a glimpse of my own question. I felt her tiptoeing around me, waiting for me to notice her and to take her by the hand. And although my question's subtle movements had not yet settled into a form I could fully articulate, I knew that the reason why children are crying and my own question were related. Would we be bombing children in Iraq or Afghanistan or Palestine or Israel or Iran if we truly knew that they, like ourselves, are divine? Children are crying because we adults have forgotten our inherent divinity. God is not some transcendent notion, some all-powerful, judgmental and punitive being who resides up there in the sky. No. God/Goddess/Spirit/Love/Divinity is in each of us. It is not something we have to search for outside of ourselves. Most of us humans have forgotten that. Instead the quest for whose God is most powerful, whose one God is the ultimate Truth has produced centuries of violence and bloodshed, of fear and rage, of terror and trauma. Considering the current state of the world with its senseless wars and vicious brutality, it is no wonder that children are crying.

In the Tantric tradition there is a concept called Nyasa, which refers to the process of becoming divine. Becoming divine is actually an endless act of remembering, of awakening and reawakening to our inherent wisdom, to our Shakti or power. It is not like we will wake up one day and forever thereafter think, Oh yes! I am God! I am divine! Rather, it is the evolution of our consciousness that happens gradually. I believe that we are here to learn to integrate our energies in a way that allows us to live in balance and harmony within our self and with all beings on this earth.

Seven years ago I went on pilgrimage to the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal for the annual Durga puja or ritual. When asked why I was there, I would initially respond with the same answer: " I am here to pay homage to Goddess Durga." Much to my surprise, I began to have a similar experience with many of the Nepalis I met. "No, you are not here to worship Her. You are becoming Durga," I was told this again and again. "You are here to learn to embody Her." "You are here because you ARE Durga." My initial reaction was embarrassment and extreme discomfort. How could I be a Goddess? How could I, with my tendencies towards depression, with my fiery Hungarian and Italian temper, with all my insecurities and fears, be a Goddess? What could they possibly mean?! And if what they said were true, what would I tell my friends and family when I returned? Hi, I had a great trip. By the way, I am God....They would surely think I was crazy, or ?

In her essay called "Divine Women" Irigaray writes, " Divinity is what we need to become free, autonomous, sovereign....God forces us to do nothing except become. The only task, the only obligation laid upon us is: to become divine men and women, to become perfectly, to refuse to allow parts of ourselves to shrivel and die that have the potential for growth and fulfillment...And yet, without the possibility that God might be made flesh as a woman, through the mother and daughter, and in their relationships, no real constructive help can be offered to a woman (or a man). If the divine is absent in woman, and among women, there can be no possibility of changing."

During that pilgrimage I became conscious, for the first time in my life, that my life's journey with its tremendous challenges and hardships, with all the suffering I have had to endure, and with all the wonder, love and blessings I have experienced as well, was transforming me in order for me to remember who I am. Durga is not outside of me. She IS me in all my anger, sadness, ecstasy and bliss. And I am Her. Sometimes I feel more aligned with Her than others. Some days I cry like a child and feel like my tears will never end. Some days I embody Her and see Her in every being I meet. She is me and She is you.

"Are We Divine?" That is the most essential question of my heart and soul.

What is yours?

The Virgin

Now that the Sun has entered the sign of Virgo, I have been thinking a lot about the virgin. What does it mean that Goddess Durga cannot be reduced to being the virgin (or the whore)? What is a virgin? I remember being a teenager and not wanting to be a virgin any longer. Having no pubescent rite of passage rituals in this culture, on an unconscious level, I think I was longing for an initiation into womanhood. But, of course, I did not know that then. All I knew is that I needed to "go all the way." And yet, would having sex with a man (or teenage boy) really truly initiate me into being a woman?!! At the age of 16 I was ashamed to have not lost my virginity. I had 'lovers', but I also had a tyrannical father, who at the age of 12, before I had even kissed a boy had already called me a slut (I had to look up the word in the dictionary!). Given his dictatorial presence, I lived in an almost constant state of fear of being caught and then grounded for the rest of my life! Nevertheless, being a virgin was, in my mind, a state of being that made me an outsider-I was not part of the 'cool girls club' because I did not have the sexual experience that I was made to believe they had.

Let me pause for a moment to reflect on the language- to lose one's virginity? LOSE?!!! Indeed, what are young women losing when they have sexual intercourse for the first time-AND how heterosexist is this whole concept?!!! A woman can only lose her virginity to a man- not to a woman, and not to herself...hmmm...so the virgin is a state of being that has to do with being in relation to man-in patriarchal consciousness. (Consider the sex trafficking of girls and the ridiculous amount of money that is paid for having sex with (raping) a 'virgin'...) In the Judeo-Christian tradition our model of virginity is Mary. It is interesting to note the patriarchal co-option of Mary's sexual and spiritual power. Although she is the Virgin Mother of Christ, Mary lacks divine status.

In the Goddess traditions the word, virgin takes on a whole other meaning. In fact, the word virgin, means WHOLE UNTO HERSELF. A woman can have sex with man or woman and remain whole. She does not lose anything. She does not give herself away. Instead sex is a ritual act. Sex is sacred. It is a celebration of the wholeness of two beings coming together in ecstatic union. Luce Irigaray writes “Virginity must be rediscovered by all women as their own bodily and spiritual possession, which can give them back an individual and collective status…becoming a virgin is synonymous with a woman’s conquest of the spiritual” (p.116-117 “How Old are You?” in je, tu, nous: Toward a Culture of Difference)

We need to reclaim the word virgin and create rituals that honor and celebrate our virginity-at all ages, whether we are sexual with another being or not. What would a woman who was truly virginal, fully complete within herself, living in and from her own center sexually, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally actually be like? What kind of changes could possibly take place in ourselves, and in the world?

Goddess Durga

Goddess Durga is a sight to behold! One hand bears the mudra, Fear not, I will protect you while Her 17 other hands hold tools and weapons to liberate us from that which binds us into thinking we are smaller and less significant than we truly are. Durga sits confidently astride Her majestic tiger, a being who reminds us of our instinctual, powerful, and playful nature. With the aid of Her devoted feline companion, Durga fearlessly rides into any situation that needs Her discriminating and severing wisdom.

Durga embodies the paradoxes of our very existence: she is both warrior and divine mother, both death bringer and creator. She defies western concepts of femininity, her presence expressing the full spectrum of the female psyche. She cannot be reduced to either virgin or whore, but rather is a complex and paradoxical divine model of female empowerment. Durga transcends patriarchal definitions of femininity as passive and submissive and masculinity as active and dominant. She is Shakti-the dynamic creative female force of unbridled power. Durga represents unabashed female embodiment. She teaches us to take up space, to love our bodies and menstrual cycles. She is a passionate lover unafraid to claim Her sexual power and channel its energies towards planetary healing and transformation.

Through Durga we may understand the complete picture of human existence: that fierceness coexists with tenderness, death walks hand in hand with life, that pain and suffering are the complementary realities of joy and ecstasy. She teaches us to confront our fears and transform life’s difficulties. She guides us toward strength and spiritual empowerment. She is the liberator of the oppressed and the marginalized. No problem is too great for Durga to solve. Durga comes to our aid when life is out of balance. However, She is always with us, in peace and in turmoil, for She is the force behind all existence.

Jai Durga Ma!