A verse for Durga

26. Week of September 26 

A Verse for Durga

Mother of the Universe

I carry your fire

In the essence of my will

Strengthening my spirit’s desire

A warrior serene, forward I stride

Self awareness is the tiger I ride.

Some of these verses have titles, and this is one. Do you know about Durga? She is a Hindu goddess. She is one of the many aspects of the mother goddess, and represents divine protection and the triumph of good over evil. Her festival is coming up - this year it begins on October 9th. As the year is turning towards the darkness of winter, Durga-energy is the divine force of protection that walks beside us, riding her tiger.

At the Waldorf school where I teach, we celebrated Michaelmas this past weekend. The archangel is also a warrior, and also a fighter of demons, a protector, a champion of goodness. The children performed a pagent portraying the archangel’s battle with the dragon of dark forces, and we played games and celebrated with community soup, and ate bread in the shape of dragons.

My youngest child, who just turned 18 this past week, observed, ‘Oh how interesting - they are the same festival.” Celebrating the harvest. Recognizing that our work this year has produced good fruit - but also some things that are not so good. Perhaps we have nourished seeds of jealousy, or indifference, or ill-will towards others. Perhaps we have nurtured bad habits. There are dragons to fight and demons to slay. Divine forces are here to help us.

Durga and the archangel Michael come to us out of two different cultural streams. They are not the same. Durga- puja and Michaelmas are two different festivals, celebrated by two different religions.We are living in a time when one is admonished to stay in one’s own cultural lane, to not make generalizations, to celebrate differences rather than seek for commonalities. I can learn about Durga, but I am not supposed to revere her, or conflate her with other deities approprite to my race and culture, say some. She is not my goddess to love, say some.

I say - but I love her. She is my Mother, or an aspect of my Divine Mother, the fierce protectice mother, the mother who will always be there for me. Jesus has this mother-power; he compared himself to a mother hen, sheltering her children under her wings. This power, for me, transcends culture and religion - I recognize the divine presence in spiritual practices all over the world.

It is important to respect cultural differences. And I think - in this time of great divisiveness - that we also need to remember our common humanity. We all are fighting demons. Divine forces have our backs, whatever names we give them. But we are all in this together. We need to do the work of forgiving, healing, striving to do better, working for the good, true, and beautiful, crushing what would diminish and separate us, walking forward into the future with serenity.