Durga Saptashati Chapter 1: King Suratha, the Merchant and the Slaying of Madhu-Kaitabha

The first chapter of the Durga Saptashati is the first charitra, whose goddess is Mahakali. It sets the frame for the whole text: two unhappy people come to a sage, and he tells them of the glory of the Goddess.

King Suratha and the merchant Samadhi

In the Svarochisha Manvantara lived a righteous king named Suratha. Defeated by enemies and betrayed by his own ministers, he lost his kingdom, rode alone into the forest and reached the peaceful hermitage of the sage Medha. Even there his mind kept worrying over his kingdom, army, treasury and elephants.

There he met a merchant named Samadhi, whose wife and sons had driven him from home out of greed for his wealth. Strangely, he too was grieving, worrying about the welfare of those same relatives.

The question to the sage

Both asked the sage Medha: "We know attachment to those who betrayed us is pointless, so why does the mind cling to them? Why this attachment despite knowledge?"

The sage said: "Even birds and beasts have knowledge; hungry birds still put grain into their young ones' beaks. This is the power of the Goddess Mahamaya, who forcibly draws even the minds of the wise into attachment. When pleased, she also grants liberation. She is the cause of worldly bondage and of freedom."

Madhu and Kaitabha

The king asked who this Goddess is and how she appears. The sage said she is eternal, yet manifests for the work of the gods.

At the end of a cycle, when the world lay under water and Lord Vishnu slept in yogic sleep on Shesha, two terrible asuras, Madhu and Kaitabha, were born from the wax of his ears. They rushed to kill Brahma, seated on the lotus from Vishnu's navel. Seeing the Lord asleep, Brahma praised Yoganidra, the goddess dwelling in the Lord's eyes, to wake Him:

"You are svaha, you are svadha, you are vashat; you create, preserve and in the end dissolve. You are the great knowledge, the great illusion, the great intellect, the great memory. You are the night of time, the great night and the night of delusion. O Goddess, wake Lord Vishnu so that He may slay these asuras."

Vishnu's battle

Pleased, Yoganidra left the Lord's eyes, mouth, nostrils, arms, heart and chest and stood before Brahma, and the Lord awoke. He wrestled Madhu and Kaitabha for five thousand years. Mahamaya deluded the asuras, and in their pride they said: "We are pleased with your valour; ask a boon."

The Lord said: "If you are pleased, grant that you both be slain by me." Seeing water everywhere, the asuras cleverly said: "Very well, but slay us where the earth is not covered by water." Saying "So be it", the Lord placed their heads on His thighs and cut them off with His discus. Thus Mahamaya (Mahakali), manifested by Brahma's hymn, protected creation.

What this chapter teaches

• Attachment does not leave even towards those who betray us; this is human nature, and recognising it is the first step.
• Bondage and liberation are both in the hands of that one Power, so refuge in her is the way.
• Pride ("ask us a boon") defeats even the mightiest.
• In a crisis, prayer first and then effort; the Lord woke through Brahma's hymn.