The tenth form of Mahavidya is Bhairavi. She has many names including Tripura Bhairavi, Sampath Praja Bhairavi, Kaulesh Bhairavi, Siddhida Bhairavi, Bhay Vidwamsi Bhairavi, Chaitanya Bhairavi, Kameshwari Bhairavi, Nitya Bhairavi and Rudra Bhairavi. Her body is the color of the rising sun. She wears a pearl necklace around her neck, has red breasts and has four hands in which She holds a japa mala, pustak, and displays the mudras of blessing and freedom from fear. She has three eyes that are red in color and wears a moon on Her forehead.

Bhairavi is the form of Kali that killed Chanda and Munda. She is free from all fear and frees us from all fear. To learn Her Bija Mantra and Gayatri please click here.

When Lord Shiva bade Sati not to attend Her Father's yajna, Sati became furious and assumed the fearful form of Kali causing Shiva to flee in another direction. Sati then assumed the form of the ninth Mahavidya, Tara.

Tara is blue, Her tongue is fearfully sticking out, and Her face is terrifying. Her hair is tangled like snakes sticking straight up and She is dressed in a tiger's skin. On Her head are five half moons. She has three eyes, four arms, a large protruding belly, and stands on a corpse. She has four arms in which She holds a lotus, a sword, a drinking bowl, and a bell.

Tara is the illuminator, She illuminates all our attitudes. To learn Her Bija Mantra and Gayatri please click here.

The eighth Mahavidya is Tripurasundari, also known as Kamala. A form of Mahalakshmi, She symbolizes wealth. Her body is golden in color and She is seated on a gold lotus. Here is the story of Her origin.

One day Indra, the ruler of the heavens, saw Rambha and was lost watching her beauty. At that time, the fierce Rishi Durvasa appeared and gave a garland to Indra. But Indra, still mesmerized by Rambha, did not realize what he was doing and gave the garland to his elephant Airavat. Durvasa was angry with the disrespect shown to him and immediately cursed Indra thus, "You are the King of the Gods, but yet you are playing with women. You will lose Lakshmi. She will leave your kingdom." Goddess Lakshmi, true to the curse, left the heavenly regions.

All the Gods were saddened, and led by Indra went to Vishnu to get His counsel. Vishnu suggested that Lakshmi would appear if they churned the ocean of milk. Both devas and asuras arrived at the ocean of milk (Ksheera samudra). They used Mount Mandara as the central axle and the serpent Anant Nag as a rope to move the mountain. Lord Vishnu took the form a large tortoise to support the Mountain. The asuras and the devas each took the opposite ends of the snake and churned the ocean. As they churned, a lot of beautiful beings and objects manifested including Ucchaisrava (the divine horse), Dhanvantari (the God of Medicine), the Sudharshana Chakra, the Parijata flower. And then came Lakshmi.

When they saw Laksmi, the Gods offered Her an asan with the greatest respect. They did an abishek to Her, offered Her a lotus garland and entreated Her to stay with them, to which She agreed. She became known as Tripurasundari.

Tri means three, Pura means city, and Sundar means beautiful. Tripurasundari is the beautiful one of three cities, or all the threes. She manifests the perfection of compassion in all Nature. To learn Her Bija Mantra and Gayatri please click here.

{ NOTE - If you are wondering about the title "Prathamam Sailaputri Cha", it means "First is the Goddess of Inspiration" and refers to the first of the Navadurgas. To know more about the Navadurgas, please read the Cosmic Puja or Chandi Path (the verse is in the Armor of the Goddess)}

The sankalpa has touched the participants in many many ways. It prompted Vishweshwar, a disciple of Shree Maa to reach out and ask each participant to spread the word and get more people to sign up. Like ever spreading ripples caused by throwing a single pebble into a lake, just one inspiration from Shree Maa has us doing more, and getting the word out to more people. It was also heartwarming to see two fairly "new" additions to the Mandir family, Prathibha and Prasana, energetically share their enthusiasm for the sankalpa with others that had gathered at the Mandir on Sunday. Prathibha, in the true spirit of motivating another, even gifted her friend with her own recently acquired hand tally counter to demonstrate how easy it was to keep adding mantras chanted in random free moments.

First Maa gives us an idea, and then Her beautiful family give it the momentum. May this positive energy continue to generate and bless Mother Earth !

As a group we have crossed 320,000 repetitions of japa and over 9000 at the fire. Here are the numbers as of the week ending 28th Jan 2007.

This is the total for those that preferred to do their sadhana at the fire

and below are the counts for those of us that do the sadhana without a fire