In the Lalita Sahasranama, a name of Devi is paramanuh (She who is the subtlest) and the word itself has its root in two words known as parama (ultimate) and anuh (atom) which shows the divine mother’s abode is in every single atom of the multiple universes She creates because She is truly the center of everything. When we think of God as the power of everything to be revealed, concealed, created etc. one must think, why is there a need for a spiritual practice or even to give offerings to the divine? Why is this something we do?
Devi is the ultimate agitator that creates a world of beauty and perfection even if it doesn’t seem so to the limited mind and knowledge, She exists in all forms and hence everything that happens or does not happen is in service of Her and is a constant offering to Her. Every word spoken is a mantra, every movement of the body as a yantra in itself is tantra. In fact, even in our sleeping state and us not actively thinking about Her, we’re still offering our breath to Her. Everything is legitimately an offering; nothing is sacrilegious for the divine pervades all.
Often when one is beginning to awaken to the spiritual path, they feel like they’re doomed to fail and are hesitant to make mistakes while giving offerings and communicating with the Divine Mother. This is often due to us being conditioned to believe that the Goddess is terrible, demands perfection and will ‘punish’ us for not doing things right. However, this is not the case at all, true surrender to the divine is also being willing to offer up our mistakes and imperfections and ‘negative thoughts’ to She who will lap them up quickly. In the Devi Mahatmayam, the episode with Raktabeeja is a lesson in the Goddess taking offerings from the demon who tries to defeat Her in battle. Raktabeeja is a kind of demon that arises every time a drop of his blood falls to the ground, which means more drops of blood create more demons akin to Him. Our recurring thoughts of anxiety when it comes to worship in the spiritual path are like Raktabeeja as they cause a lot of anxiety and keep us from doing anything that the heart desires. Fear is the emotion of the ego and unconditional love, and faith is the emotion of the divine (which is why you’ll see Devi holding up abhaya and varada mudras which means ‘Fear not, I will take care of you’). Mahakali ends Raktabeeja’s miseries and anxieties by swallowing him whole and that is the act of surrender that he performs to her glorious self.
Our spiritual practice is this very constant battle of resisting the union with Her which is why when we do offerings of any kind we offer up not just mere flowers, wine or sweets but parts of ourselves that we want Her to consume slowly, spit out so they’re covered in Her nectar. The 5 elements (fire, earth, water, wind and sound) can be offered in sattwic ways in the form of flowers, mantras, ghee lamps, fruits etc. or in tamasic ways for certain deities e.g. Maa Kali enjoys wine, Maa Matangi loves leftovers etc. In Sanskrit there’s a beautiful sentence that is repeated all the time ‘yatha shakti anusaram’ (do it according to your capability) which is to assure the practitioner of the indiscriminatory nature of the divine to take whatever one has to offer with love and surrender. Also, Devi will often correct one’s offerings and rituals as the practice deepens because your relationship with Her will deepen and just like a lover you will become aware of Her likes and dislikes.
However, before offering anything, one must ask themselves: Is this something I would consume myself? Is this something I would like if given to me? If the answer to these questions is yes, then one must offer it up to their beloved as a gift. Nothing you can give can be bigger than what She can give to you anyway, so it’s good to try your best to refine the practice as much as possible but also not feel fear when approaching Her with love and care. Growing up, we used to make strange works of art of any kind and would love to show them to our parents who would then appreciate, applaud and even show off those things to people without thinking about the ‘perfection’ of it all. The divine mother is simply so compassionate that even if you are hard on yourself, She never is. One must not let a sense of perfection affect the love and devotion that emerges within practice, instead allowing love and devotion with consistency to be the guide that leads us to perfection.
'Oh Devi, the killer of Raktabeeja and destroyer of demons Chanda and Munda.
Please give us the spiritual beauty, the victory, the glory and destroy our enemies.'
-Argala Stotram, Devi Mahatmayam
Shri Maha Kali Arpanamastu!
Beautiful post ♥️