I was drawn to go back to yantras a few weeks back, even though it’s only now I get to share this one. I always choose which yantra to draw next intuitively and then I realize as I am in the process what I am missing that the particular yantra can offer me.
This is what I discovered for Durga, based on the writings of Harish Johari in his book “ Tools for Tantra” .
Durga in Sanskrit means invincible. The syllable du is synonymous with the four Asuras (devils) of poverty, sufferings, famine and evil habits. The r in Durga denotes diseases and the ga is the destroyer of sins, injustice, irreligion, cruelty, laziness and other evil habits. The goddess Durga destroys all these evils represented by du, r, and ga.
She has been worshiped as the wife of Shiva, another form of Uma or Parvati, or even the Mahamaya, the root cause of the world of names and forms. In the most beloved scripture of Durga worshipers, she’s mentioned by 108 names, all forms of the divine mother or the divine mother herself.
How did she manifest?
All a gods and sub gods gave part of their radiance to her in form of fire. The fire slowly converted itself into the form of a goddess. All the gods provided her with powerful weapons and she became accomplished with all manner of weapons in decorations.
Her story of creation shows that Durga is the unified symbol of all divine forces. Because she was produced from the radiance of all the gods she carries their essence within her. This unified force only manifests when the evil forces threaten the very existence of the divine forces. Thus Durga represents a joint venture of the divine forces to destroy this harmony and establish harmony. Her goal is to establish the rule of dharma or righteousness and by that she reminds me of Maat.
Stories about Durga and other incarnations of the Divine Mother, refer to the constant struggle between divine and demonic forces, the eternal pair of opposites. Without the struggle the existence of the world of names and forms is impossible. Demonic forces ( inside us) are self destructive but very powerful whereas devine forces are constructive but slow and efficient. The demonic forces are very powerful in the beginning because they’re united while the divine forces are scattered here and there. But when the demonic forces create imbalance the all the Gids unite, becoming one divine force called Shakti, and manifest as a goddess or god to destroy evil and create balance. All these ancient tales of gods and goddesses emphasize the victory of good or evil in the struggle that takes place within the human being. Durga symbolizes the non-dualistic existence of energized consciousness or conscious energy. Being the Divine Mother, she destroys dis- harmony that is creating imbalance in the phenomenonal world. However, Durga does not simply want to destroy evil but to transform it into good energy.
As far as the yantra is concerned, here we see the importance of the optical phenomenon of afterimage. Namely meditating on the Saffron color of Durga Yantra produces a calming blue color, that offers the meditator serenity and purity. The buhpur, the gates of the temple, is of the color of sunlight because Durga is the divine radiance unified in a female form. Meditation on this color produces again by the effect of afterimage the complementary color, blue, which brings peace and feels the meditator with magic magnetic energy.
The Yantra has eight lotus petals which represent the octave of existence:
1. love
2.mercy
3. sacrifice
4.penance
5. selfless service
6. devotion
7. faith and
8.detachment from all achievements.
This helps the Devine in us to evolve and to get away from the du: sufferings, poverty, bad habits and addictions, the r diseases and the ga : injustice, irreligion, cruelty and laziness.
The three golden rings represent the three phases of time past present and future.
The nine pointed star in the center created by four triangles superimposed over one another represent the nine Shaktis. Three of the triangles are upward pointing and represent the three primal forces creation, preservation and destruction. They overlap one another just as these forces overlap one another in the phenomenonal world. These three triangles represent the effulgence of light that came from the mouths of the three Gods of the Hindu trinity. The fourth downward pointing yellow triangle represents the manifestation of the body of light as unified Divine Force. The overlapping of these four triangles produces another triangle in the middle. It points upwards and represents the Divine Mother, who’s each side is coming from the three divine forces. The center of the Yantra and the central triangle is the divine bindu, which represents the Divine Mother herself.
After reading all this I realize that Durga comes to help in times of internal struggle, restoring the natural bliss that one feels when aligned with harmonic forces. Thank you Durga, you are now one more tool in my arsenal!
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