From Legends To Life
Legend has it, centuries back when demons caused mankind ample suffering, one demon ‘Durgamasur’ deprived earth of nourishment by causing a severe drought. He made saints or ‘Rishis’ forget the Vedas and the food shortage killed several people.
Seeing Her children being killed by starving, the universal Mother, Bhagavati appeared in a dark-hued blue form. Upon seeing the corpses of several living beings, the Goddess in the form of Shatakshi developed a thousand eyes all over Her body and burst into tears out of agony. Her tears caused it to rain on the earth for several days and filled up ponds and rivers. When the rain stopped, the Goddess took the form of Shakambhari who bore a great bow, a lotus, arrows, and vegetables in Her four hands. She blessed Earth with nourishment and out of her own body produced vegetables and fruits which sustained life on Earth.
After serving Her duties as the mother of the universe, Bhagavati then proceeded to wage wars with the demon Durgamasur, who caused such massive destruction on Earth. The battle lasted several days and finally, he was slain by the Goddess. As Bhagavati killed Durgamasur, she came to be known as Durga.
(Source: Devi Bhagavat Purana)
Above was a retelling of a popular legend from India. The story of sustenance in this legend acknowledges ancient India’s agrarian economy and illustrates its dependence on greenery. But why retell a legend for that? The answer lies in the fact that the world remains reluctant to accept the horrors of climate change. Remember the Puranic drought? Well, the drought in the legend and today’s climate change has many similarities except the fact that today no mythical ‘super-creature’ roams around on earth causing destruction. Instead, we humans have assumed the role of Durgamasur and are on our way to destroying our very own human civilization. The land of Shakambhari observes an air quality index of 500 in metropolitans like New Delhi; inhaling air with an index reaching 500 can be as toxic as smoking 20 cigarettes in a day according to scientists.
From the 1997 burning of Indonesian rainforests to the indiscriminate ongoing deforestation at the Amazon rainforests, the lungs of Earth, we’ve never stopped digging our own graves it seems. It’s high time we ask ourselves, is the death of Durgamasur at the hands of Durga symbolic of nature’s unleashing of lethal disasters aimed at humankind?
