About Maa ChinnaMasta
The Divine Mother of altruism and self-sacrifice.
The Divine Mother Maa ChinnaMasta
Maa ChinnaMasta, the Divine Mother of altruism, is depicted with her own head severed by her own hand to feed blood to her hungry associates Dakini and Varnini — symbolizing the great cosmic wisdom teaching of self-sacrifice. This depiction also symbolizes the transcendence of the ego and the overcoming of incessant thoughts and desires, since the head is the container of thought and desire.
Wielding the divine power to destroy and create, Maa ChinnaMasta guides her sincere devotees to realize that life and death are part of the journey of human experience. With her severed head facing the empty space above her body, she gives the wisdom that devotees should turn their minds inward, into the abode of pure consciousness, to realize the true Self — Shiva.
Worship of Mata ChinnaMasta
Maa ChinnaMasta symbolizes the continued state of self-sustenance of the created world, in which continuous self-destruction and self-renewal occur in a cyclic order. The cycle is starkly portrayed: life (the couple in union), death (the decapitated form of the Divine Mother), and nourishment (the flanking yoginis drinking her blood). She takes life and vigor from the couple and gives it away, severing her own head to feed her assistants.
In this way she embodies the cosmic process — the rhythms of creation and destruction, the harmonious alternation of giving and taking — presented so that the seeker can grasp their interconnectedness intuitively.
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