Last night, Sri Swami Vishwananda said, “Today is the third day of Navaratri, when are celebrating Chandraghanta Devi. She received this name due to the crescent on her head.”
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| Navaratri 2014 |
According to the Devi Mahatmyam, when She was manifested, She was so beautiful that Mahishasur, a demon-king, wanted to have Her as his wife. Devi said: “Fine, if you want to be my husband, you have to be stronger than me.” First he sent thousands of soldiers to take Devi with them. She just pronounced the word ‘sa’, and all of them became ash. Seeing that, Mahishasur rushed quickly towards Devi to fight with Her. Mahishasur had received the boon that no man could kill him, but he forgot to ask that no Mataji could kill him. He didn’t think that Devi was that powerful. He didn’t know the creative Shakti of God Himself. So Mahishasur went on fighting. He took different demon forms. At the end he took the aspect of a buffalo, and it was in this form that Devi killed him, receiving then Her name of Mahishasur Mardini.
Sri Swami Vishwananda said previously, “In that form of Devi, She removes all the sins from one's life, all the karma that we have created; She removes it and She blesses the devotee with some siddis, like the celestial fragrance. So, whenever the Divine is present, there is also this celestial fragrance all around, which is associated with Chandraghanta Mata. When I was 15, the Divine manifested Himself to show that it was time for me to start working for Him helping the people. So at our place in Mauritius, for 40 days, there was always a sweet fragrance and bees around. Through this sign, you know that the Divine is present.
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| Abishekam (left) and Yagna (right) |
The next point with this form of Devi is that when you look at Her, She is spreading calmness and eternal peace all around Her, but to the wicked one She is terrifying.” So, “if you are negative towards yourself, you can't expect to see positive outside. If your mind is negative, all things around will be negative. But if your mind is clear, pure, calm all around you will be calm.”
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| Arati |
“Mahishasur represents the great ego in men, the pride of thinking we know who we are. We are so much attached to our arrogance that it is very difficult to let go. We think that we are more special than anybody else. Of course each one is unique and each one is special in his own way, but Divine Mother wants to show us that it is only through humility that one will attain the Divine. What emerges first from that great pride are thousands of thoughts saying, ‘This has to be like this, this has to be like that’. We always say, ‘If it is not my way, it’s all wrong.’ But how do you know what is wrong and what is right? If you are not surrendered yet, how would you know that? So you can surrender to Mahadevi and attain Her Grace by asking, ‘Hey Maa, relieve me from this suffering, that I myself put on because I always think of myself being more special, of being different from anybody.’ Forgetting that what dwells deep within us is the same Shakti, is God Himself. So why do we let this mind take over? This mind, which is always opposing what comes from the heart, in one go, if you surrender, you will relieve it. The same way you can remove thousands of thoughts, only by surrendering.
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| Dancing for Devi |
As a Mother, She wants you to sit on Her lap. She will look after you. Don’t let this mind trouble you. Even the thoughts that are created in the mind are Her power. But, She lets us have the freedom to choose whether we want to listen or not. So if we let pride take over, of course it will take a long time, but if you are humble, you will see how easy it is. You will attain the Grace of Maa. It’s not about how many mantras or how many prayers you do for Her, but about this Love that you have for Her. The only thing, that can really melt Her heart, is this simplicity of Love.”
