Mahapadmavanantasthe Paramanandavigrahe, Shabdabrahmamaye Svacche Vande Tripurabhairaveem…Mahapadmavanantasthe Paramanandavigrahe, Shabdabrahmamaye Svacche Vande Tripurabhairaveem… Mahapadmavanantasthe Paramanandavigrahe, Shabdabrahmamaye Svacche Vande Tripurabhairaveem

“Softly smiling, you shine with a crimson glow that may be compared to a thousand newly risen suns. You wear a silver veil and a garland of skulls. Blood smears your breast. Three voluptuous eyes adorn your lotus face; the Moon is your diadem. Your lotus hands show the gestures of victory, wisdom, the granting of boons and the allaying of fear.” (Tripura-Bhairavi Tantra)

Bhairavi or Tripura-Bhairavi, like Kali-Durga, is a warrior goddess. She represents the transformational kundalini fire. The name Bhairavi is derived from Bharana (to create); Ramana (to protect); and Vamana (to eject). Just as Bhuvaneshwari protects life, Bhairavi transforms it.  She is often associated with the Mahapralaya, the great dissolution at the end of the world, and her name is also a title for a female adept in Kundalini Tantra. In Vedic astrology, Bhairavi is propitiated to strengthen and heal issues related to the lagna (ascendant or rising sign) of the horoscope, which refers to all matters for an individual, whether body, mind or soul.

(Mahavidya Bhairavi Water Color Painting on Paper by Kailash Raj)

Bhairavi is the shakti of the awareness of death and beyond death. Her name means “awe-inspiring,” and refers to one who has transcended death, which is a tremendous state of awakening. The Dalai Lama has said, “Awareness of death is the very bedrock of the path. Until you have developed this awareness, all other practices are obstructed.” In Rebirthing (Sacred Breath) practice, which I do personally and as a practitioner, we often talk about clearing the “death urge” which is the sense of identification with a separate limited ego. For some lucky ones, who are blessed and guided by a truly awakened guru (of which there are few), this can involve a great initiation called diksha-mrytu which is an initiatory death experience that clears this death urge. After this is given, one lives in a state of transcendence, free from the suffering of the temporal world.

Excerpt from Kundalini Stavah: Prayer for Awakening Consciousness (The Living Goddess: Reclaiming the Tradition of the Mother of the Universe by Linda Johnsen)