by Krystina Crimi
ya devi sarvabhutesu
sakti rupena samsthitah
namastasyai, namastasyai, namastasyai
namo namah
Mother
Who resides in all beings
In the form of the power of manifestation
I bow to you, I bow to you, I bow to you
How am I to know the Divine Mother? By the presence of the present moment. I saw before me this morning the form of a simple hollyhock seedling. As I sat at the breakfast table I was gently drawn to, and captivated by, the presence of this young plant I had brought home for my garden. It was at once painfully fragile and overwhelmingly powerful. Its power lay in its simply being. The fact, the indisputable fact, of its existence was more eloquent than any philosophical treatise I have read, and I was touched by the sweetness of its silent presentation to me. I gently touched its leaves and marveled that it could be. That anything could be. That everything could be. That I could be.
I looked at my hands and acknowledged their silent existence. Looking around the room it was evident that everything is of this nature. ya devi sarvabhutesu sakti rupena samsthitah namastasyai, amastasyai, namastasyai namo namah. Sakti-rupa is the form of power, the power of manifestation. It is creation. On this Mother’s Day the Divine Mother is to be seen and worshipped in all of Her manifestations. Through this we acknowledge Her incredible sacred power to be. She can be seen in every forward thrust of every new blade of grass in every spring awakening. Yet She is hidden from us by Her sheer numbers. She is the many in the one. In quiet moments seedlings open up to us to reveal great, silent truths. Fragile power is not an oxymoron, not a paradox, but a compelling truth that every women carries as a manifestation of, as a spark of a spark of, the Divine Mother. A quote from the Saktisangama Tantra is helpful here.
Woman is the creator of the universe,
the universe is her form
Woman is the foundation of the world,
she is the true form of the body.
Whatever form she takes,
whether the form of a man or a woman,
is the superior form.
In woman is the form of all things,
of all that lives and moves in the world.
There is no jewel rarer than woman,
no condition superior to that of a woman,
There is not, nor has been, nor will be
any destiny to equal that of a woman;
there is no kingdom, no wealth,
to be compared with a woman,
there is not, nor has been, nor will be
any holy place like unto a woman.
There is no prayer to equal a woman.
There is not, nor has been, nor will be
any yoga to compare with a woman,
no mystical formula nor asceticism
to match a woman.
There are not, nor have been, nor will be
any riches more valuable than woman.1
If we were to substitute the epithet “Divine Mother” for the word “Woman” in this tantra an insight may occur. It could be read on a very Superficial level, where “woman” is understood to be just a human being.
By substituting the epithet “Divine Mother,” one gains a richer perspective on the tantra. Yet the chosen designation is the word “woman.” The author of this work is presenting us with something to ponder. She or he is making the divine more accessible; saying, “Look more closely. The Divine Mother is all around you.”
You can readily access Her in your own mother, sister, daughter, niece, friend. And after you have made this connection, move on. See Her in all of Her forms, “whether the form of a man or a woman,” in “all that lives and moves in the world.”
The Divine Mother is as close to us as our senses. Hers is a sensual world. Caring for Her child [us], She provides a womb of living, emergent sense-objects for experience. This is not a dead, objective world incapable of producing. It is vital in every way and always presenting to us. We are held in that womb. We are not separate from it. We are that womb. The womb is within and without at the same time. To touch a hollyhock, to see its form and color, is a gift from Mother to child, transmitted through the umbilical cord of the senses. This sensory experience envelops, infuses and becomes the body allowing for the fullness of life.
In ancient India, and still today, the senses were revered as gods. Why? The senses are the gates allowing the world entry into our bodies. So we experience within all the marvels that lay about. Sound, especially music, provides a perfect vehicle for helping us to understand how this process works in our experiences. We can actually feel its effects in the body. Who can deny the vibrations of deep drum calls felt within? Our senses have withered to the point that we really believe all of this has nothing to do with us. We believe that we are not co-conspirators with the world of sensory objects. We think ourselves to be objective observers of the objective world, standing in opposition to it. Holding this view, the Divine Mother becomes something to be conquered, not revered.
In Her compassion for Her progeny, the Divine Mother never abandons Her children; even when we turn away from Her. Crickets and cicadas still sing their melodies and we still hear them. What is required of us is gratitude. Without appreciation and thankfulness this is all just noise and the Mother remains hidden from us. It is incumbent upon us to take responsibility for seeing…and hearing, tasting, touching, smelling.
The Divine Mother appears to us, is apparent to us, at all times. She is all. She is the sacredness in the ant and the deity in the temple. She insists that all of her forms are sacred. Who am I to say otherwise?
Ya devi sarvabhutesu sakti rupena samsthitah namastasyai, amastasyai, namastasyai namo namah. Homage to you again and again,
It is necessary to have a context within which to understand such statements of power. Yoga is my context. For this I owe thanks to my spiritual mother, Gurani Anjali. Namo, namah, GuruMa.
1. From Ajit Mookerjee, Kali: The Feminine Force (Destiny Books, 1988), 6.↩