MahaGauri

The eighth form of the divine mother is known as MahaGauri. Maha means Great and Gauri means the power that creates the universe. Hence MahaGauri is the great power that creates the universe. Gaur also means fair skinned, beautiful, brilliant, shining, clean therefore indicating purity. The word Gauri by itself has immense attraction. The form of MahaGauri is considered a soft, creative, compassionate form of the divine mother.

The divine mother got the name Durga because she killed a demon named Durgam. The word dur means bad or difficult and gam means movement or path. Therefore she who destroys the bad or fallen path is Durga. Here the indication is to the negative tendencies of our mind and our habits that take us astray, away from the path of dharma. So the divine mother destroys adharma. At a deeper subtle level the reference is also to the Kundalini Shakti. Durga is that power which removes all obstacles and hindrances in the path of the Kundalini Shakti so that it may rise taking us to the highest consciousness. In one sense Kundalini Shakti is actually the dormant energy within each of our minds. When we speak of awakening the Kundalini we mean to start a process of rapid transformation and to expand our mind to hundred percent or to attain complete consciousness and thereby self realization.

The worship of the form of the divine mother Durga as MahaGauri is known to give devotees a good married life and long marital partnership. This form should be particularly worshipped by people with families as it is considered particularly beneficial and auspicious.

The divine mother is dressed in white with four hands, her upper right arm depicts the mudra of fearlessness, the lower right arm holds the trident, the upper left arm holds a Damru, a musical instrument that indicates nad or unstruck sound and therefore the power of creativity (this is the same concept as in the bible where it says in the beginning there was word) (nad is actually the unstruck sound even before alphabet and the formation of word), and the fourth arm is in the boon giving mudra. Her mantra is

1. "Shewte vridhe samarudha shevtamberdhara sucheh

MahaGauri shubham dadhyanmahadevpramodda".

2. "Ya Devi Sarvbhuteshu Kanti Rupen Samsthita

Namastasyai Namastasyai Namastasyai Namo Namah".