The Divine as Mother
India has a unique spiritual tradition, starting from the ancient Vedas and continuing up to modern times. The Indian spiritual experience asserts that the Divine is not far away. It is everywhere and in everything. The human soul can approach it, worship it and love it. Though the Divine is beyond all forms, yet it takes the form which is closest to the heart of the devotee: teacher, father, mother, brother, friend and comrade, lover and beloved. It is possible to build up a loving relationship with the Divine, which is as real as a human relationship.
Among all these aspects, India has given a special place to the Divine as the Mother. We turn to her in our times of need and she learns down to console and comfort, to protect and guide. This is how Sri Aurobindo describes the four great aspects of the Divine Mother Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati:
"She is Maheshwari, Goddess of the supreme knowledge, and brings to us her vision for all kind and wideness of truth, her rectitude of the spiritual supramental largeness, her felicity of illumination, she is the Mahakali, Goddess of the supreme strength, and with her are all mights and spiritual force and severest austerity of Tapas and swiftness to the battle and the victory and the laughter, the
attahasya, that makes light of defeat and death and the powers of the ignorance; she is Mahalakshmi, the goddess of the supreme love and delight, and her gifts are the spirit's grace and the charm and beauty of the Ananda and protection and every divine and human blessing; she is Mahasaraswati, the goddess of divine skill and of the works of the Spirit, and hers is the Yoga that is skill in works,
yogah karmasu kausalam and the utilities of divine knowledge and the self-application of the spirit to life and the happiness of its harmonies.
The Supreme Mother is worshipped by different names in different parts of India. She is Aditi; she is Para Shakti, Durga, Kali and Ambika. She is Parvati, Uma and Meenakshi. She may appear to the devotee as Lakshmi, pouring her compassion and bountry on the world. She may also appear as Kali, mighty, terrible and dreadful. But, whatever the from or the name, she is always the Mother, with her heart full of love for her
children. The Divine Mother manifests herself in many ways. And, is the same way, the devotee expresses his yearning in many ways.
-Jatin Pandey
