Today is the first day of Navaratri; an Indian holiday celebrating the triumph of the goddess Durga over the Buffalo Demon, Mahiśasura. 

It was a tough battle. And Durga was born for it. Literally. 

This demon was torturing the gods, diminishing their strength and luster, stripping the power off of everything that exists and consuming it. He became more and more dominant, trying to control the whole world. This imbalance sent the cosmos into great disarray. 

Mahiśasura gained way too much power. His force was oppressive. He took people’s rights away, and destroyed anyone who spoke against him. He put judges in the Supreme Court who would help him become invincible. He took the seat of power, and became authoritarian, just the way he claimed he would.

Anytime his authority was challenged, he summoned an army of demons and forced his buffalo ways on the world. Mahiśasura did get a boon from Lord Brahma, to become invincible and never be slain by any man. 

The universe was in real danger. And the gods, now feeling like this was their last chance. realized they must try something new before it was too late. They gathered and brainstormed and realized there was a loophole in the demon’s invincibility. He demanded to not be slain by any man. But he didn’t mention a woman.

All the gods came together and projected their great light and a blazing ball of beauty and power formed in the center of their circle. In the flames, seated upon a lotus, and accompanied by a lion, the gods saw The Goddess, The Great Mother, The śakti; the power of the universe embodied. 

The battle was difficult, dangerous, and long. But the goddess is resourceful, strong, smart, and relentless. And it is with her softness that she ends up slaying the demon. 

For more about Durga and Mahishasura check this essay out.

Navaratri is a nine night celebration of the goddess’ triumph over the immovable buffalo. The buffalo is stubborn. He is all of our stubborn habits and addictions, our immovable certainties, the places where we get too sure of ourselves. He is our unwillingness to see things from different perspectives. The buffalo demon is the force of fascism, authoritarianism, religious oppression, and the certainty of dogma, which becomes tyranny.

The goddess has many forms. Durga is a threefold goddess. She is the ferocity of Kali, The Great Mother who is intense and wild and primal, the darkness of the night and the howling of all that is untamed and dangerous in us. She is the intelligence and creativity of Sarasvati, the goddess of language and art who brings sound and words from within her great light, and turns them into poetry and art. She is the abundance and beauty of Lakshmi, who showers the world with her golden radiance, bringing nourishment and care for all. 

Durga unfolds as Parvati, the mother of Ganapati; beloved elephant-headed god of the Hindu tradition. She is Sati, the previous incarnation of Parvati. She is Śiva’s main squeeze. She can be a young girl or an old woman, a mother, a lover, or a fierce destroyer.. She is tough and she is tender. She is nurturing. And she slays. 

On the first night of Navaratri, the goddess is worshiped in the form of Shailaputri; the daughter of the mountains. 

The mountains are a wild place, uncivilized, untamed; a place where we find our primal, primordial energy. The mountain is the dwelling place of the animal nature, the howling creature within us, the nature of our being.

The mountain rises high. It is where we gain a more broad perspective. We look at things from high up on the mountain and we can see a bigger picture. We might not be able to see all the details, but we can see that there is more to the story.

Shailaputri rides Nandi, Śiva’s bull. The bull is strong and full of vigor. The bull is the wild masculine energy. He is the embodiment of virility, and a force that can move the heavy loads of life. Untamed, undomesticated, and yet an important component of civilization. 

She holds a trident – Trishul in Sanskrit – in her right hand. This weapon is the threefold power of the goddess. It stands as an expression of her power to unfold in three ways, as a maiden, a mother , and a crone. It is the great strength of the goddess as a creative, sustaining, and destructive energy. It is the inhale, the exhale, and the space between. It is the sky, the earth, and the world within. The trident is the past, the present, and the future. It is waking, dreaming, and dreamlessness. The trident is the power of the goddess, the power of each of us, to unfold in three ways, which is the power to keep unfolding into many forms. The power of the one becoming the many. The power that shows us that there’s always more than one option, more than one way, more than one possibility. 

In her left hand she holds the lotus flower. The lotus is beautiful and fragrant. A precious and significant symbol of the most sublime qualities of the cosmos. The lotus is often referred to as the jewel of the heart, the depth of the soul, the beauty of the innermost gem of life itself. And the lotus grows in the mud, in the murky, dark waters of the pond. The lotus tells us that life’s beauty is never without its mess, that there is no such thing as purity, that the mud is rich and nourishing, that the sublime is never without the support of the wet, wild soil. The lotus is the creative expression, and that which we choose to offer as our gift to the world. And we must remember that without our roots growing in the muddy messy murky pond, we can’t become the blossom.

Shailaputri is a form of Mahakali; the great mother and the great devourer. She is time. She is death. She is the murky waters of the pond, reminding us that without death there is no life. That’s why she wears skulls and bones as ornaments. She is the intensity of life which is the rich, fertile soil through which we grow. 

She is an incarnation of Sati, the previous incarnation of Parvati. Sati and Śiva have the most delicious love. Spiritual. Sensual. Sexy. Sophisticated. They are wild and free and have the deepest philosophical conversations. Great grief saturates their story because Sati’s father doesn’t approve of her choice to marry Śiva, and one day he invites EVERYONE for a great ceremony at his palace. Everyone except for Śiva. This doesn’t sit well with Sati. She goes to her father’s great ceremony, and to the horror of everyone, she throws herself into the fire. 

Shailputri as a form of Sati reminds us that love and grief are never separate. She makes space for our rage and disappointment. She gives us room to burn in the sadness and anger of not being seen, not being respected, not being held as who we are.

The fire is transformative. It is destructive, but it’s also creative. It is our ability to digest, to process, to alchemize. It is an empowering energy that can also consume us and others. 

Shailputri is an invitation to hold as many sides, as many parts, as many angles and expressions of something. She is the power of the opposites held together as one thing. 

One of Durga’s great powers is the power of ambiguity. After all, she is the one who wins over the demon of certainty. Shailaputri offers us the sacred art of ambivalence. She is the invitation to sit in the space between, in the liminality of life, and create a meaningful relationship with doubt, with questioning.

Shailaputri calls us to the mountains, where we encounter harsh weather and great beauty, fog and snow and forests, solitude and fresh outlook. She offers us an opportunity to meet ourselves and one another in the places where the opposites are held together, where more than one thing is true, where dichotomy is received. With Shailaputri we embrace the paradox. 

What paradoxes are you meeting within you, in your life, and in the world these days? Comment below and let us know. 

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And explore more with this video. It includes a practice of mantra and mudra for the first day of Navaratri.

Can’t wait to bond with you! 

With much love,

Hagar