Navaratri-Why Durga Matters

To explain why viewing the divine as dynamic female really does matter – especially to us human females (who are often accused of being too “dynamic”!), I use an example from my own life.

Many of my friends and family know that I am also a playwright and that I wrote a play while a resident artist at Mabou Mines in New York called “Daddy meets Durga.” The play centered on a young woman trying to survive the domestic, political and cultural violence she experienced around her-violence directed toward her because she was a woman.

I wrote this play several years after returning from Yoga Teacher’s Training in India where I witnessed and felt the power of living traditions that had female-centered deities. Durga is everywhere in India- painted on trucks, in field shrines and tea shops.

In the play (and in my life) Durga’s image and story offers guidance in life-threatening and soul-killing situations. To work with Durga energy, realize what needs to be destroyed in your own life in order for you to live. My own memories of living under my alcoholic, abusive father’s reign still haunted me into my adult years and often resulted in depression and artistic paralysis. Writing the play, and invoking Durga’s strength and courage allowed me to reform those parts of myself that had been attacked. Durga became this energy in my life.

Jai Durga-MA!