Mother’s Day offers the perfect opportunity to celebrate mother goddesses and sacred mothers from different faiths. These holy and divine figures capture some of the important qualities mothers can embody for us — on Mother’s Day and every other day of the year.
As York University researcher Johanna H. Stuckey points out, mother goddesses often encompass many more divine traits than their motherhood alone. But motherhood does play an integral role in their cosmic stories, as well as in the lives of mothers, women and men who worship them.
Durga is the supreme Mother Goddess in Hinduism who represents unified divine energy. In addition to her compassion, Durga is a fierce destroyer of injustice. When evil forces threatened the existence of the gods, they came together to bring Durga into being — only she had the power to defeat the demons and save the gods. To her worshippers, Durga removes fear and obstacles and always aids those who call on her.