Gopala Campu 3.18 : "She [Durga] had a dark complexion and eight arms, holding the cakra and other weapons. She rode on a lion in the sky and was praised profusely by the devatas. [..]"
SB 10.51.19 "Inexhaustible Time, stronger than the strong, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Like a herdsman moving his animals along, He moves mortal creatures as His pastime."
TIME AND CONSCIOUSNESS
SB 10.51.19 "Inexhaustible Time, stronger than the strong, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Like a herdsman moving his animals along, He moves mortal creatures as His pastime."
When the soul falls into vitiated consciousness and desires to exploit material nature refusing the Lord, Durga takes control by the bewildering Time. When by the mercy of the saintly devotees the soul finds the way to return to consciousness, to awake from the slumber of the bodily conception of life, by rendering service to the Lord, the same Durga releases her grip, freeing the soul from the influence of Time, and as Radha accepts the service in the palm of her hand to present to the Lord. Because eternal Time is the eternality of Krishna's loving pastimes, Radha is the mistress of His time, eternal time.
So, Durga devi and Radharani are the same person in a different mood, the former is the most distant from the Lord and the latter is the closest.
So, this poem was inspired by the class (link below) by HH Bhakti Brhat Bhagavata Swami where
he spoke about Time and gave a description of Sri Durga, from whom the shadow
of Maya is projecting.
Because of the vitiated,
distorted and bleak colors of the world of caducity, as an antithesis of light
and spirituality, I made several mentions of the parallel female figures of the
Greek mythology , to reinforce the horror, the degradation and the darkness
pervading this material universe. Also the ancient Greeks were aware of
the grip of this energy of various powerful influences and personified each of
them in different ghastly female forms. For instance the MOIRAI (called
the Fates in English) controlled the metaphorical thread of
life of every mortal from birth to death.
The whole class is very inspiring from the philosophical point of view, but toward the end the Maharaja suddenly reveals some very confidential vision and the colors, the light and the mood change so much so that Radha appears out of the twilight of a sunset in Vraja ...
“[…] Does the face of Radha rise from the forest on the bank of the Yamuna in front of me?” Gopala Campu 23.14
...and a secret is revealed and from this ray of rasa the whole poem came about.
Click the link below for the class - take your time to listen at it.
Superior to Harpies, Furies and Fates 1
is
the Mistress of delusions
whose hands gloved with illusions
hold the whip of Time,
beats
the rhythm of all being's lives,
unleashes
caducity like a snake bite, 2
and
in full prowess rides
the
lion of disruptive mutation;
Aegis of divine light by ordeal 3
makes
the unreal appear real,
turns
Time into its threefold form,4
inducing
its miseries to take shape
in
her shadow,
where
even the Divine glance
dared not to take a chance;
She,
ruthless towards exploitation,
with hands armed with incitations,
relentlessly
compels beings into action
and as each one takes and keeps
in turn she
tightens Time’s grip;
her
hands multiplied ten-fold,
to
give and grab back swiftly,
in
the same way the sun
deceptively
gives days,
but with every sunrise and sunset
fades
the life span away;
this
is her mood and her face
in the Mistress of Death's place.
When
the Goddess of Hades
raises
the iron vise of mortal time,
something resonates in me ~
I
plunge my quill
in
honeyed ink
and my
mind, a thirsty bee
flies free
in the gold of the sky;
mesmerized by the sun rays
in the molten gold of the twilight,
a forest shines in mystical ways;
There
the Muse of Loveliness
swiftly
runs, disguised by this glare,
fay,
luminous and golden
She
blends with the air,
before the limbs of the night
loom
and adumbrate
this is the time
for
Lovers to re-unite
so She rushes to the riverside.
so She rushes to the riverside.
For the Supreme Lover,
days and nights, Spring and Fall,
are but a semblance of Time
and come and go for His delight,
as do the sun and its twilight;
and She, the Supreme Divinity,
Her form endowed
with the splendor of the Moon,
expands to infinity
the prism of Her moods,
to match and intensify
His infinite pleasure.
Sole Mistress
of His eternal loving pastimes,
She, Muse of Sweetness,
thus embodies Eternal Time.
are but a semblance of Time
and come and go for His delight,
as do the sun and its twilight;
and She, the Supreme Divinity,
Her form endowed
with the splendor of the Moon,
expands to infinity
the prism of Her moods,
to match and intensify
His infinite pleasure.
Sole Mistress
of His eternal loving pastimes,
She, Muse of Sweetness,
thus embodies Eternal Time.
1) In Greek and Roman
mythology, the HARPIES were winged spirits of vicious, cruel
and violent nature. They were usually seen as the personifications of the destructive nature of wind.
The FURIES were female spirits of justice
and vengeance. They were also called the Erinyes (angry ones). Known especially for
pursuing people who had murdered family members, the Furies punished their
victims by driving them mad. When not punishing wrongdoers on earth, they lived
in the underworld and tortured
the damned. (source : MythEncyclopedia)
The FATES or the
MOIRAI - They controlled the
metaphorical thread of life of every mortal from birth to death. They
were independent, at the helm of necessity, directed fate, and watched that the
fate assigned to every being by eternal laws might take its course without
obstruction. (source : Wikipedia)
2) SB
1.13.47 Purport - "...Kala which is compared to
kala-sarpa, or the cobra snake, whose bite is always lethal. No body can be
saved from the bite of a cobra."
4) Time within the material
manifestation takes 3 forms : Past,
Present and Future
5)
HADES was the ancient Greek god of the underworld. Eventually, the god's name came to designate the abode of the dead.
~~~
CC 5.27-28 - Purport
There is the following reference to the śrī, bhū and nīlā energies in the Sītopaniṣad:
There is the following reference to the śrī, bhū and nīlā energies in the Sītopaniṣad:
"Mahā-Lakṣmī, the supreme energy of the Lord, is experienced in different ways. She is divided into material and spiritual potencies, and in both features she acts as the willing energy, creative energy and the internal energy. The willing energy is again divided into three, namely śrī, bhū and nīlā."
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