The cosmic egg of creation, Kushmanda

Now comes one of the many theories of creation of universe, there are many theories about the creation of universe, in every culture different stories are believed which make the basis of religions and gods who people follow. The most popular theory is called the big bang theory according to which a big blast bought the sun and all the planets come into their positions, while according to one of the ancient civilizations, the Greeks and Romans have the story as follows:

In the beginning there was nothing except and entity called Chaos, from Chaos came Erebus, the darkest part of the universe, then love and beauty came into existence, due to which Gaea was born from Chaos, Gaea also called Mother Earth or Mother Nature, she gave birth to Ouranos or Uranus or the sky, the sky (Ouranos) and the Earth (Gaea) came together and gave birth to the one-eyed Cyclopes, the hundred handed Hecatoncheires, and the twelve Titans. Ouranos threw his children Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes in Erebus, due to this Gaea became angry and she plotted against Ouranos made the youngest titan Cronus or Kronos castrate Uranus using a sickle, Uranus’s spirit scattered in the skies but not before cursing Kronos with the same fate as his. Kronos became the next ruler, Kronos married his sister Rhea, but then he remembered Uranus’s curse so he swallowed five of his children but Rhea saved the youngest named Zeus and hid him on the island of Crete where he was raised by nymphs. Rhea replaced the baby Zeus with a stone in a swaddle which was again swallowed by Cronus, after growing up Zeus made up a solution and tricked Kronos into drinking it, due to the solution Cronus vomited the elder five siblings namely Demeter, Hestia, Hera, Poseidon and Hades and with Zeus all the children of Kronos and Rhea ran away, after rescuing the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires forged new weapons out of which the three most powerful ones were Zeus’s lightning bolt, Poseidon’s trident and Hades’s Helm of darkness, they threw off Kronos and locked him in Tartarus and kept their promise to the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires and setup a council of Twelve of them and ruled thereon.

In Hindu mythology the stories are basically celebrated as of the two most powerful of the trinities I.e. Lord Vishnu or Lord Shiva, anyone of them can be considered as the creator as there are different stories relating to them, one of them can be said that out of chaos came Lord Vishnu riding a snake and from his navel grew a Lotus on which Lord Brahma was present, Lord Vishnu said, “It is time to begin” and Lord Brahma remaining in the lotus flower, floated and tossed the seas. He lifted up his arms and calmed the wind and the ocean. Then Brahma split the lotus flower into three. He stretched one part into the heavens. He made another part into the earth. With the third part of the flower he created the skies. Then Brahma created life which contained plants, trees, flowers, grass, animals, birds and humans and so life and Earth were created.

Another story which is related to Lord Shiva goes similarly as, Out of chaos came Lord Vishnu sleeping on the snake Vasuki and out of his navel grew the Lotus with Brahma in it, both meditated in their respective positions for many years, when they awoke they started fighting as they both were proud of their knowledge them out of nowhere came an endless black lingam or shivling out of which a voice came that the winner will be decided by one who finds either the end or the start of that lingam, none of them were unable to find its start or its end so they returned dejected and Lord Shiva appeared from the lingam and told them that they were part of Him, as conceived by both Lord Vishnu and Brahma, Mahadeva or Lord Shiva  was complete in himself as they were male aspects while Lord Shiva was complete as he/she has both male as well as female aspects, Lord Brahma prayed and asked Lord Shiva for his female half also known as Adishakti and used her to create Earth and life, but due to most of her energy spent she was spread thin into the nature, then Lord Shiva can be said as Purusha while Adishakti can be said as Prakarti, so the unification of Prakarti and Purusha results in life, after some time Adishakti incarnated in Sati who married Shiva but due to her arrogant father Daksha she later immolated her but again Devi Adishakti reincarnated as Parvati and this time she labored herself to became the same as Shiva and married him.

The last theory is given as the world made by the fourth form of Adishakti or Parvati, Kushmanda as a female can only give birth, so this theory is also popular and the tale goes on as:

When the universe was non-existent and darkness prevailed everywhere, Maa Kushmanda produced the Cosmic egg with her smile, bringing light to the universe. She is said to give direction to the Sun God, Surya. From the glance of Kushmanda’s third eye, a lady with complexion of lava was created having eighteen arms and three eyes, clad in a warrior’s armour with helmet and saffron clothes, she was armed with weapons like battle-axe, arrow, sword, lotus, rosary, conch-shell, bell, noose, trident, discus, mace, thunderbolt, shield, spear, goad, bow, whine-cup and a waterpot with handle. She was seated on a lotus and was roaring viciously. Kushmanda named her Mahalakshmi, the originator of wealth and prosperity.

Then from the glance of Kushmanda's right eye, a benevolent lady with complexion of milk was created having eight arms and three placid eyes, clad in white clothes with a crescent moon on her forehead. She was armed with weapons like trident, discus, small drum, arrow, conch shell, bell, bow and a ploughshare. She was seated on a gem-studded throne and maintained a serene smile. Kushmanda named her Mahasaraswati, the originator of knowledge and art.

Then Kushmanda's created a man with her child Mahakali having five faces, fifteen eyes and ten arms. His complexion was fair and he was clad in tiger-skin. A serpent was coiled around his throat and he wore a crescent moon on his forehead. He was armed with weapons like battle-axe, antelope, thunderbolt, skull-cup, Damru, bow, arrow, trident, rosary and a Kamandalu. Kushmanda named him Shiva, the destroyer, recycler and the transformer.

Then from Mahalakshmi she created a man with four faces and four arms. His complexion was red and he was clad in saffron clothes, holding lotus, book, rosary and a waterpot. Kushmanda named him Brahma, the creator.

Then from Mahasaraswati a man having four arms with dark complexion was created, clad in yellow clothes. He held a discus, a conch-shell, a mace and a lotus. Kushmanda named him Vishnu, the protector and proisperor.

Kushmanda created a woman having four arms and fair complexion. She was lad in red, holding her two lower hands open while her two upper hands held a goad and a noose. Kushmanda named her Shakti, the divine female who was an incarnation or part of herself. Kushmanda then re-absorbed the major part of the triple Goddesses (Mahalakshmi, Mahakali, Mahasaraswati) and then gave Shakti to Shiva, Saraswati to Brahma and Lakshmi to Vishnu as consorts. She then entered Shakti as an orb of great energy.

Kushmanda is Goddess Shakti herself, the first being of the entire universe and she is only the one who created this universe by making her half being as Shiva. Adishakti took herself into three forms, one of the three splits was her own form. Kali and hence we find Adishakti as well as Kali being wife of Shiva. The other splits were Saraswati and Lakshmi. She is invoked using the mantra

Surāsampūrṇakalaśaṁ rudhirāplutamēva cha |
Dadhānā hastapadmābhyāṁ kūṣmāṇḍā śubhadāstu mē ||

So celebrate the goddess of the cosmic egg of creation on the fourth day of the auspicious festival of Navratri and help people with creative ideas and gifts, who knows that Kushmand or Goddess Durga gets happy and gives blessing to your creation.
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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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