Who Is Goddess Durga? (SP Letter)

Letter to Jugganath Babu, 14th March 1949.

Prabhupada: "The Mohamaya Who is known as Durga, Kali, Chandi, Bhadrakali, Mohalaksmi, etc is the embodiment of His external Potency as described in the Chandi and it is the thankless task of the Mohamaya [to punish the asuras with Her all powerful weapons in the ten direction of the material world.

She does not only create and maintain this material world but also she annihilates it according to the direction of the almighty God. In the Bhagavad-gita this Mahamaya has also been described as Daivi Maya and She is so powerful that the asuras cannot by-pass Her at any rate.

The asura can get remission from the stroke of the trisula of Mohamaya when he the asura,] [text missing] surrenders himself to Sree Krishna the Personality of Godhead. As Superintendent of the material world the Mohamaya has been described Durga as the protectress of the great durga or fortress of the grand universes.

She gives all the necessities for our existence but as soon as we become an Ashura like the Mohisha Suras, Ravanas, Hiranyakasipus, and in later ages like the Mussolinis and such others for the exploitation of the material energy, the Durga Devi at once appears Herself with Her dreadful trident and begins to devastate the whole existence by such tribulations as war, famine, pestilence, or sometimes annihilation of a total existence.

The methods of annihilation as are invented by the human brain such as the atomic bombs etc are also Her creations but the deluded Ashuras, who are caused to act by the modes of Prakriti the material nature, do think themselves as the originator or inventor of such weapons.

In that way a constant struggle is going on between the asuras and the prakrti and the asuras are thus being punished in different ways which the asuras cannot overcome by any method except by full surrender unto the Almighty God."