From a satsang with Paramacharya of SWAHA, Pundit Hardeo Persad
We praise and worship Devi so that we may receive Her blessings and thus attain our true nature, divinity. We ask Her for victory over our negative tendencies and victory over this world of duality. We pray for divine glory and ask for freedom from bondage of the cycle of life and death. What is this ocean of duality from which we are asking her to free us? It is the world of opposites: pain, pleasure; birth, death; success, failure; we must rise beyond them through the grace of Devi Maa.
Devi symbolises this universe of energy. She is the personification of all the various powers and energies that exist within creation. Everything is energy vibrating at different frequencies. This has been proven by science, which is the laboratory for Hinduism. Echoing this concept, since the dawn of creation Hinduism has stated: Ya Devi Sarva Bhuteshu, Shakti Rupay Nah Samsthitaa, “That Devi who in all beings is abiding in the form of energy.”
We are all subjected to five factors in this existence of Brahma Prapanch, the world of created beings and objects: space, time, causation, name and form. Can we transcend them and be free from bondage? We can only do so and reach our true divine self, Aham Brahmasmi, through Devi. She is already within us and in nature in the forms of Icchaa Shakti, willpower personified by Durga Maa; Gyaan Shakti, the power of wisdom personified by Lakshmi Maa; Kriyaa Shakti, the power of right action, personified by Saraswati Maa; Kaali, the power of time which consumes all, as personified by Kaali Devi.
Devi’s energy is also within the body as Kundalini Shakti, which is said to be dormant in most of us at the base of the spine, the muladhaara chakra, in the subtle body. When this energy is asleep, we are materialistic and engrossed in the mundane, illusory and impermanent world of Maaya Shakti. When Devi is awakened at the subtle energy centre of greatest awareness in the brain, then we arrive at the ultimate state of Chid Shakti, pure consciousness. This spiritual state is the goal of all spiritual and devotional practices. There are three main channels in the subtle body: ida nadi, pingala nadi and sushumna nadi, the channels of the sun, the moon and the middle passage, also referred to as the rivers, Ganga, Jamuna and Saraswati. When Kundalini Shakti is awakened, she is supposed to rise up the middle passage. If the energy is awakened inadvertently or in an improper way, and it ascends any of the other channels, there may be negative consequences. On the other hand, if it is awakened gradually, and it ascends the middle passage, it will result in a state of divine ecstasy. Those who have experienced this awakening describe feeling the hair standing on end, a spiritual thrill in the body, the voice becoming choked with emotion, and tears springing to the eyes; it is a spiritual ecstasy.
When the divine energy is awakened, all the positive divine qualities also begin to manifest in us. We carry these wonderful spiritual qualities with us throughout life: honesty, sincerity and truthfulness, straightforwardness and all the qualities that Bhagavan Shree Krishna described in the Bhagavad Gita. We must tap into the divine energy, Maha Shakti, the Primordial Energy, the most powerful of all forces, for ourselves and experience our own divinity.
