From a satsang with Pt. Umadutt Maharaj, Spiritual Leader, SWAHA Bhakti Jyot Mandali
The Devi Bhagwat Purana is very expansive, consisting of 18,000 verses divided into 38 chapters. While it praises all forms of divinity, it specifically glorifies the Divine Mother. It recognises the divine energy, Devi, as the Supreme Power, the energy that gives life to the entire universe. This whole universe is energy vibrating at different frequencies, Devi Maa. She is described as the Cause of everything; One who has no beginning, middle or end. She is Sarva Devi, Goddess of All. We pray to Her: Ya Devi Sarva Bhuteshu, Sarva Rupayna Sansthitaa. O Mother, You are everything. Everything that exists in this universe is because of You.
According to the Devi Bhagawat Purana, when the Devi is praised, she removes all afflictions of devotees: poverty, sickness and so forth. She is the refuge of the entire universe. She is omniscient and the controller of the innermost actions of each of us. She has two main forms: a benign, calm form and a destructive, fierce one. For example, as the power of time (Kaali Devi), She is the power that consumes everything and everyone eventually. Nothing, animate or inanimate, can function without Her energy.
She is both the real and the unreal. Devi is maayaa, the delusive power of creation. She is also the One who liberates all devotees from the bondage to this world of birth and death. She is described as Eternal Maahaamayaa. She is also called Mahaamaayaa Brahmavidya: we are all caught up in the net of delusion (maayaa). She is the veiling power that shows us the unreal, temporary world. She is the cause and controller of maayaa, but she is also beyond the delusion. She represents the various forms of maayaa: Yogamaayaa, Vishwamaayaa (maayaa of the world) and Mahaamaayaa (the great delusion).
The Devi Bhagwat Purana also refers to Her as shakti, which can be intepreted as the energy inherent in each of us. She creates this universe and is also its preserving and destroying aspect. She is the creative power of Brahma as Saraswati shakti; the sustaining power of Vishnu as Lakshmi shakti; and the reabsorbing power of Shiva as Durga shakti. She is higher than the highest and the cause of all causes. Devi is the support of the universe; She is the three planes of existence, bhu, bhuvah and svah (earth, intermediate and heavenly regions). Her forms are sattva, rajas and tamas, as She is representative of the three gunas or modes of existence (purity, materialism and inertia, respectively). She is also beyond all the gunas and is changeless, unaffected by prakriti (nature).
Devi is also called Shivaa, the feminine aspect of Shiva. She is also known as Trayambakha, Gauri, Uma, Girija, Sati and numerous other names. Whatever the name She may be called, there is one mantra with which we can worship Her:
Sarva Mangala Mangalye
Shive Sarvath Sadhike
Sharanye Trayambakay Devi
Narayani Namostute
Maa Durga is the most Auspicious One who blesses all the worlds with prosperity and goodness. The pure and holy Mother protects those who surrender to Her. She is the Daughter of the king of the mountains when She incarnated as Gauri. We bow down to the Divine Mother and worship Her.
Devi is the cause of the universe, the cause of the five elements, the cause of the senses (gyaan indriyaas) and organs of function (karma indriyaas). She is the Source of all, who remains constant and never changing. When a devotee, making obeisance, prays to the Divine Mother, and makes self-sacrifices in Her name, one awakens the quality of Brahmavidya, the highest form of knowledge in the universe; it is the gyaan (wisdom) by which we can understand the true nature of the Self.
