According to the Devi our true nature, Spirit, is(a field of pure consciousness)

Hinduism: A Short Introduction
by Klaus Klostermaier

"The Goddess is the great Sakti. She is Maya, for of her the maya which produces the samsara is. As Lord of Maya she is Mahamaya. Devi is avidya because she binds, and vidya because she liberates and destroys the samsara. She is praktri and as existing before creation is the Adya Sakti. Devi is the Vacaka Sakti, the manifestation of Cit in Praktri, and the Vicya Sakti or Cit itself. The Atma should be contemplated as Devi. Sakti or Devi is thus the Brahman revealed in The Mother aspect (Srimata) as creatrix and nourisher of the worlds. Kali say of herself in Yogini Tantra: "I am the bodily form of Saccidananda and I am the brahman that has emanated from brahman.” "- K. K. Klostermaier

SHRI DEVI GITA
by Shri Giridhar Madras

Introduction:

Devi gita constitutes the last ten chapters of the seventh Skandha of the Devi Bhagavatam. In the puranas, one will find several gitas and many mahatmyas. The differences are that in the mahatmya, the glorification of the deity is by recounting the various deeds of the God and offering praise to the divinity. A gita, on the other hand, is a direct revelation of the truth from the disciple, which often includes the manifestation of the cosmic form. While mahatymas emphasize bhakti, gita stresses a balance of bhakti and jnana.

Specifically, we are interested in discussing the Devi gita. To avoid any confusion and also be aware, there are two other devi gitas. The first of which is found in the Kurma purana. This is a conversation with Parvati and Himavan, introduced by Lord Vishnu as Kurma. Goddess Parvati is praised here by 1008 names and She grants him two cosmic visions and instructs him. The other devi gita is found in the Mahabhagavata purana, which actually refers to the conversation of Parvati and Himavan as Parvati Gita. The narrator of this section of the Mahabhagavata Purana is Lord Shiva. However, by Devi gita, we refer only to the gita found in the Devi Bhagavatam.

Setting:

The setting of the Devi gita is introduced by Janamejaya's query to Vyasa regarding the supreme light who became manifest on top of the Himalaya mountain. Vyasa talks about the demon Taraka, who has obtained a boon that he can be killed only by the son of Lord Shiva, knowing fully well that Sati has immolated herself. Therefore, the gods became scared and went to Himalayas and worshipped Her asking to born and marry Lord Shiva. Shakti then appears before them and grants them a boon that her manifestation will be born as Gauri as the daughter of Himavan. Himalaya becomes choked with emotion when he hears that She, whose belly contains millions of universes, is about to become his daughter. He requests as follows," Proclaim to me your nature, and declare that yoga conjoined with bhakti and that jnana in accord shruti whereby you and I become one.”

This sets the scene for Devi Gita and the teachings.

Brief summary:

In the Devi gita, following Himalayas request, the Devi proceeds to describe her essential forms. The Devi declares that prior to creation, She is the only existent entity, the one supreme Brahman and is pure consciousness. Then She outlines the basic evolution of the causal, subtle and gross bodies of the supreme Self when enjoined with maya. The treatment here is very similar to that of Vedantasara and Panchadasi, but in much more simpler terms than the latter. Then She reveals Her forms (both the frightful and pleasing) to the gods and Himalaya. Then follows a detailed summary of the yoga, the stages of bhakti and the ways to attain Her.

Simplicity and Profoundness:

Devi gita is both simple and profound. It is different from other gitas in the respect that statements are clear and can not be reinterpreted according to one's taste. For example, several commentaries have been written on the Bhagavad Gita of Krishna, wherein each commentator feels differently regarding bhakti and jnana. For example, it required Madhusudana Saraswati to explain krama mukti in clear terms (though Shankara mentions it also) of bhakti. But Devi Gita is clear: "Even when a person performs bhakti, knowledge need not arise. He will go to the Devi's Island (similar to Brahmaloka). Till the complete knowledge in the form of my consciousness arises, there is no liberation.”

Similarly, the word of 'coming', 'going', 'becoming' cause confusion since one can not become Brahman, if one is already one. The Devi Gita provides a clear explanation that all these terms are applicable only as long as one in maya. It is the clarity of these terms and the simple explanation of complex vedantic and philosophical questions that makes Devi Gita unique.

Start of chapter 33:

The Devi said: "O Giriraja ! This whole universe, moving and unmoving is created by My maya shakti. This maya is conceived in Me. It is not, in reality, different or separate from Me. So I am the only Chit, Intelligence.

There is no other Intelligence other than Me. Viewed practically, it is known variously as Maya, avidya; but viewed from the point of Brahman, there is no such thing as Maya. Only one Brahman exists, I am that Brahman, of the nature of Intelligence. I create this whole world on this Unchangeable eternal Brahman and enter first as Prana within it in the form of chidabhasa.

O Mountain ! Unless I enter as Breath, how can this birth and death and leaving and retaking bodies after bodies be accounted for! As one akasa is denominated variouslty as Ghatakas, patakas, so too I appear variously by acknowledging this prana in various places due to avidya and various antahkaranas.

As the sun rays are never defiled when they illumine various objects on earth, so too, I am not defiled in entering thus into various high and low antahkaranas. The ignorant people attach buddhi and other things of activity on Me and say that the Atman is the doer. The intelligent people do not say that. I remain as the Witness in the hearts of all men, not as the Doer.”

SHRI DEVI GITA
Shri Giridhar Madras

"Inspired Talks, My Master and Other Writings"
Swami Vivekananda

"The Saktas worship the Universal Energy as Mother; it is the sweetest name they know. The Mother is the highest ideal of womanhood in India. [...]

Mother is the first manifestation of power and is considered a higher idea than father. The name of mother brings the idea of Shakti, Divine energy and omnipotence. The baby believes its mother to be all-powerful, able to do anything. The Divine Mother is the Kundalini sleeping in us; without worshipping Her, we can never know ourselves. All merciful, all-powerful, omnipresent - these are attributes of the Divine Mother. She is the sum total of the energy in the Universe.

Every manifestation of power in the universe is Mother. She is Life, She is Intelligence, She is Love. She is in the universe, yet separate from it. She is a person, and can be seen and known - as Sri Ramakrishna saw and knew Her. Established in the idea of Mother, we can do anything. She quickly answers prayers.

She can show Herself to us in any form at any moment. The Divine Mother can have form (rupa) and name (nama), or name without form; and as we worship Her in these various aspects, we can rise to Pure Being, having neither form nor name.

The sum-total of all the cells in an organism is one person. Each soul is like one cell, and the sum of them is God. And beyond that is the Absolute. The sea calm is the Absolute; the same sea in waves is the Divine Mother. She is time, space and causation. Mother is the same as Brahman and has two natures; the conditioned and the unconditioned. As the former, She is God, nature and soul. As the latter, she is unknown and unknowable. Out of the Unconditioned came the trinity, God, nature and soul - the triangle of existence.

A bit of Mother, a drop, was Krishna; another was Buddha. The worship of even one spark of Mother in our earthly mother leads to greatness. Worship Her if you want love and wisdom.”

Swami Vivekananda, "Inspired Talks, My Master and Other Writings",
Wed. July 2,1895, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, NY, pp. 48-49.

THE PRIMEVAL ENERGY

One of the unique features of Hinduism is the fact that it conceives Divinity also as Mother Goddess. When Divinity has no name or form — which is the most important declaration of the Upanishads, the next logical step is to recognize that the Supreme has no specifity in terms of gender. The Upanishads transcend the gender-specific connotation and invent the unique Sanskrit word tat, meaning 'that' for that Supreme Reality. And therefore they argue, whatever reason or rhyme we have in referring to God by a masculine pronoun, the same right there is for us to call God by a feminine pronoun. The energy of every Cosmic Divinity is taken to be feminine and thus arises the interesting concept of primordial power or the [Parashakti], which means 'Power Supreme'.

BRAHMAN TO BE KNOWN, SHAKTI TO BE WORSHIPPED

The primordial Parashakti is therefore the ultimate dynamic energy of the transcendental Brahman, than which there is no other existence. In fact it is technically wrong to say that She (Parashakti) is the Energy of Brahman, because the nature of Brahman does not allow any attributes or predicates.The moment we attribute anything to Brahman we have already delimited and circumscribed it. When we talk of the Energy of the Ultimate Reality we have already descended one step from the supreme pedestal of the Unmanifested Attributeless Ultimate.
But the beauty of the concept of Parashakti is that She is transcendent beyond anything that is finite and immanent in everything there is. So while we predicate it and relate it to other things, it is still the Ultimate Supreme that can be talked about. While Brahman has only to be cognized, Parashakti can be worshipped with a name and form. She is the Divine Will personified. She is the Conscious Power beyond everything. She is the Presence, invisible and constant, that sustains the world, linking form and name, holding them in interdependence. There is nothing impossible for Her. She is the Universal Goddess. She is all knowledge, all strength, all triumph and all victory. She is the Goddess Supreme (Maheshvari) who brings to us the total state of illumination.

Devi Mahatmyam
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The inner sanctum of the universal Mind, which is our own nature and the inherent nature of everything else

"Enlightenment occurs when we awaken to the truth that everything is higher consciousness, or Spirit. This realization, however, is not a mere intellectual exercise. Rather, it is a bodily and mental transformation that shatters all our intellectual presumptions about it. It sweeps us up and grasps and transfigures our entire body-mind. What gets blown to pieces is the idea that we are different from that Reality — that we are an I, an ego, a finite personality. In our realization of higher consciousness, we do not merely conceive it, or speculate about it, or even intuit it. We are it. Or to put it differently, it is all there is.

For the ego-personality, our ordinary self, this is a rather frightening prospect. Indeed, for that realization to occur, we must pass through and beyond the fear of our"own"death, the disappearance of the ego-personality to which we are so attached. On the other side, however, infinite bliss, delight, beatitude, and unqualified love awaits us. However, these are not distinct qualities but merely different ways of describing what is essentially indescribable ...

In other words, enlightenment is not a new state that is called into existence by our efforts. It is not even a state that is external to ourselves and can be attained. The enlightened condition is always true of us, but there are veils in our mind that prevent us from recognizing this truth. These veils are energetic blockages that have karmic causes. As we purify ourselves through spiritual discipline, these inner obstructions are gradually removed, and then, one day, we suddenly face the inner sanctum of the universal Mind, which is our own nature and the inherent nature of everything else.”

Georg Feuerstein, Lucid Waking
Inner Traditions International, 1997, p. 128-43

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