Becoming Chinnamasta

Description

A headless goddess? Mankind has heard and seen a lot, but now this too? Yes, what you see is what it is. Now why Venus? Starting this project, I needed someone unique and famous like Venus de Milo to use her image in my promotion.

Now that I have your attention, I will introduce myself. I am Chinnamasta, the Hindu Goddess of transformation. The sixth of the Dasa Mahavidya, the wisdom Goddesses. I am depicted holding my own head, which I’ve just cut it off. Some of you known me as the self-decapitated Goddess. Chinnamasta actually means, “severed head”, and in Hindu dharma, I’m often correlated with fearsome nature.

I symbolize life, death, and sex – the three forms of transformation and the three parts of the cycle. My stance could be the victory over the samsara – the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.

Many stories prevail regarding my birth. One of the popular stories has it that when Parvati was taking a bath in the Mandakini river, along with her maidservants Jaya and Vijaya. After some time, the maids asked the goddess for food. She replied that she would feed them but that they were required to wait a little. Then, the two girls said: ”You who are the mother of the whole universe. A mother gives everything to her children and a child asks its mother for everything. Therefore, we now ask you for food, you who are known to be gracious”. Parvati replied that she would give them everything they needed as soon as they returned home. But the girls continued to pray, saying they were starving, calling her the Merciful, the one who gives all gifts and fulfills all desires. Hearing the truth of their words, Parvati smiled and cut off her own head with the help of her fingernails. The head fell into her left hand and the streams of blood that spurted fell into the open mouths of her handmaidens and into her own mouth. After having fed, they were all satisfied and returned home.