24 October 2012 - QA 5

Gurudev, please tell us the significance of Mother Divine in the form of Chinnamasta.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You may have seen Mother Divine holding her own severed head in her hand and you might have felt scared. Do you know what is the meaning of this depiction?
From morning till night we are stuck in our head. When the head is not there then there are no worries, no problems, and no fights. Then it is only the heart that works and from this heart springs the fountains of love, happiness, joy and simplicity.

All differences arise in the head, not from the heart. Differences of caste, creed, status, etc., all come from the head. Arrogance starts in the head, wrong acts start in the head, violence also starts in the head. No one has ever been violent from the heart, it all comes from the head.

So Chinnamasta means that Devi (Mother Divine) has cut the head from the body. When the head is removed, all that remains in the pure consciousness; the heart. And when only the heart remains then love, compassion and happiness blossom in life. The evil is destroyed. This is the symbolism behind Chinnamasta.

All these depictions are symbolic. There are secrets hidden behind these depictions. Such secrets must be discovered.