VIII - STRENGTH
Literature: Durga Chalisa
Artist: Raajvee Mehta
Raajvee is doing her 9th grade and has chosen to design the card Strength to depict Durgaa, her favorite goddess. According to Raajvee, the strength one derives from loved ones and the lord almighty is what keeps us going through difficult situations in life. She enjoys research and designing of the cards as it is almost like a small meditation for her to open her eyes to a lot she wasn't aware of. She says, "It brought me great pride and happiness while I did it and above all strengthened the faith in myself and my abilities. Three cheers for Strength - Jai Mata Di!"
Description:
Strength is what you need in times of despair to fight and in times of happiness to keep it going. "Durga Chalisa" is a text composed of a prayer of 40 verses dedicated to Goddess Durga, the cosmic source of Strength. The prayer begins with homage to Durgaa who is the giver of happiness and destroyer of all pains as she rules all three worlds - patala lok (areas of darkness and hell), prithvi lok (the earth) and sward lok (the heaven)
The text further describes her appearance as the most beautiful and divine when bestowing blessings and most fierce and scary when destroying evil. She takes various forms to bestow different types of blessings. She is Mahalakshmi for wealth, Annapurna for all materialities, Gauri-Parvati to compliment Shiva, Saraswati for knowledge, Amba for destruction of evil, Matangi, Dhumvati, Bhuvaneshvari, Baglamukhi, Bhavani, Tara and Bhairavi for all kinds of happiness and grandeur, and Kaali to conquer demons. Thus Durga is so strong in all her forms that prayer and faith to her will strengthen you in all days of pain and happiness. As every object of this world is subject to limitations, so is the human intellect. However the divine force which is in continuous action behind every subject and object, is beyond limitations and is as such called Shakti or Ma Durga. The same force become the thought of the subject, action of the object and later the cause of dissolution of both subject and object. The divine mother can be seen in numberless forms in the universe, yet she is the one and only Shakti, Energy or Strength.