|
The first of the Eight Mothers (and the 11th of the Khadgamala Devis)is Brahmi, who is considered to be the Female Principle of Creation(as consort of Brahma, the Male Principle of Creation); and a form of Saraswati. In the scheme of the Khadgamala, each of these Eight Mothers represent a human passion that must be overcome and controlled before we can enter further into Sri Chakra. We worship each passionas an aspect of Devi, then internalize it; and when we internalize each deity, we *become* Her, so that She is not separate from us. In that way, we "conquer" each passion, just as – in the first enclosure wall – we conquered each siddhi. Brahmi here represents Her subtle aspect as LUST. Now, it may seem strange to associate Brahmi with lust; especially in Her aspect as Saraswati, She is typically envisioned as pure, virginal, almost childlike. But remember, She is the creator's Shakti – the Power of Brahma – and there cannot be creation without lust. Brahmi's mantra is: She sits immediate inside the gate of the wall closest to you, to your left as you enter the second layer [ No 1, Red ]. Into Brahmi, the ten Siddhis are absorbed. In turn, Brahmi shall be absorbed into Maaheshwari, and so on, till we reach Mahaalakshmi – at which point, Mahaalakshmi will include all of the Siddhis and the Seven Mothers. | 
|
|
We have not exhausted all there is to say about Brahmi, of course. But this is enough for purposes of the Khadgamala. We are not writing full essays on all the aspects and all the mantras of Braahmi. But again,please note that the beauty of the Khadgamala Stotram is that NOTHING is required for its recitation except for your time, attention and concentration: You need simply sit and recite the Stotram. The mantra given just above is not part of the stotram; it is offered merely for informational purposes. The entire stotram is self-contained. Again, the full pooja of these Devis takes hours, because at eachpoint we pause and do smaller, detailed poojas. Hence the sages ofyore created an ALTERNATIVE, SHORT-FORM recitation known as the Khadgamala Stotram more suitable for the demands of modern life. According to Sri Bhasurananda Natha, an accomplished Srividya upasakas well as a member of and advisor to this group: "All of the sadhana of Srividya can be achieved by the recitation of the Khadgamala. Hours of long ritual compressed to less than half an hour of intense meditation that will give you a ticket on the same plane as the great Srividya Upasakas. Whatever your developmental stage, this is IT." Even those who have not been initiated into Srividya can benefit from the Khadgamala. Once again, it is important to note that the Devis representing the Passions are *outside* the Sri yantra proper, i.e. the RED area in this graphic. Metaphorically, this teaches that we must get past the Siddhis and thePassions before we can enter the Sriyantra (the higher benefits of sadhana) and reach Devi (the goal of Sadhana; even though each of these Siddhis and Passions are themselves aspects of Devi). [With sincere thanks and appreciation to Sri Amritananda Natha and Sri Bhasurananda Natha, who kindly provided detailed and substantive content for this commentary.] |