Worship of Goddesses: Know the Truth and Origin

A question/doubt

During the festival of nine nights (Navratri), devotional worship of goddesses (devis) is the tradition. Mythical mythologies (purans) depict such worship; however, these scriptures are of recent times (since about 5000 years) and are of worldly or of human origin.

Since Vedas are the original scriptures of unworldly origin, it is worth seeing what we find in them. According to Vedic revelation, the Supreme Lord (Paramatma) is free of birth and death, replete with all divine worthy qualities, and all-knowing. Can such a Supreme Lord ever be worshipped as a Goddess?

Conciliation/resolution

Vedas have averred Supreme Lord to be one and, endowed with Truth, Consciousness and Bliss (Sat-Chit-Anand). Since the Supreme Lord is endowed with an infinite number of qualities, He has countless names.  Goddess (Devi), Lakshmi, Sarawati etc. are some of the many names of the Supreme Lord. As per Vedic wisdom, Goddess, Shakti (feminine expression of divine energy), Lakshmi, Saraswati etc. are all paraphrases or exponential names of the Supreme Lord. 

  1. As many meanings are attributable to God or Dev like all knowable, endowed with all divine qualities etc. are all attributable to the word Goddess or Devi also.
  2. The word ‘shakti’ or feminine form of divine energy gets derived from the Sanskrit root ‘shakl’shaktou’. The meaning of “yaha sarvam jagat’kartum shaknoti sashaktihi” is ‘One, who is fully competent to make the whole cosmos – and hence the name of that Supreme Lord is ‘shakti’ or ‘power’ (expressed in a feminine gender’).  
    Note: The power of the Lord by which actions or functions occur represents the feminine aspect.
  3. (Shritrsevaayaam) The word ‘Shri’ is very clearly a derivative of this Sanskrit root. ‘yahashreeyate sevyate sarvena jagtaa-vidvad bhiryogibhishchasa shreer’ ishvaraha’. One, whose worship the whole world, the scholarly, and the spiritual practitioners do, the name of that Supreme Lord is ‘Shri’.
  4. (lakchsh-darshanaa’n kanayoha) The origin of the word Lakshmi is from this root. ‘yolakchshyati pashayatyam katechihn’ayati chara’acharam jagadh’thhva’avedaira’aptair yogibhischyo lakchshyate salakshmiihisarva priyeshwaraha’.  One who oversees all the creation (both animate and inanimate): One who makes all the visible parts like eyes, nose etc. and bodies: One who makes root, leaves, flowers and fruits of trees: One who makes the earth, water, blood, snow, clay, stone, moon, sun etc.: One, who is the grandeur of all glories, and one, who is the object of all scriptures and religious and spiritual scholars: Such one is worth seeing and worshipping, and hence, that Supreme Lord is known as ‘Lakshmi’.
  5. (srgatou), from this root, originates ‘saras’ and from that the suffixes’ matup and deep’; so, the word ‘Saraswati’ gets established. ‘sarovividhham jnaanam vidyateyasyaam chitousa’asaraswati’ One, who has the absolute knowledge of all worldly subjects like sound or words, meaning, connection or link and usage, that Supreme Lord is known as ‘Saraswati’.
  6. In the Vedic times, the Supreme Lord got worshipped as an embodiment of Truth, Consciousness and Bliss (sat-chit-Anand). Later, over a while, the worship of the divine power or energy (Shakti) of Supreme Lord came into vogue in Bengal and other states. Further, it got transformed into worship in the name of Durga and other Goddesses. The present-day celebrations of Goddesses are nothing but misplaced worship that occurred with time, essentially because of mythic mythologies overshadowing the Vedic understanding. Whenever we worship in the name of a god or goddess, we are only taking one aspect of the Supreme Lord. Whatever idols or pictures we create, the power in them is essentially of the Supreme Lord only. The power, however, is limited because each god or goddess is created, taking into consideration just one aspect of the Supreme Lord. Moreover, the worships of these forms may fetch only material benefits but that too in keeping with one’s karmic ambit only. The worship of the Supreme Lord is holistic, touching His all aspects of magnificence and the only one which can fetch all the souls eternal salvation free of the cycles of birth and death. On the other hand, very committed and ardent worship of various deities can at the most fetch limited period of salvation which is taken erroneously as eternal salvation by the religious scholars of this world.

Beware of facts

In the path of spiritual pursuit, one needs to have a clear and logical understanding of spiritual facts which, one can attain only by keeping an open mind to know beyond what one learns from family, friends and tradition. One needs to understand the difference between a Power House and small power stations to understand the difference between the Supreme Lord and the various deities in vogue.