I love Mahishasur Mardini stotram.
Don’t get me wrong, I love all the stotrams. Shiv Tandav, Shree Hari, and whichever other ones I’m missing. I love them all. The thing is, Maa Durga has always been taught to us as a mother, which is actually beautiful, it helps us connect to her on a personal level. Her bhakti becomes much easier and pleasant because you have an established relationship with her.
But the thing is, While Devi Shakti (and Devi Sharda and Devi Ramaa to that extent) are our mothers, I feel like this leads us to focus completely on their maternal side and generally their tamer actions, like Matas bringing prosperity, bliss, knowledge, and I think this materialistic approach towards praying to them is why I hadn’t been able to connect to her on the same level as Shree Hari even though my mother is a staunch devotee of hers.
I genuinely thought that this was simply because it was in my destiny to have Shree Narayan as my aradhya. Until I heard the stotram and realised that this isn’t the case. It’s simply because I’m lost to the other side of These goddesses.
The side that is a warrior. The side that slayed Mahishasur, Dhindhinasur, Madhu, Kaitabh, Harshad, Marshad, Sahastra Ravan, Narakasur, Chand, Mund, Raktabeej, Kohlasur, Bhairo Nath, and many others with her valour. The side that haunts the sons of Diti. The side that scares Jalandhar with her fire. The side that is a daughter. A daughter of Himachal, Daksh, Shaila, Bhrigu, Janak. A side that as Parvati is the sister of Vishnu. The side that is a woman with braided hair, the one who is the mistress of most ferocious animals.
A side that is the power. The power of Bramha as Sharda, of Narayan as Padma and of Mahesh as Gaura. The sheer rage that is Kali, the immovability of Parvati as she sets her mind to marry her love. The valour of Meenakshi as she conquers everything from Kanyakumari to Kailash. The yog of Sita who could have destroyed Ravan to atoms if she wished. The Determination of Satyabhama who killed her own son for righteousness.
The side that will appear out of a statue and hurt those who try to harm her children. The side that will take any form just like Narayan and Shiva to end the evils. The side that completes her divinity.
We never focus on these aspect of theirs like we do with Shri Narayan and Bhagwaan Shankar. We are too used to their maternal sides and never discuss this one, when we need to in order to understand them as well as we understand the other two Gods.
Because while we need her maternal side to know that she loves us, we need her other side to shed the perceptions of materialism we have associated with her. To know that she is a Goddess same as the other two and not just a boon granter. (Well, we can ask her for boons and other materialistic stuff ofcourse, but lets not confine her role to just that please :/)
We need her motherly side to establish a connection of love with her, and her other side to connect with her on the divine level.
We need to understand that she’s our Maa Durga who we love, and also Mahishasur Mardini whom we learn for. While we need to look at her as she holds us in difficult times, and say:
“She’s our mother, and we love her.”
We alsi need to look at her with love while she slays demons, and say:
“She’s our mother, we learn from her.”
(Art not mine)
