On seeing Chanda and Munda, the twin emissaries of Shumbha and Nishumbha, the goddess knitted her eyebrows in deep concentration. Out of her forehead emerged Kali, bearing a garland of skulls, looking fearsome and wielding the weapon called ‘Khadvanga’. Her loud roaring noise filled all the directions. She killed Chanda and Munda and ate up the rest of the enemy. Her mouth was so big when it opened that she just had to fling into it the elephants of the enemies, along with their mahouts. She ate up the horses along with the chariot and the charioteers, chewing them to paste.
She caught one by the hair, another by the neck, kicked one by the foot and pushed another by the chest and killed them. The weapons and arrows that they discharged continuously, she just caught them by her teeth. Chanda and Munda got desperate. Chanda covered her with a rain of arrows and Munda with a cloud of circling discuses. All the circling weapons that entered straight into her mouth seemed like shining suns being swallowed by the clouds.
The fearsome description of Kali, her loud roar which instilled fear in the Asuras are very empowering imageries. Anyone who reads with faith the Devi Bhagavatham cannot but get inspired to stand up against untruth and bad behaviour. Tremendous faith is created in these hidden powers of the mind which are drawn and pictured as one divinity or the other.
Kali, Durga and Ambika are different powers of our own human mind and we carry them with us wherever we go, in whatever we do and in whichever situation we may find ourselves in. The only message that gets across through the Bhagavatham—especially for women—is that: Do your duty bravely. Have no fear. Your own divine powers are always there to support you. They can emerge as Kali or Bhairavi to make short work of evil doers. Kali in no time destroyed Chanda and Munda and when she reported this to her creator Chandika Devi, she said, “May you be blessed with the name of Chamunda!”
This is one of the descriptions in the Devi Mahatmyam which happened in the Savarnika Manvantra and reported in the Sri Markandeya Purana. Destruction of Chanda and Munda is featured in the seventh chapter of this great epic narration that happened in a completely different period of time than the one we are living in right now. As the great saint Sri Aurobindo once said, these names that we come across in the Puranas are not mere characters in a story. They are live conscious forces that are present all the time who can come to our rescue in any dire situation when invoked and prayed fervently to for help and succour.
The author is Sevak, Chinmaya Mission, Tiruchi; brni.sharanyachaitanya@gmail.com
www.sharanyachaitanya.blogspot.in