Maa Tara, The Divine Mother

In the Tantric tradition, Maa Tara is worshipped as The Divine Mother, the Guiding Star. The Name Tara carries more than one meaning in the Sanskrit tongue: the star that guides through the night, the one who carries across (from the root that means to cross over), and even the pupil of the eye, through which the world is beheld. In each meaning the same truth is held, that The Divine Mother guides The children Of The Divine Mother through the dark, and carries them safely over.

A well-loved legend tells of the churning of the ocean, when a deadly poison rose and threatened all the worlds. lord shiva drank the poison to protect creation, and fell senseless under its burning. The Divine Mother appeared as Maa Tara, took him upon The Divine Mother's lap, and nourished him as a mother nourishes her child, and the poison was stilled. So Maa Tara is beheld as the Mother Who saves, Who Carries The children Of The Divine Mother across every danger.

Among the forms in which Maa Tara is Revered, three are most beloved: Ekajata, Ugra Tara, and Neela Saraswati. The devotee holds The Divine Name in the heart, and seeks Divine Darshan and Divine Blessings, by Divine Grace.

Tarapith, The Sacred Seat

Tarapith is a revered temple town in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, and the most famous seat of the worship of The Divine Mother Maa Tara. The Name joins Tara with pith, a seat, and the place is held among the sacred seats of The Divine Mother. Beside the temple lies the Mahasmasan, the great cremation ground, and the memory of the tantric saint Bamakhepa, the mad devotee who worshipped Maa Tara here and lived upon the burning ground. Each day, devotees come to Tarapith to seek Divine Darshan and Divine Blessings.

Maa Tara In Tibet And The Himalayas

Across the Himalayas, Tara is beheld and beloved under the Name Drolma, or Jetsun Drolma, the Venerable Mother of Liberation. The Divine Mother Is Revered as the Mother Who gives birth to the awakened ones, and it is told that The Divine Mother arose from the compassionate tears of Avalokiteshvara, the lord of compassion, when he wept for the sorrow of all beings.

Two of The Divine Mother's forms are most dearly held. Green Tara is swift to protect The children Of The Divine Mother from fear and danger, the very form of awakened action; and White Tara is of healing, of long life, and of boundless maternal compassion. From Green Tara are said to shine forth the Twenty-One Taras, each with its own Divine Grace. The worship Of The Divine Mother is kept across Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Ladakh, and Mongolia, from the mountain shrine to the household prayer.

In the Tantric tradition too, the worship of Maa Tara is remembered as having come by way of Mahachina, the great land of the north, and so the reverence for Tara has long flowed between these traditions, one Name held by many devoted hearts.

Taara, Or Tharapita

Far to the north, the ancient people of Estonia remembered a great god named Taara, also written Tharapita. He is recorded in the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, written around the year 1220, as the chief god of the Oeselians of the island of Saaremaa, and honoured by tribes of the mainland as well. The name has been read as an invocation, Taara, help. In the old telling, Taara was born upon a wooded hill in Vironia and flew across to Saaremaa, and his sacred day was Thursday, an evening kept in the holy woods. Some scholars have linked the legend of his flight to the great meteor that formed the Kaali crater on Saaremaa.

Across names and across lands, reverence rises to The Divine. Here, the heart turns to The Divine Mother Maa Tara, held in the Name that Carries across.