Eulogy on Katyani

O Goddess Katyayani, the one Whose lotus feets are reverred by the thirty-three demi-gods¹, Who is the primary cause of the creation, maintenance and destruction of the world, Who is the fierce destroyer, Who is the consort of Tripurari or Shiv, Who is known as Durga, Who is the destroyer of sorrows of the world! Be happy with me.||1||
You always destroy the cunning demons, You entice the cunnings (using Maya), and You are indeed the absolver of grief. O the one Who is the abode of the universe and Whose forms are beyond the scope of thoughts! Those who indulge in Your devotion, never face difficulties and hurdles.||2||Having risen from You, Brahma creates the universe, Vishnu maintains it, and Shambhu destroys it (in other words, You create them for various reasons). O Mother! You create, maintain, and destroy them along with Kaal. This is just Your sportive play and You never get destroyed.||3||O the one Who absolves the pain and Who is the best among warriors! Those, by whom You are remembered, never get pervaded by the arrows of enemies. And their arrows, which sink in the limbs of the enemy, suck away the life away from the body, O the destroyer of the king of demons!||4||

O Beautiful Durga! That who chants Your name in the battle is seens as the all-destroying Kaal by his enemies. And indeed You decide that person as the victorious, who is chanting Your Omkar-form name continuously².||5||

O Supreme Goddess! Those who take refuge in you, are not bothered by these fears, either right now or in the future. And there (in the battle) by the fear of those, the cunning are troubled and made to leave away from the war in all the directions.||6||

In the past, during the fight between demons and demi-gods, the leader of demi-gods Indra had requested victory from You; and he killed the armies of demons successfully. Raam too, destroyed the armies of demons after praying You. And here we don’t see our victory without praying You either.||7||

We surrender to You, the One Who gives victory, Who is the only One reverred by the universe (due to polymorphism of a single deity), Who is the refuge or support of the universe, and Whose feet are reverred and serviced by Vishnu and Brahma as well. You bless us with a victory. With Your mercy, we can win the victory after overpowering our enemies.||8||

Notes:

¹ The thirty-three Deva or demi-gods are as follows — Twelve Aditya, Nine Vasu, Eleven Rudra, and Two Ashvini Kumar.

² This stuti or eulogy appears when Pandavas are about to fight a battle in Kurukshetra. Thus, there is a lot of war-like-theme in the stuti.

Poet: Pandava Brothers

Source: Kalyan — Shakti Peeth Issue [Jan 2005]