For a spiritual seeker, the real enemies are internal enemies like lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride, envy (kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya). These lead to other negative traits like fear, selfishness, insecurity, and the like. Our internal enemies create many obstacles in our lives. Most critically, these internal enemies are an obstacle to life’s ultimate goal, which is to obtain Moksha (spiritual liberation).
An important mantra of Sri Maha Pratyangira Devi asks the Devi to destroy one’s enemies. Even further, the mantra seeks not just to destroy, but to incinerate the enemies and their associates and relatives without a trace.
Pratyangira Devi has traditionally been considered an Ugra Devata or a wrathful Goddess, by some theologians and priests. They miss the core point that this Mother is loving and giving. The Devi sure is fierce, but Her fierceness is because She eats ones' negativity and raises them further into the path of Dharma. But if one is deceitful in their ways and tries to propitiate the Mother and use Her energies for adharmic purposes, they will reap the negative effects of it in a magnified way. If you sincerely ask Her to destroy your enemies, She will do so, but only in line with Dharma.
But who or what are the enemies being referred to here? External enemies? No!
It is a common and mistaken belief that by praying to the Devi She will destroy one’s human enemies and bring harm upon them. There are also misconceptions that Pratyangira Devi mantras and sadhana can be used to perform or prevent black magic. People having such misbeliefs are grossly missing the point. Moreover, they do not even begin to grasp what this Devi represents.
One can defeat their internal enemies by becoming aware of them, acknowledging them and asking Pratyangira Devi and our Higher Self to help. The essence of the Mother’s core mantra beseeches Her help in destroying completely, and without any trace, ones (internal) enemies.
However, destroying one’s internal enemies is not an easy process. It is like surgery. If there is a malignant tumor within the body whose external manifestation is a simple sore, it will not suffice just to apply a band-aid. The band-aid may temporarily stop the bleeding, it may mask the wound, but it does nothing to solve the root problem. To effectively heal requires the surgeon to take a knife, cut open the skin and remove the tumor inside. It may not be a pleasant sight, but it eliminates the root cause of the problem once and for all. Only after the tumor is removed can the healing process begin to take place.
Like the example of the tumor, destroying deep inner enemies is not always an easy process. When one asks the Mother Pratyangira to kill their internal enemies, She lovingly creates circumstances which force the Sadhaka to shed them. This can appear to manifest difficulties or unwelcome situations in the practitioner’s life. One needs to have faith and persistence that it is part of the healing process.
Many times, we may feel that we have conquered an inherently negative trait. But unbeknownst to us, the seeds to that are lying dormant within us, masked by other things. They are ever present within us. Under the right conditions or, more appropriately, wrong conditions, they bloom and shoot forth. The mantra of Pratyangira Devi is to annihilate these internal enemies.
Destroying one’s internal enemies is many many orders of magnitude harder than overcoming one’s external enemies. One needs an extremely potent and powerful weapon to incinerate internal enemies. Sri Maha Pratyangira Devi is such a force, and Her sadhana is that weapon.
Even the great Goutam Buddha, during the process of his enlightenment, realized that there were some demonic qualities within him and were raising their ugly head. This aspect is narrated in the epics as Mara the demon, a personification of all the negative traits of a person. The Buddha overcame this by dispassionately observing this aspect within himself, and detaching himself from it and destroying it.
All the legends and Puranas, about the fight between good and evil characters, between the Devas and Rakshasas, is a depiction of a person’s inner conflicts, between the different and opposing aspects within them.
As long as there are opposing aspects within a person, one lacks completeness. When one recognizes and weeds out what is not serving their highest purpose, and unifies all aspects of themselves, there is upliftment of the Self.
Conquering internal enemies makes it easy to solve external problems. A person becomes unshakeable under any circumstances.
Pratyangira Sadhana through Ksham Meditation is a unique gift from the Divine Mother Pratyangira Devi for us to destroy our internal enemies and move forward towards our ultimate goal in life, Moksha.
