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 17/1:55
On the questions asked by Janamejaya
1. Janamejaya said :-- O Muni! You told before that the heavenly prostitutes
sent by Indra in the hermitage of Nara Nârâyana became lustful and desired to
live with Nârâyana only, whose
heart was calm and quiet.
2. At that moment when Nârâyana was about to
curse them, his brother Nara desisted him from taking that step.
3-4. Now I ask you what did that triumphant
Nârâyana Muni do, in the critical juncture,
when he was repeatedly asked by those prostitutes, sent by lndra, to
satisfy their lust?
5. O Grand Sire!
I am very eager to know the deeds of Nârâyana, leading to one’s freedom. Kindly
describe in detail and fulfill my wishes.
6. Vyâsa said :-- Hear, O king! I am describing to you in detail, what that
high souled son of Dharma did.
7. When Nârâyana Hari was ready to curse them,
the Risi Nara, seeing this, consoled him and desisted him.
8. Then the great sage, the ascetic son of
Dharma, Nârâyana, leaving aside his anger, began to address them in sweet words
with countenance smiling.
9-10. O Fair women!
We have determined to practise asceticism in this life; it does not therefore
behove us to accept any wife; therefore shew your kindness unto us and go back
to your Heaven. You would better think that those who know what
is religion, they never desire to break the vow of another.
11. O beautiful eyed ones! In the sexual pleasure, it is the delightful
feeling of passionate joy that
is requisite; and we are wanting in those feelings; then how can we effect that
union?
12. No action can come out of no cause; this is
all clear. The poets say that the sexual power and
pleasure, is the feeling, the mental attitude that corresponds; and that is the
only thing, that lasts. And we have no desire for that.
13. However my limbs are all very graceful, I am
very fortunate and blessed in this world, otherwise how can I be the object of
your sincere love towards me.
14. You all are very fortunate; therefore do now
show this mercy unto me “do not break my vow. ” I pray now that, in a subsequent birth, I
may become your husband.
15-16. O large eyed fair women! In the twenty-eighth Dvâpara Yuga, I will
certainly incarnate on earth to effect the purpose of the Devas; then you all
also would respectively incarnate as the daughters of kings and would also
become my wives.
17. Nârâyana thus consented to marry them in some
other next birth; and consoling them, made them go back to their Heavens. They
also abandoned their mental disquietude and, on reaching back to Heavens, they
explained everything to Indra.
18-19. Indra heard (from these heavenly women) what
the two two Risis did and saw before him Urvas’î and other women created by
Nârâyana from his thighs, etc. , and began
to extol the merits of the high souled Nârâyana.
20. Indra said :-- O! How wonderful is the patience of the Muni?
What is the wonderful influence of his Tapas!
Oh! He has created, by the sheer
force of his Tapas, Urvas’î and these fair women, unrivalled for their
beauties, from his thighs.
21. The Lord of the Devas thus extolled his merits
and became freed from his anxieties. The virtuous Nârâyana, too, devoted himself to
the practice of his Tapasyâ.
23. O king!
Thus I have described to you, in detail, all the wonderful accounts regarding Nara
Nârâyana. O Superior in the descendants of Bharata! These two Nara and Nârâyana afterwards incarnated
themselves, due to Bhrigu’s curse as the two great heroes Arjuna and Krisna, to
relieve the burden of the earth.
24. The king said :-- O respect giving Muni! Now describe in detail the life of the Avatar Krisna and
dispel my mental doubt.
25-26. O best of the Munis! Why were Vâsudeva and Devakî, who were chosen
by the very powerful Hari and Ananta as their parents, doomed to so many
miseries and afflictions. Why had these parents to remain for good many
years in the prison of Kamsa, who pleased directly by their Tapasyâ that
Bhagavân Janârdana.
27. Why did Krisna taking his birth at Mathurâ, go
to Gokula? Also what was his object to go to
Dvârkâ, situated in the ocean, when he killed the enemy Kamsa?
28. Also why did his father, mother and relatives,
leave their old holy places of residences and go
abroad to live in a wretched old country?
29-31. Why was the Yadu race destroyed by the curse
from a Brâhmana! How did S’rî Krisna
Vâsudeva leave finally His body after He had relieved the burden of the earth and
was about to enter into His Heaven? The evildoers of the earth were slain by Krisna
and Arjuna, of unequalled prowess; but how was it, that those who plundered the
wives of S’rî Hari, were not at all punished by Him?
32-33. The great personages Bhîsma, Drona, Karna, the
king Vâlhîka, Virâta, Vikarna, Dhristadyumna, the king Somadatta were destroyed
for relieving the burden of the earth; and the plunderers were acquitted! Kindly explain the cause of this.
34. How was it that those chaste and virtuous
wives of S’rî Krisna go into troubles at the latter end of their lives? There
has arisen a doubt in my mind on this point.
35. Why did the virtuous Vâsudeva leave his mortal
coil owing to the death of his sons and why did he die an unusual death?
36. O best of Munis! The Pândavas were devoted to Krisna and they
were religious; they had to suffer so many troubles!
37. Why was Draupadî so very unfortunate and she
had to suffer so much miseries, and pains, who was born of Laksmî from amidst
the sacrificial place and from the altar.
38-39. Why did Duhs’âsan drag Her by Her hairs while
She was in Her menstruation period, in the hall of audience and why was it that
Sindhu Râj Jayadratha, the king of Sindhu, gave Her exceedingly mental
troubles?
40. Why was it that Her five sons residing in Her
house were killed by As’vaththâmâ? What
was the cause that the son of Subhadrâ had to die in the battlefield?
41. Why did the king Kamsa kill the six sons of
Devakî; and why was it that S’rî Hari who was capable of averting the Fate did
not at all prevent that?
42. What a wonder is this that in the matters of
Brâhmana’s curse toward the
Jâdavas, their being killed in the Prabhâsa, the
total extermination the Jadu race and the plundering of His wives, why did He
allow Fate to do these great momentous things?
43. If He was the all-powerful God and He Himself
Nârâyana, that why did He incessantly act like
a slave towards Ugrasena.
N. B. -- Ugrasena was the king of Mathurâ and father
of Kamsa. He was deposed by his son; but Krisna after
having slain Kamsa restored him to the throne.
44-45. All these bring doubt in our minds regarding
Nârâyana Muni that His deeds are always like those of ordinary persons; why did
his pleasures and pains resemble those of ordinary human beings? Were he God,
why his actions were not Godly? (i. e. ,
superhuman).
46. Therefore dost Thou describe in detail all the
Divine Leelas (playful sports) done by Hari of superhuman powers in this world.
47. O Best of Munis! When one’s longevity expires, one dies; then I
cannot understand what glory was manifested by Hari in killing the Daityas? For
Fate Killed them; not Hari.
48. Was not the doing of Hari like a thief when he
stole away the Lady Rukminî and fled quickly to his own place.
49. What did it mean when he fled to Dvârkâ city,
and quitted his own highly
prosperous town
Mathurâ simply out of the fear of Jarâsandha?
50. Did not anybody at that time recognise that he
was S’rî Bhagavân Hari? O Respected One! Were he Bhagavân, why did He hide himself in
Vraja? Please explain the cause to me.
51. O Muni!
These and many other doubts always exist in my mind; you are the best of
the Dvijas and blessed; I pray, dost thou remove these doubts.
52-53. O best of Munis! Another doubt exists and is not dispelled and
that is secret. Was not the taking of the five husbands by
Pânchâlî for herself shameful and despised by the society? The good manners and
doings are always considered by the learned as the proofs of virtue. Why
did those Pândavas, then, capable in every respect, do this thing like brutes?
54. And what did Bhîsma do living like a Deva in
this world? May I ask, was his act of producing two sons by a widow and thus
preserving his line of ancestors worthy of his name?
55. The religious sanction advocated by the Munis
“Procreate sons in any way whatsoever” is simply
shameful. Fie to this religious sanction.
Here ends the 17th
Chapter in the 4th Book of S’rî mad Devî Bhagavatam of 18000 verses by Maharsi
Veda Vyâsa on the questions asked by Janamejaya.
Source:
Translation of The Srimad Devi Bhagvatam by Swami Vijnanananda
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