TEXT 44

srsti-sthiti-pralaya-sadhana-saktir eka
chayeva yasya bhuvanani bibharti durga
icchanurupam api yasya ca cestate sa
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami

WORD FOR WORD

srsti--creation; sthiti--preservation; pralaya--anddestruction; sadhana--the agency; saktih--potency; eka--one; chaya--the shadow; iva--like; yasya--of whom; bhuvanani--the mundane world; bibharti--maintains; durga--Durga; iccha--the will; anurupam--in accordance with; api--certainly; yasya--of whom; ca--and; cestate--conducts herself; sa--she; govindam--Govinda; adi-purusam--the original person; tam--Him; aham--I; bhajami--worship.

TRANSLATION

The external potency Maya who is of the nature of the shadow of the cit potency, is worshiped by all people as Durga, the creating, preserving and destroying agency of this mundane world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda in accordance with whose will Durga conducts herself.

PURPORT

(The aforesaid presiding deity of Devi-dhama is being described.) The world, in which Brahma takeshis stand and hymns the Lord of Goloka, isDevi-dhama consisting of the fourtenn worlds and Durga is its presiding deity. She is tenarmed, representing the tenfold fruitive acitivites.She rides on the lion, representing her heroic prowess. She trampels down Mahisasura, representing the subduer of vices. She is the mother of two sons, Karttikeya and Ganesa, representing beauty and success. She is placed between Laksmi andSarasvati, representing mundane opulence and mundane knowledge. She is armed with the twenty weapons, representing the various pious activities enjoined by the Vedas for suppression of vices. She holds the snake, representing the beauty of destructive time. Such is Durga possessing all these manifold forms. Durga is possessed of Durga, which means a prison house. When jivas begotten of the marginal potency (tatastha sakti) forget the service of Krsna they are confined in the mundane prison house, the citadel of Durga. The wheel of karma is the instrument of punishment at this place. The work of purifying these penalized jivas is the duty developed upon Durga. She is incessantly engaged in discharging the same by the will of Govinda. When, luckily, the forgetfulness of Govinda on the part of imprisoned jivas is remarked by them by coming in contact with self-realized souls and their natural aptitude for the loving service of Krsna is aroused, Durga herself then becomes the agency of their deliverance by the will of Govinda. So it behooves everybody to obtain the guileless grace of Durga, themistress of the prison house, by propritiating her with the selfless service of Krsna. The boons received from Durga in the shape of wealth, property, recoveryfrom illness, of wife and sons, should be realized as thedeluding kindness of Durga. The mundane physical jubilations of dasa-maha-vidya, the ten goddesses or forms of Durga, are elaborated for the delusion of the fettered souls of this world. Jiva is a spiritual atomic part of Krsna. When he forgets his service of Krsna he is at once deflected by the attracting power of Maya in this world, who throws him into the whirlpool of mundane fruitive activity (karma) by confining him in a gross body constituted by the five material elements, their five attributes and eleven senses, resembling the garb of a prisoner. In this whirlpool jiva has experience of happiness and miseries, heaven and hell. Besides this, there is a subtle body, consisting of the mind, intelligence and ego, inside the gross body. By means of the subtle body, the Jiva forsakes one gross body and takes recourse to another. The jiva cannot get rid of the subtle body, full of nescience and evil desires, unless and until he is liberated. On getting rid of the subtle body he bathes in the Viraja and goes up to Hari-dhama. Such are the duties performed by Durga in accordance with the will of Govinda. In the Bhagavata sloka, vilajyamanaya ... durdhiyah--the relationship between Durga and the conditioned souls has been described.

Durga, worshiped by the people of this mundane world, is the Durga described above. But the spiritual Durga, mentioned in the mantra which is the outer covering of the spiritual realm of the Supreme Lord, is the eternal maidservant of Krsna and is, therefore, the transcendental reality whose shadow, the Durga of this world, functions in this mundane world as her maidservant. (Vide the purport of sloka 3.)