DURGA

There is a vast force behind all of phenomena. This force animates existence, creates, preserves and destroys life-forms and is the cosmic governor at whose bidding the stars shine and the vast terrain of space-time undulate in every cycle of cosmic manifestation. Impersonal is the absolute 'nature' of this force, transcendent it is as the Being, yet, intensely personal it is in its immanent form, interpenetrating phenomena while enlivening it as the Cosmic Mother.

We are the children of this Ancient Mother, the Divine Consort of the Purusho Purano (the Ancient Being). Together they have enwrapped the cosmos in their loving embrace, inseparable as they are with the faintest of distinctions for savouring love, the dual aspect of an integrated whole.

Hers is the Will that dictates Nature to do Her bidding and Hers is the freedom that transcends all limitations. She is the inscrutable authoress of this universe and innumerable universes like this, dispensing with the life of things as She wishes, supremely merciful, yet, beyond all reason. She, the Primeval Force, is the Terrible One, threading souls with Her love and destroying them with Her kiss. She, the giver of law, is beyond all law as She weaves Her web of magic worlds, creating out of debris the citadel of Her dreams, preserving the minutest worm with the warmth of Her mother's love and then, destroying it all in a frenzied mood of self-oblivion to merge things to sameness.

She remains, O She remains, beyond the reach of reason but within the caress of love, the Mother of all, the Inscrutable One, the Eternal Paradox. We, Her children, have assembled to offer Her our heart's love, our soul's adoration, our self-effacement on this eve of Durga Puja when Mother returns home.

May all beings be blissful!
May all beings be full of health!
May all beings be directed to the core of consciousness which is Mother!
Durga! Durga! Durga!