the Spiritual Journey of Durga Ma

Durga Ma greeted me for the first time in a rustic cafe in a small town in the Northern California forest. She was dressed in shirt and jeans and wore a pair of old well-worn boots, and she looked for all the world like a modern Western pioneer woman reminiscent of my Montana childhood. I loved her the moment I saw her. Here was no mysterious remote mystic of the Far East whom I had envisioned but a woman of my own age, brimming with humor and fun. She laughed and her eyes twinkled with merriment through lunch and then she escorted me, leading in her old Ford along the highway to the gravel and then dirt roads seven miles into the forest where she had established her Hermitage.

Shaktipat (shakti-giving)
Shaktipat initiates spontaneous meditation, kundalini awakening and transformation. Shakti is the Sanskrit word for the activating force of nature (prakriti). Shakti initiates all action. Because shakti initiates all action, shaktipat is often translated as initiation. The giving, or transmission, of shakti is known as shaktipat diksha.

Shaktipat Diksha

The word diksha refers specifically to initiation in the sense of informing or bestowing something upon someone. Shaktipat diksha then, means “shakti-giving initiation,” and may be likened to lighting one candle with another candle. When the life energy in the body (prana) is released through shaktipat, kundalini, the evolutionary force, can awaken naturally and the body, feelings and mind evolved.