The Mystery of Śākti-pūjā (Durgā-pūjā)
By Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja
Śrī Bhagavata Patrikā, Year–3, Issue–5 (1957-1958), pages 108-112
Reasons for the name “Durgā”
There are many meanings of the word durgā. Da + u + r + ga + ā = Durgā. Da refers to destroying the demons; u refers to destroying obstacles; r refers to dispelling diseases; ga refers to destroying sins; and ā refers to destroying fear and enemies. The word durga also implies a difficult or impassable route, in reference to the ocean of material existence, as well as danger. Therefore, in Caṇḍī, Devī is called Durgā because she is likened to a boat that ferries us across this near impassable ocean of material existence and protects us from peril:
“Durgāsi durga-bhava-sāgara-naurasaṅgā – Durgā is the boat to ferry us across this perilous ocean of existence.”
“Durgāyai durga pārāyai – Unto Durgā, she who rescues us from difficulties.”
She is also called Durgā for killing a demon by the name of Durga. In Brahma-Saṁhita, Durgā is recognised as the shadow of Bhagavān’s svarūpa-śakti [personal energy]. This shadow potency—Durgā, impelled by Bhagavān, creates, maintains and destroys this material world:
sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir-ekā,
chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni vibhartti durgā |
icchānurūpam api yasya ca ceṣṭate sā,
govindam-ādi-puruṣaṁ tam-ahaṁ bhajāmi ||
Her work
The presiding Goddess of the cosmos, which is composed of fourteen realms, is called Durgā. She is the protector of the fortress that is this material world. Bhagavān’s svarūpa-śakti is also called antaraṅga-śakti “intrinsic potency” or Yoga-māyā. Yoga-māyā is related only to the spiritual world. She supports Bhagavān’s pastimes. This Yoga-māyā’s shadow or aspect is called Mahā-māyā. She is Bhagavān’s bahiraṅgā-śakti “extrinsic potency”. Mahā-māyā’s relationship is with the material world. She is worshipped by living entities who are averse to Bhagavān, and she submerges them in the miserable ocean of the material world by granting them the temporary and petty pleasures of material sense gratification. Those who submit to the association of pure devotees and accept exclusive shelter of Bhagavān, are told by Durgā-devī the path to liberation from this material world. Otherwise, she cheats all the various types of worshippers who have ulterior motives by granting them the threefold pleasure of artha “wealth”, dharma “righteousness”, and kāma “wishes”. Without the mercy of Bhagavān, it is impossible to cross over this impassable māyā.
Origin pastime
In the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa (in Caṇḍī), there is a very interesting pastime about the origin of Durgā-devī. After attaining a benediction from Brahmā, Mahiṣāsura started tormenting the demigods terribly. The distraught demigods, making Brahmājī their spokesperson, approached Harihara [the combined form of Viṣṇu and Śiva] and, weeping, told of their sorrows.
Hearing of Mahiṣāsura’s atrocities, Harihara began trembling with anger. At that exact moment, a stunning beam of effulgence began to radiate from Their face. At the same time, beams of effulgence began to emanate from the bodies of Brahmā and all the demigods present there. Suddenly, the effulgences condensed and from that appeared Durgā-devī with ten arms and a lion as her carrier. From Viṣṇu’s effulgence, her two sets [right and left] of arms were formed, while Śiva’s effulgence formed her face. All demigods presented their respective weapons to the Goddess.
A great and fearsome look on her face, she let out a peal of laughter and uttered a terrifying cry, to which everyone in all directions began to tremble. Demigods, Gandharvas and sages started glorifying her and praying for her protection from Mahiṣāsura’s atrocities. Assuaging their fears, the Goddess charged Mahiṣāsura. A fierce battle ensued. She decimated the enemy’s forces and finally beheaded Mahiṣāsura with her terrible sword. In this way, the Goddess slayed the demons and protected the demigods.
During the Svārociṣa-manvantara, there was a king of the Caitra Dynasty named Suratha. By the influence of the times, he was defeated by his enemies and was forced to abandon his kingdom and flee to the forest. There he worshipped the Goddess and, by her grace, regained his kingdom.
During that same period, a wealthy businessman named Samādhi was thrown out of his home by his family. Hearing of Devī’s glories, he too worshipped her, and the Goddess mercifully granted the downtrodden Samādhi a boon to attain knowledge.
Śrī Rāmacandra and Durgā-pūjā
Traditionally, the first nine days of Caitra’s (March-April) śukla-pakṣa [bright fortnight] is the time to worship Durgā; however, modern day Durgā-pūjā is celebrated in Bengal with great fanfare during the month of Āśvina (September-October), from the seventh day of the bright fortnight to the ninth. Nowadays, this modern pūjā trend from Bengal has become popularized throughout India. Many people believe: “Śrī Rāmacandra worshipped Mahā-māyā Durgā in the autumn season to vanquish Rāvaṇa and, by her grace, killed Rāvaṇa on the tenth day [of that period]. This is why the śukla-daśamī [“bright tenth”] of Āśvina is called Vijayā Daśamī.” But their belief is completely mistaken, as there is no mention of it in any authoritative scripture such as the original Rāmāyaṇa by Vālmīki, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Padma Purāṇa. Popularization of said belief originates from a rather recent and concocted Upapurāṇa, the Kālkā Purāṇa, and the fabricated Bengali Rāmāyaṇa of a bigoted śākta named Kīrttivāsa. The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa proves the above-mentioned notion to be completely false.
Knowing Śrī Rāmacandra to be worthy, and on the insistence of the citizens, Mahārāja Daśaratha makes a declaration about about coronating Him as the crown prince:
caitraḥ śrīmānathaṁ māsaḥ puṇya puṣpita kānanaḥ |
yauvarājyāya rāmasya sarvamevopakalpatām ||
śva eva puṣpo bhavitā śvo’bhiṣecyastu me sutaḥ || (Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Sarga 3-4)
"In this superb and holy month of Caitra, when the forests and gardens are blooming with beautiful flowers and becoming utterly enchanting, please prepare for the coronation of Śrī Rāmacandra as crown prince. Tomorrow, under the constellation Puṣyā, He will be crowned heir to the throne."
However, something else was destined to happen. The next day, Rāma was sent into exile in the forest for fourteen years, and so departed into the forest. Bharata went to the forest to bring Him back, but Rāma’s determination and irrefutable arguments compelled him to return to Ayodhyā, carrying Rāma’s sandals on his head. However, as he was poised to return, he also took a harsh vow: “Oh Raghu-nandana! I will keep managing the entire kingdom, offering all my kingly duties at your shoes. However, the day that fourteen years are over, if I do not see you in Ayodhyā, I will burn myself in a fire and become ash.”
As such, it was utterly imperative that Rāma return to Ayodhyā the very day that fourteen years were over. The day He was to be crowned heir was the day His exile to the forest started. That is, He was exiled during the puṣyā-nakṣatra period of the bright fortnight during the month of Caitra (March-April). So it was that He killed Rāvaṇa and returned to Ayodhya in March-April—there are no two ways about it. In the Yudha-kāṇḍa [“Battle Section”] it is further clarified that the battle was finished on fourteenth day of the dark fortnight of Caitra. The end of the battle means the killing of Rāvaṇa. After killing Rāvaṇa, Śrī Rāmacandra crowned Vibhiṣaṇa on the throne of Laṅkā and returned to Ayodhyā during the puṣyā nakṣatra of Caitra’s bright fortnight. Hence, Rāvaṇa was killed in month of Caitra and not in Āśvina (September-October).
Secondly, there is no mention of the worship of Durgā by Śrī Rāma in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. Therefore, Śrī Rāmacandra’s worship of Devī during the month of Āśvina and the killing of Rāvaṇa on the śuklā-daśamī day of Āśvina is completely false, unsubstantiated, and concocted. This is the contribution of śākta poet Kṛtivāsa.
Kṛtivāsa was a leading śākta poet. To preach śākta philosophy to the susceptible and ignorant masses, he took the story of Rāma, for which they had utmost regard, cast it in the mould of his own contrived notions, and placed it back before them. He had the omnipotent Bhagavān Śrī Rāma worship His own threefold illusory energy—Durgā-devī. In other words, he attempted to establish the supremacy of Durgā over even Śrī Rāmacandra.
Mahā-māyā—Durgā is Bhagavān’s external potency. Her job is to delude the living entities and trap them in the prison of material existence. Her job is not appealing to Bhagavān, and she herself realizes this fact. It is for this reason that she is shy to come before Bhagavān.
vilajjamānayā yasya sthātumīkṣāpathe’muyā|
vimohitā vikatthānte mamāham-iti durdhiyaḥ || Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 2.5.13
"Those bewildered by she who is ashamed to stand in the path of His gaze blather like idiots about what is theirs and who they are."
Considering this, how is it possible for that personified potency to receive the Lord's worship when she feels too shy to even face Him? More specifically, can a maidservant accept the worship of her master, a submissive wife the worship of her husband? Hence, the idea of Śrī Rāma performing Durgā-pūjā is not even credible, what to speak of substantiated.
Durgā as described in Caṇḍī
In Caṇḍī, Śakti has been described with lot of enthusiasm. But only souls who are enamoured with māyā will be fooled by these exaggerations. Those who are properly acquainted with siddhānta and know tattva will regard them only as subterfuge. It is said in Caṇḍī that Harihara, and others also, are incapable of knowing the tattva of Devī because of the extent of their ignorance: “na jñāyase hariharādibhir-apy apārā |”. An ancient scholar, however, in his commentary of this verse has taken the word Hari to mean “Indra”.
Secondly, in Padma Purāṇa, Nārada Pañcarātra and other scriptures, it is seen that Pārvatī-devī is inquires from Mahādeva about philosophical matters as if she is ignorant and is constantly listening [to his narrations]. So that Śīva who is guru of the entire world—the guru of the entire Vaiṣṇava community—is somehow ignorant in regard to his own śakti? How can that be possible? That is worth some thought.
Really, the way to reconcile this could be that Bhagavān Vyāsa-deva has written like this for the gradual advancement of the living entities whose natures are in the mode of passion. He has written three types of Purāṇas, sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic, for people with those three sattvic, rajasic and tamasic natures. People whose natures are sattvic, in the mode of goodness, naturally have taste in the sattvic Purāṇas. Likewise, those of passionate natures relate to rajasic Purāṇas, while those who are ignorant in nature have faith in tamasic Purāṇas. As such, it is quite natural for individuals in the mode of passion to have faith in Caṇḍī, which is in the category of rajasic Purāṇas. In Gītā, the nature of rajo-guṇa [the mode of passion] is described in this manner:
rajo rāgātmakaṁ viddhi tṛṣṇā saṅga samudbhavam |
tan nibadhnāti kaunteya karma saṅgena dehinām || (Bhagavad Gītā, 14.7)
Know that passion, composed of desire, arises from hankering, and it is that which binds the embodied soul in the clutches of karma.
Rajo-guṇa consists of rāga. Rāga = anurāga or attachment. By its influence, the living entity starts to falsely identify with body and wife, children, family and wealth as “I and mine”. By this false ego and the ego of being the doer, gives birth to desires for enjoyment. Therefore, the materialistic living entity worships Mahā-māyā, satisfies her, and asks: “rūpaṁ dehi, jayaṁ dehi, yaśo dehi, dviṣo jāhi, saubhāgyaṁ dehi, patnī manoramāṁ dehi – Give me good looks, give me success, give me fame, drive away my enemies, give me fortune, give me a charming wife etc.” Thus they ask for benedictions: “Give me, give me!” They do not ask for deliverance from material existence. How could they ask for liberation? Devī can only give worldly assets. King Suratha obtained only the temporary pleasure of a kingdom by his worship of Durgā. Durgā gave so and so liberation—you never hear this anywhere.
The living entity who is under the control of Māyā and her three modes wishes for worldly sensory enjoyment and other temporary pleasures. This is why he is faithful only towards said triguṇātmikā Māyā. According to Gītā, only once the living entity has transcended the three modes is he liberated from the miseries of birth, death, disease, becoming eligible for amṛta [immortality]. This is the ultimate attainment or goal of the living entities.
Brāhmaṇas and the worship of Śakti
Another matter to consider is that in Caṇḍī we see prescription only for kṣatriya [warriors] and vaiśya [merchants] to worship Durgā. But persons who have knowledge of brahma, or in other words, the brahmaṇa collectives will worship Bhagavān exclusively. They will not worship other demigods, ghosts, ghouls, witches, nature spirits or Gandharvas. The scriptural evidence for this is:
brāhmaṇo’pi munir-jñānī deva-manyaṁ na pūjayet |
mohena kurute yastu sadhyaś-cāṇḍālatāṁ brajet ||
sadānya-devatā bhakti-brahmānāṁ garīyasī |
vidūrayati viprastvaṁ cāṇḍālatvaṁ prayacchati || (Nāradīya Purāṇa)
The purport of this is that sagely persons who are in constant meditation, that is, brāhmaṇas, who can differentiate between what is true and what is relative, will only worship Bhagavān Śrī Hari and not other gods and goddesses. If they will do so, even under a spell of delusion, then they will be relegated to cāṇḍāla status. Hence, though worship of the Goddess is highly praiseworthy, it is not to be performed by brāhmaṇas, because it will destroy their “brāhmaṇa-ness” and they end up becoming cāṇḍālas.
Material creation is impossible by Śakti alone
Some people regard prakṛti (Durgā) to be the root cause of creation, existence, and annihilation. However, in Vedānta Sūtra, this opinion has been completely refuted in Vedāntācārya Śrī Baladeva Vidyābhuṣana Mahodaya’s commentary on “utpattyā-saṁbhavāt” (2.2.46). He conveys that this śakti-vāda is a doctrine inimical to the Vedas, because the functions of creation and so on are impossible by energy alone. Without contact with the male, the female alone is unable to produce offspring. To say that śakti endowed by puruṣa is the creator of material existence is also not a flawless statement, because it is heard that the world arises from brahma.
History of modern Durgā-pūjā
The actual time for Durgā worship is in the month of Caitra. However, modern-day Durga-pūjā happens in Āśvina, a trend that originated from Bengal and spread all over India. There is a story behind this modern-day Durgā-pūjā:
During the rule of the Mughal Empire, King Kaṁsa-Nārāyaṇa, who was king of Tahirpur, part of the Rājaśāhī district of Bengal, was Subedar and Diwan. At one time, he invited all the leading smārta priests and asked their permission to organize the performance of a grand fire sacrifice. At that time, Śrī Rameśa Śāstrī of Vāsudeva-pura, which is close to Nāṭor, was the royal priest. He was considered to be the leading scholar of Bengal and Bihar at that time. He told the king:
"There were four yajñās that are considered mahā-yajñās: Viśvajita [world conquest sacrifice], Rājasuya [imperial sacrifice], Aśvamedha [horse sacrifice] and Gomedha [cow sacrifice]. Only a king of the whole planet is eligible to perform the Viśvajita and Rājasuya, and the Aśvamedha and Gomedha are prohibited in Kali-yuga. Secondly, only kṣatriya kings are qualified to perform these sacrifices. You are a brāhmaṇa. Therefore, it is not your duty to conduct these yajñās. In ancient times, King Suratha worshipped Durgā-devī and attained the result he so cherished. Hence, you should also worship Durgā-devī in this autumn season. With this, your desires of attaining the heavenly planets, etc. will be fulfilled.”
Accordingly, in the year 1580, the king spent a great amount of wealth and performed an untimely Durgā-pūjā. Instead of Caitra, it was during the month of Āśvina. That is why it is also called: “Akāla Bodhana – Untimely Awakening”. Gradually, this new form of Durgā-pūjā spread all over Bengal and then all over India. Rameśa Śāstrī was the initial proponent of this modern-day Durgā-pūjā; it cannot be considered authentic or in accordance with scriptural injunctions.
—tridaṇḍi-svāmī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyāṇa Mahārāja