The Saundarya
Lahari characterizes the Hindu goddess, Devi, as being the power behind
the proverbial throne—meaning the thrones of the three main deities, Brahma,
Vishnu, and Shiva. Without Devi bestowing her power on those (and all other)
gods, they would “return to their primal, dormant state” until revived by the
power that Devi wields as signified visually by the weapons that she holds.[1]
Are those deities merely dormant, however, or are they destroyed when Devi
withholds her power? For there is an appreciable difference between being
rendered impotent or inactive, and being zerstört (i.e., destroyed). In
Greek mythology, one thing that distinguishes the gods from morals is that of
the two, only the gods cannot die. In Christianity, Jesus Christ survives the
death of his corporeal body, which is transformed in the bodily resurrection on
Easter in a way that would have perplexed Plato. Indeed, it is interesting to
compare the Trinity with the relation of the foundational goddess Devi to the
three main gods in the Saundarya Lahari, a poem doubtlessly written by a
devotee of the goddess.
1. The quoted text is from Francis X. Clooney, Divine Mother, Blessed Mother: Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 160.
