Goddess Durga is worshipped as the mother of the universe and her name itself reflects ‘Shakti’ or power. Durga in Sanskrit means a fort or a place that is protected and thus difficult to reach. Durga Maa represents the Supreme Being that preserves moral order and righteousness in the creation.
Legend / Story behind Evolution of Durga
The Indian Mythology says that Mahishasura who was the king of Asuras for many years were granted a boon by Lord Brahma that no man or god can kill him. This gave him the power to fight and rule the entire world. He started attacking heaven and urged his battalion of asuras to kill people and take away their wealth. Even gods were driven away from heaven and Mahishasura took the throne. The gods did not have any other way out of this terrorism and requested Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva for help. To solve this issue the three lords combined their divine energy into a feminine form that illuminated the heaven. From this glow Goddess Durga Devi emerged as a beautiful woman with ten arms riding a lion. Durga was born to kill the demons and so she was completely armed in each of her ten arms with divine weapons of each god and sent against Mahishasura for a fierce battle. When Mahishasura disguised as buffalo Devi beheaded the buffalo and then Mahishasura emerged in his original form. Then Devi Durga pierced his chest and relieved the world from evil power.
Goddess Durga Mantra
Om Dum Durgayei Namaha
Om Aing Hring Kling Chamundayei Vichche
Appearance of Goddess Durga
Goddess Durga is usually depicted wearing red clothes. The red color symbolizes action and the red clothes signify that she is always busy destroying evil and protecting mankind from all pain and suffering. She is also seen as demon fighting version of Lord Shiva’s wife, Parvati. She is depicted as having eight or ten hands which represents eight quadrants or ten directions of Hinduism. She appears with three eyes where the left eye represents desire, the right eye represents action and the central eye represents knowledge hence the name ‘Triyambake’. Mother Durga rides over a lion which symbolizes her mastery over the qualities of power, will and determination. She possess different kinds of weapons in her arms like mace, sword, disc, arrow and trident which conveys that one weapon cannot be used to destroy all kinds of enemies, but different kinds of weapons has to be used. She has the sacred conch which emanates the sound of creation ‘AUM’.
Goddess Durga worship during Durga Puja Festival
Durga Puja during the Navaratri festival is the main festival associated with the Goddess. Durga Pooja is the biggest Hindu festival celebrated throughout India. This falls in the month of September - October and the goddess is worshipped in nine forms these days. The goddess is dressed each day as a different devi like Goddess Saraswati, Goddess Parvati, and Goddess Lakshmi. On first day she is Shailputri, second day Brahmacharini, third day Chandraganta, fourth day Kushmanda, fifth day Skanda Mata, sixth day Katyayani, seventh day Kalratri, eighth day Mahagauri and ninth day Sidhidatri. The eight day of Navratri Festival is known as Durgashtami and weapons of Goddess Durga are worshipped on this day. The day of Durga’s victory is celebrated as Vijayadasami. There is also an elemental ritual of immersing the idol of Goddess Durga into the holy river of Ganga which points to cyclical regeneration.
Power of all Divine Forces
Goddess Durga is believed to be the power behind the work of creation, preservation and destruction of the world. She is the divine mother who protects mankind from all evils and miseries and also destroys selfishness, jealousy, prejudice, hatred, anger and ego. Thus Goddess Durga represents a united front of all Divine forces against the negative forces of wickedness and evil.
