The Song of the Goddess: The Devi Gita: Spiritual Counsel of the Great Goddess

3. The Goddess Reveals Her Cosmic Body (The Viraj)

61 Chapter 3 The Goddess Reveals Her Cosmic Body (The Viraj) The Goddess spoke: 3.1. I imagine into being the whole world, moving and unmoving, through the power of my Maya, Yet that same Maya is not separate from me; this is the highest truth. 3.2. From the practical point of view, Maya is regarded as self-evident. In reality, however, it does not exist—only the supreme exists, in an absolute sense. 3.3. I, as Maya, create the whole world and then enter within it, Accompanied by ignorance, actions, and the like, and preceded by the vital breath, O Mountain. 3.4. How else could souls be reborn into future lives? They take on various births in accord with modifications of Maya. 3.5. Modified by apparent limitations, I become differentiated into parts, like space in different jars. 62 The Song of the Goddess The sun constantly illumines all objects however high or low, 3.6. Yet is not thereby stained; just so am I never stained by faults. Ordinary people superimpose on me the active agency of the intellect and the like: 3.7. “The Self is acting,” say the bewildered, not the wise. Modifications of ignorance and modifications of Maya 3.8. Divide the soul and the Lord into parts, respectively ; it is all contrived by Maya. The contrived separation of the space within jars from space in general 3.9. Is like the contrived division between the individual soul and the supreme soul. Just as the multiple manifestations of the soul are due to ignorance, not to the soul’s inherent nature, 3.10. Just so are the multiple manifestations of the Lord due to Maya, not to his innate essence. Creating divisions through the imagined distinctions of various bodies with all their senses, 3.11. Ignorance is the cause of the differentiation of souls; no other cause is revealed. Creating divisions through the imagined distinctions of the material qualities, O Mountain, 3.12. Maya is the cause of the differentiation of the supreme Lord into parts, and nothing else. 63 The Goddess Reveals Her Cosmic Body In me this whole world is woven in all directions , O Mountain. 3.13. I am the Lord and the Cosmic Soul; I am myself the Cosmic Body. I am Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra, as well as Gauri, Brahmi, and Vaishnavi. 3.14. I am the sun and the stars, and I am the Lord of the stars. I am the various species of beasts and birds; I am also the outcaste and thief. 3.15. I am the evildoer and the wicked deed; I am the righteous person and the virtuous deed. I am certainly female and male, and asexual as well. 3.16. And whatever thing, anywhere, you see or hear, That entire thing I pervade, ever abiding inside it and outside. 3.17. There is nothing at all, moving or unmoving , that is devoid of me; For if it were, it would be a nonentity, like the son of a barren woman. 3.18. Just as a single rope may appear variously as a serpent or wreath, So also I may appear in the form of the Lord and the like; there is no doubt in this matter. 3.19. The world cannot appear without an underlying basis. Accordingly, the world comes to be only through my own being and in no other way. 64 The Song of the Goddess Himalaya said: 3.20. Ruler of the Gods, since you have mentioned your aggregated cosmic form, I yearn to see it, O Goddess, if you would favor me. Vyasa said: 3.21. Hearing his request, all the gods including Vishnu Rejoiced with gladdened hearts, praising Himalaya’s words. 3.22. Then the Auspicious Goddess, who is a wishgranting cow to her devotees, knowing the minds of the gods, Revealed her own cosmic form, satisfying the desire of her devotees. 3.23. They beheld that Cosmic Body of the Great Goddess, that form beyond all other forms. The sky is its head, the moon and sun its eyes. 3.24. The cardinal directions are its ears, the Vedas its speech, the wind its breath, so it is proclaimed ; The universe is its heart, they say; the earth its loins, so it is thought. 3.25. The atmosphere is its navel, the stellar sphere its breast; The world known...