The Devi Mahatmya (Glory of the Goddess) composed around the fourth century, is an essential text in not just the Sri Vidya tradition but one of the most revered scriptures in Shakti marga. Variously known as Durga Saptashati and Chandi Path, the Devi Mahatmya is a philosophical text describing Shakti as the supreme power and creator of the Universe. It is a part of the Markandeya Purana and is composed as a long poem consisting of thirteen chapters, containing seven hundred verses (hence also known as Saptashati). This seminal work is a eulogy to the glory and splendour of the Mother Goddess, who shows herself as a manifestation of Maha Devi, the great warrior, the protector of the Universe (jagat dhatri) from evil and negativity and the one who saves the world by emerging victorious after battling the forces of darkness.
The text has hymns addressed to the saguna (manifest, incarnated) form of the Goddess, which include Mahasaraswati, the giver of knowledge and wisdom, Mahalakshmi, the giver of wealth and Mahakali, the giver of justice and peace. It also shows the Goddess taking on a fiery and belligerent form when she has to save her children from evil in the form of Kali and Chamundi. In her saguna form, she is seen as a mother who shelters and nurtures, protects her children from difficulties and blesses them with worldly riches and contentment.
A mother has three functions – to give birth, nourish and protect. The philosophical premise of Sankhya is based on the concept that all matter and living beings are made up of three innate tendencies or attributes (guṇa), whose equilibrium or disequilibrium drives the nature of a living being or thing. In her saguna form, the Goddess serves all three while pointing to the three gunas of creation (rajasic), sustenance (sattvic) and destruction or dissolution (tamasic). Tamas is dark, heavy and destructive (as seen in the form of Kali); Sattva is light, balanced and gentle ( as seen in the form of Mahalakshmi), and Rajas is dynamic energy which can either be used for bringing about stability or chaos ( as is seen in the form of Mahasaraswati). This acknowledgement of the dualistic nature as expounded in Sankhya is integrated into the non-dualistic Advaita philosophy in Devi Mahatmya, just as it is reflected in the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and other Hindu texts.
The Devi Mahatmya is essentially the description of a battle between good and evil, where Shakti, manifesting as Durga, leads the forces of good against the demon Mahishasura, the epitome of evil, to eventually emerge victorious, thus saving the Universe from the dark forces that threatened to destabilise existence itself. In peaceful, prosperous times, states the text, the Devi manifests as Lakshmi, empowering creation and happiness and Saraswati, promoting learning, knowledge and wisdom.
The Devi Mahtmya is written in the form of four stutis or hymns:
1. Brahma stuti, also known as Tantrika Ratri Suktam, establishes the Mother’s ultimate transcendence and her identity as creator, preserver and destroyer of the Universe
2. Sakaradi stuti contains praise for the Mother from other Gods
3. Aparajita stuti comprises the twenty slokas beginning with “Ya devi sarva bhuteshu” (also known as the Devi Stuti), which offer praise to the Goddess, celebrating her presence in the Universe as the consciousness that manifests in all beings
4. Narayani stuti lauds the Goddess in her universal, omnipresent aspect and the diverse expressions of her powers. She gives an assurance to protect all of existence and intervene whenever evil arises
The Devi Mahatmya can be seen both as a Vedic hymn and a mantra. Each of its three episodes or charitas is associated with a Rishi (the sage who visualised it), the Chandas (its poetic metre), the presiding deity, and the Viniyoga for japa. Bhaskararaya asserts in Guptavani that Shakti is present in every sound and word of the Devi Mahatmya; he reveres the text as a Mantra Maya scripture. He adds that each shloka of the Devi Mahatmya is a mantra, thereby making it a maha-mantra in effect.
The Devi Mahatmya outlines a philosophical foundation establishing the concept that ultimate reality or Brahman is feminine. The Shakta tradition reveres the Divine Mother as the source of the Universal Power. The Devi Mahatmya is a celebration of these limitless powers and their splendour. C. Mackenzie Brown says “the Devi Mahatmya is a culmination of centuries of Indian ideas about the divine feminine and a foundation for the literature and spirituality focused on the feminine transcendence in the centuries that followed.” It is a devotional text, and its aim, states Thomas Coburn, “is not to analyse divine forms or abstract ideas but to praise. This is accomplished by laying a foundation wherein the female is the primordial creator; she is also the Tridevi – the secondary creator, the sustainer, and the destroyer. Through a language of praise, she is presented as the one who dwells in all creatures, as the soul, possessing the power to know and the ability to will and act. She is the consciousness of all living beings, she is intelligence, she is matter, and she is all that is form or emotion”.
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