MAHĀKĀLI DHYANAM
Meditation on Mahākāli
From the Devī Mahātmyam [Mārkendeya Purana]
Om Namaś Chaṇḍikāyai.
Om khaḍgaṁ chakra-gadeṣu-chāpa-parighāñ
chūlaṃ bhuśuṇḍīṁ śiraḥ
śaṅkhaṁ saṃda-dhatīṁ karai-stri-nayanāṁ
sarvāṅga-bhūṣāvṛitām
Nīlāśma-dyutimāsya pāda-daśakāṁ
seve Mahākālikāṁ
yāmastaut-svapite harau kamalajo
hantuṁ madhuṁ kaiṭabham.
Om Namaś Chaṇḍikāyai.
Om, I bow to the Goddess Chaṇḍikā.
Om, holding a scimitar, disk, mace, arrows and bow, lance, club, a skull and a conch shell in Her ten hands. The three-eyed goddess, Her body covered with ornaments, Her countenance with the brilliance of blue diamonds, with ten limbs. We offer our service to Mahākāli, She who Brahma praised for protection from the demons Madhu and Kaitava, when Vishnu was in sleep.
Om, I bow to the Goddess Chaṇḍikā.
Book 4/Chapter 2/1:60
On the supremacy of the effects of Karma
1. Sûta said :-- The learned Vyâsa, the son of
Satyavatî, and the knower of the Purânas, when thus asked by Janamejaya, the
son of Parîksit, whose heart had become calm, replied in the following words,
capable to remove all his doubts. Vyâsa said :--
2. O king!
You would better know, that in this Universe the course of Karma is not easily
comprehensible; even the Devas are not capable to comprehend the wonderful effects
of actions; what to speak of men!
3. When this Universe composed of the three Gunas
arose, it was through Karma, that everything had its origin.
4-5. It was the seed of Karma whence the Jîvas (the
individual embodied souls) arose with neither any beginning nor any end. Those
Jîvas go often and often incarnating in numberless varieties of wombs and then
go to dissolution. When this Karma ceases, the Jîvas then are
never to have any more connection with any other body.
6. The Karmas done by Jîvas are of three kinds
:-- auspicious, inauspicious and mixed (partly auspicious and partly
inauspicious); of which the auspicious is the Sattvik Karma, the inauspicious
is the Tamasik Karma and the mixed, is the Râjasic Karma. Thus have been said by the Sages.
7. These three again are subdivided into three. They are
Sanchita (accumulated), Bhavisya (impending
in future) and Prârabdha (commenced). All these Karmas are in dwelling always with
the body.
8-9. O king!
Everybody, even Brahmâ, Visnu and Mahes'a all under the influence of this
Karma! And they experience pleasure,
pain, old age, disease and death, joy and sorrow, lust, anger, greed and other
bodily qualities, out of the effects of this Karma, which we call ordinarily
Fate.
10-11. Therefore love, hatred and other bodily
qualities all predominate equally in all bodies. Anger,
jealousy, hatred, and other similar qualities arise in the Devas, men, and birds
owing to some sort of dislikes on previous occasions; and love, compassion,
pity, etc. , arise out of some sort of
likings, existing already.
12-13. O king!
No individual can arise without some sort of action or other. It is through Karma that
the Sun traverses in the sky; it is through Karma that the Moon was attacked
with consumption disease; and it is through Karma that the Rudra holds the disc
of skull bone. This Karma, therefore, has no beginning nor
end (till Moksa); now that this Karma is the sole cause in the production of
this Universe.
14-16. For this reason, this whole Universe, moveable
and immoveable, is real; but Munis are deeply absorbed in meditation to
ascertain about its reality or unreality.
They cannot definitely know it
for certain whether this world is real or unreal; for where Mâyâ is prevalent,
the universe is there.
Where there is the cause fully existing in all
respects, there is no effect, how can we say? The Mâyâ is eternal and always
acts as the Prime Cause of all.
17. Therefore, O king! the sages declare that the seed of Karma is
eternal. This whole universe changes incessantly, being
controlled by this karma.
18. O king of kings! They say, it is through the will of Visnu, of
unbounded energy and splendour, that all this universe enters, again and again,
into all sorts of wombs, whether good or evil.
19. Now, if the birth of Visnu, of infinite
prowess, takes place according to His will, then why is it that He travels
through many impious births? Why is it that Bhagavân Visnu goes, in different
Yugas, to take His births in low, vile origins?
Where is that self
dependent man, who, leaving his abode Vaikuntha and all sorts of pleasures and
happiness, desires to live in this mortal temple, filled with urine, faeces and
other filthy matters.
20. No intelligent man will leave comfortable
resting places and amorous sports and gathering flowers for the sake of
dwelling in this uterus in the womb?
21. Who likes to live with his face downwards in
the womb, when he can enjoy fine heavenly soft downs, puffed up with cotton or
silk.
22. Who will abandon singing, dancing and music,
where all sorts of love feelings are being manifested, and think of coming down
to this veritable Hell?
23. Who will abandon the wonderful ambrosial
nectar and prosperity given by Laksmî, that cannot be easily renounced, and
then like to taste this urine and faeces.
24. There is no hell more aggravating in the three
worlds than this existence in the wombs.
The
Munis, afraid of these, perform difficult asceticisms in this wondrous
world.
25. Wise, intelligent persons renounce their
kingdoms and enjoyments and resort to forests.
Who is there so stupid as to
enter willingly in the various wombs?
26. Worms and insects torment the Jîvas in the
womb; the digestive fire of the stomach heats it from below, whereas it is
always fearfully tied down on all sides by the flesh, enclosing its fat or
marrow. O King; Not a trace of happiness is visible
there.
27. It is far better to live in a prison house,
fettered by hard iron chains. Whereas it is not desirable to live for a
moment in the womb.
28. It is very hard and painful to be in the womb
for ten months. To come out of the hard and terrible womb is
extremely troublesome.
29. Jîvas get trouble in their childhood; they
cannot speak, and they do not know what to say, when they are hungry or thirsty;
they depend entirely on others and they are grieved.
30. When the child becomes hungry and cries, the
mother becomes anxious. When the child is afflicted with diseases and
cries, the mother then knows and administers medicines.
31. Thus many troubles arise in childhood. Sages
do not therefore find any happiness and do not desire, of their own accord, to
come here.
32. O king, no sane man, would forego incessant
heavenly pleasures and prefer before the Devas to this toilsome and painful
state of being born in the womb.
33. O king of kings! All the Devas, Brahmâ and others have to
enjoy full the effects of their Karmas done, whether they are pleasant or
painful.
34. O best of kings! The fruits of karma must have to be
experienced, whether
auspicious or
inauspicious, be he a Deva, or human being or an animal; any one who has
embodied himself in fine or gross bodies!
35. Human beings, by dint of their practice of
penance, religious austerities alms givings and sacrifices,
rise to Indrahood. Indra, in his turn, when the effects of his
good actions cease, comes down to inferior births! there is no doubt of it.
36. In the Rama Incarnation, the Devas had to
incarnate themselves a Monkeys; and in the Krisna incarnation, the Devas had to
incarnate themselves as human beings, Cowherds (Gopas) and Yâdavas.
37. Thus being urged on by Brahmâ, Visnu Bhagavân
incarnates Himself many times, yugas after yugas, to preserve the religion.
38. O king of mortals! Thus, like a carwheel, Bhagavàn Hari
incarnated Himself in various wombs successively in a wonderful manner.
39. The destruction the of Daityas was done by
Hari in His many secondary
incarnations.
40. Now I will narrate to you the auspicious facts
of the birth of Krisna, Who incarnated Himself in
the family of Yadu (Yadu Kula).
41. O king!
The illustrious Vâsudeva, born of the part of the Muni Kas'yapa, had to take
his birth again as a human being due to his previous curse and had to maintain
his livelihood by tending cows.
42. O best of kings! And the two wives Kas'yapa, Aditi and Surasâ
had to take their births as the two sisters, Devaki and Rohinî, on account of
the curses cast on them. O Descendant of Bharata! We have thus heard that they were greatly
cursed at one time by Varuna, the water deity, who got very much angry. The
king said.
43-47. What fault was committed by Kas'yapa that he
had to take his birth along with his wife as cowherds. And
why was it that the Everlasting uninterrupted Atman Visnu Nârâyana had to take
his birth in Gokula. He whose abode is Vaikuntha, who is the Lord
of Rama! who is Bhagavân and the Supreme
amongst the gods, who is the upholder of the universe and the yugas! Under Whose order can such a being abandon his
abode and take his birth in the world like an ordinary mortal? There is this
grave doubt, then, of mine on this point.
48-51. Obtaining this depraved human coil, one is
always perplexed with various thoughts, sometimes
with lust, anger, jealousy, intoleration, sorrow, enmity sometimes with
pleasurable feelings, happiness, fear, sufferings, penury, sometimes with
straightforwardness, good or bad deeds, faithfulness, treachery, unsteadiness,
supporting others; sometimes with remorse, hesitation, bragging, greed, vain
boasting, delusion, or hypocrisy and sometimes with remorse; these different
feelings exist in men.
52. How then can Visnu Bhagavân abandon His
eternal pleasures and have recourse to this human birth, full of many perplexing
thoughts.
53. O best of Munis! What peculiar happiness is there in the
pleasures of human births, that S’rî Bhagavân Hari has to undertake the burden
of dwelling thus in the human wombs?
54-55. O Munîndra!
The sufferings that are experienced, while in the womb, the pain during
the time of delivery, the misfortunes in the early childhood, the troubles of passionate
lust in youth, the greater sorrows and difficulties in the householder's life, all
these are existent there; how then Bhagavân Visnu incarnate Himself often in
these various human births.
56-57. What an amount of enormous difficulties had
Brahmâ-born Hari to undertake in His Râma incarnation! That high souled One had to suffer for his
exile in forest, for the stealing away of his wife Sîtâ, for the frequent wars,
for the final separation from his wife Sîtâ.
58-59. Likewise in the Krisna Avatâra, the birth in a
prison, the departure to Gokul, tending cows, the killing of Kamsa, departure
to Dwârkâ with great difficulty and all sorts of household difficulties were
there. Why had He to suffer all these?
60. Who amongst the wise and the emancipated, of
his own accord condescends to take on his shoulders so many hard sufferings?
This is the grave doubt in my mind; be graciously pleased to remove my this
grave doubt and make my mind tranquil.
Here ends the Second
Chapter in the Fourth Book of S’rî Mad Devî Bhagâvatam of the Mahâ Purânam of
18000 verses by Maharsî Veda Vyâsa.
Source:
Translation of The Srimad Devi Bhagvatam by Swami Vijnanananda
