There are moments in a woman’s life when the floor falls out from under her — and yet, she finds she is still standing. Not because of her own strength, but because something deeper, something older than her, is holding her up. I have lived through such moments. And in each one, slowly, quietly, I have come to recognise the One who was holding me. The cosmic mother. Shakti. And for me, She has taken the form of Devi Tara — the star that guides the soul across the dark ocean.
Who Is Devi Tara?
In the Tantric tradition, Devi Tara is the second of the Dasha Mahavidyas — the Ten Great Wisdom Goddesses who together represent the full spectrum of Shakti, the divine feminine energy that gives rise to everything in this universe.
Her name comes from the Sanskrit root "tṛ" meaning "to cross over". She is the one who carries us across the ocean of samsara — the ocean of birth and death, of joy and grief, of attachment and letting go. She is the goddess who comes when you cannot save yourself anymore.
Her most sacred seat in India is Tarapith in Birbhum, West Bengal — one of the great Shakti Peethas, where the saint Bamakhepa realised Her presence and lived in surrender to Her. Sage Vasishtha himself, the tradition tells us, travelled to Mahachina beyond the Himalayas to learn Her worship from the Buddha — one of the rare and beautiful bridges between Hindu and Buddhist Tantra. In the Tibetan tradition, She is the compassionate Tara of Green and White forms, the swift saviouress.
But before all the geography and history, Devi Tara is something far simpler. She is the mother who appears when there are no more words.
Shakti — The Primordial Energy
To understand Tara, we have to first understand Shakti.
Tantric philosophy tells us that the universe is not a static thing made by a distant maker. The universe is a continuous arising — energy in eternal motion. Consciousness (Shiva) is the silent, still witness, but the entire movement — the spinning galaxies, the unfolding of a flower, the rising of a thought, the building of a family, the birth of a child — all of this is Shakti.
न चेदेवं देवो न खलु कुशलः स्पन्दितुमपि। “Only when Shiva is united with Shakti does He become able to create.
Without Her, He cannot even stir.” — Saundarya Lahari, Verse 1
Shakti is not "feminine" in the social sense. She is feminine in the cosmic sense — the womb from which everything emerges, and to which everything returns. Every act of creation — biological, artistic, spiritual, even commercial — is Her movement through us.
As a mother of twins, I have known this directly. When I carried Advait and Swastika in my body, I was not the architect of their lives. I was a vessel. She was building them through me. And when they were born, I understood — this is what creation is. Not "I did it", but "She moved through me."
Why Tara, Specifically?
Among the ten Mahavidyas, each goddess shows us one face of Shakti. Kali is the fierce destroyer of ego. Bhuvaneshwari is the cosmos itself. Bagalamukhi stops the enemy. Chinnamasta is radical self-sacrifice. Lalita Tripurasundari is the ravishing beauty of pure consciousness.
But Tara is the one who guides us across.
She is the mother who comes when we are drowning. The hand reaching into the dark. The voice that whispers "come, this way" when every other voice has gone silent. In Her iconography:
- She holds a pair of scissors — to cut the bonds of fear and attachment
- She holds a lotus — for the soul that has not yet bloomed but is reaching for the light
- She stands on a corpse — the dead ego — because the real spiritual journey begins only when the false self has fallen away
- Her colour is deep blue — the colour of the night sky, of stillness, of the womb of the universe
In a life of building and losing, climbing and falling, gaining and grieving — Tara is the steady star that does not move when the boat is being tossed by every wave.
Meeting Her in My Own Life
I did not find Devi Tara in a textbook. She found me.
She found me when we lost my beloved father during the COVID-19 pandemic — a grief so vast I could not see across it. She found me again when our family business faced its hardest seasons, when the ground I had been standing on shifted, when I had to learn that everything I thought was stable was only borrowed for a while.
She found me in the quiet of dawn on my pilgrimages — at Vaishno Devi, with the cold marble under my bare feet, when I understood that the Devi I was climbing the mountain to meet was the same Devi who was carrying me up the mountain.
She found me in motherhood — in the sleepless nights with my twins, when the love that flowed through me was clearly not mine. It was Hers. I was just the doorway.
And She finds me still, every day. In small moments. In a friend who calls at the exact moment I am about to break. In a decision that arrives without thought, simply because something deeper than reason has spoken. In the steady gaze of the women in my family — my mother, Beena Mehrotra, who has endured the unendurable and still smiles — my mother-in-law, who carries her own quiet strength — my daughter Swastika, whose name itself means auspiciousness, well-being, and whose presence in our home is a daily blessing.
The Divine Feminine — Why It Matters Now
We are living in a world that has forgotten how to receive. The masculine principle — doing, achieving, conquering, scaling, controlling — has been worshipped to such an extent that the feminine principle — receiving, holding, nurturing, sensing, intuiting — has been called weak.
Tantra rejects this completely. Tantra teaches that the feminine is not soft. She is the source. The masculine without the feminine, the tradition says plainly, is shava — a corpse. Doing without being is exhaustion. Action without receptivity is violence. Conquest without surrender is emptiness.
Recognising Devi Tara in our lives is recognising that:
- The women in our families and societies are not adjuncts to the men — they are the source from which everything emerges
- Intuition, receptivity, stillness are not weaknesses — they are higher faculties than mere logic
- Every act of creation — biological, artistic, commercial, spiritual — is Her movement, and to forget this is to live with a false sense of authorship
- Worship is not transaction. It is remembering who is actually doing the work
A Simple Practice to Begin With
If you feel called to Devi Tara — if something in you has been whispering yes as you read this — you do not need to be a scholar to begin. You only need reverence. Try this, for seven days:
- Each morning, light one diya (lamp) before any work begins. Just one. Say silently: "Maa Tara, guide me across this day."
- Once during the day, when you face a difficult moment, pause and softly repeat Her mantra three times:
ॐ तारे तुत्तारे तुरे स्वाहा Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha
- Each evening, close your eyes for two minutes and offer Her whatever happened that day — the wins, the failures, the irritations, the small kindnesses — without judgement. Just offering.
Do this for one week and notice what shifts. You will not become a saint. But you may find that something heavy you have been carrying alone — you are no longer carrying alone.
Closing — The Star That Guides
Tara means star. In a world that asks us women to be our own light — to do it all, to hold it all, to never falter — the Tantric tradition reminds us with infinite tenderness: there is already a Star. She has been guiding us all along. We just forgot to look up.
Whatever you build in this lifetime, whatever you lose, whatever rises and falls — remember that the energy doing all of this is Her. The same primordial Shakti who spun the galaxies is spinning your breath right now. The same cosmic mother who held the universe in Her womb is holding you, in this very moment, exactly as you are.
I write this not as a teacher — I am no teacher. I write this as a daughter, a wife, a mother, a woman who has been carried across many dark waters by a love she did not earn. If something in these words has touched you, it is not because of me. It is Her. Always Her.
Further Reading & Sources
For those wishing to deepen their understanding, these are some authoritative resources I have found valuable on this path:
On Devi Tara & the Mahavidyas
- Devi Tara — Wikipedia overview — comprehensive introduction to Her iconography, mantras, and lineage
- The Ten Mahavidyas — the full system of the Ten Great Wisdom Goddesses
- Tarapith Temple, West Bengal — history of Her sacred seat and pilgrimage
- Saint Bamakhepa — the great mad saint of Tarapith and devotee of Tara
On Shakti, Tantra & the Divine Feminine
- Shakti — the cosmic feminine in the Hindu philosophical tradition
- Tantra — the philosophical and spiritual tradition
- Saundarya Lahari — the great Tantric hymn to the Goddess attributed to Adi Shankara
- Devi Mahatmya — the foundational scripture celebrating the supremacy of the Goddess
- The 51 Shakti Peethas — the sacred sites of Shakti worship across the subcontinent
Pilgrimage & Practice
- Vaishno Devi Temple — one of the most visited Devi shrines in India
- Buddhist Tara — the bridge between Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist traditions of Tara
- Navaratri — the nine nights honouring the Goddess in Her many forms
Related Reflections
- In Loving Memory — My father, Late Shri Mukesh Mehrotra — the tribute that sits behind much of this writing
- My story — the seven pillars of who I am
- Family & faith — the people who shape my path
- Su-vastika Systems — the work I do in the world