HINDU FASTS & FESTIVALS : 3-5.

3. Durga Puja or Navaratri-5.

Shakti is the omnipotent power of the Lord, or the Cosmic Energy.

The Divine Mother is represented as having ten different weapons in Her hands.

She sits on a lion.

She keeps up the play of the Lord through the three attributes of Nature, namely, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas. Knowledge, peace, lust, anger, greed, egoism and pride, are all Her forms.


You will find in the Devi Sukta of the Rig Veda Samhita that Vak, symbolising speech, the daughter of the sage Anbhirna, realised her identity with the Divine Mother, the Power of the Supreme Lord, which manifests throughout the universe among the gods, among men and beasts and among the creatures of the deep ocean.


In the Kena Upanishad, you will find that the Divine Mother shed wisdom on Indra and the gods and said that the gods were able to defeat the demons only with the help of the power of the Supreme Lord.


The worship of Devi, the universal Mother, leads to the attainment of knowledge of the Self.

The story in the Kena Upanishad known as the “Yaksha Prasna”, supports this view.

It tells how Uma, the Divine Mother, taught the Truth to the gods. Goddess Shakti thus sheds wisdom on Her devotees.

Swami Sivananda

To be continued  ....