One of our students is extremely devoted to Bhagavatī Mūkāmbikā of Koḍacādri. She was born in a family of Nambudari brāhmaṇas in Kerala but had migrated to America in the late eighties, having abandoned most of her family’s upāsanā. When her younger son was diagnosed with a rare birth defect, she turned to Bhagavatī for refuge.
She approached me for initiation, and as is the procedure, I told her to come back in a few days. Having performed the Japa of Dakṣiṇāmūrti, I sought permission and guidance from Nīlatārādhipati, who flashed before my eyes, repeatedly, the picture of Bhagavatī Mūkāmbikā. As this does not happen often, I was somewhat surprised and upon further inquiry, I found out that the good lady’s family had worshipped this form of Parāmbā for many generations.
One fine day, I initiated her into the sacred mantra of Gaurī Kaumārikā and taught her the nyāsas and āvaraṇa krama. When she came back to see me after a few years, she had a fascinating tale to narrate and an interesting turn of events was about to unfold.
After initiation, she regularly practiced the Mantra and over a period of time, began to sense the presence of her iṣṭadēvatā. One fine day, a beautiful Suvāsinī appeared to her in a dream and gave her an instruction. However, the good lady did not recollect the instruction upon waking up. After this happened for several months, she approached me. I recommended that she begin a round of formal puraścaraṇa spread over a 48-day period.
The good lady followed my advice and undertook puraścaraṇa. On the twenty-fifth day, the Suvāsinī appeared in her dream again and showed an old idol in a cardboard box. She recognized it as one of the old boxes in her attic and began to search for it. Upon finding it, she unearthed an ancestral idol, the same one that was shown to her in her dream.
The next weekend, she brought that to me, and it turned out to be an awe-inspiring idol of a form of Rakatacāmuṇḍī, known in some familial traditions in Kerala as Atibhayakālī, and appeared similar to the below dhyāna:
raktābhāṁ raktavastrāmaruṇitavadanāṁ raktakalhāramālāṁ
raktākṣīṁ raktalōlāṁ madhuramadhumadāṁ khaḍgaruṇḍairupētām |
siṁhasthāṁ muktakēśairatibhayajananīṁ sarvalōkaikavīrāṁ
bhaktānāmiṣṭadātrīṁ bahugaṇaśitāṁ caṇḍikāśaktirūpām ||
The deity was clearly angry, having been dumped in an old box for decades. Our lady had no idea where the idol came from, except that her grandfather probably had worshiped it. She left the idol in my house that night and within a matter of a few hours, I experienced several inauspicious omens including sudden and unexplained deterioration of health. To ward off the ill-effects, I performed a rakṣā-vidhi with the combined mantras of Vanadurgā and Mantrarāja Nr̥simha (The lineage of Kulamārtāṇḍa Sri Yogindrakrshna Daurgadatti Shastri uses Sharabhēsvara instead of Narasimha in this vidhi) and sought further guidance from Bhagavatī Mūkāmbikā. That same night, she appeared, again as a Suvāsinī and instructed that the idol be immersed in River Sauparṇikā, followed by an offering of Kumārī pūjā to sixteen maidens. After undertaking these activities, the good lady and her family are at peace, forever indebted to Devī Mūkāmbikā.
There are some deities with powerful pratiṣṭhā, where the deity is not merely an idol, but a living presence. Srī Mukāmbikā is certainly such a deity, and she proved that to us.
harēśādi dēhōttha tējōmayapra-
sphurat cakrarājākhya liṅgasvarūpē |
mahāyōgi kōlarṣi hr̥tpadmagēhē
namastē mahālakṣmi kōllāpurēśi ||