DURGA DEVI 

All Glories to HDG SRILA BHAKTI PROMODE PURI GOSWAMI MAHARAJ

All Glories to HDG SRILA BHAKTI SIDDHANTA  SARAWATI THAKUR PRAHBHUPADA

The word Durga when broken up each letter has different meanings. Da means to destroy the demons. The u stands for removal of all obstacles. The r stands for removal of all diseases. The ga stands for destruction of all sins. Finally the ending a means the destruction of all the fearful enemies. In the Vedas, the prayers to Chandi are as follows Durga asi durga bhava sagara nora sanga  meaning your name is Durga as you are the boat to cross the material ocean of suffering or as she Durga who removes all afflictions. Another verse of the scriptures states ,she who is renowned as Durga  for having killed the fearsome Mahasura demon. Another such verse is she  Durga who is the presiding deity of of the prisonhouse  containing these fourteen planets in this material universe. In the Markendeya Chandi Pat, it is stated that when the demigods were ousted from their heavenly realm both Lord Madhusudana and Sambhu became angry and from their faces a blazing energy emanated which on merging with the bodies of the demigods at once became transformed to the Goddess Durga with ten hands mounted on the lion because of  her performing ten different types of work. She is the mother of Ganesh and Kartika. Lakshmi and Saraswati are  together with her in the form of material opulence and education.  All sins are absolved by the twenty one different scriptures and also  she holds twenty one type of different weapons in her hands,    In the Brahma Samhita she is described :Srstisthitiplayasadahasakitr eka   --  or The Supreme Lord has His internal energy or  Svarupa sakti as the Upanishad declare as Parasakti. The shadow energy of this Parasakti  which performs the functions of creation ,maintenance and destruction   is called Durga who obeys implicitly  the order of  the Supreme Lord Govinda.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      During the Sarochise Manvanatara ,there was a fallen king Swatha and a prostitute named  Samaddhi   .They were the first people to begin the method of worship of Durga Devi then by which the king was able to regain his regal throne while the other devotee received a boon in the form of knowledge.   Some say that Rama before he killed Ravana offered worship to Durga by the plea of Brahma because of the time being inappropriate. However this fact is not mentioned in the Valmiki Ramayana. A scholar, Krtidas who composed the Ramayana in Bengali lyrics  had mentioned this. Although renowned for his  literature ,he was not accepted by the scholars of that time as in his Ramayana he portrayed Rama, the incarnation of Vishnu as an  ordinary man. In actual fact, the material energy can have an effect on the conditioned living entity while the internal energy or Yogamaya plays a role solely, in the nourishing of the Lord's divine pastimes. The living entity  being very  minute or  termed the marginal energy by misusing their independence becomes imprisoned in this material universe or the fortress of Durga. She covers the living entity in two ways as in the subtle body, the mind ,intelligence and false ego becomes  trapped while the gross  earthly body made of material elements becomes  formed by the desires of the individual living entity. His transcendental body remains covered and in a sleeping state due to these coverings. Hence different types of egoism forms by the effect of these coverings and thus the living entity takes the bodies of man, woman ,king, father, son,  sometimes becoming happy and sad in different ways by effects of this egoism . Bewildered by the material energy  ,he is over come by lamentation thinking himself  lacking in many things while being attached to wife ,son, followers  and as sometimes victory in battle. At other times, he wants relief from the opposites from happiness and distress considering all this as meaningless at the same time desirous of seizing the throne of the Supreme Lord to merge or become one with him.  Durga Devi cheats him by these desires thrusting him in the vortex of the wheel of birth and suffering. On the contrary there are the fortunate souls who giving up enjoyment up to liberation  taking  to the shelter of Yogamaya gradually becomes freed from the coarse and subtle bodies  to attain the service in the divine realm .   The living entities in being adverse to the Lord engages in either  enjoyment   or renunciation inadvertently becoming bewildered by the material energy and ends up being worshippers of the shadow energy while Yogamaya is the direct servant of the Lord .In actual worship of the Lord Vishnu where Durga and Ganesh are mentioned they are not considered material but are  divine servitors in Vaikuntha .But their counterparts in the material world are of the material energy. The cowherd damsels of Vrndavana worshipped Katyayani or the internal energy of the Lord for attaining devotion to the Lord. There is no question of  them enjoying or renouncing their fruits of their work here. Others who make a farce of worshipping Katyayani for material benefits up to the point of  liberation end up being offenders to the feet of the cowherd damsels and the Supreme Lord. The cowherd damsels were not ordinary beings living in mediocre places nor were their bodies material. How can we compare the desires of those cowherd damsels to that of ordinary beings ?The former are part of the pleasure potency of Krishna and their domicile is always in transcendence.   As explained by the verses  in the Chaitanya Charitramrta Charitramrta ,they had renounced all social and bodily designations including their direct family attachments  , also freed from social taboos  for the unalloyed service to the Supreme Lord. Being such elevated devotees what would they not perform for the sake of the Supreme Lord. The material world is just a perverse reflection of the spiritual world. The fulfillment of lusty desires here can never be the same as partaking of the divine mellows of devotion in the spiritual world . The material enjoyments are despicable and temporary by comparison. In the spiritual realm all are in their individual spiritual identities and and bent in enhancing their love to the Supreme Lord as in the demonstrations of love exhibited by the cowherd girls. Just as a poor person can never gift wealth to any others, similarly the shadow, energy Durga can never give devotion to the Lord. In the Bhagavatam the prayer to Katyayani is given katyayani mahamaye mahayoginy aadhiswari nanda sutam devi patim me kuru namah

Srila Visvanatha has written in his commentary that the gopis worshipped directly the internal spiritual energy of the Lord and not in any way the material energy. The Agamas state sarve krsna mantra durgai adhista devata  or the internal energy Durga is the presiding deity of all krishna mantras. Hence, she was worshipped by the gopis and not to be confused with Mahamaya. Sanatana Goswami has commented that Katyayani ,Parvati is the greatest Vaishnavi. ,beloved of Siva. Sri Jiva in his commentary on the Brahma Samhita  has declared there is no difference between Parvati and the Lord or between the Enegetic and the Energy. The verse of the Bhagavatam 10/1/25 vishnurmaya bhagavati yaya sammohitam jagat Here Srila Visvanatha Thakur comments saying that the bewilderment of the living entities is done by the shadow energy as Devaki on producing the baby girl to Kamsa ,the demons are under the shadow energy without any contact with the internal energy. It was Yogamaya that helped transfer the seventh child from the womb of Devaki to  that of Rohini. and also in inducing the sleep of Yasodha all in the nourishment of the divine pastimes of the Lord. The pastimes connected with the  exhibition of  the Universal form and that part of the realm of the sea demigod Varuna was neither yogamaya or maya but the absolute will of the Lord in his relishing  of the mellows with the residents of Vraja at that time. The Lord has only one higher internal energy  or pleasure potency called the Parasakti or Durga which can help one to attain the Lord ..The Mahamaya covers the conditioned souls .Therefore those who are trapped in the material body as well those who want to free themselves from their material tabernacle end up worshipping the shadow energy ,Durga. Just as Ravana in capturing the illusory Sita was convinced he had actually Sita in his custody similarly those ignorant people who worship the shadow energy are thinking that their entrance to the spiritual realm is open but unfortunately that is never the case as they end up being even more bewildered. The shadow energy is indirectly serving the Lord by punishing and tormenting the independent conditioned living entity until he takes shelter of the Lord in supplication in the end. By her  actions ,She is ashamed to come into the direct glance of the Lord. As the Bhagavatam verse 2/5/13

Vilajamanaya yasya shatum ikshapathe amuya

Here in the commentaries of Sri Jiva in Tatva Sandarbha and Baladeva the Shadow energy becomes ashamed as the living entity becomes attached to his mind and body and develops the feeling of me and mine he is beset by the shadow  energy  to the downward path and such type of work is not appreciated by the Lord as He desires the happiness of all beings in their proper spiritual growth and that is why she is ashamed to face the Lord. The shadow energy covers the spiritual identity of the independent living entity and placed  the midst of material vortex just as the  brightness of a lamp closed and hidden  by a container. Here he becomes attached to wife and family .In conclusion, worshipping the material energy one forgets his actual identity and becomes more attached to material life and opulence .The compassionate Lord does not interfere in the work  of the shadow energy but thru the revealed scriptures exhorts the living entity to surrender to Him  as the only way to escape the  insurmountable material energy. Then there is the verse which advocates the association of the great saints and hearing the pastimes of the Supreme Lord from their mouths as the way to gradually develop faith ,steadiness to finally devotion to the Lord .Hence only in the association  and shelter of the guru,,vaishnavas and with surrender to the Supreme  Lord can one achieve that devotion.