Essence of Devi Mahatmya

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

Essence of Devi Mahatmya
It begins this way. A king of the Surya Vamsa to which Lord Rama also belonged, named
Suratha, is overcome and overwhelmed by his foes, who compel him to flee his kingdom. He takes
shelter in a forest. He is deeply afflicted and dejected, deprived of all his wealth and retinue; and he
is wandering forlorn, destitute of everything, in a very wretched condition. His mind again and
again goes back to the bitter fate which he has suffered. Thinks of his kingdom, his wealth, his
ministers and the way in which the kingdom is likely to be governed under the new rulers. While he
is in this state of mind, he happens to come to the vicinity of the hermitage of a great God-realised
sage, called Rishi Medha. He sees the hermitage with all its beauty, the disciples of the
Rishi—everything pervaded by serenity, calmness and purity; and he stays there.
While he is in this hermitage he comes across a fellow-sufferer, a brother-in-distress, a man
named Samadhi, belonging to the merchant community, who has also similarly run away from his
home because of misfortune. He had lost all his wealth to his own relatives; and his own family had
turned him out of the house. He is thus forced to wander into the forest. He also takes shelter at the
feet of the sage.
They find that they are more or less in the same predicament, deprived of their wealth and
ousted from their home, with their own people turned against them; and in spite of all this
unkindness of their own people, both of them are intrigued and deeply puzzled to find that with all
the hostility and enmity of their people, yet their minds go again and again back to these very
people, to the very things which have been the cause of their sorrow, of their grief, of their deep
disappointment and dejection.
They try to discuss this between themselves; what is this mysterious nature of the mind
which harkens back again and again and clings to those self-same things and people from whom
they have had nothing but pain and sorrow. Unable to solve this riddle, they go and humbly entreat
the Rishi Medha to throw some light upon this problem. They ask the Rishi: “O Wise One, pray
throw some light upon this problem; we are greatly puzzled to find this mind still clings to those
very objects, is attached to those very persons, from whom it has received the greatest pain and
sorrow; it knows there is no pleasure in those things, yet it will not give up its attachment to
them—what is the reason for this, how do you explain this peculiar delusion of the mind?”
In answer to this query which, though it has been put into the mouth of Raja Suratha and
Vaishya Samadhi, yet is a universal question which agitates the minds of all thinking men and
women all over the world, Rishi Medha gives his wondrous exposition of the greatness of the Devi.
He says; “O my children! A mysterious delusion dwells in the mind of man, by which his pure
reason is blinded, by which delusion he is again and again made to cling and go back to those very
objects and persons from which he is subject to so much pain and suffering. This delusion, this
veiling power, is really the mysterious power of the divine Mother. It is She who is the cosmic
illusion. It is She who is at the back of projection of this very universe itself. It is with Her
mysterious veiling Power that the one seems to have become the many, the formless seems to have
taken numerous forms and the unmanifest seems to have become manifest and this mysterious
power is the indescribable power of the Supreme Being itself. It is Brahma Shakti; it is the
Mahamaya or the great Cosmic Illusory Power which emanates from the Lord Himself, and it is
through this power that the Lord sets going this universal drama of projection of creation,
preservation and once again the ultimate dissolution of all names and forms back into its pristine
transcendental state of Pure Being.”
The King Suratha and Vaishya Samadhi want to know more about the mysterious power
which Rishi Medha has referred to and to know more about this cosmic power which is at the back
of all manifestation. In response to this request of theirs Rishi Medha goes into the detailed
exposition of the nature of the divine Mother; and the 700-versed scripture contains this exposition.
In the end, having expounded the mystery and secret of the supreme nature of the divine Mother
Rishi Medha advises Suratha and Samadhi to go and practise Yoga, worship the Divine Mother,
pray to Her and meditate upon Her and propitiate Her. Thus propitiated She becomes manifest to
them and bestows Her Grace upon both the king and the merchant and their heart’s desire is
fulfilled.
This in short is the import of this supreme scripture of the Shaktas—Devi Mahatmya.