Goddess Durga is all compassionate and grants boon to Her children at once.

However we
need to take necessary precaution before venturing into this text. As clearly explained, this
700 verses has lots and lots of hidden bijakshari in them and reading them without proper
initiation is a problem. I strongly encourage people to take proper initiation before
venturing into this.

The benefits of reciting devI mAhAtmya is because of the hidden secrets behind the verses
of saptashatI. Each verse is an encrypted string secretly encoding a great seed mantra. No
other purANa has such a specialty hidden within.

If you see, the devI-mAhAtmayaM begins with mArkanDeya saying that he would narrate a
story about “sAvarNi sUrya tanayoashTama manuH” (meaning, the story of a Manu by name
savarNi who was the eighth son of surya); but ends up telling the story of “Devi”. What is
this? Did mArkanDeya lie? How can he say he is narrating the story of “sAvarNI” manu and
narrate the story of “Devi”?? Mind boggling right?

The answer is, this very first verse itself is a classic example of our rishi’s cryptography! Let’s
decode it now to understand how geniuses were our rishis.

“sAvarNI” = “sA (i.e., she; the pronoun denoting female)” + varNI (of that letter)” → In the
Vedas and Upanishads the supreme brahman is more commonly referred by pronouns than
any proper names. If the brahman is shown as a male, “sa (HE)” is used, if talked as female
“sA (SHE)” is used, if talked as neuter gender “tat (THAT)” is used. So “sA” denotes supreme
brahman. Now what is the varNa (letter) that is used to refer to Brahman as mother goddess
in Vedic corpus? It is “iM”———-Remember this point

“sUrya tanaya” means son of surya. Agni and Surya are of one and the same essence i.e., the
essence of fire and heat. So, Agni is the essence that is spoken here as the “son” of surya.
The biJAkshara of Agni is “raM” i.e,, “ra” ———-Remember this point

“ tanaya aShTama manuH” → In sanskrit “manu” means not only the progenitor of human
race,such as svayambhuva-manu etc., but manu means “mantra”. Here the code is to find
out the “eighth” letter from “ya”. which indicates – “ya, ra la va sha Sha sa ha”. So, here we
go. The code word present in this phrase is “ha” ———-Remember this point

Now let’s string the codes we found so far. It gives us – “iM – ra – ha”
There is a nyAya-sUtra called “chIlajInAmbara nyAya” which says that we need to read such
codes in reverse order.
Therefor the codes become “ha – ra – iM”
Joining them gives is —— “hrIM” (pronounced as hreeM)
So, what Markandeya said was “I’m going to narrate you the glories of that supreme being
who is denoted by the seed letter “hrIM” i.e., about goddess Durga the primordial mother of
the universe, the supreme brahman!

In this way all the 700 verses of Devi Mahatmayam when decoded gives us bIjAksharA-s.
Each verse has encoding in this format. Therefore, this is the ONLY SCRIPTURE from a
PURANA which is used to do homas (chanDI-homa).

Then, this is not the end. These 700 verses of saptaSatI are verily the same in meaning with
the 700 verses of Bhagavad Gita. The saptashatI might look like a war narrative of slaying
demons but in the deeper meaning they are all the same teachings spoken in Bhagavad
GItA. Therefore saptashatI is a “brahmavidyA” text not a tale of a war.

So, now you can easily understand that saptashatI being full of bIjAkSarA-s it would give
you all material and spiritual benefits and at the same time, if you understand the hidden
subtle teachings of the same and recite, it would confer upon you brahmavidyA and you
would get liberated. So, it is a text which is “bhoga-mokSha-pradAyinI”, it gives enjoyments
and liberation both!

Courtesy: Article by Santosh Kumar Ayalasomayajula