By Achala Sylwia Mihajlovic
The podcast currently has 9 episodes available.
On the last day of Navaratri the 13th chapter of Devī Māhātmya is traditionally recited, which recounts the story of king Suratha and merchant Samadhi praying to the Great Goddess and having their boons fulfilled. The story is more than just a promise of Divine Mother to grant our wishes, whenever we contemplate on Her great stories - it is also a reminder to choose wisely what we pray for.
On the 8 day of Navaratri the 12th chapter of Devī Māhātmya is traditionally recited, in which the Goddess Herself explains about the great transformative of contemplating upon Devī Māhātmya. She says: “I shall without doubt destroy every misfortune of those who with collected mind will praise me always with these hymns.” She assures everyone that when one listens to this great story with love and devotion, even if without proper knowledge about it, She will still grant Her benedictions upon one and destroy one’s miseries. The Goddess is also saying in this chapter that apart from reciting Devī Māhātmya for nine consecutive days during the first nine days of any bright fortnight, it is also very auspicious to meditate upon those stories on Ashtami tithis (Mahakali), Navami tithis (Mahasarasvati) and Chaturdashi tithis (Mahalakshmi).
On the 7 day of Navaratri 11th chapter of Devī Māhātmya is recited and contemplated upon. In this chapter the gods celebrate the victory of the Goddess over evil and extol Her with the prayer known as Narayani Stuti - praising Her as Narayani, who assumes many forms, to guide us from within and direct the drama of cosmic creation. The Goddess also makes Her promise that whenever the evil arises again, She will appear - again and again, to uplift all and bring balance to the universe.
On the 6 day of Navaratri chapters 9 & 10 of Devī Māhātmya are recited, in which the final battle between the Goddess and demons Śumbha & Niśumbha takes place - the battle between our limitless, divine self and attachments to “I” and “mine” represented by those two asuras. Before slaying Śumbha the Goddess withdraws the 8 Matrikas, Her expansions, within Herself, and thus shows Him and reminds us all that in reality it is She alone who does everything in the universe - for there is nothing that is not Her.
On the 5 day of Navaratri 8 Chapter of Devī Māhātmya is traditionally recalled and contemplated upon. In this Chapter the Divine Mother fights with demon Raktabija, representing our never-ending desires. During the battle, the Supreme Mother expands Herself into 8 forms known as eight Matrikas or eight Yoginis. Each of those 8 mothers helps us to overcome one of the 8 negative qualities fuelling our mind’s negative patterns. They also represent the 8 arms of Goddess Mahasarasvati.
On the day 4 of Navaratri the battle between the Goddess Mahasarasvati and the demons continues. In Chapter 7 demons Chanda and Munda are being slain by Her, while She assumes a fierce, dark-complexioned aspect of Kali and swiftly conquers the demon army. Kali, who swallows the entire armies like a dark night of dissolution, represents within us the divine power to withdraw and neutralise all our negativities and attachments, so our mind can return to its state of stillness, and so our inner chatter can stop.
Last chapters of Devī Māhātmya form its longest part and praise the Goddess as Mahāsarasvatī, the great giver of wisdom, who is seated in between our eyebrows, within third eye chakra, and helps us transcend sattva guna or attachment to happiness, comfort zone or intellect. First 2 chapters of the last part (5-6) are traditionally recited and contemplated upon on the third day of Navaratri.
The last and the most evolved part of our brain, which is also 76% of it, is neocortex. It is here that all the higher functions of our brain take place — such as analytical & abstract thinking, creativity, cognitive empathy, curiosity and ability to learn and process information. This is also the part of our brain that helps us control our lower impulses coming from limbic system (most rajasic part of our brain), establish true connection with others and act selflessly.
In other words: this is the most sattvic part of our brain. It helps us to approach any life situation in the most mature way possible. Yet, the very same part of our brain, when we become too attached to its byproducts, can lead us to over-intellectualisation, excessive self-suppression and disconnection. It is also this part of our mind that we are usually most attached to: the voice of logic within us which often wants us to believe that we are always right and that our way of thinking is the only correct one. And precisely because this part of ourselves is the most subtle and thus the hardest to transcend, the battle of Goddess Mahāsarasvatī, who helping us rise above sattva guna, is the longest and the most exhausting one. It culminates in the final battle between the Goddess and the two demons Śumbha and Niśumbha — representing the attachments to “I” and “mine”.
Next 3 chapters of Devī Māhātmya form its second part, praising Goddess as Mahālakṣmī (powerful, 18-handed form of Lakṣmī) or Mahiṣāsura Mardini, who resides at our heart chakra, and helps us tame raja guna within us, with all its desires and passions.
Rajo guna dwells in the middle part of our brain, placed in the very innermost part of our head, which is known as our limbic system. This is the place where our emotions take place — where most of the key hormones regulating our mood are being produced. Interestingly this is also the most “flexible” or plastic part of our brain, which can experience significant changes due to variety of stimuli. It also plays a key role in our learning processes and memory — because we mainly learn and memorise through emotions.
This is also the part of our brain which can become significantly fired up when we go into “fight or flight” mode, our most intense response to stress — because when our desires are not fulfilled, we easily go into anger or frustration.
Both anger and desire arise from rajo guna, the mode of passion. When they take over and when our limbic system gets triggered and starts sending us big “danger” signs, we simultaneously lose access to more evolved functions of our brain such as critical thinking, remembering things, creativity and compassion. In Devī Māhātmya it is metaphorically represented as demon Mahiṣāsura, who renders all the gods, representing our inner faculties, weak and powerless. Only when all those inner powers, devas within us, become mobilised and united together, focused on a single goal, from their combined light is born the Goddess who is the only one capable of defeating a shapeshifting Mahiṣāsura: Goddess Mahālakṣmī.
These 3 chapters (2-4) are traditionally recited and contemplated upon on the second day of Navaratri.
First part of Devī Māhātmya, consisting of first chapter only, invokes the Goddess as Mahākālī — the one, who resides at our root chakra and helps us transcend tamo guna, with all its fears that often paralyse our ability to move forward in life.
Our brain is comprised of three distinctive parts, each more evolved than the previous one. The most “primitive” part of our brain is often called reptile or lizard brain — which is just a different name for brain stem. It plays a vital role in our survival, as it is primarily responsible for certain mechanical activities within our body — such as regulating sleep, heart rate, breathing, movement and digestion — without us even being aware of it.
One big weakness of this part of our brain, though, is that it is not really capable to discern between reality and imagination — neither does it perceive any difference between things which happened in the past or are happening right now. It is because it is not directly processing the sensory information, but simply observes what other parts of our brain are processing at the moment. Due to that it cannot distinguish between real threat and imagined threat — and that can lead to various exaggerated reactions, as well as insecurities.
This is what happens when tamo guna or “mode of ignorance” takes over. It is illustrated in Devī Māhātmya in the first chapter, in which the two demons, Madhu and Kaiṭabhā, emerge from Lord Viṣṇu’s ears, when He is engrossed in His cosmic slumber. When the two demons start creating chaos in the yet uncreated universe, Lord Brahma invokes Devī in the form Mahākālī to wake up the Lord — for only when He is awake He can fight the two demons and retrieve the Vedas, the knowledge which they have stolen. Similarly, Goddess in this form helps us to symbolically wake up from our delusions and fantasies, and inspires us to stay more alert and “awake” on our spiritual path, so that we can prevent our inner demons from appearing from the darkness of unconscious mind.
The first chapter is traditionally recited and contemplated upon on the first day of Navaratri.
The podcast currently has 9 episodes available.