The Goddess Who Conquers Great Delusions

This time of year I am drawn to the teachings of the "Dark Goddesses" of yoga, the ones that cut the attachments to the old version of ourselves so we can move into the next season, and the next version of ourselves with clarity. Just have a look at verses 77 and 78 of the Devi Mahatmyam (a text dated before 400 CE), which chronicles battles of good and evil, and sings the praises of the divine feminine in the form of Durga:

You are the supreme knowledge as well as the great nescience, The great intellect and contemplation, As also the great delusion, The great goddess as also the great demon You are the primordial cause of everything

Bringing into force the three qualities (sattva, rajas and tamas) You are the dark might of periodic dissolution You are the great night of final dissolution and the terrible night of delusion

Ayurveda offers us the concept of ama, or accumulation in the mind and body. Ama builds from what we can not process efficiently. When there is a lot of ama, it casts a big shadow on our wisdom, and makes it more difficult to recognize the imbalances. And even more difficult to acknowledge this accumulation as a powerful fuel for transformation. But it is.

The goddess Durga has hundreds of names, but the two that have been resonating with me lately are Maha-Maya and Yoga-Maya. It is hard to get past her many arms and weapons, gifts from other dieties, which are necessary for defeating the asuras, or the forces of power for the sake of power. These two names or forms are her great powers- the one who conceals and the one who awakens. Now is the time to engage in the inquiry into what beliefs and forces defeat us, and how they are also what transforms.

The best part about Durga is that she has made an oath to show up whenever she is called upon.

Fall is the time to loo into the shadow, to call up the powers of dissolution, and use what we have at our disposal to move ama out of the body. Choices in lifestyle (diet, rest, and exerscise,etc) or lack thereof, may be part of what brought the ama into the system, and these same concepts are also what can remove it.