This is an interesting verse where Agatthiyar calls the Sakthi, the kundalini sa

kthi as Durga. The term Durga means one who is invincible and also one who removes
difficulties. Navadurga are the nine forms of Durga worshipped during navaratri
. Due to their association with the cakras in the body Agatthiyar is mentioning
her here while talking about ascension of Kundalini sakthi. According to scriptu
res, Durga incarnates as Sarasvati, Lakshmi and Kali. Each of them manifest into
three more forms and thus there are totally nine Durgas or nava durga.
The first form of the nine Durga is Shilaputri. She is worshipped on the first d
ay of Durga Puja. She represents the muladhara cakra. As the daughter of Daksha,
the muladhara, where our not easily shakable karma, the rock, is stored, she is c
alled Shilaputri or the daughter of the rock.
Her second form is called Brahmacharini. She represents the svadishtana cakra in
this form. Svadishtana or sva+adhishtana means the locus of the Self. Karmas ar
e usually stored in the muladhara and they operate through the svadishtana. Durg
a who represents Svadishtana, where the kundalini who is not married to Siva resid
es, is the Brahmacharini. She remains as the one who contemplates on the Brahmam
.
In her third form she is Chandrakhaanta representing the manipuraka cakra. Chand
ra represents consciousness. Chandrakaantha means one who adores the supreme con
sciousness. The limited soul held in the concealed state at the muladhara and sv
adhishtana starts its journey of breaking free from its fetters, desiring (kaant
ha) the state of supreme consciousness, the chandra.
Kushmanda Durga represents the fourth cakra, the anahata. This term means one who
brings a little warmth to the universe . A warm heart means a heart filled with l
ove. Tirumular has referred to this as ambe sivam
The Skandamata, the fifth form of Durga, represents the Visuddhi cakra. At the v
ishuddhi cakra the base qualities or animalistic tendencies start their transfor
mation into Divine qualities. Hence, this place is called "kanda" or the meeting
point. The union of Siva and Sakti or the universal and limited consciousness s
tarts from this cakraa. Hence, she is Skandamata, the mother who will birth Skan
da.
Katyayani Durga represents the ajna cakra. Devi Kanyakumari is a form of Katyaya
ni Devi.
Kaalaraatri Durga, Maha Gauri and Siddhi Daatri correspond to the three cakras a
bove the ajna. They could be the bindu cakra, the sahasrara and the dvadasantha
or the bindu, guru and sahasrara cakra. The kundalini sakthi flows through the s
ushumna nadi until the ajna cakra. After ajna it flows through several channels,
goes through the indu cakra at the back of the head, the guru cakra at the entr
ance of the sahasrara and then reaches the pinnacle, the sahasrara. Thus the pat
h of kundalini beyond ajna is very fierce, unknown, dark and the Durga who repre
sents it is Kaalaratri. Also, the concept of time stops at ajna where only soul
consciousness exists. Thus, this form of Durga kills time . Beyond Kaal ratri is Ma
a Gauri, the benevolent mother, the guru who takes us to Siva at the sahasrara.
At Sahasrara she is Siddhi daatri or granter of Siddhi.
Siddhi Daatri was the first Durga or Devi who emerged from Siva at the time of c
reation. Thus she represents the state of supreme consciousness.
The ascendance of wisdom is said to a state of complete effulgence, koti surya p
rakasa. This state is represented by Kashmunda.
Thus the nine forms of Durga are nothing but Kundalini Sakti in various forms an
d navaratri puja is actually a puja for kundalini sakthi.
Now going back to the verse- aam means aham or the sense of Self. In Nandikesaka
asika it is said that the first letter of the sanskrit alphabet a joins with the
last letter ha and becomes aham. Thus it encompasses all the tattva, all the en
tities within it. Oom represents the Self in action. The "aaam enra kampam oom e
nru aagi" means, the actionless state has a ripple in it, kampam means slight mo
vement, and becomes the world, the oom. This ripple is the dance of Durga, the d
ance of Self. It is the self with distinctions as "I" and "that". The two shirts
sankalpa and vikalpa means will and imagination. These are two actions of maya
that operates through the mind. sankalpa is will that controls the prana. Hence,
the Raja yogis consider the will or the mind to be greater than the prana or th

e breath. vikalpa is imagination. Swami Sivananda says that maya plays havoc thr
ough this vikalpa. Imagination or visualization is both good and bad. Siddhas re
commend visualization as a technique to break away from limitedness. It is also
the cause for bondage as the mind imagines without any limit. Hence, these two s
hould be removed, that is, influence of the mind should be removed to reach the
supreme state. One has to even go beyond the aham the state of consciousness as
there is still the split of "me and my consciousness" or Siva and Sakti, to reac
h the paraveli or the state of supreme consciousness. Durga or Self reveals how
to do so for those who are practising kundalini yoga by being aware of the top a
nd bottom termini, the sahasrara and muladhara, the unmanifested state and compl
etely manifested state.
========================================================|| The Primacy of Shakti
||
The ultimate goal of human life is liberation or moksha, the realization of the
Pure Self or Brahman beyond all time, space and karma . In that alone is complet
e and lasting peace and freedom. This is made clear in many great spiritual teac
hings since the Vedas.
This supreme reality of pure unity is not hard to describe and the quest for it
is something that we know in our hearts, where we seek oneness with all. The imp
ortant and difficult question that arises, however, is how to get there? That pu
re Self is so far removed from our ordinary life experience that it requires a r
adical change of our entire way of life to even approach.
Brahman is nirguna (devoid of qualities), nishkriya (beyond action) and nishkama
(beyond desire). It is extremely difficult to access even for those with the sh
arpest minds and the purest life-styles. Brahman, moreover, is beyond all paths,
all efforts and all striving. It is outside of time, space and causation and ca
nnot be produced by anything. The very one who seeks it must himself disappear b
efore finding it. Yet even having that thought about its ultimacy does not take
one there or even insure that one is going in the right direction.
Only if our minds can be fully concentrated within the heart can we know That Su
preme Being. Those whose minds are clear and internally focused can certainly en
ter into that formless Brahman. But if there is any unfulfilled desire, we canno
t reach it, or if we touch it, we cannot abide in it. The problem is that we are
full of desires, even if our minds are strong. Desire is the essence of all tha
t we do and the very force behind our lives.
We do not live in Brahman or the unmanifest beyond time and space but in the man
ifest realm of life experience, filled with its energies, attractions, repulsion
s and attachments. In our ordinary minds and emotions, we are products of time a
nd space. We are caught in place, person, form and karma as the very foundation
of our personal and social reality.
We cannot go beyond this manifest realm unless we first recognize the power behi
nd it. It is not within our power to go beyond the realm in which we exist and o
f which we are a product. Only the power that has created us can do this for us.
So the real question, what is the power behind the universe, behind our bodies
and minds and how can we work with it to reach the Ultimate?
The real power behind this manifest universe is Shakti or the energy of the Godd
ess, which is Brahman s force of expression and manifestation. Shakti or the power
of creation controls everything that occurs within her field. The formless Brah
man beyond creation has no concern about this realm or anything that we do withi
n it. It can neither help us nor hinder us in any way. From its point of view, t
here never has been any birth or death, individual or cosmos, bondage or liberat
ion. Even our seeking of liberation has no meaning for it.
Our lives depend entirely upon Shakti, which grants us vitality, feeling and awa
reness, through which we operate on all levels and can set in motion both our ou
ter actions and inner sadhana or spiritual practice. Shakti controls the entire
manifestation, just as electricity allows all appliances to work. She rules over
the processes of birth and death and the unfoldment karma. She provides our sou
ls with the bodies and minds and the worlds in which to experience life. All tha
t we eat, breathe, perceive, feel or know consists of some portion of her energy
and an aspect of Her dynamic processes that surround us on every side. All that

we seek to acquire for sustenance, happiness, knowledge or growth is part of He

r and comes from Her.
Yet Shakti also controls the way beyond manifestation, the return to Brahman. Ev
en to seek Brahman, to seek what is beyond Shakti, we must work with Shakti. Sha
kti provides us the power of meditation and the discriminating insight through w
hich we can transcend time and space. This means that the best means for both sp
iritual realization and for gaining all the other goals of life is to worship Sh
akti, to work with and for the Goddess. There is no other way as effective, if t
here is any other way at all. If the Brahman is the goal, the Shakti is both the
path and the power to traverse it. We can awaken and follow her current to Brah
man, or remain asleep and get caught in her outside streams that move in differe
nt directions.
Therefore, the issue is not Brahman, which is beyond everything, but Shakti that
manifests everywhere. Shakti is all around us, flashing forth in everything, wh
ether we recognize Her play or not. The issue is how to gain the grace of that S
hakti
How to ally ourselves with the right Shaktis to facilitate our development
as a soul.
We must recognize the primacy of Shakti, or few if any of us can ever come to Br
ahman, or even successfully gain the ordinary goals of life. Even great Vedantin
s first worshipped Shakti, as in the case of the great teachings of the text the
Tripura Rahasya, or had to recognize Shakti eventually, as in the case of Tota
Puri, the guru of Ramakrishna.
Everything is controlled by Shakti. Shakti is closely connected to all aspects o
f life that we depend on, which attract us and keep life going and developing. T
hink about it carefully. Birth, reproduction and sexuality are all through Shakt
i. Food and nourishment are another play of Shakti. Breath, life (Prana), emotio
n and feeling are all owing to Shakti. The great elements of Earth, Water, Fire,
Air and Ether are all forms of Shakti, which is their underlying energy. The pr
ime gunas of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas are root forces of Shakti. Or successes, ga
ins, goals and achievements in any endeavor are only possible because of Shakti
or the power to accomplish them that we have been able to discover how to work w
ith.
Energy, science and technology are means of working with Shakti on an outer leve
l and have transformed our world. The mass media is a play of Shakti in the fiel
d of communication, which has broken down barriers of communication everywhere.
The Earth itself with its rich diversity of life is Shakti in manifest form as t
he land on which we live. The stars are the flashing forth of the cosmic Shakti
through the unbounded expanse of space. Even subatomic particles are alive with
powerful subtle forces of Shakti, which forms the ocean or matrix from which the
y dance in and out of.
All the things that we are attached to or involved with are forms of Shakti or a
re rooted in Shakti. Whatever we love, seek or desire is some aspect of Shakti t
hat endows forms with color, beauty, charm and delight. It is not the object, pe
rson, place or experience in itself that is the real source of our fascination w
ith them but the energy, rasa or essence, the Shakti working through it. We are
under the allure of Shakti in one way or another, whether we recognize that unde
rlying Shakti or not.
We cannot get beyond anything unless we first honor the Shakti behind it, which
means to touch its core energy in consciousness. You cannot renounce anything th
at you are really attracted to, however hard you may try. But you can recognize
the Shakti behind it and following that out, get beyond the limitations of the f
orm, like the bee that can gather the pollen and does not remember the form. The
Shakti within any individual object or experience is ultimately the same Shakti
within all.
We cannot get out of the realm of Shakti unless we recognize and honor the Shakt
i, which is both in this realm and beyond
unless she decides. If she is not will
ing, our efforts will be in vain. If she is willing, then we will be guided alon
g the way and she herself will lead us forward. We can then just follow her flow
and need not calculate or push our way onward, carried forward by her flow. Yet
for this to occur we must first learn to look within and discover the deepest m

ovement of the Shakti inside ourselves. This we will discover as our own most in
ward seeking of truth and divinity.
Shakti is the way to God or Brahman. Even if you only want to practice Yoga, you
must awaken and honor the Kundalini Shakti to take you forward. If you are devo
ted to God or the Goddess in any form, you must have that Shakti of devotion to
take you forward. For any yantra, puja or mantra to work, its Shakti must be fir
st be invoked in order to give it power.
Even if you are wholly dedicated to Self-realization or Jnana, it is only possib
le through the grace of Shakti and her power of knowledge, her Buddhi Shakti thr
ough which the higher discrimination works. Without that Shakti supporting you a
ny efforts towards Self-realization or statements of Self-realization that you m
ay make will have no energy, strength or conviction.
In that primal Shakti there is no duality between the manifest and the unmanifes
t. It is the same Shakti in its active and inactive modalities. That Shakti hold
s the formless Brahman in the world of form, not by limiting it but as part of i
ts overflow which is her dance. So whether a devotee worships Shakti for home an
d happiness or for the highest liberation, it is the same movement of Shakti on
different levels and in different ways.
Even if you want to change the world through political action, you must first ga
in the Shakti or power to do so. If you want to be a great artist, you need the
corresponding capacity of Shakti, the power and skill in art. Everything has its
key Shakti, which contains not only the energy but the code of its manifestatio
n like DNA, both its motivation and the energy to bring it about.
So during whatever spiritual practices you choose or whatever in life you seek t
hat will bring you peace and happiness, do not forget the primacy of the Shakti
and you will never lose your way. The true Shakti will gather all the outer Shak
tis and lead you to your inner goal.
There are two main ways of working with Shakti. The first is to recognize the di
fferent Shaktis in the universe, externally and internally, their qualities, ene
rgies and movements and how to work with them. This is like a doctor learning th
e powers of healing on different levels, including both those of diagnosis and t
reatment.
The second and simpler way is simply to worship Shakti directly, seeing the supr
eme Shakti in all things. If one honors the Shakti behind all Shaktis then one w
ill gain their support as well as learn to understand their specific forms. Yet
these two aspects of working with Shakti are related, by learning to discover th
e unique Shakti in each thing, one also touches the supreme Shakti that is every
where.