Slaughtering of Raktabeeja

Even the sky howled in condemnation of Raktabeeja's most odious improprieties; forbiddingly pregnant with the darkened clouds of a baleful churning storm, it wept unendingly for its mistress. Then, when its lamentations proved incapable of cleansing the encumbered earth of his foul blood, the sky resonantly cursed Raktabeeja. Fury manifesting inexorably as ruinous lightning, the sky nearly sundered itself. Every adamantine assault on the commanding officer and his malefic soldiers was hallowed by the wrathful reverberations of thunder. Raktabeeja, the abominable General of the lascivious Shumbha, sustained each strike, guffawing dismissively at the sky's paltry damnation.
His unenlightened lampooning of nature's vast, humble servant was brutally interrupted by Her unerring arrow. It pierced his ruddy, robust breast, rending his spine and emerging immaculately; only the arrowhead was painted with his viscera. Still, Raktabeeja was not felled: like a rose, the crimson of his wound bloomed and blossomed until it pockmarked the ground. And, from his sorcerous blood more of him erupted, until another seven dozen replicas of identical calibre joined their primogenitor. Again, Her ferocity only augmented and supplemented his might.
For a thousand days and a thousand nights, the transfixing choler of supernal Chandika combatted the atrocious resilience of Raktabeeja. Astride Her savage lion, mountainous Chandika skewered him on Her Vel; decapitated him using Her Chakra; hewed his body with Her Khadga; smote him using Her Gada; bound and garroted him with Her Pasha; cleaved his form using Her Trishula; and crushed his skull between Her hands. Yet, his blood continuously spawned more and more and more duplicates; soon, his exponential replication numbered in the millions.
Raktabeeja then loosed an arrow on divine Chandika, and it traitorously found purchase deep in the gentle sloping of Her right shoulder. Witnessing the erratic cascade of Her own generative blood infuriated the awesome Goddess: perspiration beaded Her temples; Her beatific breast heaved violently in vexation; Her full and elegant lips curled away, revealing viciously sharpened canines starved of flesh; and the radiance of Her face, as deep and brilliant as kunkumam, blackened until it was indistinguishable from the all-consuming darkness of pralaya. Incensed by his inflamed audacity, the wrathful Chandika furrowed Her unblemished brow—and thus, almighty Chandika opened Her Third Eye, unleashing the Pashupatastra.
The sable oblivion of Her ire was syphoned into the psionic annihilation released by Her Third Eye. Furiously, it aggregated in a material manifestation; more horrifying and disquieting than fearsome Chandika's displeasure. At Her blessed feet, the beastly and grotesque Chamunda emerged—disheveled hair; gaunt and dreadfully emaciated; breasts lifeless, shrivelled, sunken; skin as impenetrable and baleful as a moonless night; and garlanded with the severed heads of Her enemies, and clad in only a gruesome skirt of their arms. In Her right hand, ruinous Chamunda clutched the ghastly, skull-topped Khatvanga; on Her right palm, She balanced a bottomless kapala.
Starved, She bellowed awfully and Her singular roar annihilated the entirety of Raktabeeja's infantrymen.
Thus, insurmountable Chandika commanded appalling Chamunda:

O, ever-victorious Chamunda. I hereby invoke thy unappeasable bloodlust! Heed my direction, O Ravager of Gods and Men: Sate thy ravenous appetite on the blood and flesh of foul Raktabeeja!

Immediately, the terribly emaciated Chamunda set upon Raktabeeja and his replicates; the frenzied wielding of Her Khatvanga decimated hundreds of thousands of duplicates, and Her lolling tongue caught every drop of blood. When a replicate slashed at Her with his sword, She sundered it with Her fist; when a replicate charged Her with his spear, She kicked him in his chest and crushed his lungs and heart; when a replicate catapulted his shield at Her, She incinerated it with Her inextinguishable choler; and when a replicate wounded himself to generate another, She consumed his weaponized lifeforce.
Then, inimitable Chandika meditated on the seven divine personifications of the anatomical, physiological, spiritual, and psychic loci and their corresponding energies. She thereby emancipated the Ashta Matrika, invoking their primaeval origins within Herself—gluttonous Chamunda, already gorging on brutalized demons, arose calamitously from the Sahasrara chakra. Instantaneously, mighty Chandika summoned spectacular pearlescent Maheshwari from the Ajna chakra, who sat upon a furious bull and wielded a Trishula, Khadga, Khetaka, and Damaru; invoked perspicacious saffron-coloured Brahmani from the Vishuddha chakra, who rode a dignified swan and wielded a Taravaari, Khetaka, Kamandalu, and Ghanta; manifested impregnable emerald-hued Vaishnavi from the Anahata chakra, who rode revered Garuda and wielded a Vel, Gada, Chakra, and Padma; unleashed barbarous leonine Narasimhika from the Manipura chakra, who was too ferocious for any vahana and lacked weapons, instead rending and massacring Her enemies with Her claws; materialized unsurpassable golden-skinned Aindri from the Medhra chakra, who rode fearsome Airavat and wielded a Khadga, Vajra, Khetaka, and Ankusha; commanded unremitting ruddy Kaumari from the Hridaya chakra, who was astride a magnificent peacock and wielded a Vel, Parashu, Padma, and Trishula; and awakened cataclysmic sow-faced Varahi from the Muladhara chakra, who sat upon a terrifying buffalo and wielded a Khadga, Ketaka, Khatvanga, and dispelled the infelicitous demons using the Abhaya Mudra.
The seven goddesses were unfathomably baleful and incomparably spectacular: each was ornamented extravagantly with untarnished gold accoutrements, including broad bangles and heavy necklaces and amulets, and corruscating jewels and towering and elaborate diadems. Unlike barren Chamunda, each Matrika was garbed in a marvellously diaphanous antriya and stanapatta. The septuple goddesses taunted and enraptured the demons using exposed midriffs and supple breasts, only to terrify Raktabeeja's colossal army by unveiling their appalling and gruesome realities.
Thus, mystifying Chandika commanded Her Ashta Matrika:

O, terrific goddesses, thou are greater than any god. Hear my invocation, O dreadful mothers of war and strife and disease, and torturers of gods and men! Join thy wretched sister, the grotesque Chamunda: massacre my enemies and dine on their succulent innards!

Laughing rapturously, the septuple Matrika charged thunderously into the war: unrestrained, each felled thousands of demons and garlanded their divine forms with the severed heads of their enemies. As the bloodlusted goddesses deluged the earth with blood, monstrous Chamunda voraciously drank her prize; the blood she could not catch in her mouth she collected in her limitless Kapala. When 3000 replicates converged on Chamunda, She stretched open Her cavernous mouth and swallowed Her culprits, gnashing Her horrifyingly sharpened teeth and crushing their feeble bones.
Menacingly, the goddesses coordinated an assault on Raktabeeja: supernal Maheshwari pierced his abdomen with Her Trishula; splendiferous Brahmani enfeebled him with the blessed waters from Her Kamandalu and the hallowed ringing of Her Ghanta; inaccessible Vaishnavi amputated his limbs with Her Chakra; frightening Narasimhika disembowelled Him with Her claws; illustrious Aindri shattered his bones with Her Vajra; unrelenting Kaumari sundered his heart with Her Vel; unappeasable Varahi ribboned his body with Her Khadga; and ravenous Chamunda macerated his organs with Her Khatvanga. And, as his blood spilled forth from his innumerable wounds, Chamunda and Her ruinous sisters wolfishly drank that cursed crimson until he became emaciated.
Magnificent Chandika stormed into battle, Her multitudinous weapons inflicting millions of lacerations and wounds on Raktabeeja. Then, that unassailable goddess lifted the foul demon by his hair and laid him supine on her lap. Emptying Her 18 hands of Her divine weapons, awful Chandika ripped open Raktabeeja's sunken chest and widened the evisceration of his abdomen. Roaring hungrily, the terrific goddess ate his organs and drank his blood and stained Her teeth with viscera.
Supremely ecstatic, brutal Chandika and Her gluttonous servants danced maniacally; drunk on the blood of Raktabeeja and his replicates, those goddesses burdened the earth with Their wrath until She screamed for mercy. Mountains crumbled; oceans swelled; volcanoes erupted; cyclones howled; and stars fell from their ebony matrix.
After satisfying Their bloodlust and releasing Their repressed energies, the savagely disinhibited goddesses ceased rampaging, liberating the universe from near annihilation. Thus, supreme Chandika and Her catastrophic company of Ashta Matrika slaughtered the most iniquitous Raktabeeja

Summary

Raktabeeja Vadh (or the Slaughtering of Raktabeeja) narrates the conquest of almighty Chandika and Her retinue of eight fearsome goddesses over the eponymous demon. The impetus for his death is rooted in the covetous demon lord Shumbha; his unwearying lust for the goddess Chandika inspires him to proposition Her. When his obsession haughtily refuses, Shumbha impetuously declares violent retribution. His fourth assault is coordinated by the malefic Raktabeeja, commander general of the demonic army. Although his vengeance is hurried, Shumbha deliberately and measuredly dispatches Raktabeeja: not only is he a decorated warlord but his blood is imbued with astonishing sorcery. Whenever his blood splatters on the ground, it generates a clone of Raktabeeja possessing identical martial prowess. Thereby, he is functionally invincible.
Four other demons preceded Raktabeeja—Sugriva, the colonel served by 32, 000 soldiersDhumralochana, the brigadier general commanding 64, 000 soldiers; and the twin Lieutenant Generals, Chanda and Munda, and their 128, 000 soldiers. Each was decimated by ferocious Chandika, who obliterated Dhumralochoana with Her cataclysmic scream and invoked the dreadful goddess Chamunda to massacre Chanda and Munda. Raktabeeja, however, is thoroughly undeterred; he reaches the base of the Vindhya Mountains, Her earthly abode, and abrasively challenges the goddess. Again, Chandika caustically laughs, taunting the demon to climb Her mountain so She can dismember him without needing to move. She reminds him She will only acquiesce when Shumbha proves himself supremely capable by besting Her in combat.
Indignant, Raktabeeja promises Chandika he will drag Her by Her hair to the palace of Shumbha. The demonic soldiers loose volleys of arrows threatening to blot the Sun, but Chandika dematerializes the assault with another roar of laughter. Then, She offers mordant platitudes, informing Raktabeeja of his misguided attempts at asserting and reconfirming his manhood. Incensed by Her irreverence, he begins scaling Her mountainous home; Chandika affords him unimpeded access but periodically increases the mountain's size. After nine days and ten nights, Raktabeeja finally reaches the apex—only to find his quarry missing. Dauntless, Chandika mocks him from the battlefield, challenging him to rappel down the Vidhya Mountain in half the time he climbed. She consistently mocks and belittles and plays with him, until he inelegantly demands She replace Her inane, puerile games with Her renowned martial talent.
Thus, Chandika entertains his choler; astride her fearsome lion and wielding 18 terrifying weapons, the spectacular goddess arrives in battle. Initially, She toys with Her petulant opponent, adroitly ricocheting his arrows against Her colossal shield. When he rushes Her, manically swinging a broad and curved taravaari, Chandika lazily deflects his swordsmanship with Her multitudinous weapons. Finally, the resplendent goddess instigates Her assault: She lacerates his neck with Her Trishula, but his blood generates a dozen Raktabeeja replicates. Progressively, more replicates populate the battlefield as Chandika pierces and amputates and eviscerates the rubicund demon. Now infuriated, She decimates 4000 of his infantrymen but Raktabeeja's replicates rapidly replace his fallen servants.
Eventually, Raktabeeja launches an arrow which pierces the goddess' right shoulder. Now infuriated, She invokes Chamunda and another seven goddesses from the eight Chakras of Her anatomy. Jointly, the goddess and Her supernal servants massacre the replicates; Chamunda eagerly drinks the spilled blood, preventing more replicates. Then, each goddess fatally damages the original Raktabeeja, and Chandika finally slaughters the foul demon.

Subtext

Alongside theologists, both astika and nastika scholars have extensively analyzed and treated Raktabeeja Vadh. The evocative and consistently grotesque imagery suggests a visceral, internal struggle between the primordial, enduring Aatma (Soul) and tempestuous, suggestible Manas (Mind). Whereas the body exists surrounding the Aatma, the Mind exists inhabiting the body; thereby, Manas is demonstrably vulnerable to decay and abrupt upheaval. Contaminants generate friction between the Mind and Soul, invariably introducing dissonance. These agents are neither physical nor pathogenic (disease is transient and transformational; suffering can expedite the journey to transcendence), but metaphysical and insidious.
Raktabeeja is an instantiation of

Magnificent Chandika stormed into battle, Her multitudinous weapons inflicting millions of lacerations and wounds on Raktabeeja. Then, that unassailable goddess lifted the foul demon by his hair and laid him supine on her lap. Emptying Her 18 hands of Her divine weapons, awful Chandika ripped open Raktabeeja's sunken chest and widened the evisceration of his abdomen. Roaring hungrily, the terrific goddess ate his organs and drank his blood and stained Her teeth with viscera.

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