दुर्गास्तोत्रम्

About this stotra

From the Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa (Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Adhyāya 66), as Nārāyaṇa tells it to Nārada. Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself praises Durgā as the Mūla-prakṛti, the Mother of all. For the sake of creation She is saguṇa, yet in truth She is nirguṇa, Parabrahma-svarūpā Herself. She is Svāhā at the offerings to the gods and Svadhā at the offerings to the ancestors. She is learning in the learned, insight in the wise, majesty in kings and trade in merchants. She protects the good like a mother, and She is the great Māyā by which even the wise fail to see the path to liberation.

The phala-śruti says that one who reads it at the time of pūjā gains what they wish. A childless woman who hears it for a year is blessed with a good son. A prisoner is freed within a month, and the gravely ill are cured within a year. Those separated from son, family or wife are reunited, and hearing it gives protection at the king’s gate, in the cremation ground, the forest, the battlefield, near wild beasts and in fire. A poor and unlettered person who reads it for a year becomes learned and wealthy.