The
myth of the goddess Durga begins with 2 brothers, Shumbha and Nishumbha. These brothers want to maximize their
spiritual power and to do so undertake a host of intense yogic austerities -
standing on one leg in a ring of fire, holding their breath for 1000 years
w/arms raised overhead, etc. When Brahma sees their intense practice of tapas (discipline, dedication), he
rewards their efforts by granting them the boon they had been seeking: that no
man or god can defeat them in battle. (One
of the lessons of this myth is that everyone is offered gifts - it is up to the
receiver what they do with the gifts they are given. Not the lesson I want to talk about today,
but worth a mention. Back to the story....)
With
their new found power the brothers (known as asuras
or demon-gods) become invincible and set about wreaking havoc on the world –
they amass enormous armies and conquer everything worth conquering, including
land, prisoners, art and women. When it
gets too much to bear, the gods come together to discuss what to do and realize
there is a loophole to this boon: the
one thing the brothers can be defeated by is a woman. Unfortunately there were no female warriors on
Earth. The Great Goddess, up until this
point, has been hidden, happy to channel her skills in the form of consorts to
the male gods and has ruled from “behind the curtain”. But the gods realize she alone can solve
their problem, so they go to her and for 20,000 years entreaty her to come to
earth and set things right.
This
is the central teaching of the Durga myth - the Goddess is waiting to be
asked. Sally Kempton in Awakening Shakti says, "Because she
is hidden, in order to act in the world the Goddess needs us to ask for
help." To access her transformative
power we need to call it out, ask for it, pray for it. "The power is there, but we have to
summon the courage or desperation to ask for it, and it is only in doing so
that we bring it forth."
So
the Great Goddess descends to Earth in the form of Durga, riding on a lion and
bearing an impressive array of weaponry.
In the midst of the epic battle that ensues many other goddesses are born
from Durga’s body to fight the onslaught of the huge army the brothers had
amassed: first Kali emerges from her 3rd eye (ajna chakra), then Indrani, Saraswati, Vaisnavi, Chinnamasta, and
Bhairavi all emanate forth. The
goddesses of course defeat the brothers and their armies, and as Durga lays the
killing blow, the asuras realize who
she is, and smile with the ecstasy of the goddess filling their being as they
dissolve back into her body.
 |
| Durga manifesting Kali from her 3rd eye during the fight. |
This
battle represents the inner battle that happens in us when we undertake any
transformative spiritual practice. For
most of us, it is harder to ask for help or to say we don’t understand or we
don’t know how to move forward, than to just keep doing what we’re doing and on
the surface muddle through. Yet when we
do this, no shift or change in the underlying pattern occurs and so it repeats
itself and we stay stuck where we are. It’s like that old saying “If you always
do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.” The times in my life when I have been strong
and courageous enough to admit what I couldn’t handle, given voice to my
stuck-ness, and either asked for exactly what I needed or admitted I didn’t
even know what to ask for are the times when I have had huge breakthroughs,
when my life has changed direction and charted a new course. Even the Great Goddess couldn't do it alone,
so why do we think we have to? I was
just reading an article about some of the most successful CEOs in the world, and
one of the traits they universally share is the ability to choose a good team
and to delegate. They know who and how
to ask for help and this is not a weakness but a testament to their wisdom and strength.
In Awakening Shakti we learn that “The
grace of the goddess is a 2 way stream.
There’s the movement from the subtle - the movement of grace descending
into the human world. But it can’t land
unless there is a calling from below. It
can take different forms – mantra repetition, meditation, prayer – but the
calling has to be there." Help is
often hidden and yet always there. The
great work of yoga is to soften out of your own self-consciousness and self-effort
and open to help from beyond.
Off the Mat:
Where
are the places in your life where you feel stuck, in a rut, stagnant? Durga summons the other goddesses into the
world to help her fight the battle of her life – who do you need to
summon? What do you need to ask for to
get you where you need to go? If you
don’t know, just giving voice to the not-knowing often leads to the answer.
On the Mat:
In
my classes this week we are working on backbends. Asking for help requires a
certain degree of humility, of finding the balance of self-love (individual)
and Self-love (universal). In the body
this can be felt through the actions moving the shoulders back to open up the upper
back which is chronically stiff from both biomechanics and held stress, while
simultaneously resisting the low ribs and belly back which for most of us is
much more mobile and flexible. Drawing
the belly back mimics a posture of humility, helping us to more easily admit to
what we need. And once we are ok with
that, then the work of opening up the heart happens, moving the back bend to the subtle upper back, which is so hard but so
radically transformative.
For the Anusara Junkies:
Open
To Grace:
Use
your breath to create a fullness of the inner body and open the back body,
softening out of any tough guy persona, and examine what needs to be asked for.
Open
to the possibility that you don’t have to do it all alone, that you can ask for
what you need to get you there and invite it in with the breath
Muscular
Energy:
With
the ferocity of Durga firm your leg muscles.
With
the fierce desire to transform yourself, fire up every muscle.
Kidney
Loop:
(Durga
is known as the protector – when we draw the front ribs back before opening the
heart we protect the low back during backbends.)
Draw
the front ribs back, softening the self into the Self.
Resist
the low belly up and back, creating a new pattern of self-discovery and
transformation.
Organic
Energy:
Let
the brilliant light of the Goddess come to you and enliven and brighten your
inner fire.
Let
the fiery shakti of Durga radiate
through you and take the form of your pose.
