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Week 15 Extra Reading: "Seven Secrets of the Goddess:" "Durga's Secret"


  • Durga
    • the mind without nature = Shiva the withdrawn hermit
    • nature without the mind = Brahma the controlling priest
    • a key theme of the Puranas
    • a preferred form of the goddess is Durga
      • riding lion, defying domestication
      • unbounded hair signifies that she is still wild like Kali
      • nose ring signifies that she is domesticated like Gauri
      • weapons in multiple hands reveal a different kind of violence
        • restrained unlike Kali
        • offers protection but also can be used for punishment
      • Brahma's defiant daughter
      • Vishnu's protected and protective sister
      • Shiva's affectionate wife
      • affection cannot be taken for granted
        • she will not be exploited
      • domestication of nature (goddess) must be mirrored by the awakening of the mind (god)
    • Kanya-Kumari
      • a tale from southern India
      • challenges idea of domestication in order to establish culture
      • name means one who is a virgin
        • expresses a desire to be Shiva's wife
        • Shiva agrees
        • but devas aren't pleased because without a husband or children she has the power to kill demons
        • power also prevents the sea from overwhelming the land
        • devas set out to disrupt the wedding
          • telll her she must marry Shiva at sunrise the next morning
          • Shiva lives far away and agrees to hurry to meet his new bride
          • she stays up all night preparing the wedding feast and adorning herself with jewelry and makeup
          • the devas take the form of roosters in the middle of the night and start crowing, tricking Shiva into thinking the sun is about to rise so he turns around disappointed and goes back home - when the sun actually rises Shiva is not there
        • heartbroken, she breaks all of the pots containing the wedding feast
          • turn into the colorful sands found at the tip of India
          • she washes her makeup in the sea - this is why the sea is colorful there
          • stands on the southern tip killing demons, keeping the sea at bay, and serves as a lighthouse so fisherman can make it back to shore
        • the story serves as an ambiguous relationship with domestication
          • at one level god should be domesticated - must be a householder not a hermit
          • but also do not want the goddess to be completely domesticated
            • "stay forest and not become field"
  • Storytelling Notes: Even though its the end of the semester I'd like to take the story of Kanya-Kumari and turn it on its head. I think the idea of virginity making her a demonslayer is silly since the idea of virginity is quite arbitrary to begin with and takes away women's agency. A woman can be a sexual being AND a badass demon slayer. 
  • Bibliography Seven Secrets of the Goddess by Devdutt Pattanaik (2016). Video. 
(Kanya-Kumari from Pinterest)

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