#a hero a leader in itself is a figment of the masses

[ebitenpura]

Yutorin as a persona deeply pains Eight because it's the culmination of everything he could've grown up to be had the world not been against him from the start, yet one he has to act as regardless to save it, long after he's lost that sense of innocence and honor. But he feels he's only pretending to be a savior-- his true reasons are selfish. For this, he asks for forgiveness; he fights for the one he loves, not the world. But if love means he must fight the whole galaxy, he'll do it. He'll wear that heavy crown, he'll be a false hero. He's a fool like that. And yet...

[mitigatedchaos]

Isekai Iterations

(The baseline calibration isekai, “How Can I Be the Hero; I’m Just a High School Student?!” is omitted for brevity.  Please contact your representative if it hasn’t already been downloaded to your template library.)

My Hero, My King (Romantic Comedy, Anime)

All of the force of all of the gods together could not destroy the Demon Overlord, so powerful was his grasp over the very fabric of magic.  But slamming an unstoppable object into an immovable force (we omit a more technical explanation of the arcane principles at work) creates a paradox.  That reaction tore open a portal between worlds and unceremoniously dumped the Demon Overlord in a developed island country that suspiciously resembles Japan.

...where, stripped of most of his otherworldly power, and shocked by the advancement of humanity free of the crush of magic and seemingly also divine intervention, he becomes a video gamer.

And not just any video gamer.  He vows to use his dazzling intensity to become the king of all video games.  

Our story follows the female gamer in his guild that has silently vowed to win his heart, and the challenges she faces in attempting to date the Gamer King.

Twist: At the end of the first season, the Demon Overlord’s analysis of the stars, which he’d put off at the beginning in the first episode, reveals that this isn’t a different world, it’s the same world, millions of years into the future.  The second season gains more drama as magic starts to come back, this time reflecting the nature of the video games around him.

And So I Became A Salaryman (Drama, Live Action)

Ten years ago, Tarou Tanaka was an ordinary high school student who was called away to become the savior of another world, because he was the only one who could.  He fought, and he bled, he met chivalrous damsels and stoic knights, and watched some of them die.

But he won.

Five years after the collapse of the Castle of Shadow, with the world of Lalasenne at peace, a cursed item he had overlooked near the middle of his quest, prepared to stop him by the Dark Lord, hurls him back to reality.  Now in Japan as a 26-year-old man who has been missing for ten years, and having never completed his high school education, he must struggle to reintegrate himself into a world that will believe him delusional.  He’s used to struggle, but the kinds of struggles he’d spent years enduring were physical and dangerous, not quiet and routine.  But he still believes he can succeed.

Twist: Lalasenne isn’t real, but the shadowy laboratory for the military testing of experimental neural interfaces, artificial intelligence, and deep simulation sensory immersion virtual reality is.  Broken signs and fragments of Lalasenne, including figments of the people he once knew, presented in a 2D format that is disconcerting relative to the rest of the 3D show, slowly guide him there, slowly guide him there, to the forbidden place that shouldn’t exist.

Overlord, Inc. (Anime)

Strength, magic, the position of the Moon... these things may be different between worlds, but ambition is not.  That’s the thought of the former vice chancellor of the demonic hordes who was cast into the reality of New York City on Earth... and crawled his way up from homelessness to the boardroom, with the help of making a few mob connections on the way.

Now that he’s stronger than ever, and he’s found an ancient Greek gate which he’s brought to his penthouse suite, he’s decided to go back, and use his newfound knowledge of modernity, including his experience managing the slick logistics of the major corporation he is the vice president of, to teach those who destroyed the demon army and banished him a lesson... through the efficient application of violence.

Twist: After the portal reopens in the second season, he begins to exploit cross-dimensional trade for his advantage so as to become the master of both worlds, but despite the magic, he is arrested by the U.S. federal government on suspicion of trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.  He dies after the mob decide he might reveal too much information on them while in government custody, as the agents who closed in during the late second season begin to unravel the true story behind his empire.

Bountiful World (Anime)

An ordinary student at the magic high school of Montbard in the realm of Elysee is pulled into a strange, ultra-modern world seemingly without magic after being hit by a speeding carriage.  There, he uses his expertise in the magic-enhanced games of his world (and probability-analyzing magic) to become a champion of board and other games in the greater Osaka area.

His mastery reaches such a level as he begins to grasp the more fundamental abstractions on which the rules of the games are based, because in his world, no one had reason to use this kind of magic so deeply and so frequently, and he is recruited by the government in order to resolve business and then political situations.

Twist: He comes to the terrifying realization that life itself is a game that the gods play against each other, and even with all his power, he is just another piece on their gameboard.  On the verge of going mad from this revelation, he considers throwing himself into the harbor, only to realize that this, itself, would be just another move on the gameboard.

The Blackhand Army (Anime adaptation of web novel, Political Drama)

An entire army of orcs, complete with much of its command structure, just straight-up appears one day in the Yunnan province of southern China, without explanation, and leaving the orcs just as startled and surprised as the humans.  A tense political situation results, as internal political factions in China and the neighboring countries argue about whether to capture the orcs (the only source of magic in the world), or destroy them, or attempt to convert them, with different countries - and different battalions of orcs - making different claims.

Twist: When the actual intended leader of the orcs, a very powerful wizard, finally arrives, many of the orc armies have already sided with a human country, fled the area, or are fighting with the Orc Liberation Front to establish an orc territory, and don’t end up obeying him.  His magic still represents a grave threat, however, and the human countries team up to destroy him with their military power, providing a happy ending.  Kind of, anyway.

[fitnesshealthyoga-blog]

New Post has been published on https://fitnesshealthyoga.com/how-to-channel-durga-during-challenging-times/

How to Channel Durga During Challenging Times

The warrior goddess Durga can help you find the leader within. Here’s how to call on her when you need to feel empowered.

Monica Moreno Art

Five years ago, Lynda opened a yoga studio in an inner-city neighborhood in a big east-coast city. A recovering alcoholic, Lynda saw the studio as her public service, a way to reach out to other young women who might otherwise lead troubled lives. She used donations as well as money from her sessions with private clients to pay the rent, and she advertised free yoga classes for high school girls. Slowly her classes filled up, often with girls who had no place to go in the afternoon after school. 

Thanks for watching!Visit Website

Teaching these vulnerable, skeptical, wounded young women was challenging for Lynda. One night, after a particularly tough day, she dreamed of a beautiful woman mounted on a huge roaring lion. When she awoke, she realized that the image she had seen was reminiscent of Durga, the warrior goddess of Indian mythology. That day, guiding an especially restless group of girls into the Warrior sequence, she began to tell them about Durga. The girls were entranced. One of them asked Lynda to download a picture of Durga from the Internet for her. “I want to make a T-shirt,” she said. “That lady is my hero.”

Thanks for watching!Visit Website

Thanks for watching!Visit Website

“When she said that,” Lynda told me, “I realized that it was true for me, too. The image of Durga has been showing up in my dreams ever since. She’s the image I carry with me when I have to deal with my landlord or handle one of those girls when she’s disrupting the class. In some way, the image of Durga has become a symbol of the strength I need to keep this thing going.”

Lynda is not the only yogi I know who identifies with Durga. The image of this goddess riding her lion, her eight arms holding weapons and flowers, might be the avatar for empowerment and protection, especially for women. Those of us who juggle families, jobs, and yoga; who step up to support the environment; or who travel to storm-torn cities to help build housing for displaced families are living out a contemporary version of the legend of Durga. And for men as well as women, meditation on Durga can bring forth warrior-like strength and protective compassion. When you bring her image into your inner world, she can empower your most radical aspirations and guide you through your most conflict-ridden life dramas. More than that, Durga embodies the inner power to transform yourself—to let go of addictions, obstacles, and the illusions and fears that hold you back.

See also 5 Yoga Teachers Who Overcame Addiction

Bring Goddess Power Into Your Meditation Practice with Durga

You may wonder why, as a contemporary yogi, you’d find it worthwhile to invite the energy of mythic beings into your meditation practice. The short answer is that these archetypal energies are catalysts. Meditating on deities such as Durga, Hanuman, Shiva, and Lakshmi can call forth specific powers and qualities within you. These sacred powers come to you from beyond your limited ego and can help you meet challenges, open your heart, and transcend the ordinary. For centuries, the Indian and Tibetan Tantric traditions have taught meditations and mantras for bringing deity energy into the body and mind. Goddesses are especially potent, since they personify shakti, the subtle feminine force that enlivens the world, often considered the power behind spiritual growth. So practicing with the stories and mantras of one of these sacred figures can literally invite transformative energies into your life.

The images of these goddesses can serve as keys to unlocking your own inner potency. That’s because, though mythic, they are not just figments of human imagination. Goddess images represent real forces present in the universe. Their forms are extremely subtle, which is why they’re not normally apparent. Through the tales, meditations, and mantras associated with them, you can learn to sense their presence. The more you connect to them, the more palpably you can experience their inner gifts and blessings.

Just as Lakshmi is the shakti, or goddess, you call on for abundance, so Durga is the shakti you call on for strength, protection, and transformation. Worshipped by the ruling families of Rajasthan for help in battle, Durga is much more than a warrior goddess. She is also the power behind spiritual awakening, the inner force that unleashes spiritual power within the human body in the form of kundalini. And she is a guardian: beautiful, queenly, and motherly.

See also A 90-Minute Yoga Playlist to Awaken Your Inner Warrior

Durga carries a spear, a mace, a discus, a bow, and a sword—as well as a conch (symbolizing creative sound), a lotus (representing fertility), and a rosary (symbolizing prayer). In one version of her origin, she arises from the combined strength of the male gods to fight the buffalo demon Mahisha. The assembled gods, furious because they are powerless over this demon, send forth their anger as a mass of light and power. It coalesces into the form of a radiantly beautiful woman who fills every direction with her light. Her face was formed out of the light of Shiva; her hair came from Yama, the god of death; Vishnu, the sustainer, gave her arms. Shiva gave her his trident, Vishnu his discus; Vayu—the wind god—offered his bow and arrow. The mountain god, Himalaya, gave her a lion for her mount. Durga sets forth to battle the demon for the sake of the world, armed with all the powers of the divine masculine.

And ever since, she has been the deity to call on when you’re in deep trouble. In the Devi Mahatmyam (Triumph of the Goddess), a medieval song cycle about Durga that is still recited all over India, she promises that she will always appear when we need her to protect our world. She invites us to turn to her in crisis and promises to move mountains to rescue us from every form of evil—including the evil we, ourselves, create!

Learn how to tap into your inner strength with Durga.

Durga Slaying demons

In fact, in the tales of Durga, the demons she battles are not just external bad guys. They also represent the inner obstructive forces we face in our journey to enlightenment and self-actualization. So, as you read her story, think of it not just as a superhero saga but also as a parable about the process of inner work. Consider that it is showing you how to dissolve the negative energies of fear, greed, and anger so that you can stand in your essential strength and beauty. Your inner battle may not be as dramatic as this one. But it’s going on, nonetheless!

Shumbha and Nishumbha are brilliant demon brothers with magical superpowers. They’ve practiced hard austerities in order to earn a boon, or benefit, from their cosmic grandfather, Brahma. The boon makes them unconquerable by men or gods, but Brahma has been careful to word the boon so that it contains a loophole: It says nothing about a goddess.

The demon brothers are soon masters of the universe. They eject the gods from the celestial regions and enslave the inhabitants of the earth. The gods are reduced to hiding in caves, plotting revenge. But finally, a sage reveals to them that the demons have a weakness. 

Though Shumbha and Nishumbha can’t be conquered by anyone male, they might be vulnerable to a female warrior. So the gods travel to the mountain where Durga has her hidden dwelling to ask her for help.

See also Oh My Goddess: Invoking Your Inner Feminine Energy

As they call out to her with prayers and hymns of praise, Durga appears out of the clouds, clothed in robes whose colors shift and slip, revealing and concealing the beauty of her breasts and the curve of her belly. An erotic perfume surrounds her. She rides a lion.

In a voice like soft thunder rumbling through mountains, she agrees to intervene and restore the balance. The goddess has no sooner spoken than she has transported herself to the demon kings’ garden. Flowers drip from her fingers, and clouds form and dissolve in her hair. She is beauty personified, allurement clothed in form, enchantment itself. Within moments, the demon kings have come to their windows to look at her. They are connoisseurs of feminine beauty. Of course, they want her in their harem.

But when the palace major-domo brings the demons’ proposal to Durga, she smiles. “There is just one difficulty,” she explains. “In my girlhood, I took a silly vow that I would only marry a man strong enough to defeat me in battle. You know how girls are—full of fantasy and romantic notions. But a vow is a vow. If your masters really want me, they’ll have to fight with me.”

“Lady, you are either mad or suicidal,” says the major-domo. “No one has ever defeated my masters.”

“Nonetheless, that is my condition,” says Durga, giving him such a languorous glance that he feels stirrings of lust in every part of his body. “And if your masters are afraid to do battle, I am happy to take on their army.”

Which she does. In an intense battle, the goddess defeats battalion after battalion. At one point, a host of goddesses emerge from her body, including the fearsome Kali. Together, the goddesses destroy the entire demon army, leaving only the brothers. Shumbha advances upon Durga.

“You said that you would fight my army single-handed,” shouts Shumbha in a voice so loud it shakes the nearby hills to powder. “But you had helpers. Your challenge is forfeit.”

“Not so,” roars the goddess, vibrating the sky with celestial thunder. “These goddesses are parts of me.” The other goddesses melt back into her form, leaving just Durga, shining with an almost blinding light.

The goddess’s eight-armed form swells until it fills the sky. Twirling her great sword like a baton in one hand and her axes, maces, spears, and crossbows in the others, she flies through the air and slays the demon kings.

“Ma,” says Shumbha with his dying breath, and then a smile comes over his face as the ecstasy of the goddess fills his being. In that instant, both demons are transfigured, dissolving into Durga’s body and dying into the mystery. When the ego dissolves, even the most demonic soul comes home, back to the heart of the mother. Durga returns to her mountain home, promising to return when there is need for her help.

See also The Goddess Every Vinyasa Flow Fan Must Know

How to use Durga to let go of ego

This tale makes sense on several levels. From the point of view of the environment, it’s a story about the unstoppable power of nature. From another perspective, it assures us that higher powers will protect us when we take refuge in them. But on the esoteric level, the Durga story is about the transformation of the ego. The mighty battle between Durga and the demons is the inner struggle that invariably begins when we undertake real transformative practice.

Like those demon kings, the ego enters into spiritual practice with its own secret agenda. Egos seek control—control over circumstances, control over the body, and control over the people around us. Power and mastery are what matter to the ego. So, naturally, the ego will resist surrendering to higher powers, letting go of its agendas, or giving up control on any level. But shakti has a different agenda. She wants to move us away from egocentric consciousness and recognize our fundamental oneness with one another and the cosmos. To do this, she must put the ego in its place and ultimately dissolve it. The ego, however, will fight her to the death.

The demons personify the more primitive and intransigent forces of ego. They are the parts of us that unabashedly crave power over others. The demonic part of the self sees everything and everyone, including the higher powers of the universe, as tools that serve the ego’s personal agendas. The gods, as we’ve mentioned, also represent aspects of the self, but they represent the authentic Self, the unique personal qualities of essence. The devas represent our love, our dedication, our good intentions, and the forgiveness and compassion we display when we’re aligned with the higher Self. Durga arrives in our inner world to strengthen those higher qualities, whether for the sake of accomplishing good in the world or for progress on the spiritual path.

As postmodern practitioners, we usually prefer to take a gentler attitude toward our dark side. Most of us long ago rejected authoritarian religion, with its talk of sin and insistence on eliminating the darker forces within us.

If we are practitioners of a path that emphasizes our innate goodness, we might prefer to ignore the negative qualities in the self on the principle that fighting the ego only strengthens it. If we’re psychodynamically oriented, we might be interested in bringing our shadow qualities into the light so we can integrate the power tied up in anger or greed or pride. If we are walking a nondual path, we may feel that all struggle has to be given up, since everything is ultimately one.

See also Slow Flow: Learn to Live from Love with a Brahma Vihara

All these approaches are useful, some on the level of personality, others as part of the practice for enlightenment. But there are moments when the only way to put our narcissism in its place is with a sword—the sword of wisdom wielded by a warrior who takes no prisoners. This is Durga’s role, whether she is operating in the outer world or the inner world.

In my life, the energy of the warrior goddess with her upraised sword shows up to remind me to get my striving, performance-oriented ego out of the way so that the deeper power can unfold my life according to her evolutionary imperative. Durga, in my inner world, is the unstoppable energy of spiritual growth. When I resist that, I often encounter an unexpected setback. She might get in my face as a kind of cosmic “No!” to my personal agendas—and then manifest as the deeper awakening that follows when I am able to let them go.

Over the years, I’ve been through this cycle often. At times, egoic illusions grow bigger, pile up, and take over my world—until, like a river in springtime, they become so swollen that they must come bursting forth. Then, nearly always, I hear the roar of the goddess’s lion sounding through my dreams.

Perhaps Durga shows up to guide me through an impasse. Maybe I’ll make some horrific mistake, and she’ll appear to help me navigate the consequences. More and more, I’ve learned in those moments to bow to her in order to spare myself the pain that comes from resistance to the shakti’s agenda for my growth.

Whenever you feel yourself caught in one of those moments—when your personal will seems blocked by immovable obstacles—consider that it might be a signal from the shakti. Then, try sitting for a few minutes in meditation and using your imagination to bring yourself into the presence of Durga.

Connect with the goddess Durga through breath work and meditation.

Finding Your Ferocity with Durga

One of the most powerful practices for connecting with the goddess is to imagine that with each inhalation, you draw in her loving, protecting, empowering energy, and with each exhalation you breathe her energy through your body. As in so much yoga practice, the breath is the bridge between our physical self and the subtle energies of the invisible worlds. When you invoke Durga, you may very well feel her as a heightened energy. But connecting to Durga’s energy is just as likely to result in a subtle feeling of greater insight, in a feeling of being supported with strength to carry on during a hard time, or in the strategic instinct that helps you win your battles. This can happen so subtly that it’s only in hindsight that you realize you were being supported. And this can happen in surprising ways.

Sasha, a lawyer and the mother of two girls, first discovered the Durga shakti when her daughter Lee began failing in school. It turned out that Sasha’s husband, Lee’s father, was engaging his daughter sexually. Sasha vowed that, whatever it took, she would protect her daughters. She filed for divorce, insisting that her husband not be allowed unsupervised visits with their girls. He fought hard for joint custody, deploying a high-powered legal team. (Though a lawyer herself, Sasha’s field is wills and trusts, and she had never litigated.)

In the midst of this, Sasha took a class I was teaching on the goddesses. She felt an immediate affinity for Durga and created a meditation in which she imagined Durga’s strength inside her own body. She would visualize each of Durga’s eight arms holding a particular power. In one hand, she imagined the power to use words skillfully. In another, the power to read financial statements with care. In another, the skill to face down her husband’s lawyers. She imagined all of Durga’s weapons as energies empowering her to protect her two daughters.

See also Goddess Yoga Project: Defeat Fear With Sword Breath

She won the case and, soon afterward, realized that an enormous weight had been lifted from Lee. The fact that Sasha had fought on her daughter’s behalf seemed to give the teenager a sense of purpose and a new understanding of her own feminine strength.

Like Sasha, any one of us can tune into our personal Durga strength by invoking the goddess’s energy and wisdom. As you do, you’ll likely discover your personal capacity for warrior-style leadership. Anyone in touch with her inner Durga will naturally create zones of protection around the people in her life. (Durga is also an effortless multitasker, like a mother who manages three children while cooking a five-course meal—or an executive running a team of diverse employees.)

The Durga woman makes space for people to flourish, fighting their battles when needed—as Sasha did for her daughters—but she is just as likely to push them into fighting for themselves.

Answer Durga’s Call to Lead

One way to feel a sense of the Durga shakti is to remember a moment when you recognized, from the deepest place inside you, that something was wrong, that it had to change. If that recognition comes from the Durga shakti, it goes beyond mere frustration or cognitive awareness of a social problem. Durga’s transformative power carries a conviction that comes from deep inside the body, and with it often comes a sense of “Now!”—meaning the time is now. When that sense is strong enough, it is followed by action. You will put your body and your speech on the line to change the situation, whether it’s internal or external.

One of my Durga friends in Los Angeles noticed that her son’s asthma was activated when local crops were being sprayed for pests. She organized a group of mothers to protest aerial spraying in her area, and after several years, the group not only had it banned in Los Angeles, but also had the pesticide removed from circulation entirely. Now, along with her day job as a psychotherapist, she runs an environmental group focused on lobbying against airborne pesticides.

The same power of purposeful action can be invoked when you need the will to change a deep-seated habit or addiction, to carve out time for practice, or to follow an inner calling. The Durga shakti can give you the power to face parts of yourself that stand in the way of your evolution, but she can also show you how to speak up for yourself when you need to ask for a raise, face a challenge, or take on a difficult responsibility—in short, to set things right.

The more you invite Durga’s energy into your life, the more you’ll feel her opening you to your inner warrior. Her power guards your highest aspirations, and she promises never to let you down.

See also 5 Ways to Tap Into Your Inner Leader (and Stay True to Yourself)

About the Author Sally Kempton is an internationally recognized teacher of meditation and yoga philosophy and the author of Meditation for the Love of It. Find her at sallykempton.com.

This piece originally appeared in the June 2013 issue of Yoga Journal and is adapted from Sally Kempton’s book, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga (Sounds True, 2013).

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function() n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments) ;if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); (function() fbq('init', '1397247997268188'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); var contentId = 'ci023abcb13000262e'; if (contentId !== '') fbq('track', 'ViewContent', content_ids: [contentId], content_type: 'product'); )();

Source link

[categorically-patheic]

Fic: Hero Syndrome, Pt .1 Ch. 1

Oh my god! Piper’s writing a fanfiction?! Apparently!

Mass Effect/Dragon Age crossover (think a mash up of both stories). A bunch of stuff changed from each canon to make it cohesive. Shakarian is the main ship but not the focus of the story.

Part 1: Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

"Well, what about Shepard? City elf from the Anderfels... but no record of her family, no paper trail from an orphanage." The nasally, dour tone of Ambassador Udina's voice bounces around the walls of the spacious, empty chantry. Cobwebs brandishing the timeworn wooden beams wobble from the disturbance in the still air; rays of honeyed sunlight gleam blazingly through opulent stained glass, bathing the warm interior in hues of green, blue, and red. Milky candles, oil portraits of the blessed Andranste, and worn copies of the Chant of Light lay scattered along the walls, having been pushed aside to make room for cots on which armies of men would sleep each night.

Three hoary and distinguished men sit along the circumference of a small round table in a cramped room built to the side of the chancel; a former storage closet, the confine now served as the war room for the esteemed, highest-ranking members of the Grey Wardens.

"Doesn't have one. Was raised on the streets of the alienage," High Constable Anderson explains casually.  "Learned to look out for herself." He reclines back against the unrelenting wooden chair, putting his elbows on the table and leaning his joined hands forward to emphasize his words.

"She proved herself at the Blitz. Held off enemy forces on the ground until reinforcements arrived." First Warden Hackett, leader of all Grey Wardens, puts forward his vote of confidence into the dialogue. No soldier who'd pull something so audacious and self-sacrificing as that would be a bad choice, elven mage or not. He sits up, straightens his posture as he refocuses onto the conversation. "She's the only reason Elysium is still standing," Anderson elaborates with a subtle layer of reverence; he'd been awfully impressed with her actions himself, if not a little proud. He'd watched her closely through her training and as she climbed the ranks of the order. He knew she'd only enlisted because she had nowhere else to go, but Shepard applied every trace of resolution she had in her into each instruction, each drill they threw at her. There was something passionate and white-hot within her, and he'd been glad to be taking part in drawing it out.

"We can't question her courage," Udina says in a manner that broadcasts his apprehension blatantly.

"The grey wardens need a hero. And Shepard's the best we've got."

Udina shifts his gaze to Anderson and hesitates in thought, before turning his head and looking to Hackett with deferential eyes, "I'll send the letter."

///

Juniper Shepard stares down at the piece of paper for minutes on end, wringing it in her petite fingers until the edges crumble to ensure that it's tangible and not just a figment of her imagination. Pulling herself from reverie,  she haphazardly folds the letter and tucks it into the pack hanging by her side. She turns from the mailbox to look out at the troops training, fields of soldiers male and female, mage and warrior, elven and human sparring together as equals. Well, we'll see how equal everyone is when they hear their new Commander of the Grey is a knife-ear magic user.

And yet the grim thought barely brushes her mind. All she can feel is an elated swell of pride and hope. She'd  worked herself to the absolute limit for this, tirelessly putting her mind and body through constant strain to not only become accustomed to the brutal and unforgiving nature of clamoring against darkspawn, but to hone her magical and leadership skills as well.  Her smile is ample and sunny, a wet sheen to her eyes as she stands atop the grassy overhang in front of the Ostagar chantry, peering down upon the men working their muscles on the battlefield (her men). To think that all that hard work finally paid off --

Before letting herself got lost in another daydream, Shepard hikes the pack higher on her shoulder, readjusts the cloth of her robes bunching around her waist, and begins strolling through the staging ground. Her eyes drift from merchant to quartermaster, observing their work ethic and absorbing the morose mood that seeped from the faces and words of each craftsperson and hired sword.

She meanders thoughtlessly through the sea of recruits and laborers, taking every second to soak up the sights and smells of Ferelden. Her feet, too used to this particular trek to award her any additional leisure, lead her to the war table. As expected, her charge King Nihilus stands hunched over a map of the country, confidently squared shoulders begin hitching up in frustration as the man next to him arrogantly nags at the side of his head. Nihilus takes a small, grey figure in the shape of a soldier and places it at the edge of an oblong green splotch meant to represent the Kocari Wilds, all the while snidely justifying his support of Orlais to the petulant veteran at his right.

As she approaches the two, the monarch's voice becomes clearer. "We have no reason to fear the Orlesians anymore; your paranoia will only get these men killed. Don't forget who's in charge here, Teyrn Arterius."  The sun bares down swelteringly onto the grounds, causing sweat to roll down his chiseled, dark face; the white hair beneath his gilded crown sits clammy against his scalp and neck. Surly from the humid weather and his subordinate's overt disrespect, the king's intense green eyes narrow as they cast a sidelong glare at Saren, his body still stooped and parallel to the table.

"I'm just glad your father didn't live to see his only son handing over Ferelden to those who enslaved us for a century," the lieutenant retorted haughtily. The comment was unnecessarily cruel, especially when considering how good of friends the two had been when training to become templars alongside one another in the Denerim chantry, Nihilus' father watching from atop the throne in pride.

If mentioning the topic of his deceased father had bothered him in the slightest, the king didn't let it rise to the surface. Cooly, he responded to the affront by saying, "Then our forces will just have to suffice. First Warden Hackett promised us that a new Warden-Commander would be arriving today --"

Taking her cue, Shepard interrupts the king (for not the first time in her life) to interject, "Actually, Ser, that Warden-Commander would be me."  She does her best to exude confidence when she traipses to the war table and hands Nihilus the letter. He turns slowly around, head cocked in interest. Frowning down at her in confusion and annoyance as he takes the note in hand, he scrutinizes Shepard with a sharp look like he's expecting it be a prank (again, not really a first time thing for her).

His eyes scan across the message, and his brow raises higher the more he reads. He tilts the paper down slightly when he's finished; a smirk ghosts on his lips as his gaze darts upwards from the page to stare back into her hopeful, dark eyes.

"Well, Shepard, it seems congratulations are in order. Can you get your men ready in a few days' time?" He asks the question like it's a formality, as if he already knows the answer.

She grins knowingly up at him and the horrified templar to his side. The hands at her hips cock into place as her arms fold at ninety-degree angles behind her back, her weight shifts back onto her spine from her right leg and her feet come together in a militaristic display. She replies, "Of course, your Highness." She keeps it short and sweet, understanding that her king is trying to make a point to the slag-faced teyrn. She'd always hated that bastard. Shepard may not always get along with Nihilus, his pompous overconfidence, nor his borderline naivety in the face of battle, but she hates Saren. Seeing him getting a taste of his own medicine was the cherry on top of the perfect proceedings thus far.

The knotted muscles in his body unbind as the tension from the previous argument is broken by their mirthful exchange, "Fantastic news, Commander. Every Grey Warden is needed now more than ever."

Disdain plasters itself across the indignant, pale face of Saren. His cheeks slightly gaunt and eyes a piercing cerulean,  the expression he wears in reaction to the news is drenched in disgust. "Could we focus on the task at hand, or are you going to continue to waste your time with this diplomatic sh- nonsense? You're king, you appoint a Warden-Commander. This... apprentice can't be fit for something so critical." His voice reverberates with judgment and pretension.

"I put my faith in the Grey Wardens. Are you questioning my judgment," the king brusquely rumbles. "Maybe you've forgotten your place." His rough tone and tense posture suggest a challenge, one that all three of them know the Freeman won't take him up on, at least not in front of the entire Ferelden chapter.

The Gwaren teyrn scoffs and waves a gloved hand through the air in a dismissive gesture. "Not at all, Nihilus. But you shouldn't --"

"Then save it, Saren. If you have a strategy, let's hear it." He finishes the sentence with a hanging intonation; he wants to say more, but he knows it'd just cause controversy if he chewed out an official with such a high standing among the population so soon after being crowned.

He continued speaking without giving Saren so much as a chance, "The Grey Wardens distract the darkspawn into charging our lines. I utilize the chaos to sneak behind their numbers and set a bomb in the heart of their base. And then...?" He trails off awkwardly, shifting on his feet and looking back to the templar at his side in an offer of compromise.

The ass-kissing Saren takes it, of course. "You'll alert the tower to light the beacon, signaling my men to charge from cover."

"Yeah, to flank the darkspawn. I remember now. Who'll light the thing?"

"I have a few soldiers stationed there. It's not such a dangerous job, but it's very important."

"Then we should send our best. Shepard, you and your two sidekicks, uhh-- Alenko and Williams, was it? Take them to light the beacon." The king stands up straight, spine completely vertical, and looks to her with an observant expression.

"You're relying on these 'Grey Wardens' a lot, Kryik. Do really think this is a good idea?" The teyrn crosses his arms in provocation and rearranges his stance.

"Enough with the conspiracy theories, Arterius. Grey Wardens battle the Blight, it's what they do, regardless where they're from."

"Shouldn't we consider the possibility of the archdemon showing up," Shepard postulates. Her arms fold themselves beneath her breasts, one up in the air swirling to simulate the flight path of said beast. She does her best to mask the anxious burn in her chest when the realization of how real all of this is sets in.  

"There haven't been any signs of dragons in the woods, Commander. Though, you're welcome to check yourself." Indignant as ever, the decorated lieutenant smirks in her direction, brow arched.

"Isn't that why you're here at all, Shepard?" The king grills her, and by the Maker, it makes her nervous.

"I, um... Yes, your majesty." She admits to what feels like a defeat. Shepard might actually be a little in over her head. Only a little.

[cedarrrun]

This legendary goddess can help empower your aspirations and call forth the leader within.

The warrior goddess Durga can help you find the leader within. Here's how to call on her when you need to feel empowered.

Five years ago, Lynda opened a yoga studio in an inner-city neighborhood in a big east-coast city. A recovering alcoholic, Lynda saw the studio as her public service, a way to reach out to other young women who might otherwise lead troubled lives. She used donations as well as money from her sessions with private clients to pay the rent, and she advertised free yoga classes for high school girls. Slowly her classes filled up, often with girls who had no place to go in the afternoon after school. 

Teaching these vulnerable, skeptical, wounded young women was challenging for Lynda. One night, after a particularly tough day, she dreamed of a beautiful woman mounted on a huge roaring lion. When she awoke, she realized that the image she had seen was reminiscent of Durga, the warrior goddess of Indian mythology. That day, guiding an especially restless group of girls into the Warrior sequence, she began to tell them about Durga. The girls were entranced. One of them asked Lynda to download a picture of Durga from the Internet for her. “I want to make a T-shirt,” she said. “That lady is my hero.”

“When she said that,” Lynda told me, “I realized that it was true for me, too. The image of Durga has been showing up in my dreams ever since. She’s the image I carry with me when I have to deal with my landlord or handle one of those girls when she’s disrupting the class. In some way, the image of Durga has become a symbol of the strength I need to keep this thing going.”

Lynda is not the only yogi I know who identifies with Durga. The image of this goddess riding her lion, her eight arms holding weapons and flowers, might be the avatar for empowerment and protection, especially for women. Those of us who juggle families, jobs, and yoga; who step up to support the environment; or who travel to storm-torn cities to help build housing for displaced families are living out a contemporary version of the legend of Durga. And for men as well as women, meditation on Durga can bring forth warrior-like strength and protective compassion. When you bring her image into your inner world, she can empower your most radical aspirations and guide you through your most conflict-ridden life dramas. More than that, Durga embodies the inner power to transform yourself—to let go of addictions, obstacles, and the illusions and fears that hold you back.

See also 5 Yoga Teachers Who Overcame Addiction

Bring Goddess Power Into Your Meditation Practice with Durga

You may wonder why, as a contemporary yogi, you’d find it worthwhile to invite the energy of mythic beings into your meditation practice. The short answer is that these archetypal energies are catalysts. Meditating on deities such as Durga, Hanuman, Shiva, and Lakshmi can call forth specific powers and qualities within you. These sacred powers come to you from beyond your limited ego and can help you meet challenges, open your heart, and transcend the ordinary. For centuries, the Indian and Tibetan Tantric traditions have taught meditations and mantras for bringing deity energy into the body and mind. Goddesses are especially potent, since they personify shakti, the subtle feminine force that enlivens the world, often considered the power behind spiritual growth. So practicing with the stories and mantras of one of these sacred figures can literally invite transformative energies into your life.

The images of these goddesses can serve as keys to unlocking your own inner potency. That’s because, though mythic, they are not just figments of human imagination. Goddess images represent real forces present in the universe. Their forms are extremely subtle, which is why they’re not normally apparent. Through the tales, meditations, and mantras associated with them, you can learn to sense their presence. The more you connect to them, the more palpably you can experience their inner gifts and blessings.

Just as Lakshmi is the shakti, or goddess, you call on for abundance, so Durga is the shakti you call on for strength, protection, and transformation. Worshipped by the ruling families of Rajasthan for help in battle, Durga is much more than a warrior goddess. She is also the power behind spiritual awakening, the inner force that unleashes spiritual power within the human body in the form of kundalini. And she is a guardian: beautiful, queenly, and motherly.

See also A 90-Minute Yoga Playlist to Awaken Your Inner Warrior

Durga carries a spear, a mace, a discus, a bow, and a sword—as well as a conch (symbolizing creative sound), a lotus (representing fertility), and a rosary (symbolizing prayer). In one version of her origin, she arises from the combined strength of the male gods to fight the buffalo demon Mahisha. The assembled gods, furious because they are powerless over this demon, send forth their anger as a mass of light and power. It coalesces into the form of a radiantly beautiful woman who fills every direction with her light. Her face was formed out of the light of Shiva; her hair came from Yama, the god of death; Vishnu, the sustainer, gave her arms. Shiva gave her his trident, Vishnu his discus; Vayu—the wind god—offered his bow and arrow. The mountain god, Himalaya, gave her a lion for her mount. Durga sets forth to battle the demon for the sake of the world, armed with all the powers of the divine masculine.

And ever since, she has been the deity to call on when you’re in deep trouble. In the Devi Mahatmyam (Triumph of the Goddess), a medieval song cycle about Durga that is still recited all over India, she promises that she will always appear when we need her to protect our world. She invites us to turn to her in crisis and promises to move mountains to rescue us from every form of evil—including the evil we, ourselves, create!

Learn how to tap into your inner strength with Durga.

Durga Slaying demons

In fact, in the tales of Durga, the demons she battles are not just external bad guys. They also represent the inner obstructive forces we face in our journey to enlightenment and self-actualization. So, as you read her story, think of it not just as a superhero saga but also as a parable about the process of inner work. Consider that it is showing you how to dissolve the negative energies of fear, greed, and anger so that you can stand in your essential strength and beauty. Your inner battle may not be as dramatic as this one. But it’s going on, nonetheless!

Shumbha and Nishumbha are brilliant demon brothers with magical superpowers. They’ve practiced hard austerities in order to earn a boon, or benefit, from their cosmic grandfather, Brahma. The boon makes them unconquerable by men or gods, but Brahma has been careful to word the boon so that it contains a loophole: It says nothing about a goddess.

The demon brothers are soon masters of the universe. They eject the gods from the celestial regions and enslave the inhabitants of the earth. The gods are reduced to hiding in caves, plotting revenge. But finally, a sage reveals to them that the demons have a weakness. 

Though Shumbha and Nishumbha can’t be conquered by anyone male, they might be vulnerable to a female warrior. So the gods travel to the mountain where Durga has her hidden dwelling to ask her for help.

See also Oh My Goddess: Invoking Your Inner Feminine Energy

As they call out to her with prayers and hymns of praise, Durga appears out of the clouds, clothed in robes whose colors shift and slip, revealing and concealing the beauty of her breasts and the curve of her belly. An erotic perfume surrounds her. She rides a lion.

In a voice like soft thunder rumbling through mountains, she agrees to intervene and restore the balance. The goddess has no sooner spoken than she has transported herself to the demon kings’ garden. Flowers drip from her fingers, and clouds form and dissolve in her hair. She is beauty personified, allurement clothed in form, enchantment itself. Within moments, the demon kings have come to their windows to look at her. They are connoisseurs of feminine beauty. Of course, they want her in their harem.

But when the palace major-domo brings the demons’ proposal to Durga, she smiles. “There is just one difficulty,” she explains. “In my girlhood, I took a silly vow that I would only marry a man strong enough to defeat me in battle. You know how girls are—full of fantasy and romantic notions. But a vow is a vow. If your masters really want me, they’ll have to fight with me.”

“Lady, you are either mad or suicidal,” says the major-domo. “No one has ever defeated my masters.”

“Nonetheless, that is my condition,” says Durga, giving him such a languorous glance that he feels stirrings of lust in every part of his body. “And if your masters are afraid to do battle, I am happy to take on their army.”

Which she does. In an intense battle, the goddess defeats battalion after battalion. At one point, a host of goddesses emerge from her body, including the fearsome Kali. Together, the goddesses destroy the entire demon army, leaving only the brothers. Shumbha advances upon Durga.

“You said that you would fight my army single-handed,” shouts Shumbha in a voice so loud it shakes the nearby hills to powder. “But you had helpers. Your challenge is forfeit.”

“Not so,” roars the goddess, vibrating the sky with celestial thunder. “These goddesses are parts of me.” The other goddesses melt back into her form, leaving just Durga, shining with an almost blinding light.

The goddess’s eight-armed form swells until it fills the sky. Twirling her great sword like a baton in one hand and her axes, maces, spears, and crossbows in the others, she flies through the air and slays the demon kings.

“Ma,” says Shumbha with his dying breath, and then a smile comes over his face as the ecstasy of the goddess fills his being. In that instant, both demons are transfigured, dissolving into Durga’s body and dying into the mystery. When the ego dissolves, even the most demonic soul comes home, back to the heart of the mother. Durga returns to her mountain home, promising to return when there is need for her help.

See also The Goddess Every Vinyasa Flow Fan Must Know

How to use Durga to let go of ego

This tale makes sense on several levels. From the point of view of the environment, it’s a story about the unstoppable power of nature. From another perspective, it assures us that higher powers will protect us when we take refuge in them. But on the esoteric level, the Durga story is about the transformation of the ego. The mighty battle between Durga and the demons is the inner struggle that invariably begins when we undertake real transformative practice.

Like those demon kings, the ego enters into spiritual practice with its own secret agenda. Egos seek control—control over circumstances, control over the body, and control over the people around us. Power and mastery are what matter to the ego. So, naturally, the ego will resist surrendering to higher powers, letting go of its agendas, or giving up control on any level. But shakti has a different agenda. She wants to move us away from egocentric consciousness and recognize our fundamental oneness with one another and the cosmos. To do this, she must put the ego in its place and ultimately dissolve it. The ego, however, will fight her to the death.

The demons personify the more primitive and intransigent forces of ego. They are the parts of us that unabashedly crave power over others. The demonic part of the self sees everything and everyone, including the higher powers of the universe, as tools that serve the ego’s personal agendas. The gods, as we’ve mentioned, also represent aspects of the self, but they represent the authentic Self, the unique personal qualities of essence. The devas represent our love, our dedication, our good intentions, and the forgiveness and compassion we display when we’re aligned with the higher Self. Durga arrives in our inner world to strengthen those higher qualities, whether for the sake of accomplishing good in the world or for progress on the spiritual path.

As postmodern practitioners, we usually prefer to take a gentler attitude toward our dark side. Most of us long ago rejected authoritarian religion, with its talk of sin and insistence on eliminating the darker forces within us.

If we are practitioners of a path that emphasizes our innate goodness, we might prefer to ignore the negative qualities in the self on the principle that fighting the ego only strengthens it. If we’re psychodynamically oriented, we might be interested in bringing our shadow qualities into the light so we can integrate the power tied up in anger or greed or pride. If we are walking a nondual path, we may feel that all struggle has to be given up, since everything is ultimately one.

See also Slow Flow: Learn to Live from Love with a Brahma Vihara

All these approaches are useful, some on the level of personality, others as part of the practice for enlightenment. But there are moments when the only way to put our narcissism in its place is with a sword—the sword of wisdom wielded by a warrior who takes no prisoners. This is Durga’s role, whether she is operating in the outer world or the inner world.

In my life, the energy of the warrior goddess with her upraised sword shows up to remind me to get my striving, performance-oriented ego out of the way so that the deeper power can unfold my life according to her evolutionary imperative. Durga, in my inner world, is the unstoppable energy of spiritual growth. When I resist that, I often encounter an unexpected setback. She might get in my face as a kind of cosmic “No!” to my personal agendas—and then manifest as the deeper awakening that follows when I am able to let them go.

Over the years, I’ve been through this cycle often. At times, egoic illusions grow bigger, pile up, and take over my world—until, like a river in springtime, they become so swollen that they must come bursting forth. Then, nearly always, I hear the roar of the goddess’s lion sounding through my dreams.

Perhaps Durga shows up to guide me through an impasse. Maybe I’ll make some horrific mistake, and she’ll appear to help me navigate the consequences. More and more, I’ve learned in those moments to bow to her in order to spare myself the pain that comes from resistance to the shakti’s agenda for my growth.

Whenever you feel yourself caught in one of those moments—when your personal will seems blocked by immovable obstacles—consider that it might be a signal from the shakti. Then, try sitting for a few minutes in meditation and using your imagination to bring yourself into the presence of Durga.

Connect with the goddess Durga through breath work and meditation.

Finding Your Ferocity with Durga

One of the most powerful practices for connecting with the goddess is to imagine that with each inhalation, you draw in her loving, protecting, empowering energy, and with each exhalation you breathe her energy through your body. As in so much yoga practice, the breath is the bridge between our physical self and the subtle energies of the invisible worlds. When you invoke Durga, you may very well feel her as a heightened energy. But connecting to Durga’s energy is just as likely to result in a subtle feeling of greater insight, in a feeling of being supported with strength to carry on during a hard time, or in the strategic instinct that helps you win your battles. This can happen so subtly that it’s only in hindsight that you realize you were being supported. And this can happen in surprising ways.

Sasha, a lawyer and the mother of two girls, first discovered the Durga shakti when her daughter Lee began failing in school. It turned out that Sasha’s husband, Lee’s father, was engaging his daughter sexually. Sasha vowed that, whatever it took, she would protect her daughters. She filed for divorce, insisting that her husband not be allowed unsupervised visits with their girls. He fought hard for joint custody, deploying a high-powered legal team. (Though a lawyer herself, Sasha’s field is wills and trusts, and she had never litigated.)

In the midst of this, Sasha took a class I was teaching on the goddesses. She felt an immediate affinity for Durga and created a meditation in which she imagined Durga’s strength inside her own body. She would visualize each of Durga’s eight arms holding a particular power. In one hand, she imagined the power to use words skillfully. In another, the power to read financial statements with care. In another, the skill to face down her husband’s lawyers. She imagined all of Durga’s weapons as energies empowering her to protect her two daughters.

See also Goddess Yoga Project: Defeat Fear With Sword Breath

She won the case and, soon afterward, realized that an enormous weight had been lifted from Lee. The fact that Sasha had fought on her daughter’s behalf seemed to give the teenager a sense of purpose and a new understanding of her own feminine strength.

Like Sasha, any one of us can tune into our personal Durga strength by invoking the goddess’s energy and wisdom. As you do, you’ll likely discover your personal capacity for warrior-style leadership. Anyone in touch with her inner Durga will naturally create zones of protection around the people in her life. (Durga is also an effortless multitasker, like a mother who manages three children while cooking a five-course meal—or an executive running a team of diverse employees.)

The Durga woman makes space for people to flourish, fighting their battles when needed—as Sasha did for her daughters—but she is just as likely to push them into fighting for themselves.

Answer Durga's Call to Lead

One way to feel a sense of the Durga shakti is to remember a moment when you recognized, from the deepest place inside you, that something was wrong, that it had to change. If that recognition comes from the Durga shakti, it goes beyond mere frustration or cognitive awareness of a social problem. Durga’s transformative power carries a conviction that comes from deep inside the body, and with it often comes a sense of “Now!”—meaning the time is now. When that sense is strong enough, it is followed by action. You will put your body and your speech on the line to change the situation, whether it’s internal or external.

One of my Durga friends in Los Angeles noticed that her son’s asthma was activated when local crops were being sprayed for pests. She organized a group of mothers to protest aerial spraying in her area, and after several years, the group not only had it banned in Los Angeles, but also had the pesticide removed from circulation entirely. Now, along with her day job as a psychotherapist, she runs an environmental group focused on lobbying against airborne pesticides.

The same power of purposeful action can be invoked when you need the will to change a deep-seated habit or addiction, to carve out time for practice, or to follow an inner calling. The Durga shakti can give you the power to face parts of yourself that stand in the way of your evolution, but she can also show you how to speak up for yourself when you need to ask for a raise, face a challenge, or take on a difficult responsibility—in short, to set things right.

The more you invite Durga’s energy into your life, the more you’ll feel her opening you to your inner warrior. Her power guards your highest aspirations, and she promises never to let you down.

See also 5 Ways to Tap Into Your Inner Leader (and Stay True to Yourself)

About the Author Sally Kempton is an internationally recognized teacher of meditation and yoga philosophy and the author of Meditation for the Love of It. Find her at sallykempton.com. This piece originally appeared in the June 2013 issue of Yoga Journal and is adapted from Sally Kempton’s book, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga (Sounds True, 2013).

[chocolate-brownies]

How to Channel Durga During Challenging Times

How to Channel Durga During Challenging Times:

This legendary goddess can help empower your aspirations and call forth the leader within.

The warrior goddess Durga can help you find the leader within. Here’s how to call on her when you need to feel empowered.

Five years ago, Lynda opened a yoga studio in an inner-city neighborhood in a big east-coast city. A recovering alcoholic, Lynda saw the studio as her public service, a way to reach out to other young women who might otherwise lead troubled lives. She used donations as well as money from her sessions with private clients to pay the rent, and she advertised free yoga classes for high school girls. Slowly her classes filled up, often with girls who had no place to go in the afternoon after school. 

Teaching these vulnerable, skeptical, wounded young women was challenging for Lynda. One night, after a particularly tough day, she dreamed of a beautiful woman mounted on a huge roaring lion. When she awoke, she realized that the image she had seen was reminiscent of Durga, the warrior goddess of Indian mythology. That day, guiding an especially restless group of girls into the Warrior sequence, she began to tell them about Durga. The girls were entranced. One of them asked Lynda to download a picture of Durga from the Internet for her. “I want to make a T-shirt,” she said. “That lady is my hero.”

“When she said that,” Lynda told me, “I realized that it was true for me, too. The image of Durga has been showing up in my dreams ever since. She’s the image I carry with me when I have to deal with my landlord or handle one of those girls when she’s disrupting the class. In some way, the image of Durga has become a symbol of the strength I need to keep this thing going.”

Lynda is not the only yogi I know who identifies with Durga. The image of this goddess riding her lion, her eight arms holding weapons and flowers, might be the avatar for empowerment and protection, especially for women. Those of us who juggle families, jobs, and yoga; who step up to support the environment; or who travel to storm-torn cities to help build housing for displaced families are living out a contemporary version of the legend of Durga. And for men as well as women, meditation on Durga can bring forth warrior-like strength and protective compassion. When you bring her image into your inner world, she can empower your most radical aspirations and guide you through your most conflict-ridden life dramas. More than that, Durga embodies the inner power to transform yourself—to let go of addictions, obstacles, and the illusions and fears that hold you back.

See also 5 Yoga Teachers Who Overcame Addiction

Bring Goddess Power Into Your Meditation Practice with Durga

You may wonder why, as a contemporary yogi, you’d find it worthwhile to invite the energy of mythic beings into your meditation practice. The short answer is that these archetypal energies are catalysts. Meditating on deities such as Durga, Hanuman, Shiva, and Lakshmi can call forth specific powers and qualities within you. These sacred powers come to you from beyond your limited ego and can help you meet challenges, open your heart, and transcend the ordinary. For centuries, the Indian and Tibetan Tantric traditions have taught meditations and mantras for bringing deity energy into the body and mind. Goddesses are especially potent, since they personify shakti, the subtle feminine force that enlivens the world, often considered the power behind spiritual growth. So practicing with the stories and mantras of one of these sacred figures can literally invite transformative energies into your life.

The images of these goddesses can serve as keys to unlocking your own inner potency. That’s because, though mythic, they are not just figments of human imagination. Goddess images represent real forces present in the universe. Their forms are extremely subtle, which is why they’re not normally apparent. Through the tales, meditations, and mantras associated with them, you can learn to sense their presence. The more you connect to them, the more palpably you can experience their inner gifts and blessings.

Just as Lakshmi is the shakti, or goddess, you call on for abundance, so Durga is the shakti you call on for strength, protection, and transformation. Worshipped by the ruling families of Rajasthan for help in battle, Durga is much more than a warrior goddess. She is also the power behind spiritual awakening, the inner force that unleashes spiritual power within the human body in the form of kundalini. And she is a guardian: beautiful, queenly, and motherly.

See also A 90-Minute Yoga Playlist to Awaken Your Inner Warrior

Durga carries a spear, a mace, a discus, a bow, and a sword—as well as a conch (symbolizing creative sound), a lotus (representing fertility), and a rosary (symbolizing prayer). In one version of her origin, she arises from the combined strength of the male gods to fight the buffalo demon Mahisha. The assembled gods, furious because they are powerless over this demon, send forth their anger as a mass of light and power. It coalesces into the form of a radiantly beautiful woman who fills every direction with her light. Her face was formed out of the light of Shiva; her hair came from Yama, the god of death; Vishnu, the sustainer, gave her arms. Shiva gave her his trident, Vishnu his discus; Vayu—the wind god—offered his bow and arrow. The mountain god, Himalaya, gave her a lion for her mount. Durga sets forth to battle the demon for the sake of the world, armed with all the powers of the divine masculine.

And ever since, she has been the deity to call on when you’re in deep trouble. In the Devi Mahatmyam (Triumph of the Goddess), a medieval song cycle about Durga that is still recited all over India, she promises that she will always appear when we need her to protect our world. She invites us to turn to her in crisis and promises to move mountains to rescue us from every form of evil—including the evil we, ourselves, create!

Learn how to tap into your inner strength with Durga.

Durga Slaying demons

In fact, in the tales of Durga, the demons she battles are not just external bad guys. They also represent the inner obstructive forces we face in our journey to enlightenment and self-actualization. So, as you read her story, think of it not just as a superhero saga but also as a parable about the process of inner work. Consider that it is showing you how to dissolve the negative energies of fear, greed, and anger so that you can stand in your essential strength and beauty. Your inner battle may not be as dramatic as this one.But it’s going on, nonetheless!

Shumbha and Nishumbha are brilliant demon brothers with magical superpowers. They’ve practiced hard austerities in order to earn a boon, or benefit, from their cosmic grandfather, Brahma. The boon makes them unconquerable by men or gods, but Brahma has been careful to word the boon so that it contains a loophole: It says nothing about a goddess.

The demon brothers are soon masters of the universe. They eject the gods from the celestial regions and enslave the inhabitants of the earth. The gods are reduced to hiding in caves, plotting revenge. But finally, a sage reveals to them that the demons have a weakness. 

Though Shumbha and Nishumbha can’t be conquered by anyone male, they might be vulnerable to a female warrior. So the gods travel to the mountain where Durga has her hidden dwelling to ask her for help.

See also Oh My Goddess: Invoking Your Inner Feminine Energy

As they call out to her with prayers and hymns of praise, Durga appears out of the clouds, clothed in robes whose colors shift and slip, revealing and concealing the beauty of her breasts and the curve of her belly. An erotic perfume surrounds her. She rides a lion.

In a voice like soft thunder rumbling through mountains, she agrees to intervene and restore the balance. The goddess has no sooner spoken than she has transported herself to the demon kings’ garden. Flowers drip from her fingers, and clouds form and dissolve in her hair. She is beauty personified, allurement clothed in form, enchantment itself. Within moments, the demon kings have come to their windows to look at her. They are connoisseurs of feminine beauty. Of course, they want her in their harem.

But when the palace major-domo brings the demons’ proposal to Durga, she smiles. “There is just one difficulty,” she explains. “In my girlhood, I took a silly vow that I would only marry a man strong enough to defeat me in battle. You know how girls are—full of fantasy and romantic notions. But a vow is a vow. If your masters really want me, they’ll have to fight with me.”

“Lady, you are either mad or suicidal,” says the major-domo. “No one has ever defeated my masters.”

“Nonetheless, that is my condition,” says Durga, giving him such a languorous glance that he feels stirrings of lust in every part of his body. “And if your masters are afraid to do battle, I am happy to take on their army.”

Which she does. In an intense battle, the goddess defeats battalion after battalion. At one point, a host of goddesses emerge from her body, including the fearsome Kali. Together, the goddesses destroy the entire demon army, leaving only the brothers. Shumbha advances upon Durga.

“You said that you would fight my army single-handed,” shouts Shumbha in a voice so loud it shakes the nearby hills to powder. “But you had helpers. Your challenge is forfeit.”

“Not so,” roars the goddess, vibrating the sky with celestial thunder. “These goddesses are parts of me.” The other goddesses melt back into her form, leaving just Durga, shining with an almost blinding light.

The goddess’s eight-armed form swells until it fills the sky. Twirling her great sword like a baton in one hand and her axes, maces, spears, and crossbows in the others, she flies through the air and slays the demon kings.

“Ma,” says Shumbha with his dying breath, and then a smile comes over his face as the ecstasy of the goddess fills his being. In that instant, both demons are transfigured, dissolving into Durga’s body and dying into the mystery. When the ego dissolves, even the most demonic soul comes home, back to the heart of the mother. Durga returns to her mountain home, promising to return when there is need for her help.

See also The Goddess Every Vinyasa Flow Fan Must Know

How to use Durga to let go of ego

This tale makes sense on several levels. From the point of view of the environment, it’s a story about the unstoppable power of nature. From another perspective, it assures us that higher powers will protect us when we take refuge in them. But on the esoteric level, the Durga story is about the transformation of the ego. The mighty battle between Durga and the demons is the inner struggle that invariably begins when we undertake real transformative practice.

Like those demon kings, the ego enters into spiritual practice with its own secret agenda. Egos seek control—control over circumstances, control over the body, and control over the people around us. Power and mastery are what matter to the ego. So, naturally, the ego will resist surrendering to higher powers, letting go of its agendas, or giving up control on any level. But shakti has a different agenda. She wants to move us away from egocentric consciousness and recognize our fundamental oneness with one another and the cosmos. To do this, she must put the ego in its place and ultimately dissolve it. The ego, however, will fight her to the death.

The demons personify the more primitive and intransigent forces of ego. They are the parts of us that unabashedly crave power over others. The demonic part of the self sees everything and everyone, including the higher powers of the universe, as tools that serve the ego’s personal agendas. The gods, as we’ve mentioned, also represent aspects of the self, but they represent the authentic Self, the unique personal qualities of essence. The devas represent our love, our dedication, our good intentions, and the forgiveness and compassion we display when we’re aligned with the higher Self. Durga arrives in our inner world to strengthen those higher qualities, whether for the sake of accomplishing good in the world or for progress on the spiritual path.

As postmodern practitioners, we usually prefer to take a gentler attitude toward our dark side. Most of us long ago rejected authoritarian religion, with its talk of sin and insistence on eliminating the darker forces within us.

If we are practitioners of a path that emphasizes our innate goodness, we might prefer to ignore the negative qualities in the self on the principle that fighting the ego only strengthens it. If we’re psychodynamically oriented, we might be interested in bringing our shadow qualities into the light so we can integrate the power tied up in anger or greed or pride. If we are walking a nondual path, we may feel that all struggle has to be given up, since everything is ultimately one.

See also Slow Flow: Learn to Live from Love with a Brahma Vihara

All these approaches are useful, some on the level of personality, others as part of the practice for enlightenment. But there are moments when the only way to put our narcissism in its place is with a sword—the sword of wisdom wielded by a warrior who takes no prisoners. This is Durga’s role, whether she is operating in the outer world or the inner world.

In my life, the energy of the warrior goddess with her upraised sword shows up to remind me to get my striving, performance-oriented ego out of the way so that the deeper power can unfold my life according to her evolutionary imperative. Durga, in my inner world, is the unstoppable energy of spiritual growth. When I resist that, I often encounter an unexpected setback. She might get in my face as a kind of cosmic “No!” to my personal agendas—and then manifest as the deeper awakening that follows when I am able to let them go.

Over the years, I’ve been through this cycle often. At times, egoic illusions grow bigger, pile up, and take over my world—until, like a river in springtime, they become so swollen that they must come bursting forth. Then, nearly always, I hear the roar of the goddess’s lion sounding through my dreams.

Perhaps Durga shows up to guide me through an impasse. Maybe I’ll make some horrific mistake, and she’ll appear to help me navigate the consequences. More and more, I’ve learned in those moments to bow to her in order to spare myself the pain that comes from resistance to the shakti’s agenda for my growth.

Whenever you feel yourself caught in one of those moments—when your personal will seems blocked by immovable obstacles—consider that it might be a signal from the shakti. Then, try sitting for a few minutes in meditation and using your imagination to bring yourself into the presence of Durga.

Connect with the goddess Durga through breath work and meditation.

Finding Your Ferocity with Durga

One of the most powerful practices for connecting with the goddess is to imagine that with each inhalation, you draw in her loving, protecting, empowering energy, and with each exhalation you breathe her energy through your body. As in so much yoga practice, the breath is the bridge between our physical self and the subtle energies of the invisible worlds. When you invoke Durga, you may very well feel her as a heightened energy. But connecting to Durga’s energy is just as likely to result in a subtle feeling of greater insight, in a feeling of being supported with strength to carry on during a hard time, or in the strategic instinct that helps you win your battles. This can happen so subtly that it’s only in hindsight that you realize you were being supported. And this can happen in surprising ways.

Sasha, a lawyer and the mother of two girls, first discovered the Durga shakti when her daughter Lee began failing in school. It turned out that Sasha’s husband, Lee’s father, was engaging his daughter sexually. Sasha vowed that, whatever it took, she would protect her daughters. She filed for divorce, insisting that her husband not be allowed unsupervised visits with their girls. He fought hard for joint custody, deploying a high-powered legal team. (Though a lawyer herself, Sasha’s field is wills and trusts, and she had never litigated.)

In the midst of this, Sasha took a class I was teaching on the goddesses. She felt an immediate affinity for Durga and created a meditation in which she imagined Durga’s strength inside her own body. She would visualize each of Durga’s eight arms holding a particular power. In one hand, she imagined the power to use words skillfully. In another, the power to read financial statements with care. In another, the skill to face down her husband’s lawyers. She imagined all of Durga’s weapons as energies empowering her to protect her two daughters.

See also Goddess Yoga Project: Defeat Fear With Sword Breath

She won the case and, soon afterward, realized that an enormous weight had been lifted from Lee. The fact that Sasha had fought on her daughter’s behalf seemed to give the teenager a sense of purpose and a new understanding of her own feminine strength.

Like Sasha, any one of us can tune into our personal Durga strength by invoking the goddess’s energy and wisdom. As you do, you’ll likely discover your personal capacity for warrior-style leadership. Anyone in touch with her inner Durga will naturally create zones of protection around the people in her life. (Durga is also an effortless multitasker, like a mother who manages three children while cooking a five-course meal—or an executive running a team of diverse employees.)

The Durga woman makes space for people to flourish, fighting their battles when needed—as Sasha did for her daughters—but she is just as likely to push them into fighting for themselves.

Answer Durga’s Call to Lead

One way to feel a sense of the Durga shakti is to remember a moment when you recognized, from the deepest place inside you, that something was wrong, that it had to change. If that recognition comes from the Durga shakti, it goes beyond mere frustration or cognitive awareness of a social problem. Durga’s transformative power carries a conviction that comes from deep inside the body, and with it often comes a sense of “Now!”—meaning the time is now. When that sense is strong enough, it is followed by action. You will put your body and your speech on the line to change the situation, whether it’s internal or external.

One of my Durga friends in Los Angeles noticed that her son’s asthma was activated when local crops were being sprayed for pests. She organized a group of mothers to protest aerial spraying in her area, and after several years, the group not only had it banned in Los Angeles, but also had the pesticide removed from circulation entirely. Now, along with her day job as a psychotherapist, she runs an environmental group focused on lobbying against airborne pesticides.

The same power of purposeful action can be invoked when you need the will to change a deep-seated habit or addiction, to carve out time for practice, or to follow an inner calling. The Durga shakti can give you the power to face parts of yourself that stand in the way of your evolution, but she can also show you how to speak up for yourself when you need to ask for a raise, face a challenge, or take on a difficult responsibility—in short, to set things right.

The more you invite Durga’s energy into your life, the more you’ll feel her opening you to your inner warrior. Her power guards your highest aspirations, and she promises never to let you down.

See also 5 Ways to Tap Into Your Inner Leader (and Stay True to Yourself)

About the Author Sally Kempton is an internationally recognized teacher of meditation and yoga philosophy and the author of Meditation for the Love of It. Find her at sallykempton.com. This piece originally appeared in the June 2013 issue of Yoga Journal and is adapted from Sally Kempton’s book, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga(Sounds True, 2013).

[krisiunicornio]

This legendary goddess can help empower your aspirations and call forth the leader within.

The warrior goddess Durga can help you find the leader within. Here's how to call on her when you need to feel empowered.

Five years ago, Lynda opened a yoga studio in an inner-city neighborhood in a big east-coast city. A recovering alcoholic, Lynda saw the studio as her public service, a way to reach out to other young women who might otherwise lead troubled lives. She used donations as well as money from her sessions with private clients to pay the rent, and she advertised free yoga classes for high school girls. Slowly her classes filled up, often with girls who had no place to go in the afternoon after school. 

Teaching these vulnerable, skeptical, wounded young women was challenging for Lynda. One night, after a particularly tough day, she dreamed of a beautiful woman mounted on a huge roaring lion. When she awoke, she realized that the image she had seen was reminiscent of Durga, the warrior goddess of Indian mythology. That day, guiding an especially restless group of girls into the Warrior sequence, she began to tell them about Durga. The girls were entranced. One of them asked Lynda to download a picture of Durga from the Internet for her. “I want to make a T-shirt,” she said. “That lady is my hero.”

“When she said that,” Lynda told me, “I realized that it was true for me, too. The image of Durga has been showing up in my dreams ever since. She’s the image I carry with me when I have to deal with my landlord or handle one of those girls when she’s disrupting the class. In some way, the image of Durga has become a symbol of the strength I need to keep this thing going.”

Lynda is not the only yogi I know who identifies with Durga. The image of this goddess riding her lion, her eight arms holding weapons and flowers, might be the avatar for empowerment and protection, especially for women. Those of us who juggle families, jobs, and yoga; who step up to support the environment; or who travel to storm-torn cities to help build housing for displaced families are living out a contemporary version of the legend of Durga. And for men as well as women, meditation on Durga can bring forth warrior-like strength and protective compassion. When you bring her image into your inner world, she can empower your most radical aspirations and guide you through your most conflict-ridden life dramas. More than that, Durga embodies the inner power to transform yourself—to let go of addictions, obstacles, and the illusions and fears that hold you back.

See also 5 Yoga Teachers Who Overcame Addiction

Bring Goddess Power Into Your Meditation Practice with Durga

You may wonder why, as a contemporary yogi, you’d find it worthwhile to invite the energy of mythic beings into your meditation practice. The short answer is that these archetypal energies are catalysts. Meditating on deities such as Durga, Hanuman, Shiva, and Lakshmi can call forth specific powers and qualities within you. These sacred powers come to you from beyond your limited ego and can help you meet challenges, open your heart, and transcend the ordinary. For centuries, the Indian and Tibetan Tantric traditions have taught meditations and mantras for bringing deity energy into the body and mind. Goddesses are especially potent, since they personify shakti, the subtle feminine force that enlivens the world, often considered the power behind spiritual growth. So practicing with the stories and mantras of one of these sacred figures can literally invite transformative energies into your life.

The images of these goddesses can serve as keys to unlocking your own inner potency. That’s because, though mythic, they are not just figments of human imagination. Goddess images represent real forces present in the universe. Their forms are extremely subtle, which is why they’re not normally apparent. Through the tales, meditations, and mantras associated with them, you can learn to sense their presence. The more you connect to them, the more palpably you can experience their inner gifts and blessings.

Just as Lakshmi is the shakti, or goddess, you call on for abundance, so Durga is the shakti you call on for strength, protection, and transformation. Worshipped by the ruling families of Rajasthan for help in battle, Durga is much more than a warrior goddess. She is also the power behind spiritual awakening, the inner force that unleashes spiritual power within the human body in the form of kundalini. And she is a guardian: beautiful, queenly, and motherly.

See also A 90-Minute Yoga Playlist to Awaken Your Inner Warrior

Durga carries a spear, a mace, a discus, a bow, and a sword—as well as a conch (symbolizing creative sound), a lotus (representing fertility), and a rosary (symbolizing prayer). In one version of her origin, she arises from the combined strength of the male gods to fight the buffalo demon Mahisha. The assembled gods, furious because they are powerless over this demon, send forth their anger as a mass of light and power. It coalesces into the form of a radiantly beautiful woman who fills every direction with her light. Her face was formed out of the light of Shiva; her hair came from Yama, the god of death; Vishnu, the sustainer, gave her arms. Shiva gave her his trident, Vishnu his discus; Vayu—the wind god—offered his bow and arrow. The mountain god, Himalaya, gave her a lion for her mount. Durga sets forth to battle the demon for the sake of the world, armed with all the powers of the divine masculine.

And ever since, she has been the deity to call on when you’re in deep trouble. In the Devi Mahatmyam (Triumph of the Goddess), a medieval song cycle about Durga that is still recited all over India, she promises that she will always appear when we need her to protect our world. She invites us to turn to her in crisis and promises to move mountains to rescue us from every form of evil—including the evil we, ourselves, create!

Learn how to tap into your inner strength with Durga.

Durga Slaying demons

In fact, in the tales of Durga, the demons she battles are not just external bad guys. They also represent the inner obstructive forces we face in our journey to enlightenment and self-actualization. So, as you read her story, think of it not just as a superhero saga but also as a parable about the process of inner work. Consider that it is showing you how to dissolve the negative energies of fear, greed, and anger so that you can stand in your essential strength and beauty. Your inner battle may not be as dramatic as this one. But it’s going on, nonetheless!

Shumbha and Nishumbha are brilliant demon brothers with magical superpowers. They’ve practiced hard austerities in order to earn a boon, or benefit, from their cosmic grandfather, Brahma. The boon makes them unconquerable by men or gods, but Brahma has been careful to word the boon so that it contains a loophole: It says nothing about a goddess.

The demon brothers are soon masters of the universe. They eject the gods from the celestial regions and enslave the inhabitants of the earth. The gods are reduced to hiding in caves, plotting revenge. But finally, a sage reveals to them that the demons have a weakness. 

Though Shumbha and Nishumbha can’t be conquered by anyone male, they might be vulnerable to a female warrior. So the gods travel to the mountain where Durga has her hidden dwelling to ask her for help.

See also Oh My Goddess: Invoking Your Inner Feminine Energy

As they call out to her with prayers and hymns of praise, Durga appears out of the clouds, clothed in robes whose colors shift and slip, revealing and concealing the beauty of her breasts and the curve of her belly. An erotic perfume surrounds her. She rides a lion.

In a voice like soft thunder rumbling through mountains, she agrees to intervene and restore the balance. The goddess has no sooner spoken than she has transported herself to the demon kings’ garden. Flowers drip from her fingers, and clouds form and dissolve in her hair. She is beauty personified, allurement clothed in form, enchantment itself. Within moments, the demon kings have come to their windows to look at her. They are connoisseurs of feminine beauty. Of course, they want her in their harem.

But when the palace major-domo brings the demons’ proposal to Durga, she smiles. “There is just one difficulty,” she explains. “In my girlhood, I took a silly vow that I would only marry a man strong enough to defeat me in battle. You know how girls are—full of fantasy and romantic notions. But a vow is a vow. If your masters really want me, they’ll have to fight with me.”

“Lady, you are either mad or suicidal,” says the major-domo. “No one has ever defeated my masters.”

“Nonetheless, that is my condition,” says Durga, giving him such a languorous glance that he feels stirrings of lust in every part of his body. “And if your masters are afraid to do battle, I am happy to take on their army.”

Which she does. In an intense battle, the goddess defeats battalion after battalion. At one point, a host of goddesses emerge from her body, including the fearsome Kali. Together, the goddesses destroy the entire demon army, leaving only the brothers. Shumbha advances upon Durga.

“You said that you would fight my army single-handed,” shouts Shumbha in a voice so loud it shakes the nearby hills to powder. “But you had helpers. Your challenge is forfeit.”

“Not so,” roars the goddess, vibrating the sky with celestial thunder. “These goddesses are parts of me.” The other goddesses melt back into her form, leaving just Durga, shining with an almost blinding light.

The goddess’s eight-armed form swells until it fills the sky. Twirling her great sword like a baton in one hand and her axes, maces, spears, and crossbows in the others, she flies through the air and slays the demon kings.

“Ma,” says Shumbha with his dying breath, and then a smile comes over his face as the ecstasy of the goddess fills his being. In that instant, both demons are transfigured, dissolving into Durga’s body and dying into the mystery. When the ego dissolves, even the most demonic soul comes home, back to the heart of the mother. Durga returns to her mountain home, promising to return when there is need for her help.

See also The Goddess Every Vinyasa Flow Fan Must Know

How to use Durga to let go of ego

This tale makes sense on several levels. From the point of view of the environment, it’s a story about the unstoppable power of nature. From another perspective, it assures us that higher powers will protect us when we take refuge in them. But on the esoteric level, the Durga story is about the transformation of the ego. The mighty battle between Durga and the demons is the inner struggle that invariably begins when we undertake real transformative practice.

Like those demon kings, the ego enters into spiritual practice with its own secret agenda. Egos seek control—control over circumstances, control over the body, and control over the people around us. Power and mastery are what matter to the ego. So, naturally, the ego will resist surrendering to higher powers, letting go of its agendas, or giving up control on any level. But shakti has a different agenda. She wants to move us away from egocentric consciousness and recognize our fundamental oneness with one another and the cosmos. To do this, she must put the ego in its place and ultimately dissolve it. The ego, however, will fight her to the death.

The demons personify the more primitive and intransigent forces of ego. They are the parts of us that unabashedly crave power over others. The demonic part of the self sees everything and everyone, including the higher powers of the universe, as tools that serve the ego’s personal agendas. The gods, as we’ve mentioned, also represent aspects of the self, but they represent the authentic Self, the unique personal qualities of essence. The devas represent our love, our dedication, our good intentions, and the forgiveness and compassion we display when we’re aligned with the higher Self. Durga arrives in our inner world to strengthen those higher qualities, whether for the sake of accomplishing good in the world or for progress on the spiritual path.

As postmodern practitioners, we usually prefer to take a gentler attitude toward our dark side. Most of us long ago rejected authoritarian religion, with its talk of sin and insistence on eliminating the darker forces within us.

If we are practitioners of a path that emphasizes our innate goodness, we might prefer to ignore the negative qualities in the self on the principle that fighting the ego only strengthens it. If we’re psychodynamically oriented, we might be interested in bringing our shadow qualities into the light so we can integrate the power tied up in anger or greed or pride. If we are walking a nondual path, we may feel that all struggle has to be given up, since everything is ultimately one.

See also Slow Flow: Learn to Live from Love with a Brahma Vihara

All these approaches are useful, some on the level of personality, others as part of the practice for enlightenment. But there are moments when the only way to put our narcissism in its place is with a sword—the sword of wisdom wielded by a warrior who takes no prisoners. This is Durga’s role, whether she is operating in the outer world or the inner world.

In my life, the energy of the warrior goddess with her upraised sword shows up to remind me to get my striving, performance-oriented ego out of the way so that the deeper power can unfold my life according to her evolutionary imperative. Durga, in my inner world, is the unstoppable energy of spiritual growth. When I resist that, I often encounter an unexpected setback. She might get in my face as a kind of cosmic “No!” to my personal agendas—and then manifest as the deeper awakening that follows when I am able to let them go.

Over the years, I’ve been through this cycle often. At times, egoic illusions grow bigger, pile up, and take over my world—until, like a river in springtime, they become so swollen that they must come bursting forth. Then, nearly always, I hear the roar of the goddess’s lion sounding through my dreams.

Perhaps Durga shows up to guide me through an impasse. Maybe I’ll make some horrific mistake, and she’ll appear to help me navigate the consequences. More and more, I’ve learned in those moments to bow to her in order to spare myself the pain that comes from resistance to the shakti’s agenda for my growth.

Whenever you feel yourself caught in one of those moments—when your personal will seems blocked by immovable obstacles—consider that it might be a signal from the shakti. Then, try sitting for a few minutes in meditation and using your imagination to bring yourself into the presence of Durga.

Connect with the goddess Durga through breath work and meditation.

Finding Your Ferocity with Durga

One of the most powerful practices for connecting with the goddess is to imagine that with each inhalation, you draw in her loving, protecting, empowering energy, and with each exhalation you breathe her energy through your body. As in so much yoga practice, the breath is the bridge between our physical self and the subtle energies of the invisible worlds. When you invoke Durga, you may very well feel her as a heightened energy. But connecting to Durga’s energy is just as likely to result in a subtle feeling of greater insight, in a feeling of being supported with strength to carry on during a hard time, or in the strategic instinct that helps you win your battles. This can happen so subtly that it’s only in hindsight that you realize you were being supported. And this can happen in surprising ways.

Sasha, a lawyer and the mother of two girls, first discovered the Durga shakti when her daughter Lee began failing in school. It turned out that Sasha’s husband, Lee’s father, was engaging his daughter sexually. Sasha vowed that, whatever it took, she would protect her daughters. She filed for divorce, insisting that her husband not be allowed unsupervised visits with their girls. He fought hard for joint custody, deploying a high-powered legal team. (Though a lawyer herself, Sasha’s field is wills and trusts, and she had never litigated.)

In the midst of this, Sasha took a class I was teaching on the goddesses. She felt an immediate affinity for Durga and created a meditation in which she imagined Durga’s strength inside her own body. She would visualize each of Durga’s eight arms holding a particular power. In one hand, she imagined the power to use words skillfully. In another, the power to read financial statements with care. In another, the skill to face down her husband’s lawyers. She imagined all of Durga’s weapons as energies empowering her to protect her two daughters.

See also Goddess Yoga Project: Defeat Fear With Sword Breath

She won the case and, soon afterward, realized that an enormous weight had been lifted from Lee. The fact that Sasha had fought on her daughter’s behalf seemed to give the teenager a sense of purpose and a new understanding of her own feminine strength.

Like Sasha, any one of us can tune into our personal Durga strength by invoking the goddess’s energy and wisdom. As you do, you’ll likely discover your personal capacity for warrior-style leadership. Anyone in touch with her inner Durga will naturally create zones of protection around the people in her life. (Durga is also an effortless multitasker, like a mother who manages three children while cooking a five-course meal—or an executive running a team of diverse employees.)

The Durga woman makes space for people to flourish, fighting their battles when needed—as Sasha did for her daughters—but she is just as likely to push them into fighting for themselves.

Answer Durga's Call to Lead

One way to feel a sense of the Durga shakti is to remember a moment when you recognized, from the deepest place inside you, that something was wrong, that it had to change. If that recognition comes from the Durga shakti, it goes beyond mere frustration or cognitive awareness of a social problem. Durga’s transformative power carries a conviction that comes from deep inside the body, and with it often comes a sense of “Now!”—meaning the time is now. When that sense is strong enough, it is followed by action. You will put your body and your speech on the line to change the situation, whether it’s internal or external.

One of my Durga friends in Los Angeles noticed that her son’s asthma was activated when local crops were being sprayed for pests. She organized a group of mothers to protest aerial spraying in her area, and after several years, the group not only had it banned in Los Angeles, but also had the pesticide removed from circulation entirely. Now, along with her day job as a psychotherapist, she runs an environmental group focused on lobbying against airborne pesticides.

The same power of purposeful action can be invoked when you need the will to change a deep-seated habit or addiction, to carve out time for practice, or to follow an inner calling. The Durga shakti can give you the power to face parts of yourself that stand in the way of your evolution, but she can also show you how to speak up for yourself when you need to ask for a raise, face a challenge, or take on a difficult responsibility—in short, to set things right.

The more you invite Durga’s energy into your life, the more you’ll feel her opening you to your inner warrior. Her power guards your highest aspirations, and she promises never to let you down.

See also 5 Ways to Tap Into Your Inner Leader (and Stay True to Yourself)

About the Author Sally Kempton is an internationally recognized teacher of meditation and yoga philosophy and the author of Meditation for the Love of It. Find her at sallykempton.com. This piece originally appeared in the June 2013 issue of Yoga Journal and is adapted from Sally Kempton’s book, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga (Sounds True, 2013).

[amyddaniels]

How to Channel Durga During Challenging Times

This legendary goddess can help empower your aspirations and call forth the leader within.

The warrior goddess Durga can help you find the leader within. Here's how to call on her when you need to feel empowered.

Five years ago, Lynda opened a yoga studio in an inner-city neighborhood in a big east-coast city. A recovering alcoholic, Lynda saw the studio as her public service, a way to reach out to other young women who might otherwise lead troubled lives. She used donations as well as money from her sessions with private clients to pay the rent, and she advertised free yoga classes for high school girls. Slowly her classes filled up, often with girls who had no place to go in the afternoon after school. 

Teaching these vulnerable, skeptical, wounded young women was challenging for Lynda. One night, after a particularly tough day, she dreamed of a beautiful woman mounted on a huge roaring lion. When she awoke, she realized that the image she had seen was reminiscent of Durga, the warrior goddess of Indian mythology. That day, guiding an especially restless group of girls into the Warrior sequence, she began to tell them about Durga. The girls were entranced. One of them asked Lynda to download a picture of Durga from the Internet for her. “I want to make a T-shirt,” she said. “That lady is my hero.”

“When she said that,” Lynda told me, “I realized that it was true for me, too. The image of Durga has been showing up in my dreams ever since. She’s the image I carry with me when I have to deal with my landlord or handle one of those girls when she’s disrupting the class. In some way, the image of Durga has become a symbol of the strength I need to keep this thing going.”

Lynda is not the only yogi I know who identifies with Durga. The image of this goddess riding her lion, her eight arms holding weapons and flowers, might be the avatar for empowerment and protection, especially for women. Those of us who juggle families, jobs, and yoga; who step up to support the environment; or who travel to storm-torn cities to help build housing for displaced families are living out a contemporary version of the legend of Durga. And for men as well as women, meditation on Durga can bring forth warrior-like strength and protective compassion. When you bring her image into your inner world, she can empower your most radical aspirations and guide you through your most conflict-ridden life dramas. More than that, Durga embodies the inner power to transform yourself—to let go of addictions, obstacles, and the illusions and fears that hold you back.

See also 5 Yoga Teachers Who Overcame Addiction

Bring Goddess Power Into Your Meditation Practice with Durga

You may wonder why, as a contemporary yogi, you’d find it worthwhile to invite the energy of mythic beings into your meditation practice. The short answer is that these archetypal energies are catalysts. Meditating on deities such as Durga, Hanuman, Shiva, and Lakshmi can call forth specific powers and qualities within you. These sacred powers come to you from beyond your limited ego and can help you meet challenges, open your heart, and transcend the ordinary. For centuries, the Indian and Tibetan Tantric traditions have taught meditations and mantras for bringing deity energy into the body and mind. Goddesses are especially potent, since they personify shakti, the subtle feminine force that enlivens the world, often considered the power behind spiritual growth. So practicing with the stories and mantras of one of these sacred figures can literally invite transformative energies into your life.

The images of these goddesses can serve as keys to unlocking your own inner potency. That’s because, though mythic, they are not just figments of human imagination. Goddess images represent real forces present in the universe. Their forms are extremely subtle, which is why they’re not normally apparent. Through the tales, meditations, and mantras associated with them, you can learn to sense their presence. The more you connect to them, the more palpably you can experience their inner gifts and blessings.

Just as Lakshmi is the shakti, or goddess, you call on for abundance, so Durga is the shakti you call on for strength, protection, and transformation. Worshipped by the ruling families of Rajasthan for help in battle, Durga is much more than a warrior goddess. She is also the power behind spiritual awakening, the inner force that unleashes spiritual power within the human body in the form of kundalini. And she is a guardian: beautiful, queenly, and motherly.

See also A 90-Minute Yoga Playlist to Awaken Your Inner Warrior

Durga carries a spear, a mace, a discus, a bow, and a sword—as well as a conch (symbolizing creative sound), a lotus (representing fertility), and a rosary (symbolizing prayer). In one version of her origin, she arises from the combined strength of the male gods to fight the buffalo demon Mahisha. The assembled gods, furious because they are powerless over this demon, send forth their anger as a mass of light and power. It coalesces into the form of a radiantly beautiful woman who fills every direction with her light. Her face was formed out of the light of Shiva; her hair came from Yama, the god of death; Vishnu, the sustainer, gave her arms. Shiva gave her his trident, Vishnu his discus; Vayu—the wind god—offered his bow and arrow. The mountain god, Himalaya, gave her a lion for her mount. Durga sets forth to battle the demon for the sake of the world, armed with all the powers of the divine masculine.

And ever since, she has been the deity to call on when you’re in deep trouble. In the Devi Mahatmyam (Triumph of the Goddess), a medieval song cycle about Durga that is still recited all over India, she promises that she will always appear when we need her to protect our world. She invites us to turn to her in crisis and promises to move mountains to rescue us from every form of evil—including the evil we, ourselves, create!

Learn how to tap into your inner strength with Durga.

Durga Slaying demons

In fact, in the tales of Durga, the demons she battles are not just external bad guys. They also represent the inner obstructive forces we face in our journey to enlightenment and self-actualization. So, as you read her story, think of it not just as a superhero saga but also as a parable about the process of inner work. Consider that it is showing you how to dissolve the negative energies of fear, greed, and anger so that you can stand in your essential strength and beauty. Your inner battle may not be as dramatic as this one. But it’s going on, nonetheless!

Shumbha and Nishumbha are brilliant demon brothers with magical superpowers. They’ve practiced hard austerities in order to earn a boon, or benefit, from their cosmic grandfather, Brahma. The boon makes them unconquerable by men or gods, but Brahma has been careful to word the boon so that it contains a loophole: It says nothing about a goddess.

The demon brothers are soon masters of the universe. They eject the gods from the celestial regions and enslave the inhabitants of the earth. The gods are reduced to hiding in caves, plotting revenge. But finally, a sage reveals to them that the demons have a weakness. 

Though Shumbha and Nishumbha can’t be conquered by anyone male, they might be vulnerable to a female warrior. So the gods travel to the mountain where Durga has her hidden dwelling to ask her for help.

See also Oh My Goddess: Invoking Your Inner Feminine Energy

As they call out to her with prayers and hymns of praise, Durga appears out of the clouds, clothed in robes whose colors shift and slip, revealing and concealing the beauty of her breasts and the curve of her belly. An erotic perfume surrounds her. She rides a lion.

In a voice like soft thunder rumbling through mountains, she agrees to intervene and restore the balance. The goddess has no sooner spoken than she has transported herself to the demon kings’ garden. Flowers drip from her fingers, and clouds form and dissolve in her hair. She is beauty personified, allurement clothed in form, enchantment itself. Within moments, the demon kings have come to their windows to look at her. They are connoisseurs of feminine beauty. Of course, they want her in their harem.

But when the palace major-domo brings the demons’ proposal to Durga, she smiles. “There is just one difficulty,” she explains. “In my girlhood, I took a silly vow that I would only marry a man strong enough to defeat me in battle. You know how girls are—full of fantasy and romantic notions. But a vow is a vow. If your masters really want me, they’ll have to fight with me.”

“Lady, you are either mad or suicidal,” says the major-domo. “No one has ever defeated my masters.”

“Nonetheless, that is my condition,” says Durga, giving him such a languorous glance that he feels stirrings of lust in every part of his body. “And if your masters are afraid to do battle, I am happy to take on their army.”

Which she does. In an intense battle, the goddess defeats battalion after battalion. At one point, a host of goddesses emerge from her body, including the fearsome Kali. Together, the goddesses destroy the entire demon army, leaving only the brothers. Shumbha advances upon Durga.

“You said that you would fight my army single-handed,” shouts Shumbha in a voice so loud it shakes the nearby hills to powder. “But you had helpers. Your challenge is forfeit.”

“Not so,” roars the goddess, vibrating the sky with celestial thunder. “These goddesses are parts of me.” The other goddesses melt back into her form, leaving just Durga, shining with an almost blinding light.

The goddess’s eight-armed form swells until it fills the sky. Twirling her great sword like a baton in one hand and her axes, maces, spears, and crossbows in the others, she flies through the air and slays the demon kings.

“Ma,” says Shumbha with his dying breath, and then a smile comes over his face as the ecstasy of the goddess fills his being. In that instant, both demons are transfigured, dissolving into Durga’s body and dying into the mystery. When the ego dissolves, even the most demonic soul comes home, back to the heart of the mother. Durga returns to her mountain home, promising to return when there is need for her help.

See also The Goddess Every Vinyasa Flow Fan Must Know

How to use Durga to let go of ego

This tale makes sense on several levels. From the point of view of the environment, it’s a story about the unstoppable power of nature. From another perspective, it assures us that higher powers will protect us when we take refuge in them. But on the esoteric level, the Durga story is about the transformation of the ego. The mighty battle between Durga and the demons is the inner struggle that invariably begins when we undertake real transformative practice.

Like those demon kings, the ego enters into spiritual practice with its own secret agenda. Egos seek control—control over circumstances, control over the body, and control over the people around us. Power and mastery are what matter to the ego. So, naturally, the ego will resist surrendering to higher powers, letting go of its agendas, or giving up control on any level. But shakti has a different agenda. She wants to move us away from egocentric consciousness and recognize our fundamental oneness with one another and the cosmos. To do this, she must put the ego in its place and ultimately dissolve it. The ego, however, will fight her to the death.

The demons personify the more primitive and intransigent forces of ego. They are the parts of us that unabashedly crave power over others. The demonic part of the self sees everything and everyone, including the higher powers of the universe, as tools that serve the ego’s personal agendas. The gods, as we’ve mentioned, also represent aspects of the self, but they represent the authentic Self, the unique personal qualities of essence. The devas represent our love, our dedication, our good intentions, and the forgiveness and compassion we display when we’re aligned with the higher Self. Durga arrives in our inner world to strengthen those higher qualities, whether for the sake of accomplishing good in the world or for progress on the spiritual path.

As postmodern practitioners, we usually prefer to take a gentler attitude toward our dark side. Most of us long ago rejected authoritarian religion, with its talk of sin and insistence on eliminating the darker forces within us.

If we are practitioners of a path that emphasizes our innate goodness, we might prefer to ignore the negative qualities in the self on the principle that fighting the ego only strengthens it. If we’re psychodynamically oriented, we might be interested in bringing our shadow qualities into the light so we can integrate the power tied up in anger or greed or pride. If we are walking a nondual path, we may feel that all struggle has to be given up, since everything is ultimately one.

See also Slow Flow: Learn to Live from Love with a Brahma Vihara

All these approaches are useful, some on the level of personality, others as part of the practice for enlightenment. But there are moments when the only way to put our narcissism in its place is with a sword—the sword of wisdom wielded by a warrior who takes no prisoners. This is Durga’s role, whether she is operating in the outer world or the inner world.

In my life, the energy of the warrior goddess with her upraised sword shows up to remind me to get my striving, performance-oriented ego out of the way so that the deeper power can unfold my life according to her evolutionary imperative. Durga, in my inner world, is the unstoppable energy of spiritual growth. When I resist that, I often encounter an unexpected setback. She might get in my face as a kind of cosmic “No!” to my personal agendas—and then manifest as the deeper awakening that follows when I am able to let them go.

Over the years, I’ve been through this cycle often. At times, egoic illusions grow bigger, pile up, and take over my world—until, like a river in springtime, they become so swollen that they must come bursting forth. Then, nearly always, I hear the roar of the goddess’s lion sounding through my dreams.

Perhaps Durga shows up to guide me through an impasse. Maybe I’ll make some horrific mistake, and she’ll appear to help me navigate the consequences. More and more, I’ve learned in those moments to bow to her in order to spare myself the pain that comes from resistance to the shakti’s agenda for my growth.

Whenever you feel yourself caught in one of those moments—when your personal will seems blocked by immovable obstacles—consider that it might be a signal from the shakti. Then, try sitting for a few minutes in meditation and using your imagination to bring yourself into the presence of Durga.

Connect with the goddess Durga through breath work and meditation.

Finding Your Ferocity with Durga

One of the most powerful practices for connecting with the goddess is to imagine that with each inhalation, you draw in her loving, protecting, empowering energy, and with each exhalation you breathe her energy through your body. As in so much yoga practice, the breath is the bridge between our physical self and the subtle energies of the invisible worlds. When you invoke Durga, you may very well feel her as a heightened energy. But connecting to Durga’s energy is just as likely to result in a subtle feeling of greater insight, in a feeling of being supported with strength to carry on during a hard time, or in the strategic instinct that helps you win your battles. This can happen so subtly that it’s only in hindsight that you realize you were being supported. And this can happen in surprising ways.

Sasha, a lawyer and the mother of two girls, first discovered the Durga shakti when her daughter Lee began failing in school. It turned out that Sasha’s husband, Lee’s father, was engaging his daughter sexually. Sasha vowed that, whatever it took, she would protect her daughters. She filed for divorce, insisting that her husband not be allowed unsupervised visits with their girls. He fought hard for joint custody, deploying a high-powered legal team. (Though a lawyer herself, Sasha’s field is wills and trusts, and she had never litigated.)

In the midst of this, Sasha took a class I was teaching on the goddesses. She felt an immediate affinity for Durga and created a meditation in which she imagined Durga’s strength inside her own body. She would visualize each of Durga’s eight arms holding a particular power. In one hand, she imagined the power to use words skillfully. In another, the power to read financial statements with care. In another, the skill to face down her husband’s lawyers. She imagined all of Durga’s weapons as energies empowering her to protect her two daughters.

See also Goddess Yoga Project: Defeat Fear With Sword Breath

She won the case and, soon afterward, realized that an enormous weight had been lifted from Lee. The fact that Sasha had fought on her daughter’s behalf seemed to give the teenager a sense of purpose and a new understanding of her own feminine strength.

Like Sasha, any one of us can tune into our personal Durga strength by invoking the goddess’s energy and wisdom. As you do, you’ll likely discover your personal capacity for warrior-style leadership. Anyone in touch with her inner Durga will naturally create zones of protection around the people in her life. (Durga is also an effortless multitasker, like a mother who manages three children while cooking a five-course meal—or an executive running a team of diverse employees.)

The Durga woman makes space for people to flourish, fighting their battles when needed—as Sasha did for her daughters—but she is just as likely to push them into fighting for themselves.

Answer Durga's Call to Lead

One way to feel a sense of the Durga shakti is to remember a moment when you recognized, from the deepest place inside you, that something was wrong, that it had to change. If that recognition comes from the Durga shakti, it goes beyond mere frustration or cognitive awareness of a social problem. Durga’s transformative power carries a conviction that comes from deep inside the body, and with it often comes a sense of “Now!”—meaning the time is now. When that sense is strong enough, it is followed by action. You will put your body and your speech on the line to change the situation, whether it’s internal or external.

One of my Durga friends in Los Angeles noticed that her son’s asthma was activated when local crops were being sprayed for pests. She organized a group of mothers to protest aerial spraying in her area, and after several years, the group not only had it banned in Los Angeles, but also had the pesticide removed from circulation entirely. Now, along with her day job as a psychotherapist, she runs an environmental group focused on lobbying against airborne pesticides.

The same power of purposeful action can be invoked when you need the will to change a deep-seated habit or addiction, to carve out time for practice, or to follow an inner calling. The Durga shakti can give you the power to face parts of yourself that stand in the way of your evolution, but she can also show you how to speak up for yourself when you need to ask for a raise, face a challenge, or take on a difficult responsibility—in short, to set things right.

The more you invite Durga’s energy into your life, the more you’ll feel her opening you to your inner warrior. Her power guards your highest aspirations, and she promises never to let you down.

See also 5 Ways to Tap Into Your Inner Leader (and Stay True to Yourself)

About the Author Sally Kempton is an internationally recognized teacher of meditation and yoga philosophy and the author of Meditation for the Love of It. Find her at sallykempton.com. This piece originally appeared in the June 2013 issue of Yoga Journal and is adapted from Sally Kempton’s book, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga (Sounds True, 2013).

[remedialmassage]

How to Channel Durga During Challenging Times

This legendary goddess can help empower your aspirations and call forth the leader within.

The warrior goddess Durga can help you find the leader within. Here's how to call on her when you need to feel empowered.

Five years ago, Lynda opened a yoga studio in an inner-city neighborhood in a big east-coast city. A recovering alcoholic, Lynda saw the studio as her public service, a way to reach out to other young women who might otherwise lead troubled lives. She used donations as well as money from her sessions with private clients to pay the rent, and she advertised free yoga classes for high school girls. Slowly her classes filled up, often with girls who had no place to go in the afternoon after school. 

Teaching these vulnerable, skeptical, wounded young women was challenging for Lynda. One night, after a particularly tough day, she dreamed of a beautiful woman mounted on a huge roaring lion. When she awoke, she realized that the image she had seen was reminiscent of Durga, the warrior goddess of Indian mythology. That day, guiding an especially restless group of girls into the Warrior sequence, she began to tell them about Durga. The girls were entranced. One of them asked Lynda to download a picture of Durga from the Internet for her. “I want to make a T-shirt,” she said. “That lady is my hero.”

“When she said that,” Lynda told me, “I realized that it was true for me, too. The image of Durga has been showing up in my dreams ever since. She’s the image I carry with me when I have to deal with my landlord or handle one of those girls when she’s disrupting the class. In some way, the image of Durga has become a symbol of the strength I need to keep this thing going.”

Lynda is not the only yogi I know who identifies with Durga. The image of this goddess riding her lion, her eight arms holding weapons and flowers, might be the avatar for empowerment and protection, especially for women. Those of us who juggle families, jobs, and yoga; who step up to support the environment; or who travel to storm-torn cities to help build housing for displaced families are living out a contemporary version of the legend of Durga. And for men as well as women, meditation on Durga can bring forth warrior-like strength and protective compassion. When you bring her image into your inner world, she can empower your most radical aspirations and guide you through your most conflict-ridden life dramas. More than that, Durga embodies the inner power to transform yourself—to let go of addictions, obstacles, and the illusions and fears that hold you back.

See also 5 Yoga Teachers Who Overcame Addiction

Bring Goddess Power Into Your Meditation Practice with Durga

You may wonder why, as a contemporary yogi, you’d find it worthwhile to invite the energy of mythic beings into your meditation practice. The short answer is that these archetypal energies are catalysts. Meditating on deities such as Durga, Hanuman, Shiva, and Lakshmi can call forth specific powers and qualities within you. These sacred powers come to you from beyond your limited ego and can help you meet challenges, open your heart, and transcend the ordinary. For centuries, the Indian and Tibetan Tantric traditions have taught meditations and mantras for bringing deity energy into the body and mind. Goddesses are especially potent, since they personify shakti, the subtle feminine force that enlivens the world, often considered the power behind spiritual growth. So practicing with the stories and mantras of one of these sacred figures can literally invite transformative energies into your life.

The images of these goddesses can serve as keys to unlocking your own inner potency. That’s because, though mythic, they are not just figments of human imagination. Goddess images represent real forces present in the universe. Their forms are extremely subtle, which is why they’re not normally apparent. Through the tales, meditations, and mantras associated with them, you can learn to sense their presence. The more you connect to them, the more palpably you can experience their inner gifts and blessings.

Just as Lakshmi is the shakti, or goddess, you call on for abundance, so Durga is the shakti you call on for strength, protection, and transformation. Worshipped by the ruling families of Rajasthan for help in battle, Durga is much more than a warrior goddess. She is also the power behind spiritual awakening, the inner force that unleashes spiritual power within the human body in the form of kundalini. And she is a guardian: beautiful, queenly, and motherly.

See also A 90-Minute Yoga Playlist to Awaken Your Inner Warrior

Durga carries a spear, a mace, a discus, a bow, and a sword—as well as a conch (symbolizing creative sound), a lotus (representing fertility), and a rosary (symbolizing prayer). In one version of her origin, she arises from the combined strength of the male gods to fight the buffalo demon Mahisha. The assembled gods, furious because they are powerless over this demon, send forth their anger as a mass of light and power. It coalesces into the form of a radiantly beautiful woman who fills every direction with her light. Her face was formed out of the light of Shiva; her hair came from Yama, the god of death; Vishnu, the sustainer, gave her arms. Shiva gave her his trident, Vishnu his discus; Vayu—the wind god—offered his bow and arrow. The mountain god, Himalaya, gave her a lion for her mount. Durga sets forth to battle the demon for the sake of the world, armed with all the powers of the divine masculine.

And ever since, she has been the deity to call on when you’re in deep trouble. In the Devi Mahatmyam (Triumph of the Goddess), a medieval song cycle about Durga that is still recited all over India, she promises that she will always appear when we need her to protect our world. She invites us to turn to her in crisis and promises to move mountains to rescue us from every form of evil—including the evil we, ourselves, create!

Learn how to tap into your inner strength with Durga.

Durga Slaying demons

In fact, in the tales of Durga, the demons she battles are not just external bad guys. They also represent the inner obstructive forces we face in our journey to enlightenment and self-actualization. So, as you read her story, think of it not just as a superhero saga but also as a parable about the process of inner work. Consider that it is showing you how to dissolve the negative energies of fear, greed, and anger so that you can stand in your essential strength and beauty. Your inner battle may not be as dramatic as this one. But it’s going on, nonetheless!

Shumbha and Nishumbha are brilliant demon brothers with magical superpowers. They’ve practiced hard austerities in order to earn a boon, or benefit, from their cosmic grandfather, Brahma. The boon makes them unconquerable by men or gods, but Brahma has been careful to word the boon so that it contains a loophole: It says nothing about a goddess.

The demon brothers are soon masters of the universe. They eject the gods from the celestial regions and enslave the inhabitants of the earth. The gods are reduced to hiding in caves, plotting revenge. But finally, a sage reveals to them that the demons have a weakness. 

Though Shumbha and Nishumbha can’t be conquered by anyone male, they might be vulnerable to a female warrior. So the gods travel to the mountain where Durga has her hidden dwelling to ask her for help.

See also Oh My Goddess: Invoking Your Inner Feminine Energy

As they call out to her with prayers and hymns of praise, Durga appears out of the clouds, clothed in robes whose colors shift and slip, revealing and concealing the beauty of her breasts and the curve of her belly. An erotic perfume surrounds her. She rides a lion.

In a voice like soft thunder rumbling through mountains, she agrees to intervene and restore the balance. The goddess has no sooner spoken than she has transported herself to the demon kings’ garden. Flowers drip from her fingers, and clouds form and dissolve in her hair. She is beauty personified, allurement clothed in form, enchantment itself. Within moments, the demon kings have come to their windows to look at her. They are connoisseurs of feminine beauty. Of course, they want her in their harem.

But when the palace major-domo brings the demons’ proposal to Durga, she smiles. “There is just one difficulty,” she explains. “In my girlhood, I took a silly vow that I would only marry a man strong enough to defeat me in battle. You know how girls are—full of fantasy and romantic notions. But a vow is a vow. If your masters really want me, they’ll have to fight with me.”

“Lady, you are either mad or suicidal,” says the major-domo. “No one has ever defeated my masters.”

“Nonetheless, that is my condition,” says Durga, giving him such a languorous glance that he feels stirrings of lust in every part of his body. “And if your masters are afraid to do battle, I am happy to take on their army.”

Which she does. In an intense battle, the goddess defeats battalion after battalion. At one point, a host of goddesses emerge from her body, including the fearsome Kali. Together, the goddesses destroy the entire demon army, leaving only the brothers. Shumbha advances upon Durga.

“You said that you would fight my army single-handed,” shouts Shumbha in a voice so loud it shakes the nearby hills to powder. “But you had helpers. Your challenge is forfeit.”

“Not so,” roars the goddess, vibrating the sky with celestial thunder. “These goddesses are parts of me.” The other goddesses melt back into her form, leaving just Durga, shining with an almost blinding light.

The goddess’s eight-armed form swells until it fills the sky. Twirling her great sword like a baton in one hand and her axes, maces, spears, and crossbows in the others, she flies through the air and slays the demon kings.

“Ma,” says Shumbha with his dying breath, and then a smile comes over his face as the ecstasy of the goddess fills his being. In that instant, both demons are transfigured, dissolving into Durga’s body and dying into the mystery. When the ego dissolves, even the most demonic soul comes home, back to the heart of the mother. Durga returns to her mountain home, promising to return when there is need for her help.

See also The Goddess Every Vinyasa Flow Fan Must Know

How to use Durga to let go of ego

This tale makes sense on several levels. From the point of view of the environment, it’s a story about the unstoppable power of nature. From another perspective, it assures us that higher powers will protect us when we take refuge in them. But on the esoteric level, the Durga story is about the transformation of the ego. The mighty battle between Durga and the demons is the inner struggle that invariably begins when we undertake real transformative practice.

Like those demon kings, the ego enters into spiritual practice with its own secret agenda. Egos seek control—control over circumstances, control over the body, and control over the people around us. Power and mastery are what matter to the ego. So, naturally, the ego will resist surrendering to higher powers, letting go of its agendas, or giving up control on any level. But shakti has a different agenda. She wants to move us away from egocentric consciousness and recognize our fundamental oneness with one another and the cosmos. To do this, she must put the ego in its place and ultimately dissolve it. The ego, however, will fight her to the death.

The demons personify the more primitive and intransigent forces of ego. They are the parts of us that unabashedly crave power over others. The demonic part of the self sees everything and everyone, including the higher powers of the universe, as tools that serve the ego’s personal agendas. The gods, as we’ve mentioned, also represent aspects of the self, but they represent the authentic Self, the unique personal qualities of essence. The devas represent our love, our dedication, our good intentions, and the forgiveness and compassion we display when we’re aligned with the higher Self. Durga arrives in our inner world to strengthen those higher qualities, whether for the sake of accomplishing good in the world or for progress on the spiritual path.

As postmodern practitioners, we usually prefer to take a gentler attitude toward our dark side. Most of us long ago rejected authoritarian religion, with its talk of sin and insistence on eliminating the darker forces within us.

If we are practitioners of a path that emphasizes our innate goodness, we might prefer to ignore the negative qualities in the self on the principle that fighting the ego only strengthens it. If we’re psychodynamically oriented, we might be interested in bringing our shadow qualities into the light so we can integrate the power tied up in anger or greed or pride. If we are walking a nondual path, we may feel that all struggle has to be given up, since everything is ultimately one.

See also Slow Flow: Learn to Live from Love with a Brahma Vihara

All these approaches are useful, some on the level of personality, others as part of the practice for enlightenment. But there are moments when the only way to put our narcissism in its place is with a sword—the sword of wisdom wielded by a warrior who takes no prisoners. This is Durga’s role, whether she is operating in the outer world or the inner world.

In my life, the energy of the warrior goddess with her upraised sword shows up to remind me to get my striving, performance-oriented ego out of the way so that the deeper power can unfold my life according to her evolutionary imperative. Durga, in my inner world, is the unstoppable energy of spiritual growth. When I resist that, I often encounter an unexpected setback. She might get in my face as a kind of cosmic “No!” to my personal agendas—and then manifest as the deeper awakening that follows when I am able to let them go.

Over the years, I’ve been through this cycle often. At times, egoic illusions grow bigger, pile up, and take over my world—until, like a river in springtime, they become so swollen that they must come bursting forth. Then, nearly always, I hear the roar of the goddess’s lion sounding through my dreams.

Perhaps Durga shows up to guide me through an impasse. Maybe I’ll make some horrific mistake, and she’ll appear to help me navigate the consequences. More and more, I’ve learned in those moments to bow to her in order to spare myself the pain that comes from resistance to the shakti’s agenda for my growth.

Whenever you feel yourself caught in one of those moments—when your personal will seems blocked by immovable obstacles—consider that it might be a signal from the shakti. Then, try sitting for a few minutes in meditation and using your imagination to bring yourself into the presence of Durga.

Connect with the goddess Durga through breath work and meditation.

Finding Your Ferocity with Durga

One of the most powerful practices for connecting with the goddess is to imagine that with each inhalation, you draw in her loving, protecting, empowering energy, and with each exhalation you breathe her energy through your body. As in so much yoga practice, the breath is the bridge between our physical self and the subtle energies of the invisible worlds. When you invoke Durga, you may very well feel her as a heightened energy. But connecting to Durga’s energy is just as likely to result in a subtle feeling of greater insight, in a feeling of being supported with strength to carry on during a hard time, or in the strategic instinct that helps you win your battles. This can happen so subtly that it’s only in hindsight that you realize you were being supported. And this can happen in surprising ways.

Sasha, a lawyer and the mother of two girls, first discovered the Durga shakti when her daughter Lee began failing in school. It turned out that Sasha’s husband, Lee’s father, was engaging his daughter sexually. Sasha vowed that, whatever it took, she would protect her daughters. She filed for divorce, insisting that her husband not be allowed unsupervised visits with their girls. He fought hard for joint custody, deploying a high-powered legal team. (Though a lawyer herself, Sasha’s field is wills and trusts, and she had never litigated.)

In the midst of this, Sasha took a class I was teaching on the goddesses. She felt an immediate affinity for Durga and created a meditation in which she imagined Durga’s strength inside her own body. She would visualize each of Durga’s eight arms holding a particular power. In one hand, she imagined the power to use words skillfully. In another, the power to read financial statements with care. In another, the skill to face down her husband’s lawyers. She imagined all of Durga’s weapons as energies empowering her to protect her two daughters.

See also Goddess Yoga Project: Defeat Fear With Sword Breath

She won the case and, soon afterward, realized that an enormous weight had been lifted from Lee. The fact that Sasha had fought on her daughter’s behalf seemed to give the teenager a sense of purpose and a new understanding of her own feminine strength.

Like Sasha, any one of us can tune into our personal Durga strength by invoking the goddess’s energy and wisdom. As you do, you’ll likely discover your personal capacity for warrior-style leadership. Anyone in touch with her inner Durga will naturally create zones of protection around the people in her life. (Durga is also an effortless multitasker, like a mother who manages three children while cooking a five-course meal—or an executive running a team of diverse employees.)

The Durga woman makes space for people to flourish, fighting their battles when needed—as Sasha did for her daughters—but she is just as likely to push them into fighting for themselves.

Answer Durga's Call to Lead

One way to feel a sense of the Durga shakti is to remember a moment when you recognized, from the deepest place inside you, that something was wrong, that it had to change. If that recognition comes from the Durga shakti, it goes beyond mere frustration or cognitive awareness of a social problem. Durga’s transformative power carries a conviction that comes from deep inside the body, and with it often comes a sense of “Now!”—meaning the time is now. When that sense is strong enough, it is followed by action. You will put your body and your speech on the line to change the situation, whether it’s internal or external.

One of my Durga friends in Los Angeles noticed that her son’s asthma was activated when local crops were being sprayed for pests. She organized a group of mothers to protest aerial spraying in her area, and after several years, the group not only had it banned in Los Angeles, but also had the pesticide removed from circulation entirely. Now, along with her day job as a psychotherapist, she runs an environmental group focused on lobbying against airborne pesticides.

The same power of purposeful action can be invoked when you need the will to change a deep-seated habit or addiction, to carve out time for practice, or to follow an inner calling. The Durga shakti can give you the power to face parts of yourself that stand in the way of your evolution, but she can also show you how to speak up for yourself when you need to ask for a raise, face a challenge, or take on a difficult responsibility—in short, to set things right.

The more you invite Durga’s energy into your life, the more you’ll feel her opening you to your inner warrior. Her power guards your highest aspirations, and she promises never to let you down.

See also 5 Ways to Tap Into Your Inner Leader (and Stay True to Yourself)

About the Author Sally Kempton is an internationally recognized teacher of meditation and yoga philosophy and the author of Meditation for the Love of It. Find her at sallykempton.com. This piece originally appeared in the June 2013 issue of Yoga Journal and is adapted from Sally Kempton’s book, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga (Sounds True, 2013).

from Yoga Journal http://bit.ly/2EMMtrG