Slaying of shumbha brings peace

When Ambika smoothly snapped the weapons and bow string of Shumbha, his rage increased and his sense of decency deserted him as anger clouded manners and culture.
Slaying of shumbha brings peace

When Ambika smoothly snapped the weapons and bow string of Shumbha, his rage increased and his sense of decency deserted him as anger clouded manners and culture. He left all his weapons and came straight for a physical fight with the Devi and punched her on the chest.

She was undeterred and used her palm to slap him hard on his chest. Incapacitated by a continuous stream of blows from Ambika’s palm, Shumbha fell to the ground. He grabbed her and lifted her up to the sky. High up too, Devi continued unflinchingly her fight with Shumbha. This time it was a boxing spree between Shumbha and Devi in the sky and all the gods were amazed to see this. She held him, spun him around and threw him down to the earth. Unwilling to give up, he got up, raised his fists and ran towards her, wanting to kill her. 

Not sparing him anymore, Devi took her spear and tore his chest into two, bringing to the ground the king of all the daityas. When he fell dead on the earth, everything including the mountains and oceans shook with the force. The entire universe regained a very calm and pleasant appearance when the notorious evil-doer was killed. The clouds, which seemed to spit fire when he was alive, returned to their state of calm as before and the rivers, which began flowing erratically, returned to their natural course. 

After the death of Shumbha, the gods rejoiced. The Gandharvas—the divine musicians—broke out into beautiful songs. They played soothing music with their musical instruments. The beautiful women of the divine abode—the apsaras—danced. The gentle winds brought in a lot of auspiciousness to the atmosphere and the sun was shining bright with great effulgence. The fires that were lit burned smoothly. The whole nature was calm and there was a peaceful sound emerging from all the directions. This brings an end to the tenth chapter of Devi Mahatma, called the ‘Killing of Shumbha’ in the Savarnika Manvantra of Sri Markandeya Purana.

The symbolism of this story is that Shumbha is the ignorant mind, which is dull-witted as it has no access to truth. When activity or rajas is identified with such a tamasic mind, hell is created for all people, especially if the person is the king. However, when this rajas or dynamism is identified with sattva guna—calm, quiet, alert, vigilant and strong—the Devi is then divinely empowered to put an end to tamas effortlessly. The whole universe is very peaceful when rajas or dynamism is working together with pure consciousness called sattva.

The author is Sevak, Chinmaya Mission, Tiruchi; brni.sharanyachaitanya@gmail.com; www.chinmayamission.com 

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