Devi Mahatmya Parayanam | Chapters (05, 06, 07 & 08) | Day 04

These chapters depict Devi in Her form of Mahasaraswati. She is portrayed as arising from the cells or koshas of Devi Saraswati and hence she is named as Devi Kaushiki. Goddess Kali may be understood to represent the aspect of the darker, chthonic and transformative qualities of Devi's power or Shakti. Kali's emergence is chronicled in the third story of the Devi Mahatmya. Mother Kali, in the form of Chamunda, emerges from Devi's eyebrows as a burst of psychic energy. Mother Kali overpowers and beheads Chanda and Munda, and when She delivers their severed heads to Devi, She is dubbed Chamunda. During a fierce battle in which the Great Goddess demonstrates Her omnipotence by defeating powerful demons who terrify the devas, She encounters the fierce Raktabija (chapter 8). Every drop of blood Raktabija sheds transforms into another demon as it touches the earth. A unique strategy has to be devised to vanquish him. A fiery burst of energy emerging from Devi's third eye takes the dark skeletal form of Goddess Kali. Her huge mouth and enormous tongue She ferociously laps up Raktabija's blood, thus preventing the uprising of further demons.