Tag: das mahavidya and sati pith

Motivational · Mythological · Spiritual

Devi Bhairavi

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Devi Bhairavi is the fifth great power of Das Mahavidya and is one of the supreme controllers of the eternal cosmic function of this universe.

Devi Bhairavi is a fierce and popular Goddess and is the Goddess of Decay. Bhairavi means ’Terrifying’. Mata Bhairavi is also known as Tripura Bhairavi and her consort is Bhairav the fierce form of Lord Siva. Devi Bhairavi is the supreme terror of the three worlds- Swarga, Martya, Patal. According to Parasurama’s ‘Kalpasutra’, the name Bhairavi is originated from the combination of three root words – ‘bha’,‘ra’ ,‘va’. In this ‘bha’ means preservation, ‘ra’ denotes Ramana means divine activities of creation, ‘va’ derived from Vamana means relaxation in certain activities.

Devi Bhairavi has many qualities like Goddess Kali. She is the Goddess of transformation, and the power connected to destruction of evil forces.

She is the goddess of destruction. Destruction here is not considered a negative force, but essential to maintain continuity in the great cycle of death and birth in the world. Mata Bhairavi is also popularly known as ‘Tripura Bhairavi’ where ‘tri ’means three, ‘pura’ means castles and cities. Hence Tripura Bhairavi indicates three levels of consciousness active-dream-sleep.

Mata Bhairavi in images and idols are found to be seated on a Lotus with four hands- with book in one hand, rosary bead in another, in another one Abhaya mudra and in the other hand displaying Varada mudra. She is wearing red clothes and a garland of severed heads on her neck. She has three eyes (Trinayan) and a crescent moon on her crown. In tantric form of the Devi, we find her sitting on Lord Siva, her one hand with a sword and a cup of blood in another one, her other two hands are with Abhaya and Varada mudras, respectively.

It is stated that Devi Tripura Bhairavi resides in Muladhar Chakra, and her mantra consists of three alphabets (letter) forming an inverted triangle in the centre of Muladhar chakra as ‘kamrupa’, representing the Universe. Devi Bhairavi is the creator of this Muladhar Chakra.

In Tantra, a female adept in Kundalini system is also known as Bhairavi, yogini. Sometimes she prefers to be with her Bhairav, the male partner, at the time of meditation and devotion, called yoga. In Tantra, Bhairavi has been defined as the divine queen closely associated with Devi Rajarajeswari or Tripura Sundari. Hope you loved reading. To share your thoughts, please email at contactareaderscorner@gmail.com

Mythological · Spiritual

Das Mahavidya

Chanchal Chandra BhattacharyyaLeave a comment

Goddess Mahamaya, the creator of this Universe is beyond the cycle of death and birth. She is the mother of all the living beings. She rules and protects Trilok– Swarga, Marta, and Patal. Devi Mahamaya has taken birth on earth several times at different era to destroy evils and save her creation. This fact was described by Sage Medhos to king Surath.

In Tantra Sastra it is stated that Goddess Mahamaya has revealed her ten forms of power, representing female energy in the form of Mother and creator to destroyer. The entity of strength and truth. Again, ten Mahavidya (great wisdom) are ten forms of Devi Mahamaya representing the ‘divine spiritual wisdom’ and showing the path of liberation.

In Chamunda Tantra, the names of the ten forms of the Devi (bolded) can be found in the following stotra:

Kali Tara Mahavidya Shodashi Bhubaneswari,
Bhairavi Chhinnamasta cha Vidya Dhumavati tatha.
Vagala Sidhdhavidya cha Matangi Kamalatmika
Ete Dus Mahavidya Sidhdhavidya Prakirtita.

The story depicting the origin of Das Mahavidya as per legend

Prajapati Dakshya, one of the descendants of Lord Brahma, wanted to get Devi Mahamaya as his daughter and began a strong tapasya. Devi gave her consent with a condition that She would leave Her earthly body and return to Her abode if anybody misbehaved with Her. Following this, Devi took birth as the daughter of the queen Prasuti wife of King Dakshya and was named Sati. Sati married Lord Siva against the wishes of her father Dakshya, which made her father very angry. Prajapati Dakshya performed a great yajna. With an intension to insult Lord Siva, he invited all the Gods and Goddesses except Siva.

Lord Siva was aware of the event but ignored to maintain peace. However, knowing that her father is performing Yajna, Sati desired to visit the event and see her parents. She sought permission from her husband, Lord Siva, who denied granting her permission to meet her father and explained Dakshya’s prime intension. Lord Siva in turn, warned Devi Sati that she might get insulted there following which her father might be in danger. Sati became very furious at this and thought that Siva considered her an innocent lady and was not aware of the fact that she was an incarnation of the Mother of the universe. She was so angry that she wanted to teach her husband a good lesson by showing her original form of strength and eternity. She took the form of the Divine Mother, Devi Mahamaya.

Seeing the violent, strong, and immensely bright Divine Motherly aura of her original form, the nature started behaving unnaturally. The rivers, lakes and oceans became turbulent responding to violent thunder, storm, and heavy rain. It was dark everywhere unnaturally mixed with a fiery red light. Lord Siva was scared to see her and wanted to flee from her but found himself guarded on all ten sides by the ten forms of the Goddess. These ten forms are popularly recognized as ‘Das Mahavidya’.

When Sati met her parents on the day of the Yajna, she was welcomed by her mother but was insulted by her father. Her father used filthy words to insult her and Lord Siva. She could not tolerate this misconduct and left her mortal body, simply to say she lost her life.

Lord Siva through his third eye when saw the incident was furious. He created the strong Veerbhadra out of his own hair and sent him to Dakshya’s yajna bhumi with the task of killing Dakshya. Veerbhadra and the army of Lord Siva killed Dakshya and ransacked the yajna bhumi, and the palace.

Lord Siva started his ‘Tandab’ dance with Sati on one of his shoulders, as he took the form of the destroyer. Everyone was scared. The nature lost its balance. To calm Siva down, Lord Visnu used his famous Sudarshan Chakra and cut the lifeless body of Devi Sati into pieces which got grounded at different places. These places later came to be known as Sati pitha.

At present Das Mahavidya are worshipped among the Hindus. The 51 Sati pitha spread across different places of India and Nepal primarily are the auspicious places where the Devi is worshipped in different forms by Hindus and Buddhists.

I will speak in detail about the Das Mahavidya and about all Sati pitha in my future blogs.

Hope you liked to know the origin of Das Mahavidya.

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