{"collection":"tantra","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/tantra/htg/htg12.htm","path":"tantra/htg/htg12.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/tantra/htg/htg12.htm","text":"Hymns to the Goddess, by John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon), [1913]\n1\nO CAND\u012a!\u00a03 wander in my heart,\n By whom the act of formidable Asura\u00a04 was shattered,\n Destroy the calamities which deeply pierce me,\n Arising from the mass of malice and fears (which assail me),\n So that, free from danger,\n And protected by the lotus cluster of Thy feet,\n My swan-like\u00a05 mind may swim and rejoice in the ocean of bliss.\n2\nWhat fear of his enemies has he who worships Thee?\n The Devas who worship Thy feet stamping on beast and noose,\u00a01\n Having abandoned the form of Narasimha,\u00a02\n Whose towering mane reached the summit of Mount Sumeru,\n And whose fingers are outstretched to tear (the breast of) Hira\u1e47yaka\u015bipu,\u00a03\n Now worship the lion,\u00a04 the enemy of the elephant.\u00a05\n3\nO Cand\u012b! when the syllables, the letters of which speak of Thee,\n Reach the ear, then Brahm\u0101 and other Devas\n Sing the truth, touching Puru\u1e63a and Prak\u1e5bti.\u00a06\nO Dev\u012b! be to-day gracious to me,\n Devoted as I am to the kissing of Thy beautiful lotus feet,\n The one and only glittering abode of the essence of the nectar of all Devat\u0101s.\n4\nIf, because of my following your way of Kula,\u00a01\n I suffer reproach better is it that I shall thus be without fame.\n Let me not have that which comes of the worship of Ke\u015bava\u00a02 and Kau\u015bika;\u00a03\n Rather, O Mother! let my heart rest in meditation on Thy lotus feet,\n Worshipped by Brahm\u0101, Hari, the enemy of Smara\u00a04 and the enemy of the Daityas.\u00a05\n5\nO Mother! if I be engaged in the rightful 6 contemplation of Thy lotus feet,\nWhat matters it if I know not\u00a07 other sacred places?\u00a01\n May Thy lotus feet be ever present to my mind--\n Thy feet which are the wealth of our wounds!\u00a02\n O propitious Mother! do Thou forgive me.\n6\nVerily and without doubt, even the Lord of Bh\u016btas\u00a03 would have perished,\u00a04\n Maddened as He was with the joy of the embrace of (Thee who art) His own self,\u00a05\n Had He not enjoyed the lotus fragrance of Thy feet,\n Full of honey from which drop liquid sandal,\n And the nectar, there haply fallen from the moon.\u00a06\n7\nO Mother! let the stream of heavy showers of holy devotion towards Thee\n Be ever shed upon me,\n Struggling and drowning, alas! as I am in the endless ocean of illusion,\u00a01\n Without taste of the springing water of the Bliss of Brahman,\u00a02\n Which dispels the weight of mental afflictions from numbers of Devas.\n8\nMay (Thy) glory,\u00a03 dark as collyrium cloud, Be ever in my heart.\n From its glittering lustre were born the three Devat\u0101s,\n Who create, maintain, and destroy the world,\n Whose substance is pure intelligence and bliss,\u00a04\n Dispelling the darkness which overspreads the heart\n By the (glory of the unnumbered)millions of their rays!\n9\nMay 5 Dev\u012b Mahi\u1e63\u0101mardin\u012b, who hath power to destroy\nThe proud enemies of the Devas,\n And is the slayer of many another demon,\n Ever conquer!\n She it was who, having severed the head of the Asura Mahi\u1e63a,\n Seized upon him who assumed the form of a buffalo by his magic art\n Upon the field of battle,\n Now bellowing, now running, now lowering his head downward,\n Falling upon the battlefield, and then vanishing from it for a while.\n10\nShe kills the Asuras upon the battlefield.\n Terrible it was, with the dancing of the weapons and streamers\u00a01 of the enemy.\n With a cloud of thrown discus and other missiles.\n There the copper-coloured weapon\u00a02 dashed and flashed from the enemy's arrows--\n Enemies so stout, strong, and tall, proud of wealth and power,\n The field of battle thus seemed to have been swept by a tempest,\n Most hideous it was, thickly spread with limbs and dead bodies of Asuras,\n In whose blood and flesh birds slaked their thirst and appeased their hunger.\n11\nLet the Sadhaka meditate upon Dev\u012b Mahi\u1e63\u0101mardin\u012b.\nRushing now here, now there on the field of battle for the slaughter of the enemies,\n Attended by eight companion M\u0101trikas,\u00a01\n Ear-ringed with eight-petalled lotuses,\n Within each petal of which are writ the eight syllables\n Mahi\u1e63\u0101mardinyai namah.\u00a02\n Formidable was that field with the tossing of the huge curved horns of Mahi\u1e63a,\n Deeply black, maddened, wandering to and fro, horribly roaring\n Whose instant death was desired of the Devas.\n12\nLet the S\u0101dhaka meditate\n Upon the auspicious black Bhogavat\u012b\u00a03 Mahi\u1e63\u0101mardin\u012b,\n Holding in Her hands discus, lance, axe, shield, arrow, bow, and trident,\n Making the gesture\u00a04 which dispels fear;\n Her long, matted hair is like a bank of cloud,\n Covering Her face most formidable,\n Loudly screaming, now with peals of terrible laughter,\n And then with Her threats greatly frightening the Daitya heroes.\n13\nO Dev\u012b! such as in this manner\n Meditate upon Thy faultless form,\nWorshipped by Indra and other Devas,\n To them it is given to attack the cities of their enemies,\n And, conquering their enemies, to gain a kingdom;\n They, too, acquire nectar of the knowledge of poesy,\n And power to arrest, banish and slay.\u00a01\n14\nO Mother! salutation to Thee! May Thou conquer!\n Whosoever, meditating upon Thy lotus feet,\n Utters this Thy hymn,\n In the palms of the hands of all such\n Are forthwith wealth, fulfilment of desire, and liberation.\n62:1 A title of Durg\u0101, \u015aakti of \u015aiva as the powerful victrix of demons. She is Mahi\u1e63\u0101mardin\u012b, as the slayer of Mahi\u1e63a. The Daitya \u015aumbha attacked Her in the form of a buffalo (Mahi\u1e63a; see Candi).\n62:2 P. 574.\n62:3 A form of the Dev\u012b assumed for the destruction of the Daitya Canda, and who assisted in the destruction of the demon Raktab\u012bja (see M\u0101rka\u1e47\u1e0deya Pur\u0101\u1e47a).\n62:4 Mahi\u1e63a.\n62:5 Manohamsa, the hamsa, is variously described as a swan, goose, and flamingo.\n63:1 The Dev\u012b is standing on Her lion (v. post) with the noose (p\u0101\u015ba) beneath Her feet.\n63:2 The Man-lion (Avat\u0101ra) of Vi\u1e63\u1e47u, in which He destroyed the Daitya Hira\u1e47yaka\u015bipu, father of His devotee Prahl\u0101da.\n63:3 See last note. The avat\u0101ra is generally represented with the King of the Daityas across his knees, tearing asunder with his hands and claws the latter's belly.\n63:4 Which accompanies the Dev\u012b as Durg\u0101. After the destruction of Hira\u1e47yaka\u015bipu, Vi\u1e63\u1e47u's wrath was not appeased. The world trembled, fearing what he might do. The Devas asked the help of \u015aiva, who assumed the Sharabha form--that of a lion with wings and eight feet--who tossed up Vi\u1e63\u1e47u into the air and held him there until he had become powerless. The lion then went to the feet of Durg\u0101, whom he accompanies.\n63:5 Gaja, the elephant form subsequently assumed by the Asura, Mahi\u1e63a.\n63:6 \u015aiva and \u015aakti, the \"Male\" and \"Female\" elements, from whose union springs the universe (see Introduction to Tantra \u015a\u0101stra and Principles of Tantra.)\n64:1 That is, Kul\u0101c\u0101ra, one, and the highest, of the divisions of T\u0101ntrik worshippers often misunderstood, and therefore subject of reproach; and which is contrasted in the next line but one with the more popular and conventional worshipper of Ke\u015bava and Kau\u015bika.\n64:2 Vi\u1e63\u1e47u.\n64:3 An epithet both of \u015aiva and Indra, probably here the former.\n64:4 Smara, the God of Love; \u015aiva, who slew him, is his \"enemy.\"\n64:5 Daity\u0101ri: usually an epithet of \u015ar\u012b K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a, but as Hari has already been mentioned, possibly the reference may be to Indra.\n64:6 i. e., orderly, according to the direction and sequence of the dhy\u0101na or stotra.\n65:7 Literally, \"If I be deprived of.\"\n65:1 Siddh\u0101spada, where the perfect (siddha) are, or where Siddhi (power and perfection) may be gained.\n65:2 That is, they are the healers of our pain.\n65:3 \u015aiva Bh\u016bte\u015bvara or Bh\u016btan\u0101tha. Bh\u016bta, which in a general sense means \"beings,\" specifically refers to the spirits and ghosts by whom \u015aiva is surrounded and of whom He is Master.\n65:4 It is by the Dev\u012b's aid that \u015aiva is Parame\u015bvara, for without \u015aakti He is nothing, and without Her life-giving energy and support cannot exist. As the Kubjik\u0101 Tantra says: \"Without their \u015aaktis the husbands are but preta\" (inert corpses). So also the Jn\u0101n\u0101rnava: \"O beloved, pure Sad\u0101\u015biva without \u015aakti is without motion like a corpse, for without \u015aakti He can do nothing.\"\n65:5 Sv\u0101tm\u0101nam parirabhya. Literally, having embraced Himself. The Dev\u012b is, however, in a dualistic sense, His sacred half, and in reality one with Him and His own self (see Mah\u0101nirv\u0101\u1e47a Tantra, chap. i.).\n65:6 Daiv\u0101dvichyuta candra candanarasapr\u0101galbhya garbashravat--\"Haply\" in the poetical sense, as the nectar should be in the moon, but it happens to be dropping from the sacred feet of the Dev\u012b. Moreover, the Parambindu, which is \u015aiva\u015bakti, is in the crescent of Nirv\u0101\u1e47akal\u0101, which is by Am\u0101kal\u0101 the sixteenth digit p. 66 of the moon-circle (Candrama\u1e47\u1e0dala), whence flows the nectar which, as Ichchh\u0101, is the eternal precursor of creation (see Commentary, verse 49, of the \u1e62atcakranir\u016bpa\u1e47a in The Serpent Power).\n66:1 Viddh\u0101, not as the original has it, Siddha.\n66:2 Brahm\u0101nandasar\u0101bhi\u1e63eka in the original should be Brahm\u0101nandar\u0101s\u0101bhi\u1e63eka.\n66:3 Mahas, not maham, as in the text.\n66:4 Nirmalacid\u0101nandatrayamdaivatam.\n66:5 Verses 9 to 12 are a free rendering of a text which in parts is so corrupt as to be untranslatable with accuracy.\n67:1 Chowrie.\n67:2 That is, fire.\n68:1 The Dev\u012bs so called.\n68:2 Salutation to the Dev\u012b slayer of Mahi\u1e63a.\n68:3 For She has all powers.\n68:4 The abhaya mudr\u0101 (see p. 36, note 1).\n69:1 Stambhanam, uchch\u0101tanam, and m\u0101ra\u1e47am, three of the T\u0101ntrik \u1e62at\u1e33arma.","title":"Hymns to the Goddess: From Tantra: Mahi\u1e63\u0101mardin\u012b (Mahi\u1e63\u0101mardin\u012bstotra) from the Tantras\u0101ra","type":"page"}