189. Durgamā
The path to transcendence is littered with difficulties.
- The first difficulty concerns the identification of the soul with the physical body of Devi, Sadhaṭa.
- The second difficulty consists in removing the connection with individual thinking.
- The third difficulty concerns the difficulty in removing connection with an individual life. The last is the most difficult to transcend.
It is said that one of the Nāyanār, great devotees of Śiva, had the practice of offering a coconut to Śiva every day. One day no matter how long or how hard he searched, he could not find the coconut. The time appointed by himself for the offering was getting to be over. In desperation he went and broke his head as a coconut offering to Śiva. At that moment the devotee transcended the difficulty concerning his individual life form, and Śiva was pleased with this offering and gave him the transcendence. Thus the Nāyanār became a Ṛṣi.
Rare indeed are the individuals who experience transcendence and then come back to the miserable human conditions. Having tasted the beauty and eternal glory of God, this little morsel of delight mixed with a turn of sorrow no longer appeals to them. Such should merge willingly into the transcendental form which is called either Devi or Śiva interchangeably.
Source: Śrī Amṛtānandanātha Sarasvatī "Sudhā Syandinī Bhāṣyaṃ" Typed Manuscript
(an incomplete commentary on Lalitā Sahasranāma)
