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Goddess worship has been practised from earlier civilizations --- in the
If you can worship a male God, you can worship a female goddess as
well...or may be, even a God beyond gender,as Hindu philosophers told :
"Worship 'IT'....."
plunge into forms and methods of Goddess worship in the Hindu traditon...
owe so much to our mothers and hold our mother [physical,that is] in high
esteem and affection.The mother carried us in her womb for nearly nine
outside,opened our eyes to the world, she nursed with milk and later with
Divine Mother.
provides you with many things, buys toys and dolls ,and takes you out to
the park or ball game, protects you in many ways---all these come a
incidents/accidents.
WE are culturally influenced by the Father figure who provides food after
cash; He protects you and your mother from wild predators--wolves and
add up to our awe and respect for our fathers.! This has been raised to a
displinarian and a judge at the end of our lives, it is for removing our
N K Srinivasan Goddess Worship 3
sins and purifying our souls .He is the provider (giving the daily
in almost all formal religions, has given the male God a prominent place
degrading the female persona....Females are tricky and vile, and tempt
you into eating the forbidden fruit, making you do things which are
led to such abhorrence of women that they were 'discounted' --a mild
given property rights and could not vote till recent times in most
God!
consciousness. Women owned property [lands and cattle] and passed them on
Assam;the girls are lovely and very sportive; marry one,get some teak
wood estate from her family,fish in the beautiful lakes and get
children--so easy!"}.The women always had the upper hand in
Many scholars contend that the early church fathers ,in Judeo-Christian
always the male God --the Father in Heaven! .[Ref: Merlin Stone,..]
Add to this the repeated statements that women are filthy, tricky,
attitude for Goddess Worship --was lost almost completely in the western
traditions.
retained them in wraps--as they could not practise openly their forms of
venerated Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus , and women saints down the
church members..
In modern times, mainly in the latter half of 20th Century, things took
office firms. Women openly fought for their rights! Laws had to be
ensuring 'equal pay for for equal work' including women: ---that is-- in
Feb 2009!.]
and Betty Friedan raised their battle cries and flags [with amusing
rebelious actions like bra burning] and won a respectable place for women
in societies.
popular and influential both within and without the main stream
'feminine mystique ', 'the divine feminine'of women's body and mind and
western society.
The Buddhist influence with their stream of Dharma teachers in the West
largely from India and modified from Hinduism down the ages from 6th
goddesses in Mahayana Buddhism and the worship of Kuan Yin in China and
elsewhere are largely resemblances of Hindu Goddess worship.The influence
west.
rest}"
bhava."}
There is a subtle logic and meaning in this chant: Your mother points
to your father .(Who else can?!) Your father takes you to the teacher
[guru or acharya ]-- in modern context ,puts you to school) and the
teacher shows you to respect the stranger and the destitute-- that is,
the unbroken continuation of this worship right from Vedic times.In fact
devotees worship daily. We shall metion the most popular ones. The three
pilgrims every year.There are songs and hymns in their praise sung by
many poet-saints.
Adi Shankara [788-820 AD] are major pilgrim centres for all Hindus from
all parts of India. The Sharada temple in Shringeri ,one of the Shankara
India,with mongols and turks invading from central asia, desecrating many
India {the Portuguese,the Dutch, the French and the British},with all
liturgy for almost 3000 .The Hindus still chant the same Gayatri
mantra,the recite the same Devi Mahatmayam and offer the same Sri Chakra
Modes of worship
WE shall describe in the subsequent sections the different forms of
them ..To make the reading less heavy with philosophy, the Vedantic
concepts are briefly touched upon.Our focus will be more on the forms and
A Bit of History
were the most powerful means in the Vedic times.The female deites were
Linguists and indologists like Max Mueller, Paul Deussen and others
Next we consider the Epic and the Puranic period when mythological
be found in the Puranas,the main ones being Vishnu Purana and Shiva
The famous story of the battle between the Devas or heavenly beings,
presided by Indra and the Asuras or demons ,when they churned the milk
the churning rod, pivoted on a turtle ,with a serpent as the rope wound
vapours emanated and poisons spurted out.Then the devas died one by
the form of Mohini , emerged from the ocean with a golden pot of nectar
the Gods of (Hindu) Trinity--Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva --the creater, the
Brahma almost disappeared from India;there are perhaps only a few temples
languages of India, form the theme for discussion and worship of the
the story teller in cool evenings in the village commons used to attract
the power behind the creation and the operation of the Universe.In some
other synthetic approaches, in which Shiva has two parts split in the
N K Srinivasan Goddess Worship 11
middle of his person.He is half female,half male.;the executive part of
The power of the great Shakti or Power and Kali is again spoken in
ashes, Shakti has to take three steps: the will to do that; the means of
The Goddess Kali ,of course, the compassionate Mother,protects the devout
and the weak, but destroys the wicked either singly or in groups.She can
deities are worshipped because the devout becomes bold to face the rogues
Mother Kali is not limited to that sect alone.[This has taken very
But there is the benign aspect of Kali ,the Mother, who could respond to
the cries of the devout and transform an ordinary, humble devotee into a
order [Sri Ramakrishna Mission] and Vedanta societies were founded in the
the west.
In a sense ,this article originated in ain the thought that the worship
saints of the order of Sri Ramakrishna in recent times ---a life that was
.[Calcutta or Kolkotha was no mean medieval town ,but the foremost city
food to the children of Harischandra who had sold his wife and property
The two epics [itihasas] of the Hindus are the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata.
The Ramayana or the story of Lord Rama is the earlier one.The Hero, Rama
was a prince of Ayodhya, left the right to rule his kingdom to fulfill a
promise made by his father King Dasaratha to his step mother Kaikeyi
[Caucasian or a Russian princess] and left for forest with his wife Sita
The story of Rama is told in almost all Indian languages and local
Janaka and brought up by him.She has been the ideal for all Hindu women
down the ages.Thousands of temples were built for Rama and Sita
throughout India and in south east asian countries too, that can be found
others in later times], we may learn much about that period in Indian
epic,as all epics, brings out several moral and ethical lessons for us
N K Srinivasan Goddess Worship 15
through great heroes. .Gambling is denounced as the worst vice which
great heroine..But many of these heroes and heroines are not worshipped
Polyandry was practised in India and might be common among certain hill
[near Mathura,about 100 kms from Delhi] in Brij country is well known.He
his town.[Krishna was only nine years old at that time and therefore
often done by ill-informed western and Indian writers, not familiar with
this lore.].
community of Brij. The love of the Gopis for Krishna stemmed from their
and Satyabhama; but strange as it may appear,these two heroines are not
between Lord Krishna and Arjuna before the battle of Mahabharata begins--
Upanishads,but goes beyond the Upanishads too.. (See ref given below)
It can be noted that we derive two great goddesses from the epics---Sita
Radha is the fun-loving innocent woman ,who had rejected carnal love and
and wears caste marks and starts the worship.She prepares the altar with
oil lamps ,incense sticks,flowers, turmeric powder and red ochre or kum-
Goddess.
asuras and establishes her rule,to protect the devotees and shower
Rishi.It desribes the exploits against demonic forces and the most
chanting.
names texts.]
The formal worship would end with the Arati or waving of light with
gift from goddess---some food item like sugar candy, fruit or sweet
pudding.]
,including small pox and eye diseases.The devotees took vows of fasting
N K Srinivasan Goddess Worship 19
and paid their vows in terms of metallic pieces resembling the body parts
deities were common and continues in Kamakhya temple too [near Guwahati
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is a copper plate in the form of a square.{I find plastic ones too in the
diagram with several triangles and squares.At the outer corners ,a petal
copper,silver or gold.
The devotees sit around the plate kept on the floor or a small table and
offer kum-kum for chanting of each mantra once.This goes on.In simpler
homes.
There are other connotations with this Sri Chakra upasana.The yantra may
consciousness.
could take you through these states...The Yantra or Chakra can have many
Karnataka, about 200 miles from Bangalore towards the west coast near
Mangalore]is one such peetam.You can see the Sri Chakra stone engraved
there..(In these commercial days, many self-styled yogis and gurus have
'created ' shakti peetams to their liking and for getting popularity---a
where formal worship and upasana are done as Sri Vidya upasana.
dormant in muladhara chakra [at the bottom of the spine]is made to rise
Her Lord Siva and merge with him in the crown chakra.
did much early work and wrote extensively,drawing from later-day buddhist
Suffice to say that Sri Chakra upasana is a valid means of raising the
Rites of Passage: Till recently,one would not begin Sri Chakra Upasana
extracting money that is...!] A guru would formally initiate you with
a rigorous regimen for forty days,the guru will let you join in this
Upasana.I have not done that,but I have seen some persons go through such
large extent.Then the Upasana would have a great merit.If a person goes
the face [tejas] which will be noticed and unmistakebale to you.!I have
the guru...By and large ,such practices have largely disapppeared even in
Tantric Worship
Tantric forms of worship are alternative to Vedantic or Mantra-based
A tantra adept or tantrik holds two views:1 Life and death are two sides
skull as eating bowl and sprinkle blood instead of holy water and
barrier should be broken between the sacred and the profane, since both
home in filth and putrid material,say blood and menstrual flow of women,
family tradition and less bizarre.This form is more like Sri Chakra
worship ,with Kali image being propitiated.The other is Vamachara,( a
weird and bizarre methods using meat ,fish, wine and sexual perversions
Many scholars claim that Adi Sankara [788-820 AD] was largely
despised, went underground, and later by about 10th century, had largely
Tibet and elsewhere.]It should be noted that at about the same time,the
for Siva and Vishnu and their consorts..The popular ethos of Bhakti cults
swept the land.The tantrik and even the Sri Vidya/Sri Chakra worship took
a back seat.
N K Srinivasan Goddess Worship 25
Alwars[roughly between 5th and 9th century,the exact times have been
collected and edited the 4000 verses of the Alwars,which were scattered
in temple towns of Tamil Nadu.Soon the 4000 verses became the sacred
Sri Ramanuja who had a long ministry for nearly 100 years,lived for
the most part in the temple town of Sri Rangam,the seat of Vaishnava
tradition.
largest active temple complex in the whole world,about 150 acres area
was plundered and partially destroyed by the Muslim commander Malik Kafur
with much jewelry,as he did from other famous temples in South India.The
The Vaishanva tradition ,it must be added ,is much older than the time of
monasteries and studied their texts too. His greatest contribution is the
,hence the name "Sri Bhashyam'. Bhrama Sutras, in turn, interpret the
prevalent to this day.In every Vishnu temple ,you will find a separate
altar for Lakshmi Devi which should be worshipped first before offering
and the Nila devi as devi of cowherdess, Radha ,is also part of the most
Vishnu temples.The images of the two goddesses are usually kept in the
same altar with Lord Vishnu.The worship of Andal or Godha who was a woman
saint , but later merged with the Lord,[one of the twelve Alwars]came
was devoted to the Lord and wanted to marry only Lord Ranganatha.Her
took the young girl to the Sri Rangam temple where she merged with the
for Krishna and Radha in very intimate terms of conjugal love.There are
pontiff for the Puri temple in Orissa.His devotional fervour, again based
N K Srinivasan Goddess Worship 29
on Krishna worship,strengthened worship of Radha as well.The present day
Selected References
1 Swami Prabhavananda --- Spritual Heritage of India [General survey]
perspective]
Delhi[brief introduction]
on Chakras]
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Hays Pub)
Publications
from Bengal--Oxford U P.
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