I have always wondered about Kanya puja during Navratri & this made lots of sense ... so here goes .... simple put ....
KANYA means virgin. Man's soul is virgin. That virginity cannot be contaminated. Its pristine beauty and glory cannot be sullied.But you can't see the virgin soul; you don't know what it is or where it is in you. That purity of soul is the KANYA, which is the form of the Mother. Kanya represents the innocent & pure spirit, And, your inner being , which you cannot and will not see.
In Devi Tantra, the tantric system of the cosmic mother, the virgin is considered to be the true replica of the Cosmic Mother.
Kanya puja , is Devi puja. Devi , the Cosmic Mother. Devi means Luminous, illuminated, lustrous, the Light that is Within.
There resides a Kanya within all of us , a Devi , within all of us.
It's the concept. One does not have to prove it. The replica of fear is a tiger. The replica of greed is money, The replica of passion is woman. And so , the replica of Devi , the Cosmic Mother is Kanya.
1 comment:
I haven't really enquired into the deeper meaning or origin of our festivals.
"Kanya" or "Virgin" is a very old, and rather recondite, concept.
It is confusing, since there can never be any (re-)-production without fecundation.
The Virgin MOTHER Goddess is not original with Mary. Even Venus was a Virgin Mother Goddess.
Fundamentally, the Virgin Goddess represents the primordial abyss or "Chaos" out of which the Universe (the Logos, the Son) evolves.
Why is the term "virgin" used, is not clear to me.
Perhaps it is an indication of the absence of any sexual connotations in metaphysical concepts.
I feel the explanation may lie somewhere else altogether.
"Virgin" only later came to imply 'sexually chaste'.
Now this is my theory (and I'll exercise my intellectual property rights!!!): the word "virgin" is related to the word "Virgo"; my contention is that "Virgin" and "Virgo", come from the Sanskrit word "Viraj" ("Viraaj").
Viraaj is simply a mother Goddess.
There is an elaborate, abstruse hymn to Viraj in the 'Atharva Veda'.
In the 'Brihadaranyaka Upanishad', she is the wife of Indra, and represents MATTER.
In other words, the OCEAN ("mer", whence "Mary") of MATTER from which all forms, the whole comos, evolves.
In the BU, Indra resides in the right eye, and Viraj, in the left.
The right eye is the seat of "Vaishwanara": an epithet for Agni in the Rig Veda, and later, an aspect of Brahman itself (Mandukya Upanishad).
So "Virgo" etc might have simply refered to the Mother Goddess.
The idea of sexual purity might have been superimposed later.
"Viraj" later became masculine, an epithet of the Creator Brahma.
It is also possible that the idea of "virgin" comes from the fact that in the archaic systems, there was ONLY a Mother Goddess, from which the cosmos took birth.
There was no Father, no Trinity, no fecundating force, which "impregnated" the Mother, and thence, begot the Cosmos.
There was only mother -- and child.
The Mother Goddess was originally independent, and didn't need any 'Father'.
I feel originally there was Mother and Daughter, not mother & son.
The greatest mystery cult was that of Eleusis, in which the Greeks worshipped Demeter and Persephone.
So there was no question of their being a state of virginity and then of maternity.
(BTW, both Demeter & Persephone are of Hindu, Sanskrit extraction.)
The idea of purity is correct.
It applies in a moral context.
A Kanya-Devi also represents a purified body & consciousness, in which the child of enlightenment & wisdom (compassion, reason etc) can take birth.
Only a totally purified mind can receive truth & knowledge.
"Kanya" might also refer to the earliest of the three phases (& faces) of the Moon, or the Lunar Goddess.
In the west, these were the maiden, the mother, & the crone, I think. The last is often called Hecate. The first two are often called Luna, Selene, Diana, Artemis, etc.
Since nothing is ever explained with clarity, and the esotericists take joy in confusion, there's always an element of doubt in these issues, but it maybe said the three ladies who witness the crucifixion of Jesus originally represented the three phases of the moon.
--
AAISHIK KAR
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