On the third day of Navratri, the third Power (Shakti) of Goddess Durga is worshipped. This avatar of Goddess Durga is known and worshipped as Ma Chandraghanta (Mother Chandraghanta). Her forehead is bedecked with the crescent moon (Hindi: Chandra) resembling the shape of a temple bell (Hindi: ghantaa).
The story behind the birth of this avatar goes as follows. In the previous incarnation as the wife of Lord Shiva, Devi Sati self-immolates herself in the sacrificial fire meant for a grand yagna. In her next incarnation, Ma Adi Shakti (Supreme Power) takes birth as Parvati. In this birth, her parents are King of the Mountains, Himavan and Mena.
(According to Shiva Purana, Himalaya and Mena had worshipped Ma Adi Shakti to appease her. Pleased with their devotion, Adi Shakti took birth as their daughter, Parvati.)
Upon the insistence of Sage Narada, Parvati observed austere penance to get Lord Shiva as her consort. Shiva, after losing Sati, had become detached from worldly affairs and had retired into the mountains in deep meditation, isolation and austerity.
But after seeing Parvati’s resolve to get him, Shiva relents and agrees for the marriage. On the day of marriage, Shiva reaches King’s Himavan’s palace in a most terrorizing form along with the strangest marriage procession. His body was smeared with ash with snakes around his neck and in the matted locks of his unkempt hair.
His marriage procession consisted of ghosts, ascetics, sages, goblins, ganas, ghouls and aghoris. Upon seeing such a terrorizing form of Lord Shiva and his strange marriage procession, Parvati’s mother and other relatives are left in a state of shock. Most of them faint purely out of terror.
To avoid any embarrassment to her family and to Lord Shiva, Parvati transforms herself into a terrorizing form – Chandraghanta.
In this form, her complexion was golden and she possessed ten arms. In nine of her arms she wielded the following weapons – a trident, mace, arrow, bow, sword, lotus, goad, bell and a kamandalu (water pot), while with the tenth hand, she blessed her devotees. Her vehicle is a lion. This from depicts that Adi Shakti can be terrible and malevolent towards her enemies while being compassionate and motherly towards her devotees.
In the form of Chandraghanta, she prayed and persuaded Shiva to take the form of a handsome prince and also turn his marriage procession nobler. Shiva thus reappeared as a charming prince bedecked with many jewels. Shiva and Parvati’s marriage was solemnized as per rituals. The day of their marriage is celebrated as Maha Shivratri every year.
By the grace of Ma Chandraghanta all the sins, distresses, physical sufferings, mental tribulations and ghostly hurdles of the devotees are eradicated. Riding on the lion, she exudes fearlessness in her devotees. She also embodies serenity. The devotees who adore and worship her with their deeds, mind and speech, develop an aura of divine splendor around themselves. It is said that they can easily achieve success in every walk of life. Ma Chandraghantaa is ever ready to destroy the wicked being but to a devotee she always appears as the kind and compassionate mother showering love, peace and prosperity.
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