Durga: Garland of Thirty-Two Names

SOURCE

This stotra or prayer appears in Durga Saptashati. This stotra was told by Devi to Brahma and if devotees understand it fully, the devotional, reciprocative, and logical aspects, then they are removed from the clutches of fears.

MEANING

O Durga you: 1) are hard to defeat, 2) destroy bad times in life, 3) remove obstacles, 4) are all pervading, 5) are hard to tame or control, 6) destroyed demon Durg^, 7) lift from shackles of fate, 8) are impossible to be slayed, 9) can destroy anything, 10) bless us with divine knowledge, 11) are like fire for tree like demon-civilizations, 12) are unsurpassable, 13) are abode of light, 14) are residing (within us) as soul, 15) show path during difficult situations, 16) are source of all talents, 17) are support for hapless (me), 18) are abode of knowledge, 19) appear (after being sought) during meditation, 20) are the cause of bondage, 21) are difficult to attain or reach, 22) are the reason behind all the difficult knowledge, 23) are the destroyer of glorious demons, 24) are adorned by glorious weapons, 25) have adorned with induplicable organs, 26) are hard to achieve, 27) are hard to visit, 28) are Goddess of everything difficult, 29) are gallant, 30) are hard to defeat woman, 31) are decorated with impeccable shine, and 32) shower induplicable happiness. O Durga! I am singing a garland of your names; please shower Your bliss on this small creature.

Those who recite these names with devotion are liberated from worldly tensions.


Footnote

^ Durg is different from Durgaa.