Devi Mahatmya
Chapter 13 · The Boons to Suratha and the Merchant · The Conclusion
The sage Medha has told the whole story, and something has stirred awake in King Suratha and in Samadhi the merchant. The two go to a riverbank, shape the Devi’s image out of clay, and hold to their tapas for three years. Then the Devi appears before them in person, ready to grant boons: to the king, that he will be reborn from the Sun as the eighth Manu, sovereign of the coming manvantara; to the merchant, the knowledge that severs attachment at its very root. Here the whole text comes to its close.
Now the rishi began to draw his whole story toward its end. O king, he said, this supreme Devi Mahatmya has now been told to you; such is the power of the Devi by whom this whole world is upheld. Then he opened a deeper truth: even what we call vidya, knowledge itself, is fashioned by that same maya of Bhagavan Vishnu. So you, this merchant, and other discerning men besides all fall into delusion, have fallen already, and will go on falling.
1 · 2
ऋषिरुवाच ।
एतत्ते कथितं भूप देवीमाहात्म्यमुत्तमम् ।
एवंप्रभावा सा देवी ययेदं धार्यते जगत् ॥ 1 ॥
विद्या तथैव क्रियते भगवद्विष्णुमायया ।
तथा त्वमेष वैश्यश्च तथैवान्ये विवेकिनः ।
मोह्यन्ते मोहिताश्चैव मोहमेष्यन्ति चापरे ॥ 2 ॥
This bond of maya spares not even the wise, and so the rishi delivered his highest teaching. Maharaja, he said, go for refuge to that same Parameshvari. Worshipped, that Mother herself gives people enjoyment, gives heaven, and gives apavarga, the final liberation, as well. This is the one path, and refuge is its door.
3
तामुपैहि महाराज शरणं परमेश्वरीम् ।
आराधिता सैव नृणां भोगस्वर्गापवर्गदा ॥ 3 ॥
Markandeya says that when he heard the rishi’s words, Suratha, lord of men, bowed low to that great-souled muni of firm vows. The king’s heart had already turned from it all, worn by his own fierce clinging and by a kingdom torn from his hands. O great muni, that very moment he and the merchant set out for tapas.
4 · 5
मार्कण्डेय उवाच ।
इति तस्य वचः श्रुत्वा सुरथः स नराधिपः ।
प्रणिपत्य महाभागं तमृषिं शंसितव्रतम् ॥ 4 ॥
निर्विण्णो ऽतिममत्वेन राज्यापहरणेन च ।
जगाम सद्यस्तपसे स च वैश्यो महामुने ॥ 5 ॥
Thirsting for the darshan of Amba, the merchant settled on the sandbank of a river and began his tapas, reciting the supreme Devi Sukta. On that same stretch of sand the two shaped an image of the Devi out of clay and worshipped it with flowers, incense, fire, and offerings of water. It was as if, into that small figure of clay, they had invited the infinite.
6 · 7
संदर्शनार्थमम्बाया नदीपुलिनसंस्थितः ।
स च वैश्यस्तपस्तेपे देवीसूक्तं परं जपन् ॥ 6 ॥
तौ तस्मिन् पुलिने देव्याः कृत्वा मूर्तिं महीमयीम् ।
अर्हणां चक्रतुस्तस्याः पुष्पधूपाग्नितर्पणैः ॥ 7 ॥
Theirs was a tapas of the severest order. Taking no food, minds reined in, absorbed in the Mother and fixed on her alone, they sat on. And when the time came to offer, they gave a bali moistened with blood drawn from their own limbs: what tapas was this, ready to surrender the very body. Three years they worshipped so, those two restrained seekers, until Chandika, upholder of the world, was well pleased with them, and appearing before them in person, she spoke.
8 · 9
निराहारौ यतात्मानौ तन्मनस्कौ समाहितौ ।
ददतुस्तौ बलिं चैव निजगात्रासृगुक्षितम् ॥ 8 ॥
एवं समाराधयतोस्त्रिभिर्वर्षैर्यतात्मनोः ।
परितुष्टा जगद्धात्री प्रत्यक्षं प्राह चण्डिका ॥ 9 ॥
The Devi spoke, and her voice was full of affection: O king, and O delight of your line, whatever the two of you wish to ask, ask it all of me; well pleased, I shall grant it to you. Markandeya says the king then chose his boon: a kingdom in his next birth that could never slip from him, and in this very life his own kingdom back, its enemies’ forces uprooted by force.
10 · 11
श्रीदेव्युवाच ।
यत्प्रार्थ्यते त्वया भूप त्वया च कुलनन्दन ।
मत्तस्तत्प्राप्यतां सर्वं परितुष्टा ददामि तत् ॥ 10 ॥
मार्कण्डेय उवाच ।
ततो वव्रे नृपो राज्यमविभ्रंश्यन्यजन्मनि ।
अत्रैव च निजं राज्यं हतशत्रुबलं बलात् ॥ 11 ॥
The king, detached though he had grown, still ended by asking for a kingdom. The merchant’s gaze rested elsewhere. World-weary in mind, that wise man passed over kingdom and enjoyment alike and asked for knowledge, the precise knowledge that cuts the clinging of “I” and “mine” at the root. Then the Devi said to the king: O lord of men, within a few days you will hold your kingdom again; your enemies slain, your rule there will stand firm and unshaken.
12 · 13
सो ऽपि वैश्यस्ततो ज्ञानं वव्रे निर्विण्णमानसः ।
ममेत्यहमिति प्राज्ञः सङ्गविच्युतिकारकम् ॥ 12 ॥
श्रीदेव्युवाच ।
स्वल्पैरहोभिर्नृपते स्वं राज्यं प्राप्स्यते भवान् ।
हत्वा रिपूनस्खलितं तव तत्र भविष्यति ॥ 13 ॥
Then the Devi unrolled the king’s future beyond this body. When this life ends, she said, you will take birth again from the deva Vivasvan, the Sun, and on this earth you will rise as Savarnika, the eighth Manu, sovereign of the manvantara to come, the long world-age that will bear your name. Then she turned to the merchant: O best of merchants, the boon you sought from me, I grant you; for your complete attainment, that very liberating knowledge will be yours.
14 · 15
मृतश्च भूयः सम्प्राप्य जन्म देवाद्विवस्वतः ।
सावर्णिको नाम मनुर्भवान् भुवि भविष्यति ॥ 14 ॥
वैश्यवर्य त्वया यश्च वरो ऽस्मत्तो ऽभिवाञ्छितः ।
तं प्रयच्छामि संसिद्ध्यै तव ज्ञानं भविष्यति ॥ 15 ॥
Markandeya says that having granted the two of them the boons they longed for, and even as their devoted praise still rose to her, the Devi vanished that very instant. So, having won his boon from the Devi, Suratha, best of Kshatriyas, will take birth from the Sun when this body ends and become the Manu named Savarni. Here the whole Devi Mahatmya comes to its rest. Om Shri Durgayai Namah.
16 · 17
मार्कण्डेय उवाच ।
इति दत्त्वा तयोर्देवी यथाभिलषितं वरम् ।
बभूवान्तर्हिता सद्यो भक्त्या ताभ्यामभिष्टुता ॥ 16 ॥
एवं देव्या वरं लब्ध्वा सुरथः क्षत्रियर्षभः ।
सूर्याज्जन्म समासाद्य सावर्णिर्भविता मनुः ॥ 17 ॥
The Devi Mahatmya complete, at a glance
Thirteen chapters, seven hundred shlokas. It opens with a king and a merchant, and with the question of why Mahamaya casts even the wise into delusion. Then come the three caritas: Madhu and Kaitabha slain through Vishnu, Mahishasura slain by the Devi born of the gathered radiance of the devas, and Shumbha and Nishumbha slain by Kaushiki, who emerged from the sheath of Gauri’s body, and then by the seven Matrikas. Each time the Devi remains eternal; she only becomes manifest. At the end, Suratha and the merchant each receive from the Devi the boon their heart had chosen.
The text’s famous promise comes in shloka 11.51, “इत्थं यदा यदा बाधा दानवोत्था भविष्यति, तदा तदावतीर्याहं करिष्याम्यरिसंक्षयम्।” That is: whenever trouble arises from the danavas, then and then again I shall descend and destroy the enemies. The echo of the Gita’s “यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य” is heard right here.