On this page
Intoxicated with their own might, the daityas (demons) waged a savage war against the gods for a hundred years. That conflict, crowded with countless weapons and countless illusions, proved ruinous for the world. In the end, by the grace of Bhagavati, the supreme power, the gods prevailed, and the beaten daityas abandoned the earth and the heavens and hid themselves away in the underworld.
But this victory drew the gods into delusion. Filled with pride, they began to speak everywhere of their own valor. Why would we not have won, they said; we are the celebrated gods, the makers and sustainers and destroyers of creation, and what could these low, feeble daityas possibly amount to before us? Forgetting the power of the supreme Shakti, they came to regard themselves as the whole of everything.
Then, to show them mercy, the compassionate Mother of the worlds appeared in the form of a strange yaksha (a spirit). Its radiance was like ten million suns, its coolness like ten million moons, its glow like ten million bolts of lightning, and it had no hands, no feet, no limbs of any kind. Seeing that supremely beautiful splendor, which no one had ever beheld before, the gods were struck with wonder. What is this, they asked one another, some scheme of the daityas, or some mighty maya (illusion)? After long thought they resolved that one of them should go near and ask who it was, and that nothing further should be attempted until its strength or weakness was known.
The humbling of Agni and Vayu
Indra, king of the gods, summoned Agni and said, Agnideva, you are our very mouth; go and learn who this yaksha is. Agni sped to the yaksha, who asked, Who are you, and what power lives in you? I am Agni, he answered, I am Jataveda, and the strength to burn the whole universe to ash lives in me. Then the yaksha set a single blade of grass before him and said, if the power to reduce the universe to ash is in you, burn this. Agni poured out all his strength, and still he could not set that one blade of grass alight, and he came back ashamed.
Then Indra sent Vayu. The whole world is woven through with you, he said, and it moves by your effort alone; go and learn who this yaksha is. Full of pride, Vayu flew to the yaksha, who put the same question, and Vayu answered, I am Matarishva, I am Vayu, and the power to set all things moving and to draw all things in lives in me. The yaksha said, then shift this blade of grass however you wish. Vayu threw all his strength against it, and the blade did not so much as stir from its place. He too came back ashamed and said that for all their empty pride they could not know this yaksha, which seemed to belong to some higher world.
Indra takes refuge
Then all the gods said to Indra that he was the lord of the gods and should go himself and learn exactly who this yaksha was. With great pride Indra advanced toward it, but the instant he drew near, that supreme splendor vanished from sight. The yaksha did not so much as speak to him, and within his own heart Indra began to feel small. Honor, he thought, is the true wealth of great souls, and once honor is destroyed, to go on living is the same as death. Resolved on this, casting off his pride, he took refuge in that same supreme Shakti whose play had been so astonishing.
In that very moment a voice sounded from the sky. Sahasraksha, you of the thousand eyes, it said, chant the maya-seed and be at peace. Indra closed his eyes, took no food, and went on chanting that supreme maya-seed for one hundred thousand years. Then, on the ninth day of the bright fortnight of the month of Chaitra, at exactly midday, a great splendor appeared in that same place. In the heart of that ring of light Indra saw a young maiden newly come into her youth: radiant as ten million suns, three-eyed, holding in her four hands the boon-giving gesture, the noose, the goad, and the sign of fearlessness; her limbs soft as a tender vine, a garland of jasmine braided into her hair, dressed in red, anointed with red sandal paste, turning the ground beneath her to ruby with the light of her teeth, her face full of a smile. Standing so as to face all four directions, she was praised by the four Vedas in bodily form, a wish-granting tree to her devotees, compassion itself made visible without any cause at all: Bhagavati Shiva, renowned by the name Uma Haimavati. The moment he saw her, Indra’s whole inner being overflowed with love.
Uma’s teaching
With eyes brimming with tears of love and his body thrilling, Indra fell full length to the ground like a staff, praised her with many hymns, and asked, beautiful one, who was that yaksha, and for what purpose did it appear? The ocean of compassion, Bhagavati, said: this is my own form. It is that Brahman which is the ground of maya, the witness of all, changeless, and the cause even of all causes. The state that the whole of the Vedas sets forth again and again, the state for which seekers hold to brahmacharya (celibate discipline), is ‘ॐ’ and ‘ह्रीं’, my two chief seed-mantras. From two portions, pure being-consciousness-bliss and the nature that is maya, I fashion the entire world.
That same maya dwells in me forever, inseparable as moonlight in the moon, and even in the great dissolution it never parts from me. Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesha themselves rest upon my three gunas (strands of nature); for creation I move Brahma, for preservation Vishnu, and for destruction Rudra. The wind blows for fear of me, the sun moves for fear of me, and Indra and Agni and Yama too perform their tasks for fear of me alone. The victory all of you gods won, you won by my grace, and I keep you dancing like puppets carved of wood. Sometimes I let the gods win, sometimes the daityas, free and sovereign, doing all things by my own will according to each one’s karma. My form is nirguna, without qualities, and saguna, with qualities, alike: the form free of maya is nirguna, the form joined to maya is saguna. Brahma has a gross body, Vishnu a subtle body, and Rudra a causal body; the state of balance that dwells within them all, the fourth state, the turiya, is I myself, and the formless supreme Brahman beyond even that is also my own form.
Your intellects, covered over by ego, forgot me who am the self of all, and so you fell into delusion; it was to show you mercy that my divine splendor came out from your own bodies and appeared as the yaksha. Now cast off entirely this pride born of the body and take refuge in me, whose very nature is being, consciousness, and bliss. Having said this, the great Goddess, ruler of all, the form of the primordial nature, received the devoted worship of the gods and at once vanished from sight.
Then all the gods let go of their pride and began to worship the lotus feet of Bhagavati according to the rites. Through the three junctures of each day they kept to the chanting of the Gayatri, and with their shares of the yajna (fire-rite) and other offerings they worshiped the Goddess without fail. It was for this reason that in the Satya Yuga all the finest of the twice-born held without pause to the chanting of the Gayatri and to the feet of Bhagavati.
This same episode of Uma Haimavati appears in the Kena Upanishad as well, though the Devi Bhagavata gives it a manner all its own and at far greater length.
Source: Shrimad Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana (Gita Press, Gorakhpur)