Tantrokta Devī Suktam — Complete 30 Verses, Hymn to Aparājitā
The Tantrokta Devī Suktam is recited at the close of the Devī Māhātmya — the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa’s great narrative of the Goddess defeating the forces of disorder across three cycles of cosmic time. It is a hymn to Aparājitā, the Undefeated. But what the Suktam actually does, structurally, is more radical than victory-hymns usually attempt: it locates the Goddess not in heavenly triumph but in the texture of ordinary experience. She is consciousness (cetanā), wisdom (buddhi), sleep (nidrā), hunger (kṣudhā), shadow (chāyā), thirst (tṛṣṇā), patience (kṣānti), humility (lajjā), peace (śānti), faith (śraddhā), beauty (kānti), wealth (lakṣmī), compassion (dayā), satisfaction (tuṣṭi), the form of mother (mātṛrūpa), and confusion (bhrānti) — and to all of these, without exception, the bow is the same: namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ.
This is the Śākta non-dual position stated in liturgical form. The Goddess is not found by excluding what is uncomfortable or difficult. Hunger is her form as much as wisdom. Confusion is her form as much as peace. The practice does not ask for the transformation of experience into something more acceptable — it asks for the recognition of śakti within each quality of experience as it actually arises. The threefold repetition of the bow within each verse (namastasyai, namastasyai, namastasyai) is itself a teaching about the quality of attention required: once is acknowledgement; three times is saturation.
The first five verses address the Goddess by her classical epithets — the Śaiva (Śivā), the fierce (Raudrā), the luminous (Jyotsnā), the auspicious (Kalyāṇī), the remover of difficulties (Durgā). The heart of the Suktam — verses six through twenty-eight — shifts from epithets to phenomenology: the Goddess as she appears within every category of human experience. The final verses return to the narrative frame: the gods who were oppressed by the demons praise her as the one who, when remembered even for a moment, destroys all calamities.
The complete thirty verses in transliteration and Devanāgarī follow the recording.
Tantroktam Devīsuktam — Hymn to Aparājitā (the Undefeated). Recited at the close of the Devī Māhātmya.
namo devyai mahādevyai śivāyai satataṃ namaḥ | namaḥ prakṛtyai bhadrāyai niyatāḥ praṇatāḥ smatāṃ ||1||
We bow to the Goddess, to the Great Goddess, to the auspicious one. We prostrate to Nature, to the excellent one.
raudrāya namo nityāyai gauryai dhātryai namo namaḥ | jyotsnāyai cendurūpiṇyai sukhāyai satataṃ namaḥ ||2||
kalyāṇyai praṇatā vṛddhyai siddhyai kurmo namo namaḥ | nairṛtyai bhūbhṛtāṃ lakṣmai śarvāṇyai te namo namaḥ ||3||
durgāyai durgapārāyai sārāyai sarvakāriṇyai | khyātyai tathaiva kṛṣṇāyai dhūmrāyai satataṃ namaḥ ||4||
atisaumyatiraudrāyai natāstasyai namo namaḥ | namo jagatpratiṣṭhāyai devyai kṛtyai namo namaḥ ||5||
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu viṣṇumāyeti śabditā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||6||
We bow to the divine Goddess in all beings who is the power of Viṣṇu.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu cetanetyabhidhīyate | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||7||
… who is known as consciousness.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu buddhirūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||8||
… who resides in the form of wisdom.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu nidrārūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||9||
… who resides in the form of sleep.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu kṣudhārūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||10||
… who resides in the form of hunger.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu chāyārūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||11||
… who resides in the form of shadow.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu śaktirūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||12||
… who resides in the form of divine energy.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu tṛṣṇārūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||13||
… who resides in the form of thirst.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu kṣāntirūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||14||
… who resides in the form of patience.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu jātirūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||15||
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu lajjārūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||16||
… who resides in the form of humility.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu śāntirūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||17||
… who resides in the form of peace.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu śraddhārūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||18||
… who resides in the form of faith.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu kāntirūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||19||
… who resides in the form of beauty enhanced by love.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu lakṣmīrūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||20||
… who resides in the form of true wealth.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu vṛttirūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||21||
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu smṛtirūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||22||
… who resides in the form of memory.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu dayārūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||23||
… who resides in the form of compassion.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu tuṣṭirūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||24||
… who resides in the form of satisfaction.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu mātṛrūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||25||
… who resides in the form of Mother.
yā devī sarvabhūteṣu bhrāntirūpeṇa saṃsthitā | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||26||
… who resides in the form of confusion.
indriyāṇāmadhiṣṭhātrī bhūtānāṃ cākhileṣu yā | bhūteṣu satataṃ tasyai vyāpti devyai namo namaḥ ||27||
Presiding over the senses of all beings and pervading all existence — to the omnipresent Goddess, we bow.
citirūpeṇa yā kṛtsnam etat vyāpya sthitā jagat | namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ ||28||
In the form of consciousness, pervading the entire perceivable universe.
stutāsuraiḥ pūrvam abhīṣṭasaṃśrayāt tathā surendreṇa dineṣu sevitā | karotusā naḥ śubhaheturīśvarī śubhāni bhadrāṇy abhihantu cāpadaḥ ||29||
yā sāmpratam coddhata daityatāpitair asmābhir īśāca surair namaśyate | yā ca smatā tatkṣaṇam eva hanti naḥ sarvāpadaḥ bhaktivinamramūrtibhiḥ ||30||
Let the Goddess who brings good fortune, who is praised by gods afflicted by demons, who destroys all calamities the moment she is remembered with devotion — let her destroy all our obstacles.
The Devī Suktam bows to confusion and to wisdom with the same three-fold bow. This is the non-dual position stated not as philosophy but as liturgical fact: there is no experience through which the śakti is absent. The practice is simply the recognition of that — in every form, without exception.
From the Tradition — Devī Suktam: Received, Not Interpreted
Listen to the complete Devī Suktam once through without following the text. The Suktam addresses the Devī in every form simultaneously — in error as in wisdom, in hunger as in clarity. The practice is to let the sound carry what the mind cannot yet hold in a single concept. After the recording ends, remain seated for three breaths before returning to speech or task.
