AT THIS TIME of year in India, millions will honour Goddess Durga, a joyous and triumphant festival seeking the preservation of moral order and righteousness.
She’s a fierce weapon-wielding superhero, the slayer of demons – our inner demons – negative forces that blunt and obstruct our higher potential. If we cooperate with her, pray to her, she subdues a whole battalion of foes: hatred, anger, jealousy, arrogance, depression and more.
This year the Durga Puja celebrations themselves will be obstructed and restrained by Covid-19 restrictions – a subtle new foe for Mother Durga.
As in India, the concept of God as Mother was present in many cultures from ancient times. For the Japanese she is Amaterasu: Sun-Goddess, the Greeks have Demeter: the corn goddess, in Egypt she’s Isis: the River Goddess. The Vikings called her Freya, the Eskimos, Sedna, the Romans, Artemis – to name just a few.
In ancient times humanity was immersed in the natural world and knew so well its volatile moods. Like a mother, nature nurtured them with food, water and shelter. Sometimes, when stirred, she would thunder and stomp, unleashing stormy tirades. In calm or calamity, our ancestors bowed before her, accepting all.
Now Mother Nature is increasingly viewed as something to be controlled and exploited, to be artificially boosted through fertilizers, to be artificially replicated through cloning, to be artificially reorganized through genetic engineering. In short, we take her for granted. We expect her, like all Mothers, to always supply our wants.
In this “age of rising expectations,” we’re tugging on the skirt of Mother Nature, demanding more and more. Exasperated, with darkened face, she’s increasingly ‘slapping’ us with storms and fires and floods.
It’s time we pray to the Divine Mother/ Mother Nature, promising to live in a simpler, less demanding way.
