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Jai
Mata di - Mahavidyas |
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Mahavidyas (Great Wisdoms) are aspects
of Devi in Hinduism. The Ten Mahavidyas are known as Wisdom Goddesses.
The spectrum of these ten goddesses covers the whole range of feminine
divinity, encompassing horrific goddess's at one end, to the ravishingly
beautiful at the other. Mahavidyas means (Maha - great; vidya -
knowledge) Goddesses of great knowledge.
In the Tantric tradition, these are
identified as:
1. Kali
2. Tara
3. Tripura Sundari
4. Bhuvaneshvari
5. Bhairavi
6. Chhinnamasta
7. Dhumavati
8. Bagalamukhi
9. Matangi
10. Kamalatmika
All ten forms of the Goddess, whether
gentle or terrifying, are worshiped as the universal Mother.
Birth of Das Mahavidyas
Once during their numerous love games,
things got out of hand between Shiva and Parvati. What had started
in jest turned into a serious matter with an incensed Shiva threatening
to walk out on Parvati. No amount of coaxing or cajoling by Parvati
could reverse matters. Left with no choice, Parvati multiplied herself
into ten different forms for each of the ten directions. Thus however
hard Shiva might try to escape from his beloved Parvati, he would
find her standing as a guardian, guarding all escape routes.
Each of the Devi's manifested forms
made Shiva realize essential truths, made him aware of the eternal
nature of their mutual love and most significantly established for
always in the cannons of Indian thought the Goddess's superiority
over her male counterpart. Not that Shiva in any way felt belittled
by this awareness, only spiritually awakened. This is true as much
for this Great Lord as for us ordinary mortals. Befittingly thus
they are referred to as the Great Goddess's of Wisdom, known in
Sanskrit as the Mahavidyas. Indeed in the process of spiritual learning
the Goddess is the muse who guides and inspires us. She is the high
priestess who unfolds the inner truths.
Worship of Das Mahavidyas
In their strong associations with death,
violence, pollution, and despised marginal social roles, they call
into question such normative social "goods" as worldly
comfort, security, respect, and honor. The worship of these goddesses
suggests that the devotee experiences a refreshing and liberating
spirituality in all that is forbidden by established social orders.
The central aim here is to stretch one's
consciousness beyond the conventional, to break away from approved
social norms, roles, and expectations. By subverting, mocking, or
rejecting conventional social norms, the adept seeks to liberate
his or her consciousness from the inherited, imposed, and probably
inhibiting categories of proper and improper, good and bad, polluted
and pure. Living one's life according to rules of purity and pollution
and caste and class that dictate how, where, and exactly in what
manner every bodily function may be exercised, and which people
one may, or may not, interact with socially, can create a sense
of imprisonment from which one might long to escape. Perhaps the
more marginal, bizarre, "outsider" goddesses among the
Mahavidyas facilitate this escape. By identifying with the forbidden
or the marginalized, an adept may acquire a new and refreshing perspective
on the cage of respectability and predictability. Indeed a mystical
adventure, without the experience of which, any spiritual quest
would remain incomplete. |
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