After She Manifested Herself, Devas Started Giving Her Weapons

Mahishasura defeated and evicted Devas from Swarga. They went and complained to Sri Hari and Mahadeva.

They became enraged upon hearing this injustice. The Devas of Swarga, such as Indra, Agni, and Varuna, were also angry.

One point here: when we say Devas, that does not include the Trimurtis, the Tridevas, even though they are also Devas. Deva means 'the brilliant ones'—there is light emanating from their bodies. But in the context of Puranas, when we say Devas, it refers to the Devas of Swarga, such as Indra, Agni, Varuna, and Soma.

The Trimurtis have their own abodes:

• Satyaloka of Brahma
• Vaikuntha of Vishnu
• Kailasa of Shiva

The ones evicted were the Devas of Swarga.

They were all enraged. All the anger of all the Devas merged together and became a huge mountain of fire, and from that, a female form emerged—the Goddess. The Tejas and anger of each god formed different parts of her body, which we have seen in detail.

Looking at her, the Devas became happy and satisfied, knowing that now this Goddess could help them. She was powerful enough to destroy Mahishasura.

Then they started giving her weapons:

शूलं शूलात् विनिष्कृष्य ददौ तस्यै पिनाकधृक्
Pinaki Shiva produced another Shoola from his own Shoola and gave it to her.

चक्रं च दत्तवान् कृष्णः समुत्पाद्य स्वचक्रतः
Krishna here means Vishnu because of his color. He produced another similar Chakra from his Sudarshana Chakra and gave it to her.

शंखं च वरुणः शक्तिं ददौ तस्यै हुताशनः
What is the use of Shankha? The sound of Shankha can destroy evil forces.

The women of the enemies of Devas—the Asuras—suffer miscarriage in Patala. This means evil is destroyed even before it is born. That is how powerful the sound of the Shankha is.

Shakti means the regular spear. What Shiva gave was a trident. This regular spear was produced and given to her by Hutashana, Agni.

मारुतो दत्तवान् चापं बाणपूर्णे तथेषुधी
Maruta means Vayu Deva. He gave her a bow and two quivers. A quiver is the bag in which arrows are kept, hung on the back. You must have seen this.

But Ishudhi is not just a quiver. In Ishudhi:

इषवः धीयन्ते
The arrows keep on increasing, appearing on their own, like Akshaya Patra. In a normal quiver, only the arrows you place are there. In Ishudhi, they multiply on their own. Vayu Deva gave Devi two such Ishudhis.

वज्रमिन्द्रः समुत्पाद्य कुलिशात् अमराधिपः
ददौ तस्यै सहस्राक्षो घण्टां ऐरावतात् गजात्
From his Vajrayudha—Vajrayudha is lightning, Indra’s weapon—Indra produced another Vajrayudha from his own and gave it to her.

Indra also produced a bell from Airavata and gave it to her. Why a bell from Airavata?

Airavata represents clouds. Indra rides on clouds and uses his weapon, lightning, to strike enemies. Thunder is produced by clouds. Sound is produced by clouds—Airavata. So, the bell, which also produces sound, is attributed to Airavata.

A bell is also used to chase away negative forces. गमनार्थं तु राक्षसाम् – घण्टारवम् कुर्वे

Both the Shankha and the Ghanta—the bell—produce sounds that destroy or chase away evil. When you do puja, try to sound the bell. It helps a lot in keeping negativity out of the home. If you know how to blow a Shankha, that is also very beneficial.

कालदण्डात् यमो दण्डं पाशं चाम्बुपतिर्द्दौ
Kaladanda is the staff or rod of Yama. It is his weapon. Kaladanda has a special power—if Yama uses it, even if the opponent has boons, he will still be killed.

Kala is time. When time comes, everything comes to an end.

When we say that Devas are immortal, you should keep in mind that it is only till the end of the Kalpa. In the next Kalpa, they are reborn as the sons of Kashyapa and Aditi. That is Kaladanda—Yama gives death with this weapon. Yama produced another Kaladanda from his own and gave it to Devi.

Varuna’s weapon is Pasha—a rope. Varuna ties up and torments sinners with this rope, called Varuna Pasha. Particularly, Varuna does not tolerate dishonesty. Those who lie, those who do not keep their promises—he takes away their freedom and torments them as if they are in a prison.

They may be living in the real world, but they undergo suffering like that of a prisoner. If you see this happening to someone, be sure that the person is being punished for lying and dishonesty. This is very common—freedom being taken away is as common as lying.

Varuna produced another Pasha from his own and gave it to Devi.

प्रजापतिश्चाक्षमालां ददौ ब्रह्मा कमण्डलुम्
These are all physical weapons. But without spiritual power, nothing works.

Even evil forces like Ravana and Bhasmasura have done sadhana and tapas. External physical power is only a manifestation of inner power. If you see traditional Chinese martial arts, they emphasize a lot on meditation because they realized this truth. That is why they stress sadhana.

So, Prajapati gave Devi a rosary (Aksha Mala) to do chanting, and Brahma gave her a Kamandalu. The Kamandalu is for carrying water.

Vedas say that if you sprinkle water while chanting Gayatri, it will destroy Asuras. For any dharmic religious practice, water is required. For purity, water is required. The Kamandalu is the water pot with a handle, carried by rishis.

Just as sadhana such as dhyana contributes to spiritual power, observing dharma externally also contributes to spiritual power.

So, Prajapati gave Devi a rosary for internal spiritual practices, and Brahma gave her the Kamandalu water pot for external spiritual practices.

We will see more about this as we proceed.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi