{"collection":"tantra","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/tantra/htg/htg22.htm","path":"tantra/htg/htg22.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/tantra/htg/htg22.htm","text":"Hymns to the Goddess, by John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon), [1913]\n1\nIT is by Thy power only\n That Brahm\u0101 creates, Vi\u1e63\u1e47u maintains,\n And at the end of things \u015aiva destroys the universe.\n Powerless are they for this but by Thy help.\n Therefore it is that Thou alone art the Creatrix,\n Maintainer, and Destructress of the world.\u00a03\n2\nThou art fame, mind, remembrance,\n And our refuge, the mountain-born,\u00a04\n Companion, kindness, faith, and patience,\n Earth, Kamal\u0101,\u00a05 health,\u00a06 the arts, and victory,\nContentment, ever victorious,\u00a01 Um\u0101,\u00a02 Ram\u0101,\u00a03\n True knowledge, and the highest buddhi.\u00a04\n3\nScience, forgiveness, beauty, retentiveness art Thou,\u00a05\n Who art Known in the three worlds as all in all.\n Who is there that unaided by Thee can do ought?\n Thou art the abode wherein all men dwell.\u00a06\n4\nThou art the upholder.\n Were Thou not so, how could the tortoise and serpent uphold the Earth?\u00a07\n Thou art the Earth itself.\n Were this not so, how could this weighty world rest on Ether?\u00a08\n5\nThose who through Thy m\u0101y\u0101 pray to Devas,\n Such as\u00a09 the four-headed One\u00a010, Vi\u1e63\u1e47u, Rudra,\u00a011 Fire,\nThe White-rayed one\u00a01 Yama,\u00a02 V\u0101yu,\u00a03 and Ga\u1e47e\u015ba\u00a04\n Are indeed ignorant,\u00a05\n For can these do anything without Thy power?\u00a06\n6\nO Mother! those who do homa, \u00a07 with ghee on fire,\n With great ceremony in the name of the Devas,\n Are of but small intelligence.\u00a08\n If Thou art not sv\u0101h\u0101,\u00a09 then how can they make sacrifice?\n Do they not worship Thee?\n If not they are ignorant.\u00a010\n7\nIn this world Thou art the giver of enjoyment\n To things which move and are still.\u00a011\n Thou givest life to all things being as they are parts of Thee.\nO Mother! as Thou nourisheth all Thy Suras,\u00a01\n So also dost Thou nourish others.\n8\nO Mother! as men who are of good heart,\n Never for the mere pleasure thereof\n Cut down leafless and bitter (fruited) trees\n Which have sprung up in the forest.\n Therefore Thou dost even greatly protect the Daityas.\u00a02\n9\nThough Thou slayest in the battlefield with Thy arrows the enemies,\n Knowing their desire for amorous play with celestial women,\u00a03\n Yet such is Thy nature that even then Thou showest kindness to them.\n For Thou so slayest them\n That in another body\u00a04 they may obtain fulfilment of their desires.\n10\nMost wonderful it is that Thou hast assumed body\n For the destruction of the D\u0101navas,\u00a01 famed for their power,\n When Thou mightest have slain them by Thy mere will.\n The cause of this is Thy play\u00a02 and nothing else,\u00a03\n11\nAlas! of a verity unhappy are they\n Who when the K\u0101l\u012b age, the worst of ages, has come,\n Do not worship Thee.\n Men cunning and skilled in the Pur\u0101\u1e47as\n Have made the people devoted to the worship of Hari and \u015aankara,\u00a04\n Who are but Thy creatures.\u00a05\n12\nThose who worship with devotion Devas,\n Though they know that they are distressed, harassed by Asuras, and subject to Thy control,\n Are of a surety like unto a man\nWho with, the light of a clear lamp in his hands,\n Yet falls into some waterless and terrible well.\u00a01\n13\nO Mother! Thou art the remover of the pains which arise from birth,\n And art known by those desirous of liberation\n As the giver of happiness when Thou art vidy\u0101,\u00a02\n And of unhappiness when Thou art avidy\u0101,\u00a02\n Surely it is only the ignorant who do not worship Thee,\n Such as are attached to enjoyment without wisdom.\u00a03\n14\nEven Brahm\u0101, Hara, and Hari, as all other Suras,\u00a04\n Ever worship Thy lotus feet, which are our refuge.\n But those who are of small intelligence and beset with error\n Do not worship Thee.\n And so ever repeatedly fall into the ocean of the world.\u00a05\n15\nO Ca\u1e47\u1e0d\u012b!\u00a01 it is most surely by the favour of the dust on Thy lotus feet\n That Brahm\u0101 in the beginning of things creates, Shauri\u00a02 protects, and Hara\u00a03 destroys the whole world.\n He is indeed unfortunate\n Who in this world does not worship Thee.\n16\nO Dev\u012b! Thou art the Devat\u0101 of speech of both Suras and Asuras.\n Without power of speech are even the foremost of Devas\n When Thou abidest not in them.\n If men do speak, it is because they are not deprived of Thee.\u00a04\n17\nHari, 5 when cursed by the greatly angered Bhrigu, 6\nBecame Fish, Tortoise, Boar, and Man-lion,\u00a01 and Dwarf.\u00a02\n How can those who worship Him\n Escape the fire of death?\n18\nAs is well-known, the linga of \u015aambhu\u00a03 in the forest\n Fell on earth in like manner by the curse of Bhrigu.\n How can those, O Mother! who on earth worship Him\u00a04 who holds a skull\n Attain to happiness either in this world or the next?\n19\nThey who worship the elephant-faced Lord of Ganas,\u00a05\n Who was born of Mahe\u015ba,\n With Him in vain take shelter.\n They know Thee not, O Dev\u012b! Mother of the Universe,\n Who art easy of worship\u00a06 and the giver of the fruit of all desires.\n20\nWonderful it is that through Thy compassion\n Even the multitude of enemies slain by Thy sharpened arrows\n Have thus been made to reach Heaven.\n For had they not been so slain\n Calamities and the most painful of painful states would they have suffered\n In that hell which is the result of their (evil) karma.\n21\nEven Brahm\u0101, Hara, and Hari\n From pride\u00a01 know not Thy power.\n How, then, are others able to know it,\n Bewildered as they are by Thy (three) gu\u1e47as of incomparable power?\u00a02\n22\nEven Munis\u00a03 suffer, who, being ignorant (of Thee).\n Do not adore Thy thought-transcending lotus feet,\n And are set upon the worship of sun and fire.\u00a04\n By them, even though they read hundreds of \u015aruti,\u00a05\nThe Supreme object of desire 1 is not known, which is the essence of all Vedas.\n23\nMethinks it is Thy (three) gu\u1e47as,\n The power of which is so famed on earth,\n Which makes men turn away from devotion (to Thee),\n And attaches them to Vi\u1e63\u1e47u, \u012a\u015ba,\u00a02 Bh\u0101skara,\u00a03 Ga\u1e47e\u015ba,\n By (the teaching of) various \u0100gamas\u00a04 of their own devising.\u00a05\n24\nO Ambik\u0101! (so great is Thy mercy)\n That Thou art not angry with,\n But showest kindness to, and maketh greatly prosperous\n Even those who, skilful in the mantra of delusion,\u00a06\nMake the best of men\u00a01 turn away from Thy feet\n By Agamas made by themselves,\u00a02\n Teaching of devotion to Hari and Hara.\u00a03\n25\nIn the Satya age\u00a04 the sattva gu\u1e47a\u00a05 was very powerful,\n Therefore there were no Asad\u0101gamas.\u00a06\n But in the Kal\u012b age learned folk conceal Thee (from the people).\n And adore those Devas imagined by them (to be objects of worship).\u00a07\n26\nMunis,\u00a01 in whom the sattva gu\u1e47a\u00a02 is very pure,\n Meditate upon Thee,\n Who art the giver on earth of the fruit of liberation,\n Who art perfect in yoga\u00a03 and the supreme knowledge.\n Such never again suffer pain in the womb of a mother.\u00a04\n They are only praiseworthy who are absorbed in Thee.\n27\nC\u012bt\u015bakti\u00a05 is in Param\u0101tm\u0101,\n Therefore also it is manifested\u00a06 in the world,\n Wherein it is known as the cause of its creation, maintenance, and destruction.\u00a07\nWho else in this world without Thee and of his own power\n Is able to create, move and destroy?\u00a01\n28\nO Mother of the world!\n Can the Tattvas,\u00a02 deprived of Cit,\u00a03 create the world?\n They are lifeless things.\u00a04\n O Dev\u012b! can the indriyas\u00a05 with their objects and functions,\u00a06\n Bear fruit without Thee?\n29\nO Mother! had you not as Sv\u0101h\u0101\u00a07 been the cause thereof,\n Even the Devas could not have obtained their enjoined own portion,\n Offered in sacrificial rites by Munis\u00a08.\nTherefore Thou maintainest the whole world. 1\n30\nBy Thee all this universe was in the beginning of things created;\n Thou protecteth the Regents of the Quarters among whom Hari and Hara are foremost.\n At the dissolution of things Thou devourest the whole universe.\n That which has been done by Thee from the creation\n Even Devas\u00a02 know not.\n What, then, shall we say of unfortunate men?\n31\nO Mother! Thou hast by slaying the greatly formidable Asura,\n Who assumed the form of a buffalo,\u00a03\n Protected the Devas.\n Even the Vedas know Thee not as Thou really art.\u00a04\n Small of intellect as we are how can we praise Thee?\n32\nO Mother! Thou hast accomplished a great work In destroying this wicked foe of ours,\n A thorn painful beyond all thought\n (In the side of) the whole world.\nThy fame will spread throughout the whole universe.\n Do Thou, whose power is known to be incomparable,\n By Thy mercy protect us.\u00a01\n135:1 Mother of the world.\n135:2 Chap. xix., Skandha v., p. 27, of the Bombay Edition (Venkateshvara Press), edited by Khemar\u0101ja; 1823, Shaka (1902), with Commentary by N\u012blakantha, hereafter referred to by the letter N.\n135:3 The Dev\u012b, who is the mah\u0101k\u0101ra\u1e47asvar\u016bp\u0101, is also the k\u0101ryasvar\u016bp\u0101. As cause She is in the effect and is the \u015baktir\u016bpa by which all things are done (N).\n135:4 Here is meant the \u015aakti of Rudra (N).\n135:5 Lak\u1e63m\u012b, Dev\u012b of Prosperity and Beauty.\n135:6 Pu\u1e63ti: nourishment.\n136:1 Vijay\u0101. The Dev\u012b Pr. says: \"After conquering this very powerful King of the Daityas, named Padma, She is known in the three worlds as Vijay\u0101 and unconquerable (apar\u0101jit\u0101).\"\n136:2 See Hymn to Annapur\u1e47\u0101, post. Here the \u012a\u015bvara \u015aakti (N.).\n136:3 A name of Lak\u1e63m\u012b.\n136:5 Medh\u0101, which means, in particular, the retentive faculty or memory, and in general, intelligence.\n136:6 For in Her all men have their being. She is as \u0100dh\u0101ra\u015bakti, their support (N.).\n136:7 As the Pur\u0101\u1e47as represent them as doing. The verse deals with the attributes of the \u0101dh\u0101ra\u015bakti.\n136:8 Gaganam.\n136:9 Literally, \"headed by,\" or instances of principal Devas.\n136:10 Brahm\u0101.\n136:11 \u015aiva.\n137:1 Subr\u0101mshu, or the moon.\n137:2 Lord of Death.\n137:3 Lord of the Air.\n137:4 The elephant-headed Deva, son of the Dev\u012b as P\u0101rvat\u012b and \u015aiva.\n137:5 Vim\u016bdha (see also Um\u0101sanghit\u0101 of \u015aiva Pur\u0101\u1e47\u0101).\n137:7 The sacrifice done with ghee poured into fire.\n137:8 Alpadhiyah.\n137:9 The mantra used in homa.\n137:11 Here apparently trees and the like, as contrasted with the animal world. She allots the karma (N).\n138:1 The Devas, Her children.\n138:2 That is, the Dev\u012b does not slay even the Daityas for the mere savage pleasure of killing, and even those whom She slays are slain by Her for the good of the world and their own good, that being slain by Her hand they may go to heaven (see next verse). The Kum\u0101rasambhavam says that a man cannot cut down even a poisonous tree if planted by his own hand.\n138:3 Dev\u0101ngan\u0101suratakelimating viditv\u0101.\n138:4 That is, a celestial body. For, as Daityas do not perform sacrificial rites, etc., so they cannot gain heaven. But when killed by the hand of the Dev\u012b, thither they go to their enjoyment, and Devas are protected.\n139:1 Sons of Danu. Enemies of the Devas.\n139:2 Kr\u012b\u1e0darasa that is, l\u012bl\u0101.\n139:3 Kr\u012b\u1e0d\u0101rasastava nach\u0101nyatarotrahetuh (cf. the Vedantic sutra okavattul\u012bl\u0101 kaivalyam).\n139:4 Vi\u1e63\u1e47u and \u015aiva.\n[paragraph continues] Men, the verse says, thus worship the creature instead of the Creatrix.\n(See also Um\u0101sanghit\u0101.)\n140:2 Knowledge and nescience, the source of nivritti and pravritti, with the latter's attendant miseries.\n140:3 Kilamandadhibirn\u0101r\u0101dit\u0101 janani bhogaparaistath\u0101jnaih.\n140:4 Devas.\n141:1 N\u012blakantha derives the word from chadi (\"the wrathful one fearful to the whole world\"). \u015aruti says of the Brahman: Mahadbhayam vajramudhyatam (\"great fear and a ready thunderbolt\")\n141:2 Vi\u1e63\u1e47u.\n141:3 \u015aiva.\n141:4 Sarasvat\u012b is She who causes speech. Sound springing from the M\u016bl\u0101dh\u0101ra wherein is Dev\u012b Ku\u1e47\u1e0dalin\u012b proceeds from the stage of mere sound (para), the potentiality of growth in the seed to that of Pa\u015byant\u012b, when the latter begins to sprout; then to Madhyam\u0101, when the first two small leaves appear but inseparate, and lastly, as Vaikhar\u012b, when they separate, remaining united only at their base.\n141:5 Vi\u1e63\u1e47u.\n141:6 The \u1e5a\u1e63i of that name.\n142:1 The Matsya, K\u016brma, Var\u0101ha, and Nrisingha avat\u0101ra of Vi\u1e63\u1e47u.\n142:2 Chalakrit, which N\u012blakantha says = V\u0101mana Avat\u0101ra of Vi\u1e63\u1e47u. Chalakrit, because Balir\u0101ja was deceived by him.\n142:3 \u015aiva, who retired into the forest after the death of Sat\u012b, and who was powerless to protect even his own linga.\n142:4 \u015aiva.\n142:5 Ga\u1e47e\u015ba, son of \u015aiva, so powerless.\n142:6 Dev\u012b is (as the Lalit\u0101, verse 133, also says), \"easily worshipped\" (sukh\u0101-r\u0101dhy\u0101), without bodily pain by fasting etc., without restrictions on. the mode of meditation. In the Karma Pr. the Lord describes to Himavat an easy mode of worship if he be unable to meditate on the Supreme Form. The Dev\u012b is also \"easily pleased\" (Lalit\u0101, verse 162, k\u1e63iprapras\u0101din\u012b)--that is, even by a little worship as the Saura and \u015aiva Pur\u0101\u1e47as say of the Lord of Um\u0101, with whom the Dev\u012b is one.\n143:1 Garvabh\u0101v\u0101t.\n143:2 Dev\u012b is \"all-bewildering\" (Sarvamohin\u012b). In Karma Pr., \u015aiva says: \"This M\u0101y\u0101 is dear to me by which the world is bewildered. I bewilder the whole universe with the Devas, Daityas, and men.\" The operation of the t\u0101masika gu\u1e47a veils from them the truth.\n143:3 The M\u0101rka\u1e47\u1e0deya Pur\u0101\u1e47a says: \"That Divine Dev\u012b Mah\u0101m\u0101y\u0101 forcibly draws away the minds of even the sages (Munis), and leads them into confusion.\"\n143:4 Because they are pratyak\u1e63adevat\u0101--that is, visible, and She, the supreme ground of them, is beyond vision, mind, and speech.\n143:5 The reading of much \u015bruti (revelation) teaches them nothing, for their ignorance conceals from them its true meaning.\n144:1 Param\u0101rthatattva. \u015aankhya says that there are two different kinds of artha or object. One is bhoga (enjoyment), the second, which is the supreme object (param\u0101rtha) is mok\u1e63a (liberation). The one exists in the current issuing from Dev\u012b (Avidy\u0101), the other returns on the other current, which draws to the Dev\u012b (Vidy\u0101).\n144:2 \u015aiva.\n144:3 The Sun (S\u016brya).\n144:4 Here used generally for \u015a\u0101stra, though also used in a special sense as denoting Veda and Tantra, to the latter of which, N\u012blakantha perhaps refers. N\u0101n\u0101tantraihmohakaih (\"many deluding Tantras\"). The reference is here to the dualistic scriptures.\n144:5 Svabuddhirachitairvividh\u0101gamaishcha (\"composed by themselves\").\n144:6 Mohamantranipun\u0101m.\n145:1 According to N\u012blakantha, Br\u0101hmanas.\n145:2 Literally, \"said by themselves\" (svokt\u0101gamaih)--that is as N\u012blakantha says, puru\u1e63apranit\u0101gamaih (or \u0100gamas composed by men and not revealed by \u015aiva).\n145:3 Vi\u1e63\u1e47u and \u015aiva who are themselves only the children of the Mother, and as much creatures, though of the highest kind, as others are.\n145:4 The first and best of the four ages: Satya, Tret\u0101, Dv\u0101para, and Kal\u012b, the commonly supposed present age. In the second, virtue (dharma) decreased by a quarter, in the third by a half, and in the present or Kal\u012b age only a quarter of dharma remains.\n145:5 The gu\u1e47a, which manifests on the moral plane as goodness.\n145:6 Literally, \"bad \u0100gama,\" a name applied by some to the Tantra of the \"downward current\" (arddharetas), but here has a general significance to all \u015a\u0101stra, whether Tantra or otherwise, of a dualistic character (asachchh\u0101str\u0101ni).\n[paragraph continues] \"Imagined by them\" (tatkalpit\u0101n). This does not mean that the Devas do not exist. Hari, Hara, \u012a\u015ba, Ga\u1e47e\u015ba, Bh\u0101skara, and others have been mentioned in previous verses. The verse is stutiv\u0101da, in which that which is its direct object, is dealt with to p. 146 the exclusion of all others. What is meant is that She alone is to be worshipped and not any other. Kalpan\u0101 is to mistake one thing for another. Thus the world is taken (kalpit\u0101) to be real when the Brahman alone is so. And so, too, mother-of-pearl is mistaken for silver (shuktirajatakalpan\u0101), or a rope for a snake (rajjusarpakalpan\u0101); so people take the Devas to be the ultimate object of worship when it is only the Dev\u012b whose manifestations they are, who is such.\n146:1 Sages.\n146:2 See Introduction.\n146:3 Yogasiddh\u0101m. The manifested Dev\u012b as Um\u0101 was a great yogin\u012b.\n146:4 Are never reborn. According to Hindu ideas the child suffers great pain and misery in the womb of its mother, the remembrance of which is lost on its birth into the world.\n146:5 That is, caitanya (N\u012blakantha). See the Samk\u1e63epa\u015b\u0101riraka.\n146:6 In name and form (n\u0101mar\u016bp\u0101tmaka.).\n146:7 Bhavakrityakart\u0101. Literally, \"performer of worldly action\"--that is, those stated. For, according to Ved\u0101nta and Ny\u0101ya, it works therein by its \u015aakti, though in \u015aankhya the Puru\u1e63a is merely an enjoyer, spectator, and witness (bhokt\u0101, dra\u1e63t\u0101, s\u0101k\u1e63\u012b).\n147:1 Cf. Dak\u1e63inam\u016brtisamhit\u0101.\n147:2 The twenty-four beginning with Mahat.\n147:3 Vide ante.\n147:4 Jar\u0101ni; mere matter but for the informing life of the Goddess.\n147:5 The so-called \"senses\" of knowledge (Jn\u0101nendriya), viz.: Cak\u1e63u (eye), \u015arotra (ear), ghr\u0101\u1e47a (smell), rasan\u0101 (tongue), tvak (skin) and of action (karmendriya); viz., Vak (speech), p\u0101ni (hand), p\u0101da (feet), p\u0101yu (anus), upastha (genitals).\n147:6 Indriy\u0101ni gu\u1e47akarmayut\u0101ni. Thus, form (r\u016bpa) is the gu\u1e47a or object (vi\u1e63aya) of the eye, and dar\u015bana (or seeing), its function (karma).\n147:7 The Mantra used in Agnikriy\u0101 and wife of Agni.\n147:8 If the Mantra Sv\u0101h\u0101, which is the Dev\u012b, be not said, then the Devas get nothing from the homa. Their \u015aastric portion they obtain by virtue only of the Dev\u012b as Sv\u0101h\u0101, the cause thereof.\n148:1 The Dev\u012b protects the Devas, and if the Devas are maintained, then the whole world is maintained, as the Devas are Her agents in the maintenance thereof.\n148:2 Manuj\u0101, which here, according to N\u012blakantha, includes Devas.\n148:3 The Demon Mahi\u1e63a.\n148:4 Gatingtava yath\u0101rthatay\u0101 na jagmuh.\n149:1 The hymn concluding, Dev\u012bbh\u0101gavata continues, Vy\u0101sa said: \"Dev\u012b, thus praised, said in soft, sweet voice, 'Oh, best of Devas, tell Me what other thing most difficult and hard to accomplish you would have Me do?'\"","title":"Hymns to the Goddess: From Pur\u0101\u1e47a: Jagadambik\u0101, from the Dev\u012bbh\u0101gavata Pur\u0101\u1e47a","type":"page"}