Sri Durga Saptashati: Prathamodhyay (Chapter 1): Rendered by Swami Mukteshananda

Chapter I starts with the meditation of the Divine Mother giving a brief description of her form and points out that Brahma extolled her in order to destroy the two Asuras, Madhu and Kaitabha, when Vishnu was in mystic sleep.

It then narrates the story of a king, who lost his every thing like kingdom, name and fame due to his evil-minded ministers and other enemies and that of a wealthy merchant who was thrown out of his house by his own wife and sons due to their greed for his wealth. Both of them took shelter in the hermitage of the sage Medhas. Despite the peaceful environment of the hermitage, both the king and the merchant remained always dejected thinking about their worldly belongings left behind and the very same persons who were ungrateful, unloving and who caused them wrong not knowing the reasons for their attachment to them.

Sage Medhas explains to them that this attachment is due to Mahamaya who makes the existence of the world possible with all its dualities. Mother Bhagavati, Mahamaya, forcibly drawing the minds of the even wise, throws them into delusion. This Mahamaya is also the Yoganidra of Vishnu, the Lord of the world.

In this context the sage Medhas recalls the tale of destruction of the two Asuras, Madhu and Kaitabha, by the Lord Vishnu with the help of Shakti, the Mahamaya. During the mystic slumber of the Lord two Asuras, Madhu and Kaitabha sprang up and threatened to kill Brahma. Seeing these two fierce Asuras and Vishnu in slumber, Brahma worshipped Yoganidra to awaken Him.

He described her in several wonderful terms such as incomparable Goddess of Vishnu, Yoganidra; the queen of cosmos; the cause of the origin, sustenance and dissolution of the Universe in the forms of creative, protective and destructive powers etc. She was referred to as Omkara, Savitri and the source of three gunas, having a form more pleasing than all the pleasing things and the Supreme Ishwari. After eulogizing her thus, Brahma implored the Mother to charm the two Asuras with her superior powers and let Vishnu awakening from His sleep and rising up to his true nature, slay them.

To awaken Vishnu, the Devi of destruction drew herself out from lotus eyes. Vishnu got up from His Yoganidra on the Universal Ocean and started to fight with Madhu and Kaitabha. While the fight between Vishnu and the two Asuras was going on, deluded by Mahamaya, the Asuras told Vishnu to ask a boon from them. Vishnu replied that if they were satisfied with Him, they should be slained by Him then and there. The Asuras replied that they were prepared to be killed by Vishnu ‘where the earth is not flooded with water’. Vishnu took them on His loins which were above the water and severed their heads with His discus. Thus Mahamaya herself appeared when praised by Brahma to become an instrument for the killing of the two Asuras.

We are extremely grateful to the artists, who painted these beautiful pictures, many of them, several hundred years back. We have used these pictures purely for a spiritual endeavour.
For complete Sri Durga Saptashati please refer the playlist
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