Pratyangira, the symbolic representation of this deity is shakti. Each form of the deities is created with a definite purpose. So, why Pratyangira? This question takes us to Prahlada charitra.

We all know Lord Nrsimha appeared to destroy Hiranyakashipu. We all know the demon king had one of the complex boons with regard to his death and he thought he had conquered death. Narayana had to come down to finish the arrogance of this demon and save his bhakta, Prahlada. Here begins the story and the answer to Why Pratyangira.

Rakshas is the adhama form of existence. Manushya is a slightly better form. The rishi- munis come in the next strata while the devas occupy the next strata. Gods are the next and final layer directly connected to the cosmic creations and controlling them. Including gods, all of them have forms, figures, attributes, gender and limitations. I repeat, even Gods have limitations. Parabrahma is the only nirguna nirakara tatva which is ultimate and called satya.

Nrisimha is none but Sakshat Narayana. By drinking the blood of a rakshas, he looses his natural godly attributes. Possessed by the rakshatva, even after the destruction of Hiranya, Nrisimha’s ugra could not be pacified. He was in a dhvamsa mode, which made everyone tremble. Shiva came to pacify him and he could not succeed. The humkara of Nrisimha was jolting everything and everybody. Lord Shiva took yet another ingenious form to extricate the effects of the demon in Nrsimha. He took the form of Sharabha a bird and human combination with two wings of shakti. One wing was Shulini and the other was Pratyangira. Sharabha’s efforts or shulini’s efforts could not control the Lord. Pratyagira was released from his wing and she takes the female form of Nrisimha. The war was between the purusha and the prakriti. What was this war for? To establish satvikata…, to establish satya. She redeems Narayana to resume the satvik form.

She is recognized as aparajita and atidevata of nikumbala dharma. Indrajit was an adept of this vidya. Ma Pratyagira represents satya and impeccable justice. She will not help even her own devotees if the cause is not just. That is precisely the reason why Indrajit could not complete his yagna. Let us see the morale of Indrajit’s story. Vibhishana refused to indulge in the fight against Rama as that was not for the right cause; because it is against dharma. Therefore he defied his own brother and sought refuge at Rama. There is an eternal debate going on Vibhishana’s stance. Indrajit was different. Not that he agreed with the cause, Indrajit thought his dharma as the son of Ravana was to support his father. He was an adept in Nikumbala yagna. He was also recognized as Aparajit (Unbeatable because of this vidya). But his cause was not dharmic and Ma Pratyangira did not support her own favorite devotee and the fact that he died in the war is everybody’s knowledge and proof to this fact.

Because she is a symbol of truth and justice, naturally ill effects will be nullified for those who worship her. Associating this form with blackmagic and so on is very sad. The way I was initiated into this was a regular and simple method of chanting the mantra and learning to do havan etc. But the actual expectation by my guru was the yogic method of reaching siddhi through the kundalini shakti. She is introduced to me as Mahakundalini and Nadabrahmamayi. To be honest, my serious learning of music started after the initiation of this mantra and my quest for Nadbrahm began there. The thousand headed form indicates the sahasrara and the script that I have indicates the chitagnikunda and shavasana.

I gave my script to one vaishnavite gentle man, just a part of it. He was overwhelmed by it. Unfortunately he mistook the words shavasana and chitagnikunda etc. for the blatant meaning of the words. He asked me to accompany him to Banaras and help him to sit on a corpse and do ahuti on a burning corpse! Oops. I felt like puking. My heart sank with gross sadness.

What is meant here is to invoke kundalini while in shavasana (the knowledgeable and enlightened will understand that both are paradoxical states) and give the ahuti of aham at the chitagnikunda, which is the sahasrara. I explained it to him and asked him to try to achieve such a state if possible. He thought I was very arrogant and was extremely angry. With the fractional script that I gave him he tried to perform homams claiming himself to be an adept. While going for one such homam he met with an accident and died.

People claim that she is the deity for removal of black magic. If so both Chinmayi and I have suffered the worst from this problem. How would you answer that? Yes, my worship has kept us both intact, but we were not unaffected. We have suffered the worst so many times. We were in a war kind of situation. We held tight on dharma. And she saved us several times.

Worshipping her helps you circumvent the negative periods of shani, rahu or ketu dashas and bhuktis. But we have simpler ways to redeem such problems. She is essentially a devi of a larger, much much larger purposes.

My heart aches when she is misrepresented. My heart aches much more when she is used as the commercial commodity for receiving petty material benefits. Shatrumadhye or ranasankate, she is a great helper provided you have justice on your side. She certainly does not help rakshas. ( you know rakshas is not a species, but an attribute only).

She is a deity to be worshipped for winning a war by a nation, saving a dharmic purpose and such other mighty and noble reasons. She is certainly not for the appeasing of petty desires of man and certainly not to help anyone who indulges in doing wrong for others. That is why forty years back, my guru said, “ This worship is very sacred and keep it as an atirahasya. She will reveal at the appropriate time. You will also understand why you were given this initiation at an appropriate time. She will also reach you to your destination at an appropriate time”. I understood why he said so. But for her we would have perished by now.