When I contemplate as a woman and a dancer, I find Devi as a concept , very often not explored to its true meaning or essence. She is either fierce , or angry, or beautiful etc. Constantly jumping about various emotions. What I find it difficult to grasp, is that the Devi who is beyond Gunas, beyond time, the creator of very existence and manifestation of power can try to be a chest thumping feminist . If Spiderman can talk about ” With great power comes great responsibility” , I can only imagine the responsibility of the Goddess herself towards all beings. She in her wisdom , will not discriminate who is demon, who is deva, who is this or that. Without this fundamental understanding , do we not risk reducing her to a partial and biased being?
How can the Goddess ever be angry with any Asura? Anger’s root cause is always Fear. How can the supreme goddess ever give in to fear?, that too from an Asura ? With the power she has, she is unparalleled. She has no concept of fear, as she knows herself and her powers. With that supreme power , she can only be CALM,CONFIDENT and COMPASSIONATE. That will be her sthayi regardless of the form she will inhabit.
If we for a perspective sake, take Mahishasuramardini, demon Mahisha is afterall the lower evolution ( Buffalo!!) with some powers. Devi is Lokamaata. For her, he is no more or no less than a wayward son. Even his abuse, bad behaviour, cruelty are all his issues stemming from his own lack of knowledge and power. It is befitting that Mahishasura truly fears Devi, hence is angry. But Devi is assured of herself, she will reason, playfully defends from the astras of the mad asura ,perhaps treating his weapons as a toddler’s toys being thrown !! and while doing so perhaps lends him a whack or two , just to keep him in check. It is unlikely , she is angry and craving destruction. When all else fails, it will not take more than a single strike to annihilate Mahishasura, just like an elephant does not need to stomp mindlessly to kill an ant. All through this event, Devi as a supreme warrior will unlikely give into Anger.
It is the lack of understanding of the concept of Devi and her all pervading nature, that allows us to see her as in Raudra than Veera. Anger and Power are two different things. On stems out of fear and the other through infinite capabilities. One who is truly powerful and aware of it, does not need to mindlessly assert it. So isn’t it wise that we reflect on this and perhaps see it from a different vantage point and make representations of Devi as Power and Glory, not ANGRY!!!
