I Will Marry Only Who Defeats Me
The vow; the messengers' offer and threat. You cannot possess what you have not overcome in yourself.
The vow; the messengers' offer and threat. You cannot possess what you have not overcome in yourself.
The Offer on the Mountain
Shumbha sent a smooth-tongued envoy named Sugriva up the mountain, and the offer he carried was, by the demons' logic, generous. He stood before the radiant Goddess and delivered his master's words. Shumbha, lord of the three worlds, has heard of your beauty. Every treasure of heaven is now his: the jewels, the gold, the wish-granting gem. Choose him, or choose his brother Nishumbha, and all of it is yours. You will be the queen of everything.
The Goddess listened, and smiled. And then, still smiling, she said something the envoy was not prepared for. She did not refuse outright. She set a condition.
यो मां जयति संग्रामे यो मे दर्पं व्यपोहति। यो मे प्रतिबलो लोके स मे भर्ता भविष्यति॥
yo māṃ jayati saṃgrāme yo me darpaṃ vyapohati | yo me pratibalo loke sa me bhartā bhaviṣyati ||
He who conquers me in battle, who removes my pride, who is my equal in strength in the world, he alone shall be my husband.
Devi Mahatmyam 5.120
I made a vow long ago, she told the envoy. I will belong only to the one who defeats me in open battle, who breaks my pride, who is truly my equal in strength. Let your master come and win me, if he can. Those are my terms.
The envoy was baffled. It sounded almost like foolishness, a lone woman challenging the conqueror of the worlds. But the tradition reads this vow as one of the deepest things the Goddess says in the whole text.
You Cannot Possess What You Have Not Overcome
Look at what the condition actually demands. She will not be won by wealth, by rank, by an offer, or by force of arms brought from outside. She will belong only to the one who can defeat her pride in fair contest. And since she is the supreme power herself, that is a condition no demon of ego can ever meet. You cannot conquer the Goddess by wanting her. You can only be dissolved by her.