Get to know the fierce warrior mother Chandraghanta

The third day is given to the goddess of war or the fierce but gentle Chandraghanta, she is considered as the warrior aspect of Durga, there are many stories around her as she is the goddess of war.

The story last time was that Parvati was born as younger sister of Ganga and daughter of the shiva devotee Himavan while Mahadeva was meditating alone in a cave, the deep meditation of Mahadeva was to be broken or Mahadeva should have to be awoken from his deep slumber, after lot of tries to awake him, Parvati hadn’t succeeded, Mahadeva had a fear that if he again tries to marry any other incarnation of Adishakti, she may leave him again in the same way as Sati and he didn’t want to destroy or imbalance the world again due to which he didn’t wake. The god and goddess of erotic love, attraction, desire and affection, Kama tried to help by reaching Shiva and shooting an arrow of desire. The destroyer Shiva opened his third eye in his forehead and burnt the arrow with the cupid Kama to ashes, but due to love being one of the primal desires, Shiva gave him the boon to be present anywhere love, desire and attraction is present. Parvati didn’t lose her hope or her resolve to win over Shiva, so she began to live in mountains like Mahadeva, engaging in the same activities as him, which were of asceticism, yogin and tapas. These activities came to draw the attention of Shiva and awakened him. He met her in a disguised form, tried to discourage her, telling her his weaknesses and personality problems. But Parvati was adamant and refused to listen and insisted in her resolve. Shiva had taken oath that he will not marry any woman but on seeing her Shiva finally accepted her and they decided to get married. Not only Himavan and Ganga but all the Gods and humans were happy for the marriage to come. Shiva’s attendants were called ganas or bhootganas or ghosts due to which when Lord Shiva came with the procession of gods, mortals, ghouls, goblins, sages and ascetics, the king and queen of the were terrorized by the horrible form of Lord Shiva and Parvati’s mother fainted due to it. So to save her parents she changed into a beautiful Goddess who persuaded Shiva to re-appear in a charming form.

Then Shiva appeared as a prince and impressed Parvati’s parents and the marriage was completed to complement his princely avatar known as Chandrashekhar Goddess Parvati took the avatar of Chandraghanta who has eight hands holding a Trishula (trident), Gada (mace), bow-arrow, Kamal (lotus), Kamandal (waterpot), khadak (sword) and Ghanta (bell), while the last one of her hand remains in abhayamudra or blessing posture. She rides a lion representing bravery and courage, she waers a half moon on her forehead in bell shape soto emphasize her as well as Mahadeva’s connection to the moon, similar to Lord Shiva she also have infamously destructive third eye in the middle of her forehead, this makes her somewhat perfect half of Lord Shiva and appropriate to unite with him. In the word “Chandraghanta” , the word “Chandra” means moon while “Ghanta” means bell, so we can say she is a goddess having moon in the shape of bell on her forehead. She can be said to be one of the form which closely resembles Goddess Durga, her devotees are said to devepol an aura of divine splendour. It is said that Chandraghanta is ready to destroy the wicked but for her devotees she is like a mother who cares for her child. She is the one who defeated the demon Dhumralochan and his entire army. She is invoked by the mantra

Piṇḍaja pravarāruṛhā caṇḍakōpāstra kairyutā |
prasādaṁ tanutē mahyaṁ candra ghanṣṭēti viśrutā ||

So get the feeling of divine splendour and worsahip Devi Chandraghanta and celebrate the third day of Navaratra with gifts of splendor among your closed ones.

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