CHENNAI: When we are connected to the divine mother, we will be powerful and victorious all the time because she is the very source of power herself. She is the mother of all the gods including Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara. She combines all the schools of thought like Vaishnavism, Shaivism and so on, which give us what we need for our progress. She creates all planes of existence. She exists in every atom of creation and also manifests as the entire cosmos itself. The Devi Mahatmyam asserts this most categorically. As we understood earlier, there are very few things in life over which we have control. Our body belongs to our parents. All the gods including Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara are far more powerful than us and influence us in their own ways. Even a demi god like Indra controls us through our senses. The karmic demi-gods — Chitra and Gupta are busy recording our karma and inscribing our fate and destiny. If we think that our own mind and heart belong to us, let us also become aware we have split them into fragments. So, the only way for us to shed our helplessness and become powerful is by connecting ourselves to the divine mother permanently.
All the 108 sages gather in Naimisha Aranya where Devi is conducting a satsang. Addressing all of them, she says — “I am mula prakriti and the presiding deity of the five elements which are the building blocks of my creation. However, in order to resonate with these five elements, I need a purusha shakti or component of male energy. I cannot bring Brahma, Shiva or Vishnu for this. This male energy should arise from me, but it should also be visible to you.” This is how Devi manifested as Ardhanarishwara where one half is the male principle and the other half is the female principle. Chinese philosophy denotes this through the concept of Yin and Yang. The whole of creation emerged from the principle of Ardhanarishwara. Even today, creation is based on the same principle. That is how all the corresponding energies like Brahma-Saraswati, Vishnu-Lakshmi and Shiva-Parvati came into being in the Vedic period. When there is a male principle, a female principle automatically joins it and vice versa.
If we look at ourselves, Devi gives us the male principle that can meditate and the female principle that can create. These principles are present in all of us regardless of whether we belong to the male or female gender. Spiritually, we call the female principle kundalini shakti and the male principle Sadashiva. Intoxicated with nectar, Devi sits in our muladhara or basal chakra very peacefully, while Sadashiva is established in our sahasrara or crown chakra. In this way Devi is working in all of us as Ardhanarishwara and charging our chakras. Whenever we activate our kundalini shakti making it unite with the male principle of Sadashiva in the crown chakra, it is the victorious day of enlightenment.
—This article is taken from The book of Direct Truths, Subtle Truths and Mystical Truths of Devi Mahatmyam by His Holiness Shri Shri Nimishananda Guruji