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Durga is another incarnation of Parvati, the wife of Shiva and a Divine Mother Herself. She is the Mother in her rage to protect her children from danger. She was produced from the radiance of all gods and represents unified forces of light. Shiva gave her trident, Vishnu gave her a discus, Varuna gave her conch, Marut gave her Bow and arrows, Indra gave her thunderbolt, Yama, lord of Death, gave her scepter, Brahma gave her a water pot, Kala, Lord of Time, gave her sword and shield, Vishwakarma have her ax and armor and Sun God gave her his radiance. Plus she is a woman.

The story: Once upon a time a powerful demon, named Mahish, obtained a boon that he never die unless a beautiful woman will kill him. So he became invincible, since all the warrior at the time were men.Using his powers the demon defeated all the gods, including Indra, the king of Heaven. Than all the gods went to Shiva, awoke him from his meditation and told him what's going on in the world: the demonic powers prevail creating major imbalance and destruction in the Universe. Shiva became furious and his anger turned into beam of divine light, and there also came rays of light from all other gods. These rays of light united and produced a beautiful woman, a goddess, named Durga. The newborn power made a sound that made the tree worlds tremble. When head of demons, Mahish, learned about his new enemy, he send his generals to kill it, but all of them was stayed by the goddess, than the Mahish came himself, and was fighting her on the earth, in the water and in the air, but could not defeat Durga, who was getting tired of this nonsense. She stepped down from her tiger and chopped the head of demonic powers into pieces. And than peace and prosperity, love and harmony was once more established in the world. The creation of Goddess Durga takes place in the context of cosmic crisis, brought about by a demon whom the male gods are unable to defeat. She was created because the situation calls for a woman, a superior warrior with a peculiar power with which the demon may be deluded. In the battle field, she often create helpers such as Kali and a group of ferocious deities called the Matrkas ( mothers ). These goddess are ferocious, blood thirsty and uncontrolled. Durga does not create male helpers and she fights without direct male support against male demons, and she always wins. Just like this, any time, Durga can be a great aid to win a battle against evil- when no other force seems to be able to help. Pray to her for help in overcoming obstacles, enemies, pains and sufferings.

She is your personal savior, indeed. This is a complementary role of Durga in which she acts as a personal comforter who intervenes on behalf of her devotees. At the end of the Devi Mahatmaya, after the world being restored to order, Durga herself says that she will responded to the pleas of her devotees and that she may be petitioned in times of distress to help those who worship her. She mention specifically : forest fires, wild animals, robbers, imprisonment, execution, battles and threats. At the end of the Devi Mahatmaya, after being petitioned by two of her devotees, to one she returns his wealth and kingdom, and the other she grants ultimate liberation.

Durga violates the model of Hindu Woman. She is not submissive, she is not subordinated to a male deity, she does not fulfill household duties and she excels at what is traditionally a male function- fighting a battle. She reverse the normal role for female, not leading her power or sakti to a male consort but rather takes power from the male gods in order to perform her own heroic exploits. They gave up their inner strength, fire and heat to create her, and in doing so surrender their potency to her. Her rejection of the male antagonist who wanted to marry instead of fighting her. In Devi Bhagavat purana, the demon mahisa insist that as a woman the goddess is to delicate and beautiful for anything but love play and that she should come under the protection and guidance of a man in order to fulfill her place in the society. This lead to Mahisa own humiliation and eventually destruction. All forms of Durga mythical exploits portrays her as independent from male support and relationship yet she is extremely powerful. She is beautiful and seductive but her beauty does not serve its normal function which is to attract husband but, perhaps, to attract the evil that she destroys.

Since Durga is the manifestation of the power of good over evil, people have worshipped her for ages, and still do to this day. The Puranas (ancient Hindu texts) reveal that king Suratha was one of the worshippers of goddess Durga; he used to worship her image during spring and this spring pooja (ceremonial worship) is known as Basanti Pooja (Basant=Spring). But Lord Rama, before setting off to Lanka (Modern Sri Lanka) to rescue his wife Sita from the clutches of the evil king Ravana, in haste, worshipped Durga in the Autumn and act is called Akal Bodhan (Untimely Worship). However over the years, this Akal Bodhan has become the major festival in the north-eastern state of West Bengal. In Bengal, goddess Durga is worshipped more as a mother rather than the goddess of supreme power. Durga comes to the earth for four days - Shashthi (the sixth day of the lunar month), Saptami (seventh day), Ashtami (eighth day), Navami & Dashami (ninth and tenth days), along with her four children Ganesha (the God of good fortune) Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth), Kartikeya (also known as Murugan) and Saraswati (the goddess of knowledge).

They say, she lives in the Himalayas or the Vindhyas. One of her common names is Vindhyavasini :'She who dwells in the Vindhya mountains " Vindhya is a mountainous region, far away from society and inaccessible except through heroic effect. They are dangerous and hostile because that is where the tribal people dwells there. In many myths Durga is said to be worshiped by tribal groups such as the Sabaras.In Devi Mahatmaya, Durga is said to drink wine during her battle with Mahisa. And being worship by the tribal society, it is said that she receive and enjoy meat and blood as offerings.

Durga Gayatri