HAPPY NAVRATRI TO ALL DEVOTEES
Maa Durga or Adi Parashakti or Maha Kali or Bhavani are the different names given to the same Divine Shakti. She is the consort of Shiv. Maa Durga represents Power or Shakti or Energy of the Universe. She is Prakriti or Mother Nature. She is depicted as female because in the natural world the female gives birth to her children and plays the role of a Mother. Maa Durga is Jagdamba or Mother of the whole universe. Shiv is the cosmos while Shakti is His Energy. She is the other half of Shiv, Ardhnareshwar. Maa Durga is depicted to have 8 or 10 arms, each hand carrying a weapon or sacred item. Her vaahan or vehicle is a Tiger or Lion. Tiger represents unlimited power while Lion represents beastly desires. Her riding on a lion depicts She has conquered all beastly desires. She is the force/ energy behind Kundalini, the dormant energy coiled like a serpent at the base of the spine of every human.

Maa Durga has 9 forms or avatars, known as NavDurga. She also has 10 other divine forms of Vidya or knowledge, known as Dus Mahavidyas. She in her Katyayani form (the 6th form in NavDurga) slayed the notorious and mighty buffalo demon Mahishasura. This earned her the famous epithet Mahishasura Mardini, meaning slayer of Mahishasura.

Mahishasura had obtained a boon from Lord Brahma after hard penance that no male God or Deva / deity no matter who it is can slay him. He misused this boon and conquered the Devloka or Kingdom of Gods and dethroned Indra from his reign. He created havoc in the three worlds. All the Devas went to the Trinity, Shiv, Vishnu, Brahma for help. The Trinity and other Devas combined their powers and gave them to Parvati, wife of Shiv. She then transformed into a form mightier than any God or Goddess. She transformed into Mother Durga. According to legends it is said that Maa Durga is not only the form that Parvati took after having received the combined powers from all Gods and The Trinity but that She is beyond everything, beyond all space and time. She is the Divine Source of Energy from which everything, including the Trinity Gods took birth. Her smile created the Universe and her Wrath can annihilate the Universe. She is the End and She is the Beginning. Hence the name Adi Parashakti. Maa Durga is one of the original manifested forms of Adi Parashakti, the others being Sati and Lalita Tripura Sundari.