DISCUSSION ON DEVI IN Ask a Hindu-Questions on Sanatan Dharma
29 September 2021 18.35 hours
Shantanu Panigrahi
Devi in Hinduism is in actual fact Lakshmi, as an incarnation of Durga, not Parvati, or Saraswati or Kali: What do the scriptures say?
Rita Gupta:
Devi is One and only, all her forms are different manifestations. Both authoritative Scriptures of Shaktism, Devi Mahatmay (Durga Saptshati, a part of Markendya Puran) and Devi Bhagawat (an independent Puran) explain so well.
She is triguna, in her Sat form, She is Laxmi. In her Raj form, She is Saraswati and in Tam form, she is Kali. Durga is her form where all three gunas are present. Parvati is her Shakti form to accompany Shiva, the Consciousness, so srashthi (Creation) could take place.
दीक्षा महान्ती Diksha Mohanty
Devi is just any female goddess .
And Maa Durga , maa kali is incarnation of maa parvati .
Maa durga and maa kali are same goddess with different form.
Laxmi and saraswati mata are different entities.
Brāhman Seeker
Devi is basically the Ādī Śakti and all these forms and names are different manifestations and Avatāra of the same Mother Divinity. Jai Mā Bhavānī 🙏
Shantanu Panigrahi
Rita Gupta, That is very comprehensive response. Thank you Rita. I will learn our scriptures from now on Devi in different sampradayas. Hinduism is so vast and gives so much reverence to goddesses in this context so engenders great respect of Hindu males towards the female gender which makes for wonderful spirituality for the nation of India. No place like India or should I say Bharat. Much as the different conquerors tried to destroy our culture, from Alexander the Great, the Persians (Moughals), the Europeans and especially the British who spent 350 years and introduced Islam and then Christianity, we Hindus took that as a lesson to learn from and one day we will return to traditional values of respect for young, middle aged and older people of both sexes as well as the Gay and Lesbian and Bisexual people for all are the Creators doing and serve different purposes in the Grand Design that needs the soul to be cleansed through reincarnation to climb up the karmic ladder towards the eventual destination of Brahmaloka where devas and asura as souls exist. I grew up worshipping Durga and Saraswati but was not very keen on Kali due to the fear of her appearance in statues and pictures, but Lakshmi was like Mother to me. Somehow, I always felt that 'Ya Devi Sarbabhutesu, shantirupena sanstitata’ and the entire song/bhajan/prayer was a salutation to Durga as the Supreme Goddess the Creator, who with Sri Krishna being two sides of the same coin of the Almighty.
Shantanu Panigrahi
दीक्षा महान्ती Thank you Dikshaji, I would like to know more about your Devi.
दीक्षा महान्ती
Shantanu Panigrahi, My Devi? I believe all the Devi we know from books of Hinduism are one with different form and name .all are same shakti.
Shantanu Panigrahi
दीक्षा महान्ती Thanks.
Shivam Vinod Gupta
Rita Gupta, Mam Please Quote the Scripture. Because Nowadays their are many conmen who extract things from their own head and call it to be from the Scriptures. Thank You
Rita Gupta
Shantanu Panigrahi Great, study Durga Saptshati. There are three stories and four Stuties which really tell the philosophy of this important and very popular part of Hiduism. You can skip the details of the stories but pay attention to Stuties, there is the cream hidden.
As you learn, you will see that Kali is only a Shakti, very fierce and powerful of Durga Devi. Durgaji manifests her from her third eye to destroy some very terrible demans and absorbs her back once work is done. We should not evoke Kali, we can't make her go back. We should simply worship Durgaji as Mother Goddess. You did right thing.
Shantanu Panigrahi
Rita Gupta Thank you I love this explanation. You are very knowledgeable. I will accept your words as authoritative. I am in Samadhi so do not study scriptures anymore. I was born a Brahmin, turned into a Kshatriya on advice from Sri Krishna that I should take my janeo off to fight a dharmayudha against human rakshases, and today I was back again as a Brahmin although I have not been to the temple to get my janeo blessed in the appropriate ritual. I will start my pujas of Sri Krishna and Durga after taking my next bath tomorrow. I have two murti one of Krishna and very similar one of Radha but I will rename it Durga after my bath and only worship these two Gods.
Rita Gupta
Shantanu Panigrahi That sounds good, but don't rename Radha as Durga. Right now pitta paksh is going on. Wait until it finishes. Then Navaratri will begin, the most auspicious time to worship Durgaji Meantime try to get a picture of Durgaji. You can go online and print one or order online or visit your local Indian store and buy it.
Shantanu Panigrahi
Rita Gupta Ok, Thank you. I will do as you say. I wish to follow the rituals very carefully.
Rita Gupta
Shantanu Panigrahi If you approach Devi as Mother with Bhakti Bhavana, there is nothing to be careful about.
When people do Tantric Sadhana, need to be very careful.
Shantanu Panigrahi
Rita Gupta I have always been a Seeker of the truth, nothing more. That has been my primary concern. I do not approach God Sri Krishna and lately Devi for any other purpose.
Shantanu Panigrahi
At this moment's reflection (12.46 pm, 1 October 2021), I am thinking that Sri Krishna and Durga are two sides of the same coin, God. Just as a coin has a head and a tail the two sides perform different functions, Sri Krishna being the Creator and Sadhguru while Durga as Shakti-Devi is the Preserver who destroys all evil through her manifestations as Kali. She comes when a person is being set upon by worshippers of Shiva/Parvati as the tamasic God in the Trimurti, when a Bhakta of God asks for help as I did in 1997. I have no time to study scriptures because I do not wish to cloud the clarity of my thoughts with confusion from other sources of information that were knowledge to other people, so all my assessments are derived from personal experience of my life and the ordeal that my family have been through, Hence at this late stage of my Samadhi, I worship both Sri Krishna and Durga in Bhakti Bhavana, not in Tantric Yoga.
This only applies when God has made a major interjectioninto the affairs of life on Earth as in the Shloka from Bhagavad Gita, Yada Yada hi dharmasya, glanire bhavati bharata, abhyuthanum adharmasya, tadamana srijamahyam, Paritranaya sadhana vinsahaya cha drystakatam, dharma sanstapnarthaya sambhawami yuge yuge’, as for example for the need to wipe out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago and now in the Kaliyuga where the Earth is in the same kind of peril from material plundering of Nature. In the normal state when there is no peril to the Creation on Earth, the sattvic, rajasic and tamasic gods of the Trimurti in Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva with their consort goddesses that are respectively Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati together interact through guna consciousness mechanism within the Earth and its life forms to preserve Nature and by so doing it is held in balance. That is how it works. Durga the Devi-Shakti protected me and trounced the rakshases of capitalist plunderers of the Earth over the past 24 years while Sri Krishna the Creator and Preserver imparted knowledge and wisdom into me to turn me into a sanatani, practicing sanatan dharma.
Rita Gupta
Shantanu Panigrahi Good for you, sometimes it takes trying situation in life to discover our true self. You are on right path, to have Shraddha and Vishvas in Ishwar, never let any other philosophy overtake that.
Shantanu Panigrahi
Rita Gupta, Thank you Ritaji: I still have a life. The other day, I named myself as an advaitist. Now I know what this means. All Hindu constructions are philosophies until they become the religion that one lives in accordance with. I cannot abandon any component of my religion as it stands at this moment. But if things change and I l get greater clarification on the simplicity at which my religion in advaita is based, I will change. It gives me great peace of mind and joy.