Mother (Maa) Adi Shakti (Jagadamba) manifested for the betterment of the creation. Be it the slaying of cruel demons to save the celestial beings or removing pain, sorrow, agony, diseases, guilt from the human life. Mother Shailaputri is the epitome of kindness and auspiciousness. She is always ready to bless the devotees. Just by seeing her and performing the pooja, one can get the desired results. This is the reason that our ancient sages have time and again praised the glory of the goddess as the savior of humanity. For the same reason, sages started to celebrate Navratri twice a year for worshiping the glorious divine energy. Because of nine different forms of the goddess, she is referred as “Nava Durga” in many scriptures. The procedure of her worship continues for nine days. Among the divine forms of Durga, Goddess Shaila Putri is the first form. The first form of the goddess is very auspicious. This is a very famous form of goddess Durga. It is said about her origin that she was born to king Himalaya hence she is known by the name “Shaila Putri”. She rides a white bull as her vehicle. She holds trishula in the right hand and white lotus in the left hand. She is having a bright crescent moon on her forehead. She dispels sorrow and diseases of all her devotees. She is also known as Parvati, Shaia suta, Daksha suta, Hemavati and Shailaputri.
Ancient story of Goddess Shailaputri
In the previous incarnation, she was the daughter of Daksha Prajapati. She was married to Lord Shiva himself. As per the Puranic legend, Prajapati Daksha once conducted a great yajna in which he invited all his daughters and related pupil but did not invite Shiva and Sati (parvati). Because Prajapati was unhappy with some of the qualities of Shiva. When the time arrived, all the gods and daughters of Daksha started reaching the place in their respective vehicles. By seeing these, Parvati asked Shiva about the same. Shiva explained the whole context in detail to his consort. From Shiva, she came to know that her father is organizing the event and she decided to go to the place. Shiva asked her not to go to such place without an invitation. Goddess replied that after all, Daksha was his father and urged Mahadeva to allow her to go. Shiva finally accepts her wish and sends along some of his Ganas with her. After reaching the venue, she found that her father has no respect for her and her husband. She was ignored and soon this news was spread in whole of the gathering about views of Daksha for Shiva and his daughter. As she came to know that her father does not want to allow her or her consort to participate in the yajna, she felt insulted and felt guilty in going back to her husband. She gave up her body in the divine fire herself. After seeing this terrifying incident, there was an outcry in the gathering. The Ganas of Shiva, furious over the incident of Sati giving up her body, destroyed the whole of yajna. Daksha and many other gods had to face the wrath of Shiva’s anger. But goddess again incarnated in the house of Himalaya and got back Shiva as her consort by performing great penance. The goddess is also known as Shaila Suta, she is the wife of Lord Shiva who is the rider of bull. Just by remembering her, devotees feel blessed and their desires are fulfilled.
