Discourse of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji on Chandi Saptashati – Day 6 Navaratri Celebrations – Mysore – October 21, 2012
Jaya Guru Datta
“Only those who are guilty of what they are being accused of, become troubled at criticism. Such people should acknowledge their faults and correct themselves. Those who are free from guilt are able to brush off criticism. They do not accept it. They are not troubled by it because their conscience is clear. They continue to go on with their business. The criticism does not deter them. When a gift is given and is not accepted, where does it remain? It remains with the giver. When abuses are not received, they remain only with the giver. It is like spitting at the sun. The spit falls on the one who spits. The Sun is always pure. He is not affected by the spit.
Love is pure. It is nice to love. Your minds only think of romantic and physical attraction when you hear the word love. At once you think of boy and girl locked inside a room, and the neighbor looking through the window. Love exists between parents and children, between siblings, between friends and relatives, between so many pure relationships. Love should be unselfish and pure.
Once, a king banished his queen from the palace because she farted in the presence of the assembly at the court, while sitting on the throne. The king felt very insulted and ashamed at her behavior. She was a very good queen, but sadly had to return to the home of her parents. Another younger queen replaced her.
Tenali Rama, a very clever courtier, who had great respect for the queen had been away at that time. When he returned and came to know of this incident, went to visit the old queen to console her. He pacified her and said that he would try to do something to correct the situation.
Once the king, while mounting a special horse, farted and felt embarrassed. Tenali Rama, who was there, assured him that he would keep mum. He at once tied a cloth the cover the horse’s mouth. As they rode into town, the citizens asked why the horse’s mouth was covered. Tenali Rama announced to each one that he had promised not to tell anyone that the king had farted, but then he did not want the horse to speak about it and that is why he tied its mouth shut.
The king felt awful that the whole town knew that he had farted. He asked Tenali Rama if everybody farts. Tenali Rama assured him that yes, everybody farts and there is nothing to be ashamed of. Then the king called his old queen back and put her back on the throne with due honors.
The moral of the story is that some foods or eating irregularly may make you fart. It is not good to suppress it, although it is not good to make a habit of it. It is better to prevent its occurrence by taking proper food in a timely manner. In one of the Tripura songs in praise of Mother Goddess, Swamiji has composed the line, ‘Vaata pittha kapha roopaa vyaadheenaam Shamanee’ – and has sung it loudly in public. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Mother Goddess cures diseases caused by the inner contaminations like gas, phlegm, and vomit that are a result of bad mental qualities. The ancient medical science of Ayurveda and even modern medicine show that such bad materials from the body should be expelled for maintaining good health.
The stories in Saptashati may sound strange but they have inner meanings. The weapons used by the demons, and the weapons used by Mother Goddess have different, specific names. They represent the bad and the good qualities in man and show how the good weapons act as antidotes to the bad ones.
Yesterday we heard the story of the killing of the demon Raktabeeja, in Devi Maahaatmyam.
King Suratha heard this astonishing story and said,
“O Sage! I am surprised and amazed to hear this story about the killing of Raktabeeja. Kindly tell me what Shumbha and Nishumbha did after the death of this demon.
The sage continued the story:
“Shumbha and Nishumbha got extremely angry to hear of the death of Raktabeeja and the destruction of his army. Nishumbha took a special army and went to attack Chandi Devi. Shumbha fought against the group of Maatrkas and then went to attack Chandi Devi.
Mother Goddess effortlessly handed all the weapons employed against her by the two demons. Nishumbha used a sharp sword and a shiny shield and attacked the vehicle, the lion. With this, Mother Goddess flew into a rage and used the Astra called Kshurapra. She broke the sword of Nishumbha and shattered to pieces his shield that was called Ashtachandraka.
Nishumbha, whose sword and shield got destroyed thus, used his Shakti weapon on Mother Goddess. She broke that also to pieces. The demon then used his spear. With a punch from her fist, Mother powdered it. The demon then used his mace. Mother broke it with her trident and reduced it to ashes. Mother injured Nishumbha with her arrows and made him fall down, as he tried to leap upon her with his axe. He fell down dead.
When he saw his brother Nishumbha fall down dead, Shumbha plunged into battle with renewed fury. With his eight arms he wielded several great weapons, and riding in his chariot, appeared whirling around in the sky.
Seeing him coming to attack her fiercely, Chandi Devi blew her conch shell. She made a deafening sound with the twang of her bow. She rang the bell, whose sound destroys the vigor and power of the demons. Even the lion, Devi’s vehicle, roared loudly, producing the sound of a thousand elephants trumpeting all at once. Kalika Devi jumped up into the sky with great vigor and jumped down onto the ground, hitting the earth with both her hands, making a clamor that drowned all other sounds. Shivadooti Devi gave a most unpleasant and inauspicious loud laughter. All this caused dismay to the demons. Shumbha got angry.
The moment Mother Goddess said to Shumbha, “Hey evil demon! Stop! Stop,” the celestials shouted slogans of victory. When Shumbha attacked with the Shakti, Mother Goddess flung it far away with another Shakti weapon called Maholka. Shumbha tried to frighten Mother Goddess by roaring like a lion. But the deafening thunder that Chandi produced in the skies by her power drowned the sound of Shumbha’s roar.
Shumbha shot a hundred thousand arrows. Mother Goddess destroyed all of them. In tremendous rage Chandi Devi wounded Shumbha with her spear. Shumbha fainted and fell to the ground. The celestials cheered.
In the meantime, Nishumbha, who was considered dead, sat up holding his bow. He used his powerful bow to injure both Chandi Devi and the lion. He sported ten thousand arms and fought fiercely against Mother Goddess. Mother, the destroyer of all difficulties, angrily broke all his weapons. Nishubha pounced on Chandi Devi holding the mace. She broke it with a sword. Then she quickly pierced the heart of Nishumbha with her trident, as he came upon her with his spear.
From inside his heart another extremely powerful demon sprang to life, roaring, “Stop!” Chandi Devi, with a fiercely loud laughter cut off the head of the demon that came out, and threw it on the ground. The lion ate him up.
At the hands of Braahmi and the other Sapta Maatrkas many great demon warriors died. Nishumbha died at the hands of Chandi Devi. That was the end of Nishumbha.
Although these stories appear strange, since they describe the glory and the power of Mother Goddess, we have to speak of them as they actually occurred.
Our worship of Mother Goddess will be more devout if we recognize her power. The more you contemplate, more inner meanings will reveal themselves. For every incident any number of inner meanings can be given. If there is no story, then there is scope for discussing the inner meanings at all. Therefore, we have told the story exactly as it is narrated in the Saptashati. Tomorrow we will talk about the killing of Shumbha.”
The Nandana MMS – Musical Message Sayings Contest based on the daily videos posted on YouTube on puttugamsri channel, on Vimeo as Nandana SGS MMS and at puttugam.org, is a wonderful contest in which every one of you must participate. Participation itself is winning. Daily make a note of the MMS number, the date, the quote, the language or languages used, the special pictures, features and effects used, the type of music (healing or vocal bhajan on instrumental, the CD name and artist), the mantras, and so on. Out of 20 questions, 10 should be answered correctly. Of all the winners’ names, by lottery 13 names will be picked for the final prizes to be given by Swamiji during the 71st Birthday Celebration in May 2013. The first prize is Rs.500, 000 or a house site in Mysore, the second prize is Rs. 200,000 and the third prize is Rs. 100,000. The other prizes are or lesser value gradually.
Unless preparations begin now, it will be difficult to catch up in the last minute by gathering information contained in all 366 MMS videos. Already about 144 videos have been posted on youtube, vimeo and puttugam websites. The project began on May 31, 2012.
You can make your own playlists. On Facebook MMS Musical Message Sharing site has all the videos arranged by the week, for your convenience.
Please do not lose time or waste this opportunity to have fun while learning valuable lessons. The encapsulated nectar of initiation that Sri Jayalakshmi Mata gave to Satyanarayana in one night at the Hanuman Temple in Bommeparti, in this Nandana year 60 years ago, Appaji is percolating this spiritual knowledge to us in one-a-day doses of 366 divine drops of nectar. Please do not miss out!
Practice and prepare!!
Courtesy: Hira Duvvuri