Simple ways to worship Durga?

[Araceli Cianna]

I want to worship Durga. For someone who was not raised in India, what are some simple ways of doing that? I need to learn.

 

[Jainarayan]

You can chant her name with a mantra om shree durgayai namaha. The -yai is pronounced like 'pie'. You can do it with or without prayer beads, as many times and as often as you can.

You can pray to her in your own words, as if conversing with a loving mother. If you're so inclined you could learn some prayers and verses in Sanskrit or recite them in English. Some of these are quite long, and Sanskrit is not easy. Stotras - Sanskrit Mantras & Slokas - Divine Space of Bhakti & Bhava

You could do a simple puja. Super Simple Daily Puja

 

[agorman]

The -yai is pronounced like 'pie'.

Sorry but isn't it said as "Dwr-gah-YEH"?

 

[SomeRandom]

Sorry but isn't it said as "Dwr-gah-YEH"?

That's how we pronounce it. Well more like this

I mean no disrespect when I say this (because I fall into this trap as well), but Westerners don't always stress the right syllables, though some know more Hindi/Sanskrit/Bengali/Urdu than I do. Then again it's probably just an accent thing and perhaps pronounced differently region to region.

 

[Vinayaka]

In my experience, pronunciation varies regionally somewhat.

 

[agorman]

Well here's another with "Dwr-gah-YEH":

Anyway, I think Durga herself will tell you the correct pronounciation some day if you meditate enough...

 

[Aupmanyav]

Why get into that at the moment? Keep an image (photo print or idol) in a niche, offer a flower and some raisins and sugar candy (that is going to be your prasada (blessing) after the worship), light a candle and an incense stick. Pick some ash on your finger-tip and place the mark on your forehead (or use 'roli', the red powder, put a mark on the photo-print or idol too). And say 'Mother, I love you, help me to keep to the right path'. The Mother takes care of all the rest, leave it to her.

And as Vinayaka and other people will say, visit a temple in your neighborhood.

 

[TravisJC]

I was going to say the roughly the same thing as @Aupmanyav, you can find a picture or little murti of Mother Durga and keep it in a nice clean area. Nothing special don't get too crazy and simply offer flowers, sweets, and devotion. It is very easy to please Ma Durga, just make sure that your intentions are good. Good luck, as you progress further and further into your dharma then you can learn more complex and timely pujas: until then even a thought of the beauty of Ma Durga is good enough.

 

[Jainarayan]

Sorry but isn't it said as "Dwr-gah-YEH"?

"Yeh" is Hindi pronunciation, and creeps into many Sanskrit words and names. "Yai" as in sky or "aisle" (sample below) is Sanskrit. My name is Hindi, and so it's pronounced Jeh-nah-rah-yun. The Sanskrit would actually be jah-yah-nah-rah-yun-uh, Jayanarayana. But I'm not sure that's actually a name, rather than a phrase. And as others said, there are regional differences.

Sanskrit Sounds

 

[Jainarayan]

Then again it's probably just an accent thing and perhaps pronounced differently region to region.

I agree.

At the end of the Mangala Aarti we say
kaayena vaacaa manasendriyairvaa <- comes out as "air" like the air we breathe.
buddhyaatmanaa vaa prakrteh svabhaavaat |
karomi yad-yat-sakalam parasmai <- comes out as "may" like the month.
naaraayanayeti samarpayaami ||

But most of the priests and devotees are from south India; Tamil and Telugu are their native languages.

Here's the devanagari, for anyone that knows it well enough (I don't)...
कायेन वाचा मनसेन्द्रियैर्वा
बुद्ध्यात्मना वा प्रकृतेः स्वभावात् ।
करोमि यद्यत्सकलं परस्मै
गुरुवरायेति समर्पयामि ॥

 

[Jainarayan]

Let me add, lest we begin debating proper Sanskrit, which I really don't think any non-native speaker will ever do: the gods are beyond language. I think they know whom we are addressing and what we're saying. It may be a different thing with Vedic chants, but I don't think that if we mispronounce a phrase or name in prayer, the god/dess will say "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who [...] do you think you're talking to?"

 

[Shantanu]

I want to worship Durga. For someone who was not raised in India, what are some simple ways of doing that? I need to learn.

Durga is Devi: To worship her you have do do as she wishes and guides you. This means having communications with her and surrendering your free will to her.

 

[SomeRandom]

I agree.

At the end of the Mangala Aarti we say
kaayena vaacaa manasendriyairvaa <- comes out as "air" like the air we breathe.
buddhyaatmanaa vaa prakrteh svabhaavaat |
karomi yad-yat-sakalam parasmai <- comes out as "may" like the month.
naaraayanayeti samarpayaami ||

But most of the priests and devotees are from south India; Tamil and Telugu are their native languages.

Here's the devanagari, for anyone that knows it well enough (I don't)...
कायेन वाचा मनसेन्द्रियैर्वा
बुद्ध्यात्मना वा प्रकृतेः स्वभावात् ।
करोमि यद्यत्सकलं परस्मै
गुरुवरायेति समर्पयामि ॥

Lol I recall my cousin who is completely fluent in Hindi once had a conversation with a Punjabi gentleman. Afterwards he turns to me and says "I have no idea what that man said!"

 

[Jainarayan]

Lol I recall my cousin who is completely fluent in Hindi once had a conversation with a Punjabi gentleman. Afterwards he turns to me and says "I have no idea what that man said!"

Same w/ Italian and Sicilian. Contrary to popular belief, Sicilian is not a dialect of Italian. It is a separate, sister language to Italian and Sardinian. They're only slightly mutually intelligible.

That said, my grandmother was from Italy and did not speak Sicilian. A Sicilian woman from the neighborhood struck up a conversation with her. My grandmother, not wanting to be rude, nodded her head, smiled, "oohed" and "aahed" with complete understanding.

Finally, the Sicilian woman got a sad pained look on her face, broke into the bit of fractured English they knew (fractured? their English was pulverized ) and said to my grandmother "no no Angelina, you no understand-a me".

Depending on what the Sicilian woman was saying, my grandmother blindly agreeing with her could have started another Punic War.

 

[sayak83]

Let me add, lest we begin debating proper Sanskrit, which I really don't think any non-native speaker will ever do: the gods are beyond language. I think they know whom we are addressing and what we're saying. It may be a different thing with Vedic chants, but I don't think that if we mispronounce a phrase or name in prayer, the god/dess will say "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who [...] do you think you're talking to?"

Correct. Every region in India has a different language creating very different accent for the prayers. That is not a problem.

 

[Aupmanyav]

For all the posts above:

Sure, Sanskrit mantras are there, but who talks to the deities in Sanskrit? Even the mantras can be modified, like Jai did it in "nārāyanayeti samarpayāmi" (dedicatd to Nārayana. Vishnu) or "Guruvarāyeti Samarpayāmi" (dedicated to the Guru, who is taken as equal to God by some) as other people may recite it (if they have a guru. I don't have any living guru. My gurus, Buddha and Sankara are long dead). The dedication could also be to Shiva, the Mother or to any other deity chosen by the person.

We talk to the deities in our day-to-day language. There is no standard format. Hindu deities are much closer to the devotee than the 'God in heaven' whom we see only on the day of judgment. They are with us every moment of the day. However, here, I think is a better translation of the mantra:

Kāyena Vācā Manasendriyāvā, Buddhyātmanā Vā Prakriteh Svabhāvāt l
Karomi Yad-Yad-Sakalam Parasmai, Guruvarāyeti Samarpayāmi ll

Meaning:
1: (Whatever I do) with my Body, Speech, Mind or Sense Organs,
2: (Whatever I do) using my Intellect, Feelings of Heart or (unconsciously) through the natural tendencies of my Mind,
3: Whatever I do, I do all for others (i.e. without the sense of attachment to the results),
4: I Surrender them all at the Lotus Feet of the Sri Guru/Nārāyana.

for Shiva, I think, Shivam iti (Shivameti - to Shiva only), for Mother Goddess Durga iti (Durgaiti? - to Durga only).