VIJAY DASHAMI
Conclusion of the Navaratri Festival
By opening our ear to hear her voice,
we connect to the feminine.
Her voice might be far from what we imagine it to be.
Tantra is listening, and listening is Tantra.
to the deep nourishing forces of femininity & natural wisdom… within and everwhere.
The voices of patriarchy may seem to deafen the ear to the tone of her wisdom, but the Yogin is one who listens to her mystical song.
A central Tantric celebration of Goddess ritual is Navaratri… these are the 9 dark nights of the Goddess.
The concluding night of Navaratri is known as Vijay Dashami.
This night is dedicated to the Goddess Durga in her full planetary womanly form after having gathered the force of the Navagrah (9 planets), through the course of the nine dark nights of Navarati.
Vijay Dashami celebrates the victory of the divine feminine.
Victory over what?
And what is it that opposes the feminine?
These answers are not given out cheaply by the Goddess Durga, but must be investigated with ones Heart to be earned.
She is the great Ugra Devi (Intense Goddess).
She requires intensity of us if we are to approach her secret gate.
Tantricly, Vijay Dashami is the time of victory, when the Feminine prevails over the patriarch. A hint as to the meaning of the ritual is given by the legend of Mahishasura…
THE LEGEND OF MAHISHASURA
The Legend of Mahishasura is where the story starts.
Mahishasura was a powerful Yogi who’s powers went to his even more powerful head.
He became potent through Yogic austerities that gave him the power to call forth the creator Bhrama. Mahishasura gained a wish by the power of Siddhi.
Mahishasura demanded power and immortality from the creator.
He had earned great power through Tapasya (Magical Yogic practice), and was initiated to something great by the creator.
But Mahishasura overestimated his power.
He assumed a greater height than that which he actually had.
Deep Mahisasura was impotent of heart, and so had turned to the path of power in order to compensate for his inability and lack of courage to voyage deep into the cave of the sacred heart.
The path of power was easier than to set his foot upon the voyage of love.
Mahishasura represents the absence of Vatsal (care).
He is without compassion and Upashama (tolerance).
All of his endeavors were an attempt to distract himself from his wound.
The Asura is the divided self.
The Asura is a Yogin upon the path of union it could be said… ponder upon this.
In his self-satisfaction, Mahishasura was not careful in his wish before the creator.
He proudly proclaimed his wish to be invincible.
He wished that no Sura, Asura, ghost, man or animal would ever be able to defeat him.
He wished for absolute dominion over all of creation.
His wish was granted!
As the creator parted from Mahishasura, he said:
”watch out for a woman, you only said no man!”.
Mahishasura, fumbled for words, and wished the wish to be rectified, but it was too late to go back.
The creator left Mahisasura alone to his fumbling thoughts.
Mahishasura worried for a moment and weighed up the power of the feminine against the masculine, and he settled to feel content in his potency.
He did not believe a woman would ever have the force to defeat him.
He had great Siddhi (magical Yogic power), and thought he should not worry about it, and rather get busy in playing as the new god to the creation, a power that he now believed was in his hands.
He swam in the sea of self-aggrandisement and got busy in oppressing the beings of the three worlds to satisfy his will and perversion.
The cancerous tumor of his mind, raped and pillaged, he killed helpless little creatures and potent warriors alike.
He sent women out of his Kingdom for he was completely impotent under their gaze.
He fueled all his passion into his cause, which he himself actually thought was noble.
The violence of his drive and conviction drank his power, and so he ever put himself above others to keep his sense of power.
The three Worlds are known collectively as Triloka.
They are the three worlds of the under, upper and the earth between them.
Mahishasura’s desires were perverse.
The once upon a time most dignified Devic beings, were now abjectly oppressed to do his instant bidding.
Because of the blessing of the creator Brahma, Mahishasura was unstoppable.
The Devas surrendered, and Mahishasura’s hideous guttural laughter of his bloated belly, could be heard echoing through the three worlds.
The Devas approached Shiva the destroyer who did not ever wish to be disturbed from his meditation.
Shiva’s samadhi kept the 3 worlds in order, and he didn’t feel compelled to do anything about the state of creation.
They continued to agitate him until he opened his third eye for a second and said:
”Let Shakti sort it out.”
Then he returned to his Samadhi trance.
Both men and women, children and animals had been oppressed and made subservient to Mahishasura’s perverse rein of patriarchy.
Cruelty and the rape of the feminine ensued, humans and spiritual beings alike became drones to the Mantras that he commanded them to recite.
Mahishasura enjoyed rapturous half-pleasures, and did not keep to his Yog austerities and practices anymore.
He grew pleasantly fat with a perpetual soft smile upon his cheeks.
Shiva, telepathically from his mountain heights, had shown his lack of concern, and asked that Shakti to go and look into the situation.
And so, Shakti set off to meet Mahishasura.
When the beautiful daughter of the mountain king arrived in her innocent apparel, the great Mahishasura had no idea of the extent of her feminine force.she was Shakti herself.
He invited the beauty to drink wine, he had only one thought on his mind, that he believed could be accomplished with a click of his fingers.
He thought to himself,
”Why not relax from all of this oppressing and terrorising, and play a game of cat and rat for a bit?
Oh he thought he was the cat!
But soon he would learn who really commanded the game…
As he made his advance, he was thrown back with extreme force, his golden goblet dribbled it’s wine like scattered essence.
Never in his life had he been moved by anyone.
He advanced again with more ferocity.
This woman was a match!
Mahishasura was a shape shifting Yogi, and so he shifted through numerous forms to try and subdue to Goddess.
The Goddess simply moved with him, matching every move.
He became a Giant, and Devi became a vast Ugra Devi.
He changed from animal to ghost in order to subdue her, but nothing worked!
He tried all the tricks that he knew, even appearing as Sundernath, the beautiful form of her husband, but nothing could get past this woman!
He tried the old trick of multiplication… as drops of his blood flew around, he became many from each droplet.
Still, nothing worked.
The great Mahishasura was impressed by such a woman, her power awakened deep perversity in him.
He wished to conquer her with his manhood.
He saved his main trick till last, the trick of tricks that could never fail!
Mahishasura, it is to be remembered, derives his name from Buffalo, a creature of huge weight.
Mahish means buffalo and Asura means divided and perverse.
In divided perversion, Mahisaura said the Mantra to take the form of a Buffalo and started to change. Tamasic body of bloated flesh he started to change from the top down. Tiny horns appeared.
In full blooded arousal he charged to mount the Goddess, who’s garment had opened for an instant.
In the air he attempted to fully change into his Mahishasura form.
Alas, the Trishul (trident) suddenly appeared from beneath the silken folds of Devi’s silks.
She was now Durga.
He gazed at her as he took his last Tamasic breath, bewildered by the fact that a woman had defeated him.
The trident pierced the heart of Mahishasura and each spike liberated him in the 3 worlds.
He had not even had the chance to shapeshift fully into the Buffalo.
His naked body splayed over the floor, only his head had turned to that of a Buffalo, his tongue rolled out of his mouth and lopped to the side.
The Lion upon which Durga rode, sunk its fangs in, just to be sure!
FEMININE TRIUMPH OVER PATRIARCHY
Durga is the most Ugra of all forms.
She is undefinable and undefeatable.
When she is angry, all the Urga Devi’s shoot from her Third-Eye.
She is Mother of the World.
She is at once Goddess and protector of femininity.
She is a favourite to the Yogins.
Ambarani is the name of Durga as Queen of all the 3 worlds.
The trident that pierced Mahishasuras heart, struck his being in all 3 levels, till not a trace of his oppression over the feminine remained.
The 9 night ritual of Navaratri is concluded upon the defeat of the patriarch by the feminine upon Vijay Dashami.
The 9 nights of Navratri reach their climax on this night when the feminine is victorious.
This Tantric teaching story has many connotations upon which to mediate.
Each Navaratri night has built up to strengthen the feminine principle in its 9 planetary aspects.
The starry planetary feminine forces are there to absorb now by those who have quieted the other forces that oppress the voice of the Goddess.
The Goddess who keeps the heartless patriarch in his place, is both an inner watcher and an outer necessity in our lives.
DURGA PUJA
If we are to connect to the deep nourishing forces of femininity, then we must open our ear to hear her voice.
The Yogin is one who listens to her.
Her mystical song is heard in devotion.
It can’t be forced.
Upon this night of Tantric ritual, the age old circle completes a cycle.
A night of worship to celebrate feminine force.
The Tantrics have kept this ritual alive for aeons.
The sacred feminine ritual of the Mother of all worlds.
Through patriarchal rule of missionary religions, through the male oriented empires and anti-feminine ideologies upon the soil of the mystical culture, the Tantra has never been lost.
It has lived on secretly on the outskirts and in the shadows.
Tantrics practice the Mudras and Mantras of Durga.
The Ugra Mantras translate as the terrible sounds.
They are part of the Gupt (hidden) practices.
They are techniques that create sound while subtlety choking the throat through an inner contraction.
They produce fear and passion simultaneously in the practitioner, and raise inner substance to work Tantricly with.
They raise the Prana and create great heat in the system.
A heat that – if concentrated – feeds Kundalini Shakti,
The Trishul trident Mudras, the Mahish Mudras of the buffalo and Sheere Mudras of the lion, comprise a great part of her ritual.
In its essence, it is a ritual of the feminine.
To join the ritual,
approach her