JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Friday, July 11, 2025

Celebrating Nine Days of Devi Maa

by

2453 days ago
20181024
The Hindu Goddess Mother Durga

The Hindu Goddess Mother Durga

Bav­ina Sookdeo

The Shri Nav Dur­ga Kali Ashram held pu­ja for nine days ded­i­cat­ed to the Hin­du god­dess Moth­er Dur­ga. Ac­cord­ing to spir­i­tu­al leader of the ashram, Lar­ry Vinayak Yo­gesh, “This de­ity Dur­ga, is the fe­male as­pect of God al­so known as De­vi Maa and these nine days of prayer and fast­ing (known as Nav-Raa­tri) are ded­i­cat­ed to the nine forms of Dur­ga Maa.”

The nine forms of Dur­ga are: Shaila­pu­tri, Bhar­ma­chari­ni, Chan­dra Ghan­ta, Kush­man­da, Skan­da Ma­ta, Katyayani, Kaal Ra­tri, Ma­ha Gau­ri and Sid­dhi­da­tri.

Maa Kaal Ra­tri, who is al­so Kali Maa, is the god­dess who is nor­mal­ly wor­shipped at Yo­gesh’s tem­ple in South Oropouche. Since Maa Kaal Ra­tri is the sev­enth form of Maa Dur­ga, the spir­i­tu­al leader saw it fit to con­duct pu­ja and scrip­tur­al read­ings for the nine nights.

The San­skrit word ‘Dur­ga’ means fort or a place that is pro­tect­ed and dif­fi­cult to reach, thus, Moth­er Dur­ga is known to pro­tect her devo­tees. She rides on a li­oness and has eight hands which car­ry dif­fer­ent weapons. While she is a war­rior, to her devo­tees the god­dess is the most lov­ing moth­er.

Asked what Dur­ga Maa rep­re­sents, the spir­i­tu­al leader fond­ly called ‘Ba­ba Lar­ry’ stat­ed, “She rep­re­sents the en­er­gy of the uni­verse. With­out her noth­ing will ex­ist. She is the pos­i­tive en­er­gy that makes every­thing hap­pen. She is al­so the ide­al wife and moth­er and she pos­sess­es qual­i­ties which we should all have.” He ex­plained that the pur­pose of per­form­ing her pu­ja is to get rid of neg­a­tive en­er­gy and to have a pro­duc­tive life with pos­i­tive en­er­gy. This pu­ja al­so holds ben­e­fits for the en­tire coun­try the spir­i­tu­al leader dis­closed. “This pu­ja brings rain­fall and reg­u­lates cli­mate” he said. “Any­one who goes to Dur­ga Maa is pro­tect­ed and she al­ways res­cues them.”

Dur­ga pu­ja is done at the Shri Nav Dur­ga Kali Ashram every Fri­day night. The ashram is opened to the pub­lic.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored