Oa Be Cal we Wu naan OE bya ena Rr) RreaueUeurce) |as The Glory of Mother Worship God as Mother The Divine Self or God has two aspects: Mother- aspect and Father-aspect. Truth, knowledge, power, infinity, justice, abstraction, sublimity, and suzerainty are qualities applied to the Father-aspect, while beauty, bliss, love, energy, luminosity, compassion, proximity, eternity and grace are the qualities of the Mother-aspect. These two aspects of God are wor- shipped by mankind in some fashion or other all over the world. The worship of the Mother-aspect is especially well-developed among the Hindus. _ _ Most people think of God as a Father. However, the concept of God as Mother is more fulfilling because the love for mother in the depths of the heart is more deep-rooted than the love for father. No one can hold a secret from his mother. Sometimes a person has to seek the aid of his mother in order to please his father. Therefore, the concept of God as Mother is the most evolved expression of the religious feeling of a person towards the almighty God.ee Even though God as the Mother is One, She manifests in various forms through the different stages of the evolution of the soul. Thus, She leads the infant soul along the path of sadhana or spiritual discipline with the aid of the Father. When the individual soul attains enlightenment and is freed of the cycles of birth and death, the Mother and the Father and the soul become one. This is Self- realization—that surging ocean wherein all dualities and multiplicities are dissolved and the fullness of bliss is experienced. Mother as Guide The Divine Mother trains the infant soul to balance its steps on the path of sadhana just as a mortal mother trains her baby with love and skill. The Divine Mother exists in a person in the depths of his being—in the innermost chamber of his heart. She is the original Atma-shakti, ot energy of the Spirit that manifests in the form of jnana shakti (the energy of knowledge), ichha shakti (the energy of will and desire) and kriya shakti (the energy of action). In the Devi Mabatmya the gods worshipped the Devi by the following hymns: “Ya Devi sarvabbuteshu Vishnumayeti shabdita, Namastasyat, namastasyai, namastasyai namo namab”"eB ls (Prostrations to that Devi who is called Vishnu Maya among all creatures— prostrations, prostrations!) Then the devas (gods) go on describing the Devi in a similar way: “Salutations, again and again salutations, to Her Who is known among all beings as consciousness, as intellect, as hunger, as shadow, as power, as thirst, as forbearance, as caste, as shyness, as grace, as faith, as beauty, as prosperity, as effort, as memory, as mercy, as contentment, as Mother, as delusion, and Who is called among human beings the sustainer of all. To Her, let our salutations be given!” ‘The above prayer describes the different manifes- tations of the Devi. The life of a person is permeated by these manifestations. The Mother guides Her child, the spiritual aspirant, internally and externally. The entire prakriti(nature) is Her sporting grounds and all the manifestations of the world, including the earth and the heavens, are Her glories. Her divine ways of guiding the infant soul are mysterious. She is frightful and terrible as Durga, destroying the obstacles that tise from the tamasic or demoniac level. She is lustrous as Lakshmi—the bestower of material and spiritual wealth. In the form of Saraswati, She is most sublime and elegant as She rides on the mystic swan, conferring the knowledge that leads to immontality.wo The Divine Mother has innumerable manifesta- tions. Sometimes She is terrible, sometimes compas- sionate, sometimes tempting and alluring, some- times seducing and deceiving, sometimes threaten- ing and overpowering, sometimes sublime and el- evating. The same Mother puts on different veils during the different conditions in the evolution of the soul to aid its Godward movements. How compas- sionate, how motherly! ry