DESTRUCTION PRECEDES CONSTRUCTION

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

DESTRUCTION PRECEDES CONSTRUCTION
The phenomenon of destruction necessarily preceding a new birth is found in every aspect
of creation and evolution upon this earth. Similarly, in the realm of the spirit, when the seeker has
set himself to rise into the transcendental state of Paripoornata, or perfection, fullness, bliss, eternal
life and infinite peace, light and joy, when he starts upon this process, he finds that he is bound

down by many things which do not allow him to rise up to that desired state of spiritual felicity and
bliss. Numerous elements of this old human self, many undesirable factors of the lower aspect of
mundane life, hold him down, trying perpetually to keep him bound to ignorance, darkness,
delusion and Anatmic (not Self) tendencies. This lower aspect of the individual soul in the form of
the various weaknesses and defects of the flesh is known by the name of Papa Purusha or the
Pasu—which need be destroyed and given as Pasu-Bali on the altar of Daivi Shakti (the Divine
Mother of Power).
If an aspirant really and earnestly desires to attain to Supreme Peace and Bliss, then he must
be resolutely prepared to do the preliminary breaking process that is absolutely essential before he
can be free to rise up from the old personality and soar into the empyrean realm of the spiritual
Consciousness full of bliss and peace. If his earnestness makes him ready to die to his lower-self,
then he can be called a real worshipper of Kali, the fearful Mother Divine, the consumer of all the
blackness in the form of the impurities of the soul. She wields Her sword and Her terrible form in
order to destroy that which stands as an obstacle to our attainment of spiritual bliss. She is terrible,
fearful and destructive to all that is lower in us, impure and unspiritual in us and all that is base and
bestial (animalistic) in us.
The individual finds that he cannot fight and overcome these enemies of the higher self
through his own puny individual efforts. Therefore, comes the necessity and the meaning of
Mother-worship. He invokes that aspect of this Supreme Divine Power that might be capable of
doing this process of Pasu-Badha in his own individual case. Therefore he turns to the Mother and
lovingly addresses Her, “O Mother! come tome as the terrible, come tome with your fearful sword;
come tome as a destructive power in thy fearsome aspect which will be capable of destroying in me
that which is unspiritual, unholy, and that which is animalistic and base and Anatmic.” He
welcomes the terrible so that She may release him from the clutches of the evil and the impure that
is in him, the Papa Purusha that is in him. This is a Voluntary invitation of the destructive aspect of
Divine Shakti so that She may, out of Her love and compassion for us, do the work of destroying all
the Shad-Ripus (sixfold enemies viz., lust, anger, greed etc.) in us, our egoism, our impurity, our
attachments and all the host of the things that form the lower aspect in the individual.
Therefore, the worship of Kali is a little bit difficult, because we find that while one part of
the seeker, out of his aspiration and desire for liberation, feels that he should free himself from the
base aspect of his personality, yet there is the power of delusion, attachment and Moha in him and
this aspect makes it difficult for him to completely destroy his lower self, his attachments and
cravings and Trishnas with a resolute mind. While he wants Mother Kali to come and do the work
of destruction, at the same time he yet clings to his lower self! Therefore, his worship of the Divine
Mother Kali is not whole-hearted.
He is the real worshipper of the Divine Mother, who sets himself resolutely to crush out all
attachments, to crush out his delusion, to crush out his cravings, to crush out likes and dislikes, to
annihilate his egoism, and thus actively co-operates with the. Power which he invokes through
Mother-worship. Else, it will be a hypocritical worship.
A real seeker and a worshipper of the Divine Mother should ever exercise his Vichara,
Viveka and Vairagya with a resolute and determined mind. It is the exercise of all these higher

faculties in order that the lower faculties may completely be destroyed that forms the real worship
of the Divine Mother. The Sadhana which the seeker does in order to destroy the impurities of his
mind and heart, the Sadhana which he does to burn up his egoism and attachments of the lower
nature, may constitute the real worship of Mother for him. It is the doing of one’s Sadhana with
whole-heartedness, intense sincerity and with the entire integral being in the seeker, that constitutes
the real worship of the Mother.
In every Seeker this worship of the Mother is a process that constantly goes onto that extent
to which he resolutely opposes the cravings and attachments that try to keep him bound down to his
lower existence; to that extent also he daily succeeds in doing a real worship of the Divine Mother.
Let us all pray to the Divine Mother that she may give us all the necessary strength and
inspiration and inner power, to put ourselves whole-heartedly upon Her side and join in the work of
the Divine Sakti in regenerating us, in annihilating our Pasutva (animal instinct) and bestowing
upon us Divya-Jyotis (Divine Light).