sabato 17 dicembre 2011

Durga, the inaccessible

Golden Durga
This time the gods in their eternal struggle against the demons asuras cannot win. Powerful weapons, bloody battles, ingenious stratagems cannot eliminate the powerful buffalo Mahisha and its endless hordes of savage warriors.
Only the sum of their energies and their weapons will be concentrated will can prevail against Mahisa. Here comes Durga, the more powerful, ruthless, cruel god of Hinduism along with Kali who - according to some traditions - was born out of an eyebrow of Durga.
Shiva gift  his own trishula, Vishnu chakra, Agni the arrow of fire, Vayu the bow, Indra the thundhier, Kubera the bat, Yama the spear. For this Durga has many arms, up to thirty-two. Hes vahana, the vehicle which she uses  to move, is the tiger and more often lion, for this she is also known as Simhavahini (Simha = Lion).
Durga is beautiful and she isn't - like the other goddesses - the Shakti that is the energy of a particular god, but it is the sum of the energies of all the gods. Durga has no spouse even if the different traditions seek to associate now to a god now to another.
So armed Durga is launched against the buffalo, hits him, but he turns into a lion, and she strikes again turns into an elephant, and catching her with its proboscite. The goddess then with a clean blow knocks his proboscite and Mahisha turns back buffalo, the goddess - enhanced by the intoxicating drink soma - hits the monster to death and at the end from the mouth of the buffalo get out the demon in his human form. A huge and powerful warrior with a sword. Durga does not scare Mahisa and hits his heart with the trident, the Shiva's trishula.
It was the tenth day of battle and Durga had killed Mahisha finally, for this she is also called Mahishasuramardini, the one who killed Mahisha and that day is considered to be dedicated to her, is the Vijaya Dashami.
The goddess is worshiped all over India especially during the festivals of Durga Puja.
For her fighting and winning  nature she was also taken as a symbol of independent and free India.

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