Hindu Gods & Goddesses

by Stephen Knapp

  Mahalakshmi is the aspect of raja-guna, the passionate nature. In this aspect she is seen as red in color, signifying the will to fight evil forces. She has eighteen hands, holding a rosary, pot, club, lance, sword, shield, conch, bell, wine cup, trident, noose, and disc. She is the one who killed Mahishasura.

  Mahasarasvati represents the sattvic aspect, or that of goodness and purity. She is light in color and has eight hands that hold a bell, trident, plough, conch, pestle, disc, bow, and arrow. She is the manifestation of beauty, work and organization. It is she, as Kaushika Durga, who manifested from Parvati. She is the one who destroyed the demons known as Dhumralochana, Chanda, Munda, Raktabija, Nishumbha, and Shumbha, all of which are certain aspects of the principle of ego.

  Kali is another form of the goddess that is often seen in temples and pictures. She is usually pictured as nude except for being covered by her scattered hair. She has a dark complexion. She wears an apron of human hands and a garland of human skulls, and sometimes carries a human head in one hand, freshly severed and dripping with blood, and a long chopper in another hand. The other two hands are giving blessings and offering protection. Her tongue is protruding, dripping with blood. She is also often seen in a cremation ground or in a battlefield amidst dead and mutilated bodies. Sometimes she is standing on the white or bluish body of her spouse, Shiva. He supplicates her in this way to keep her from destroying everything.

  The meaning of all this is that, first of all, Kali represents time, Kala, which devours everything in its terrifying ways. She is naked because she is free from the veil of ignorance that the universe represents, which hides our real spiritual identity. She is black because she represents tama-guna or the void which has swallowed everything, including space, time, and the ingredients of material nature. Her apron of hands indicates that she is pleased with the offerings of our work, so she wears them. It also represents the inward potential for outward manifestation waiting to take place. Her disheveled hair simply represents her freedom to go and do as she likes. The garland of 50 skulls represents the 50 letters of the alphabet or sound, from which the whole material manifestation has sprung, and which is now in a state of destruction indicated by her wearing them. Though she is an awesome form, she is also offering freedom from fear by her hand gestures.

  A further explanation of why Goddess Kali stands on Shiva is that once Kali engaged in a battle in which she destroyed all the demons. She danced in victory to such an extent that the worlds started to shake in destruction. Everyone became concerned and Shiva came to appease her from further dancing. Yet, she was so worked up that she could not notice or listen to him. So, Shiva laid like a corpse at her feet to absorb the shock of her movements, and when she finally noticed that she had stepped on her husband, she put her tongue out in shame.

  THE IDENTITY OF DURGA AND DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MAHAMAYA AND YOGAMAYA

  Being the personification of the material energy, Durga is also the maidservant of Lord Krishna, and conducts herself in accordance to the will of the Supreme. Her shadow is the material energy, maya. In this form of Durga, she is pictured as a beautiful demigoddess with ten arms, representing the ten types of material activities. She rides on her lion, indicating her heroic activities. She is the subduer of vices, represented by the image of her trampling the demon Mahishasura. She is the mother of her sons Kartikeya and Ganesha, representing beauty and success. She is armed with twenty weapons, denoting the various pious activities enjoined by the Vedas for the suppression of vices. She also holds a snake, which signifies destructive time. The word durga also means a prison house or a fort. So, the material world is like a prison from which it is hard to escape. "Dur" means difficulty and "Ga" means going. So, it is very difficult to escape from this material world without undergoing many hardships. But one who takes shelter of the spiritual potency can get free from the illusory nature of the material world. Thus, when the living beings forget their spiritual nature and the service of the Supreme Being, Krishna, they are confined in the material prison of the universe. This is the aspect of the cosmic creation which is presided over by Durga. However, those who are devotees of the Lord and who are on the spiritual path to regain their real nature are free from this prison-like environment of the universe. Durga does not affect them.

  The spiritual form of Durga is Yogamaya. The external form of Durga is Mahamaya, the illusory energy. The spiritual form of Durga who functions on the platform of shuddha-sattva, pure transcendental existence, is understood to be Krishna's sister, known as Ekanamsha or Subhadra.9 The name Subhadra means auspicious. So, Subhadra also paves the way for the devotee's spiritual progress by supplying that which is auspicious and taking away all that is inauspicious. This is the spiritual form of Durga, the shadow of whom is the external material energy.

  We should note, however, that Durga works in the material world. Subhadra plays the part of Lord Krishna's sister and is the internal or spiritual energy, and does not work as Durga in the material world. So, originally their energy is one and the same, but through her expansion as Durga she works in a different capacity within the material realm.

  Furthermore, higher than Subhadra is Radharani, Lord Krishna's consort and the quintessence of spiritual energy. She is the personification, essence, and origin of Lord Krishna's pleasure potency, hladini-shakti. This pleasure potency of Lord Krishna expands to become Radharani for the sake of the most intimate spiritual pastimes in Goloka Vrinadavana, the topmost spiritual planet. This potency expands further into the forms of Krishna's queens in the other Vaikuntha planets, and also as His sister, Subhadra, for other purposes and pastimes. And Durga is an expansion of this internal or spiritual energy. In this way, Durga also can be considered an expansion of Radharani. Therefore, Radharani is the source of the pleasure essence in the spiritual dimension, while Durga provides the means for all pleasure in the material realm.

  So, herein we can understand that mahamaya in the material world is an expansion of yogamaya in the spiritual world. The difference in function is that yogamaya manages the spiritual sky, and in her partial expansion as mahamaya she manages the material world. Yogamaya covers the devotees in the spiritual world so that they can forget the Lord's greatness and engage in loving pastimes with Him as His friends, parents, servants, and so on without being overwhelmed by His omnipotence. Mahamaya in the material world, on the other hand, keeps the living entities forgetful of their true eternal nature as long as they have no spiritual inclination. It keeps them superficially content with material happiness. So, yogamaya helps bring the devotees together with the Supreme Being in various relationships while mahamaya keeps them separate, or at least makes it seem they are separate through the principle of forgetfulness.

  THE TWO ENERGIES OF MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL

  Another way to understand this is that there are two divisions of energy, the material and spiritual. The original energy is the spiritual, in which is the hladini-shakti potency of Krishna, which is His pleasure potency. It is this pleasure potency from God through which all spiritual joy and happiness are felt. This is also the original form of Durga who is nondifferent from this spiritual energy, but Durga is her form in the material world. The partial expansion of the hladini-shakti potency is mahamaya, which also acts like a covering for the hladini-shakti potency, which is also the pleasure of our spiritual nature and connection with the Supreme. In the material world she bewilders the conditioned souls so they can think they are happy in material pursuits. In this way, the materialists remain covered over by their attraction to their desires for sense pleasure due to mahamaya, and the devotees and transcendentalists become absorbed in spiritual pleasure through yogamaya, or the hladini-shakti. It is through yogamaya that the religious become happy or joyous in their spiritual pursuits and liberated from the material realm. This is the work of Subhadra who provides what is auspicious and takes away what is inauspicious for the sincere seekers on the spiritual path. Thus, the material energy is like a testing ground that must be p
assed before one can gain entrance into the spiritual world. It also protects the spiritual atmosphere from those who are not sincere. This is also one of the functions of Durga.

  In the Brahma Vaivarta Purana (Krishna-Janma-Khanda, 118.35) Durga talks with Shiva about how she is an expansion from the highest realms and explains herself in this way: "I am Mahalakshmi in Vaikuntha, Srimati Radha in Goloka, Shivaa [connected with Shiva] in the region of Shiva, and Sarasvati in the abode of god Brahma." Thus, from the highest levels of the spiritual domain she expands herself to include all other shaktis or potencies.

  The Narada Purana (1.3.27) also explains that in regard to Lord Vishnu, "His Shakti is the great Maya, the trustworthy upholder of the universe. In view of its being the material cause of the universe, it is [also] calledprakriti by scholars."

  This illusory energy, maya, plays an important part in the creative process of the cosmic manifestation. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.5.25), Maitreya explains to Vidura that the external energy works as both cause and effect in the cosmic manifestation. This external energy is known as maya or illusion, and through her agency only is the entire material manifestation made possible.

  Maya is the external energy of the Lord and is divided into two parts. Maya is the efficient cause, and the other part are the ingredients that create the cosmic manifestation, known as the pradhana or prakriti.10 The Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.63.26) relates that in the pradhana aspect, maya is composed of time, activity, providence (the destiny of the conditioned souls) and nature. These along with the vital force or energy, the subtle material ingredients, and the material nature, known as the field of activity for the conditioned souls, and the eleven senses (the senses of perception and organs of action) and five elements (earth, air, fire, water, and ether), are the ingredients of maya. Thus, Lord Krishna is the creator and maya only helps Him as an instrument. It is this maya, or material nature, which the Lord glances over which becomes agitated, and into which the Lord injects the seed of life as the original living entities. Thereafter, due to the reactions of the Lord's glance and His energy that mixes with maya, the material energy gives birth to the myriad universes.11

  So, maya, or material nature, is merely the secondary cause of the creation. Nonetheless, it serves two purposes: It contains the subtle material elements, and then through the changes that take place causes the material manifestation. The Brahma-samhita (5.19) also explains that the primary material elements were originally separated. Then through the spiritual power of the Supreme, in His knowledge potency, maya was moved. It is through this combination of the efficient or spiritual potency in conjunction with the inactive material causal principles of maya that the elements and the different entities develop into a state of cooperation. Thus, it is by this combination of energies that the material creation can manifest, and the spiritual living beings appear as the materially conditioned souls within the material elements of the creation. In a graphic description, it is explained that maya appears like a huge pot filled with the innumerable universes that are like mustard seeds within it.12

  Another function of maya is to cover the living beings with the material energy, and, thus, keep them in illusion as to what is their true identity. This sort of forgetfulness is one of the main principles of the material world, without which the living beings could not engage in material life. After all, if it was too obvious to the living beings that they are spiritual entities, they would not be satisfied with material pursuits or the engagement of bodily sense pleasures. So, to help provide a playground for the materially conditioned souls who are rebellious and want to live outside of God's kingdom, this forgetfulness must be there. This is the third function of maya, which covers the living entity in this way. As explained in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (8.14.10), "People in general are bewildered by the illusory energy [maya], and therefore they try to find the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, through various types of research and philosophical speculation. Nonetheless, they are unable to see the Supreme Lord."

  This is further explained as follows: The internal potency of the Supreme Lord is spiritual. The marginal potency consists of the living beings who can lean toward either the spiritual or material energy. The third potency of the Lord is the material energy itself, maya, also called nescience or darkness. It is this maya which makes the living entity godless and fills him with the desires for fruitive activity and sense pleasure. Thus, because of being influenced by the nescient potency, which covers his spiritual position, he suffers the threefold miseries of material existence.13 These three kinds of miseries of material existence include those that come from the body itself, those caused by other living beings, and those problems caused by natural occurrences.

  Because of being illusioned like this, the living entities cannot understand the truth of the creation and, thus, they wander throughout the material world for many lifetimes. However, the living beings are independent in determining whether they want to engage in material or spiritual activities. Misusing this independence to turn toward the dark side separates the living beings in varying degrees from the spiritual light. Yet, when the living beings turn toward God and work to regain their spiritual nature, they can return to their normal spiritual state of being and be relieved of material existence.

  Actually, the spiritual living beings are merely covered by this cloud of maya, which affects their consciousness. Therefore, the goal of any genuine spiritual path is simply to remove this cloud and the influence of the illusory energy. If a religious system cannot do that, then it is incomplete.

  The Brahma-samhita (5.44) also explains that maya is like the shadow of the Lord's chit or knowledge potency, and is also worshiped in the form of Durga, the creating, preserving, and destroying agency of this material world.

  THE SHAKTAS AND TANTRISM

  The Shakta tradition is another of the three major traditions of the Vedic culture. The power or energy of Shiva is Shakti, the embodiment of power. She is the power and support of the entire universe. Thus, she is the Universal Mother. He who worships Shakti or the divine feminine energy is a Shakta. In this tradition Shiva represents the eternal consciousness, while Shakti represents mind and mater. The Shaktas are those who believe that the original active and creative principle of existence is the divine energy called shakti. Shakti is the feminine energy inherent in everything throughout the universe and is considered the companion of Lord Shiva in her personified form.

  The original ideas of the Shakta belief can be traced back to the Rig Veda and other later works. However, the Vedanta-sutras (2.2.42-45) point out some essential faults with the Shakta philosophy. For example, to consider that Shakti or energy alone can be the independent cause of the world is not a complete understanding. The reason is that energy alone cannot create without the cooperation, direction, and facility from the energetic, which, in this case, is the Creator or Supreme Being. Energy must have a source, meaning the energetic. Thus, as we have explained in the previous section, this Shakti is ultimately the energy of the Supreme Lord. She is not nor can be the sole cause of the world. She works most closely with the energy of the Lord in the form of Lord Shiva.

  The Supreme is the energetic or source and controller of the energy, just as the powerhouse is the source of the electrical energy that is controlled to illuminate so many light bulbs. Thus, energy cannot exist without the energetic. Therefore, the followers of the Shakti cult who have imagined that energy is the cause of the world are not supported by conclusive Vedic authority. It is not possible that merely by energy alone all the elements of the universe can be produced. In the same manner, we do not see a woman produce children without the contact of a man. Only through the energy given by the seed of a man can there be conception in a woman. Similarly, only if Shakti or nature is controlled and directed by the contact of the purusha, God, can there be the organized formation of the material elements. In this way, everything proceeds from the Supreme Being, as explained elsewhere in Vedic literature, and Shakti i
s not independent.

  The Shaktas are divided into two groups, one called the Right-hand, the other called the Left-hand group. The Right-hand or dakshinachara are the ascetic group, while the Left-hand or vamachara are those who combine their yogic exercises with practices that are often considered more unorthodox, called the panchamakara, or the five "M"s. These are madya (wine drinking), mamsa (meat-eating), matsya (fish), mudra (parched grain), maithuna (ritual sex), and also ceremonial songs. In most cases, the drinking of wine, eating meat, and sexual activities are meant to be used as part of a sacrificial rite in the worship of goddess Kali or Durga.

  Tantraism is linked with yoga and the magical formulas of the Atharva Veda. The ascetic process of the Tantric path is very similar to the raja yoga and kundalini yoga systems. But before going on to the advanced stages, one must perfect the basics, such as simplicity, kindness, devotion, prayer, and self-analysis, along with the yama and niyama principles as described in raja yoga.

  Tantra is a path meant to utilize all the sciences to develop psychic power, understand reality, and expand one's awareness in all states of consciousness. In this way, all levels of consciousness are to be explored by performing various kinds of exercises and techniques. However, the training and procedures that some Tantric yogis may have to do as a sign of advancement can be a dreadful experience for one who is psychologically unprepared. Detachment from the body and advancement on the path is attained by the performance of what most people would consider unusual if not bizarre practices. In Tantrism, particularly the Left-hand path, progress and liberation are achieved primarily through direct experience rather than through meditation. The ingredients and experiences in the rituals are also to induce different levels of consciousness.