Yogi Baba Prem

Excerpt from the book "From Earth to Heaven: Secrets of Yoga, Goddess and Spirituality.

The mother represents the Goddess or feminine aspect of divinity.

In a sense the Goddess and God convey important spiritual concepts as they represent a basic level a polarity. In electricity the positive and negative charge would be essential in completing a circuit. Likewise, the Goddess and God "" perform a similar function, providing a circuit and completion of the circuit, as well. This basic concept is critical pertaining to the function of life. We rely on this positive and negative polarity, as our bodies are largely biochemical and electrical. This manifestation within our body is one of the final processes in a long line of manifestations of the God and Goddess principle, with the physical male and female being the final physical manifestation as divinity reflected in life. This feminine form in Hinduism is called Shakti. The meaning of Shakti is power; clearly indicating that Hinduism values the feminine form of divinity and considers it to be divine power. This teaching is explored frequently by the question, “Who is more important, Shiva (Divine consciousness) or Shakti (Divine Power)?” I have always answered this explaining that both are equally important, as both are mutually dependent upon one another. As divine consciousness requires divine power to manifest its will, and divine power require divine consciousness to direct it. Within the Tantric yoga view, the goal is actually to merge the God and Goddess into one another; this view of merging the God and Goddess appears in a variety of Hindu teachings and is prominent in many yoga systems.

When it comes to the Divine mother, the feminine form of divinity, the Goddess, it is clear that Hinduism is one of the most evolved and detailed systems of teaching and understanding the Goddess. Hinduism has numerous feminine forms of divinity that represent a variety of divine principle’s, forms and teachings. While the number of feminine forms of divinity are rather extensive, there are several commonly known forms of the Goddess in Hinduism. A partial listing would include:

¨ Durga

¨ Sarasvati

¨ Lakshmi

¨ Parvati

¨ Kali

¨ Mahavidya’s (Commonly known as the 10 wisdom forms of the Goddess)

¨ Sita

¨ Radha

Of the above mentioned deities, I will briefly elaborate on a Durga and will comment on a few others later.

Durga is a very important feminine form of divinity, especially for personal transformation from our lower (or animal) nature to our higher spiritual nature. There are many temples to her in India, and she is becoming better known to western students of spirituality. There is an important story about Durga; I will paraphrase the teaching. Once a demon got into heaven and would not allow the Gods back into heaven. The Gods tried everything but could not get back into heaven. Out of their concern and desire to get back into heaven, Durga was manifested. Each of the Gods gave Durga a weapon. Durga went to face the demon and a great battle ensued. Durga defeated the demon, not through destroying the demon but rather through elevating the demon to a higher consciousness or what might be called transforming the demon. Finally!! The Gods could get back into heaven. This teaching has a very practical and important lesson for all students of spirituality. Heaven is our own mind. The demon is our lower nature. And the demon in heaven is our own inability to control our own mind. In reality, this is a common challenge for most people, so one can see the relevance of the story and importance of Durga. As Durga represents transformation through elevation in consciousness, we call on Durga to transform and elevate our minds. Durga as a goddess is a feminine form and therefore the divine mother, but she also has a form that relates to the earth —Shaila Putri; literally meaning the daughter of the mountain indicating an important connection with the earth, as mountains are sacred points in the Hindu tradition, as-well-as a variety of other traditions throughout the world. Shaila Putri is also strongly associated with the waters and air as well, as the waters represent the flow of consciousness, cleansing and purity. As she is associated with the atmosphere, Durga is on a similar level as Shiva in the cosmological hierarchy, as Shiva is also a deity of the atmosphere.