Though The Devi Mahatmya is seemingly a narrative of the battle between The Devi and the asuras, there is a deeper significance to these demons and the battles. At one level The Devi Mahatmya is also an allegory to the inner battle between The Divine and the demoniac forces within the human psyche, between the positive and negative.
-
The battlegrounds represent human consciousness.
-
The events can symbolize human experiences.
-
The demons can be symbolic of the psychic forces within the shadow.
-
The Divine Mother is the inherent Divinity and Wholeness, of the Humans’ True Self.
The Divine Mother’s clashes with the demons symbolize the outward and inward struggles humans face daily. The Devi, Personified simultaneously as The One Supreme Goddess and also The Many Goddesses, confronts the demons of ahamkara or ego (the mistaken notion of who one is or what one identifies oneself with), of excessive tamas and rajas that give birth to other demons of excessive craving, greed, anger and pride, and of incessant citta vrttis.
Thus The Devi Mahatmya’s, while containing ‘Universal Truth’ on many levels, is also an allegory of the happenings within human consciousness, and to the transformation of human consciousness through the Intervention of The Divine Mother. The threefold transformation of consciousness is described in the three sections or episodes or charitas of The Devi Mahatmya.
