What is Durga the goddess of? In India, according to the matriarchic mythology, goddess Durga, or Devi, symbolizes the primal energy which is the source of all creation. Bengalis celebrate the victory of good over evil during Durga Puja by worshipping Durga along with Laxmi, Saraswati, Kartika and Ganesh, her celestial children. In this essay published in India New England (October. 28, 2015), I interpret the composite symbolism of Durga and the other four deities along with the demon Mahishasura.

Bengalis just finished the ten-day celebration of Mother Durga visiting her children on Earth. Parallel to this runs the Ram Navami celebration, when episodes from Ram’s life are recapitulated in drama form from the epic Ramayana. As a Bengali child growing up in U.P., I enjoyed both Rama Leela as well as Durga Puja.

For a child it is an emotionally charged moment (at least for me it was) to stand in front of the huge idols of – Durga, Laxmi, Saraswati, Kartik, Ganesh, and Mahishasura the demon – with flowers in hand to offer pushpanjali in the morning with a priest chanting mantras sonorously creating a hypnotic effect. In such moments I stared at these larger than life-size images with awe, and wondered what they actually meant; the usual description provided by my parents and other elders did not quite impress me. Now it seems that these images put together are the artistic rendering of the vision of creation. This is the symbolic way of narrating the story of creation and life.

Durga is of course the primal energy, the ultimate progenitor, of the world or creation. Among the rest, I think, Laxmi is perhaps the most poorly conceived goddess. She is projected as the deity of prosperity and wealth. I see her as the real manifestation of the primal energy Durga, in multitudinous forms, presenting innumerable things in the world. She is the perpetual overflowing, the plethora, of the universe. This is the reason that she is the consort of Vishnu, and she is Sita with Ram, and Radha with Krishna. Thus Laxmi is actually the Prakriti or nature that we see and experience all around. She is the creative aspect of Durga. In this sense, her image as cornucopia or the deity of wealth and prosperity is a limited view of her full creative nature.

But what good is it if there are things continuously produced with no one to see them, acknowledge them, admire and appreciate them? This is where Saraswati comes in, as the deity of knowledge, in other words cognition. Hence, she is the conscious aspect of creation. With her comes the sense of ‘I’ and of the ‘other’. However, as it happens, with the sense of ‘I’ comes the desire and will to act, which is Kartika, the aggressive force, the rajasik quality inherent in creation. Which is why Kartika is placed right next to Saraswati in the full image.

The nature of actions, however, is such that despite all the will and desire, no action will ever take off if there was no faith or hope in the actor (the agent of action) of his actions yielding the desired results. Even a yogi working for emancipation has to have the faith that his efforts will lead him to salvation. This faith is represented by Ganesh. And to bring a balance in the whole artistic symbolism, Ganesh is placed on the opposite side of Kartika, i.e. next to Laxmi. Ganesh is the symbol of purity and serenity, the sattvik quality, in this symbolism. Note that the faith behind all human actions is of innate or inherent kind. It is not generated out of any knowledge of philosophy or religion or metaphysics. Even an uneducated person acts based on this faith. Thus this faith is different from the one usually used to indicate a religion such as the Christian faith or the Hindu faith. It is the inherent confidence or trust of a child that makes him run for protection towards his mother when he faces any danger. In other words, it is more existential in nature which is built into the system. Therefore, though it is noticed in humans, this faith is of animal nature. Hence, Ganesh is the chimeric god – half human, half animal (the term animal is not used in a pejorative sense).

Therefore, creation (Laxmi), cognition (Saraswati), action (Kartika), and faith (Ganesh) are the four aspects of Durga, the primal energy which is the foundation of creation. Durga is at the center of the image and presented at a higher level than the other four deities, indicating that she is all of these and much more beyond them.

Actions also bring another dimension into creation – the dimension of ethics or dharma. There are right actions and wrong actions. Wrong actions can destabilize creation and create chaos in the world. This chaotic force is represented by the demon Mahishasura. And Durga – representing the overall creation – in the interest of maintaining dharma is placed right above the demon, controlling him. He is like the dwarf demon Apasmara in the Nataraja symbolism under the right foot of Shiva. Mahishasura represents the ignorance, dullness, hypocrisy, inertia, cruelty, prejudice and preconceived notions, i.e. the tamasik quality – all of which have to be conquered in order for the creation to continue. Interestingly, the demon is placed right at the center of the image below Durga, suggesting that the tamasik qualities are as natural as the other qualities (also, if the demon was placed elsewhere, it would spoil the balance in the image) that appear in creation. And when the veil of this ignorance is lifted, one is surprised to see the light of divinity within. Note the surprise on the face of demon. And Durga, knowing well that the demon is very much an integral part of creation, is not angry with him. There is no wrath on her face. She is calm and serene. The trident in her hand piercing the heart of demon symbolizes the grace (or light) that brings the realization of the higher self to the lower self, which is as much a part of creation as any – and thus a full balance in the artistic rendering of the underlying philosophy is achieved.

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