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 13/1:62
On cheating the Daityas
1. The king said :-- What did the intelligent
Brihaspatî do after he had assumed falsely the appearance of S’ukrâchârya, and
lived there as the spiritual guide of the Demons.
2. O Muni! Brihaspatî is the Guru of the Devas; he
also devotes his time in studying the Vedas; and is the ocean of all knowledge;
he is the son of the Maharsi Angirâ and he is himself a Muni. Endorsed with all
these good qualifications, how could he deceive the Demons.
3-4. In all the religious S’âstras, Truth is
declared to be the essence of Dharma; and the Supreme Self is attained through
Truth, so the wise sages say. How can we expect an ordinary householder to be
true when such a man as Brihaspatî takes recourse to falsehood with the Demons.
5. If one acquires, as one’s wealth, the whole
Universe, still one does not require anything more than what is required in
feeding one’s belly; how
is it that Brihaspatî could speak falsehood merely for the sake of
his belly?
6. O Muni! The words sung by the ancient virtuous
and respectable sages were true and had their corresponding objects denoted by
those words; now they employed the term S’ista meaning that there were virtuous,
respectable persons as denoted by them. When Brihaspatî can even commit such
condemnable deceitful acts and speak falsehood, we can expect no virtuous
respectable persons in the world. Where then do you find the S’ista persons, denoted by the word S’ista, sung by the ancient
sages? The word S’ista is now meaningless!
7. The Devas are sprung from the Sâttvic
qualities, men from Râjasic qualities and birds, etc. from the Tâmasic
qualities.
8. When the Guru of the Immortals, the incarnate
of Sâttvic qualities, can become a liar, how can one expect those who are
Râjasic or Tâmasic to follow rigorously the truth?
9. Oh! This Trilokî is all pierced with falsehood!
Where is the Religion! And what will be the ultimate goal of all these
creatures!
10. When Bhagavân Harî, Brahmâ, Indra and the best
of the Devas when all can betake to pretext, fraud and trickery and show
cleverness in them; what to speak of men!
11-12. O Giver of honour! When all the Devas,
Vas’istha, Vâmadeva, Vis’vamitrâ, Brihaspatî and other ascetic Munis get
themselves overpowered by lust and anger, when their intelligence gets
destroyed by covetousness and avarice, when they are addicted to vices and are
expert in fraud, pre-text and trickery, then what fate, alas! Can you expect of
Dharma and what help is there of any religious persons!
13. Alas! lndra, Agni, Moon, and Brahmâ when these
get overpowered by the strong influence of lust, are in illicit love with
others’ wives, where is the goodness and virtuous behaviour in this Trilokî?
14. O Sinless One! To whom, then, can we look upon
as our spiritual guide and our advice and law givers when all the Devas and
Munis are corrupt with avarice?
15. Vyâsa said :-- O king! Be he Indra, Brihaspatî,
Brahmâ, Visnu or Mahes’a, whoever is embodied or will put on bodies, he will
have to be in touch with the previously mentioned Ahamkâra, and covetousness
and other vices due to name and form.
16. O king! Brahmâ, Visnu and Mahes’a are all
attached to sensual objects; and what improper and sinful actions there can be
that cannot be committed by persons devoted to sensual objects!
17. It is through cleverness and fraud that any one
devoted to sensual objects can easily make oneself as cleverly free from Mâyâ;
but when difficulty comes, then his trickery gets discovered and the respective
qualities hidden in him are brought to bear their respective results. Know,
then, the three qualities to be conjointly the cause of all these actions; as
without any cause, no action gets visible.
18. These discrepancies in the case of Brahmâ and
others are caused by the three qualities; their bodies are all created from
Pradhân Mahat and the other 25 Tattvas (essences).
19-20. O king! Brahmâ and others are subject to death;
then how can you doubt on other things? In advising others, everybody gives, as
it were, good and virtuous advices; but the burden falls upon their own heads;
they fall off from their advices and act according to their hidden natures;
then they yield to lust, anger, envy, egoism and fascination.
21. No one who is embodied can get rid of passions,
born of the 3 qualities. O king! Thus the Trilokî goes, is the saying of the
Maharsis.
22-29. This Trilokî, auspicious, inauspicious, mixed,
never gets any serious change; its nature remains always uniform. See Bhagavân
Visnu sometimes practises severe asceticism; Indra, the lord of the Devas
sometimes follows the practices of religious sacrifices. Again you find Visnu
Bhagavân, full of youth, fond of the Leela, enjoying the company of Ramâ in
Vaikuntha; sometimes He is the ocean of mercy, is fighting dreadful battles
with the Demons and being severely afflicted with their clusters of arrows;
sometimes he gains victories, sometimes he gets defeat through the irony of Fate;
thus he gets undoubtedly pleasures and pains. O king! some time Nârâyana draws all
the worlds into his belly and takes his yogic sleep on the thousand headed
serpent S’es’a and again he gets himself awakened by Prakriti. O king! Brahmâ,
Visnu, Mahes’a, Indra, the Devas, and Munis all of them, live up to the limit
of their ordained time and when the time of Pralaya, the Universal dissolution,
ends, this whole Universe, moving and nonmoving, again comes into existence as
before; there is no doubt in this. O king, at the expiry of the ordained time,
Brahmâ and all others will die , no doubt.
30-31. Again, in due course, Brahmâ, Visnu, and
Mahes’a and the other Devas come out and assume bodies and get all the
passions, lust, etc., as ordained. O King! You need not be astonished; this
Trilokî always goes on accompanied by lust, anger, etc.
32-34. Persons free from lust, anger and other
passions are very rare in this world. He who is afraid of this world does not
marry, and thus being free from the attachments to any worldly object, becomes
free and roams fearless. The Moon stole away the wife of Brihaspatî, and
Brihaspatî himself
stole away the wife of his younger brother. Thus in this wheel of
Samsâra, all the creatures are ever passioned with attachment, avarice, etc.
35. The householder can never expect to obtain
freedom. Therefore those who want to be free, should carefully relinquish the
idea of the stability of the world and worship the Eternal Mother Full and Sat,
Chit and Ânandam.
36. This world, moving and unmoving, O Mahes’ânî,
rolls in madness, overpowered by Her Mâyâ.
37. Intelligent persons worshipping Her, trample
down the three qualities and become free. O king! No other Path exists for
Freedom.
38-39. Until one gets the Grace from the Mahes’ânî,
one never gets happiness. True mercy is not found anywhere else but from Her.
Then one should worship the All merciful, being of pure heart. For Her worship
leads to freedom, even in this bodyhood.
40. He who getting a human frame fails to worship
Mahes’ânî, gets down from the highest rung of the ladder. This is my opinion.
41-42. This Universe, composed of the three qualities,
is encompassed with Ahamkâra and fastened to untruth; therefore freedom can
never be expected without the worship of That Potent Goddess, O Muni! O king!
Renounce every worldly object and serve the Goddess Bhuvanes’varî; this is the
highest duty of all.
43. The king said :-- What did, then, the Devaguru
do in the disguise of S’ukrâchârya? And
when did the real S’ukrâchârya come there? O respected Muni! Speak on these points.
44. Vyâsa said :-- Please hear what the disguised
Brihaspatî in the shape of
S’ukrâchârya did afterwards.
45. The demons were made to understand clearly by
Brihaspatî; and then they took him for S’ukrâchârya and placed implicit faith
on him and began to think of him and him alone.
46. The Daityas, enchanted and deceived by the
magic of Brihaspatî, took now his refuge for acquiring the knowledge from him,
since they mistook him for S’ukrâchârya. Who is there that is not enchanted by the idea
of gaining something?
47. On the other hand, when the term of ten years
was over, S’ukrâchârya, the real Guru of the Daityas, ceased enjoying Jayantî
and began to emember his disciples, the Daityas.
48. He now began to think that “My disciples, the
Daityas, are expecting every instant my return; and I would now go and see
them, bewildered with fear.
49-51. They are my devotees and I ought to do such
that they might not be afraid of the Devas.” And then he exclaimed to Jayantî,
“O beautiful one! Let my sons take the shelter of the Gods; your term of ten
years is today over; I now go therefore, to see my disciples; soon I will again
come to you.”
52. “Be it so”, replied Jayantî, the best of those
who know religion, “you can go where you like; I am not to destroy your Dharma.”
53-54. Hearing these words, S’ukrâchârya went
hurriedly to the Demons and saw the Devaguru Brihaspatî sitting before them in
the guise of S’ukrâchârya. He was explaining to them the Jaina doctrines,
compiled by himself and finding fault with the act of envy, taking revenge and
killing and cursing the sacrifices, etc.
55. He was telling them “O Enemies of Gods! Truly,
I am telling you words that will, no doubt, prove good to you. Non-killing is
the highest virtue; even the enemies ought never to be killed.
56. It is the Brâhmanas, addicted to enjoyments and
pleasures of the senses, who want to satisfy their tastes and pleasures that
are found in the Veda’s injunctions to kill animals; but there is no virtue
higher than non-killing animals.”
57-58. O king! S’ukrâchârya was perfectly astonished
to hear Brihaspatî, the Guru of the Devas, speaking against the Vedas and began
to think that Brihaspatî is certainly my enemy. My disciples have been duped by
this cheat; there is no doubt in this.
59. Fie to Avarice! It is the seed of sin; very
strong and the veritable gate to hell; Brihaspatî, even, the Guru of the Devas,
is speaking lies, bound under the influence of this heinous avarice!
60. Oh! What wonder is this that the Guru of the
Devas, who is the promulgator of all the religious S’âstras and whose word is
accepted as the final decision, is now expounding the doctrines of atheists.
61. When Brihaspatî can become the expounder of
atheistic doctrines, impelled by covetousness what to speak of those whose minds
are not pure and whose intelligence is not sharp?
62. This Deva Guru, though a Brâhmin, is acting
today like a rogue, wanting to take away all and is deceiving my disciples the
Daityas, who have been confounded by his magic.
Here ends the Thirteenth Chapter in the Fourth Book of S’rî Mad
Devî Bhâgavatam, the Mahâpurânam of 18,000 verses on cheating the Daityas by
Maharsi Veda Vyâsa.
Source:
Translation of The Srimad Devi Bhagvatam by Swami Vijnanananda
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