Let us pray to Mahishasuramardini to destroy all evil

Let us pray to Mahishasuramardini to destroy all evil

By Jamuna Rangachari

Adi Sankaracharaya’s resolution to the Problem of Injustice was that the existence of injustice in the world is only apparent, for one merely reaps the results of one’s moral actions sown in a past life. If one believes in a Higher Power, one has to believe in the justice of an Omniscient and Omnipotent God.

On the higher level of Existence, however, there is no evil or good, since these are dependent mainly on temporal circumstances.

The metaphysical link between work and its result—by themselves mediate the appropriate, justly deserved pleasure and pain. The fruits, according to him, then, must be administered through the action of a conscious agent, namely, a supreme being.

Good and evil are an individual’s deeds, and God dispenses the results of an individual’s actions but has the power to mitigate suffering.

Advaita mysticism maintains that every seemingly separate person is in fact a thought, dream, or experience of God; God creates and becomes / experiences each creation, deliberately limiting it to a specific identity in space and time to undergo a particular life experience. In Advaita, it is God who experiences every pain, suffers every indignity, dies every death, and experiences the illusion of being each separate individual.

A human’s karmic acts result in merits and demerits. Since unconscious things generally do not move except when caused by an agent  the law of karma as an unintelligent and unconscious law,  moves only through a conscious supreme Being who knows the merits and demerits which persons have earned by their actions, and who functions as an instrumental cause in helping individuals reap their appropriate fruits

 Thus, God affects the person’s environment, even to its atoms, and for those souls who reincarnate, produces the appropriate rebirth body, all in order that the person might have the karmically appropriate experiences.

I remember when I wrote the Teaching Stories, a friend of mine, said I must also include stories that show the evil in one’s life. This is because, she said, that enlightenment can come only after we address the evil in us. The same is true of songs and chants. While there are some peaceful, quiet ones, there are some that are powerful and strong as destruction of evil does require both inner and outer strength. This is why there is also a powerful symbolism.

Mahishasura Mardini Stotram or Mahishasur Maridhini Sloka is a very popular devotional stotra of Goddess Durga written by Guru Adi Sankaracharya . This is a devotional verse is addressed to Goddess Mahisasura Mardini, the Goddess who killed Demon Mahishasura.

Mahisasura Mardini is the fierce form of Goddess Durga Maa (an incarnation of Goddess Parvathi), where Durga Maa is depicted with 10 arms who rides in a lion or tiger and carrying weapons and assumes symbolic hand gestures or mudras.

The guru is said to have told all his devotees to chant this for victory over calamities and mitigation of their negative karma.

Hear the chant of Mahishasura Mardini here

When we know the etymology, perhaps we  we should always pray to the Goddess to make us stronger by destroying all the evil in us. The way to strength is within us, after all..