Ma Bhuvaneshwari: Knowing and Worshipping the Queen of the Universe
In this article, you will read about:
Ma’s Origin and Supremacy
Her Appearance and Symbolism
Her Place in the Das Mahavidyas
A Story of Her Grace
Her Mantra Practices
Awakening Her Through the Tantra Sadhana App
Ma Bhuvaneshwari is one of the most revered goddesses in the Hindu Tantric tradition, representing the cosmic mother who governs the entire universe and its three realms. She is the fourth among the ten Mahavidyas and embodies the divine feminine principle that creates, sustains, and transcends all existence.
Her name derives from ‘Bhuvan’, meaning Universe, and ‘Ishwari’, meaning Goddess, literally translating to ‘Queen of the Universe.’
Ma’s Origin and Supremacy
According to 'Bhuvaneshwari Evam Chhinnamasta Tantra Shastra' by Tantracharya Rajesh Dikshit, the emergence of Ma Bhuvaneshwari is intimately connected with the creation of the three worlds by Lord Surya.
When darkness enveloped the Universe, the Sun God appeared, and sages offered Him Soma (divine nectar), requesting the creation of worlds for habitation.
During this cosmic creation process, Ma Tripura Sundari, the third of the Das Mahavidyas, served as the chief power through whom Lord Surya manifested the universe.
However, when the three worlds were established, Ma Tripura Sundari assumed a suitable form to permeate and rule over these universes, thus becoming known as Bhuvaneshwari, the Ruler of the World.
Another story from the Shrimad Devi Bhagavatam describes how the Divine Trinity - Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu, and Lord Shiva - once travelled to Devi’s abode, Manidvipa, on a flying chariot and got a vision of Ma Bhuvaneshwari, the Divine Mother of the Universe.
In Her abode, She showed them three female attendants who were busy performing the tasks of creation, sustenance and destruction. The Trinity recognised themselves in these women, bowing to the supremacy of Ma Bhuvaneshwari, who assigned even the Gods their duties.
The Mistress of the Three Worlds
The Devi Bhagavat Puran says that this is not just a personal realisation; it is something that the cosmos has known at its fullest scale as the nature of existence itself.
After Devi Sati gave up Her body at Her father Daksh’s great fire ritual (Yagya) because She was unable to bear the insult directed at Her husband Mahadev, Mahadev withdrew into a grief so deep that He forgot the world around Him. With His withdrawal, the three worlds lost their prosperity, and living beings carried on burdened and hollow, never knowing why.
Into this desolation stepped Tarak, an Asur who, by Lord Brahma’s boon, could only be killed by a son of Shiv. With Shiv lost in sorrow, with no wife and no son, Tarak took the three worlds for himself.
In desperation, the Devas approached Vishnu for help. Vishnu, however, did not offer them a weapon or a strategy, just a single instruction: to seek the Mother of All, who had withdrawn like a parent teaching a lesson. She was nearer than they imagined, always waiting for their earnest cry.
And so, at Mahavishnu’s direction, the assembled gods went to the Himalayas. There they worshipped Her for years through sacrifice, vows, meditation, and recitation of the Mantra: Hreem, the seed-syllable of Maya.
Finally, on the ninth day of Chaitra, their waiting ended. A ruby radiance poured down the mountainside, cool as countless moons yet bright as countless suns, humming with the cadence of the four Vedas. It settled into the form of a woman, the colour of the rising sun. She bore a crescent moon upon Her brow and gazed outward with three eyes. She possessed four arms. Two of Her hands held a noose (Pash) and a goad (Ankush); the other two were raised in the gestures that grant boons (Varada Mudra) and remove fear (Abhay Mudra). She was smiling. Before the Devas could find their voices, She spoke:
“I am the wish-fulfilling tree (Kalpataru) that grants my devotees whatever they ask. Why are you afraid, when I am by your side?”
She then went on to set right what Tarak had overturned. She reassured the gods and told them that Her own power would take birth in the house of Himalaya as Parvati and win Shiv as Her husband. From their divine union would come the son, Kartikey (Murugan), who would destroy Tarak and restore the fractured worlds.
This was Ma Bhuvaneshwari.
Her name means Mistress of the Worlds (Bhuvan, the worlds; Ishwari, their ruler).
When Lord Vishnu first recognised Her upon the island of Manidvip, He named Her Mahavidya and Mula Prakriti, the First Creatrix who brought the Vedas into being, the single cause from which all else proceeds.
In the Devi Bhagavat Puran 12.12, before describing the inner glory of Manidvip, the text says that the Devi, for Her own play, divided Herself into two. At the beginning of creation, Maheshvara, here called Bhuvanesha, is Her other half. He is described as having five faces, three eyes, jewel-adorned, sixteen years old, and beautiful beyond countless Kamadevas. In His four hands He bears or displays the deer, Abhay Mudra (fearlessness), the axe, and the Varad Mudra (boon-giving gesture). Ma Bhuvaneshwari is always sitting on His left lap, radiant with all powers and surrounded by Her attendants.
The text then says: because such a Devi Bhuvaneshwari, resplendent with all powers and prosperities, sits on the left lap of Bhuvaneshwar, His sovereignty comes from His union with Her, and not otherwise.
The Devi is one of the ten Mahavidyas, the ten forms through which the Supreme Goddess is approached, and among them the fourth, as Her own Rahasya records. She is the Mother and ruler of all the worlds.
This is why She is not merely a refuge you reach for when the ground gives way, but the unchanging foundation beneath it all. The Puran says Her body contains millions of universes; the worlds are not realms She governs from a distance, but creations She holds securely within Herself. As the gods discovered, She always answers those who turn to Her.
The Jar and the Space
After granting the assembled gods rescue from their plight: the promise of Parvati’s birth and the son who would vanquish Tarak, She was about to withdraw (Antardhyan) when the mountain king Himavan spoke. It was in his house that Her power was to be born, and so he asked Her not for help, but for Herself: to reveal who She truly was, and the truth of self-realisation. Her answer was the Devi Gita, a Brahma Vidya in itself, unfolding Her own nature as the ground of all existence, and it changed the very meaning of calling upon Her. It gave the gods, and the world, a way from seeking temporary rescue to attaining eternal freedom from the ocean of Samsar.
She revealed to him that the entire universe, everything moving and unmoving, is interwoven in Her. She affirmed the fundamental rule of the cosmos: that no effect takes place without a cause, and nothing can exist without a receptacle to rest upon.
A cup stands on a saucer, the saucer on a table, the table on the floor. Every object must be supported by another. Yet the entirety of this cosmos rests ultimately on Her infinite being. The material world cannot appear without a foundation, and that absolute foundation is Her own existence. She rests upon nothing, for She is the Primeval Reality, the Cause of all causes, pure consciousness itself.
The Devi illustrated this with the simplest image: the all-pervading sky or space (Akash). There is only one continuous space. Set a jar down in a room, and you can speak of the space inside it as if it were a small, separate portion called Ghatakash (jar-space). Break the jar, and nothing has been divided or released; there was only ever one space, appearing enclosed simply because a form stood around it.
Likewise, the Devi said, the single reality we call consciousness appears as countless souls (Jivatmas) only because Maya’s forms enclose it. Remove the enclosure and the division vanishes. The room you occupy, the sky above its roof, the awareness within you: these are not three separate spaces but one continuous expanse.
This is why Her name declares Her the ruler of the worlds and not just a queen. The worlds do not sit outside of Her waiting for commands. Instead, they exist entirely within Her, and She is closer to every part of creation than its own heartbeat.
In the same teaching, She calls Herself the witness seated within the heart of all beings, present in every flicker of awareness, yet identical to none of its movements. Thoughts come and go while desires and fears rise and fall. She is the still attention they cross. Therefore, the place you are most likely to miss Her is not a temple; it is the very awareness reading this line, too close to be noticed, much like how we frantically search for the glasses already resting on our face, or like the way an eye cannot see itself.
We often seek the divine on distant peaks or in temples, as though it is a thousand miles away. But Her teaching is like a lamp within our own house. It holds no distance and asks no journey, because you have never been anywhere but inside the very thing you are reaching for. The Chandogya Upanishad puts this understanding in three words: Tat Tvam Asi: That thou art.
The work, then, is not to set out for new ground but to notice the vast foundation you have walked upon all along. To call upon Ma Bhuvaneshwari is to turn inward: closing the eyes, drawing the senses back, and resting attention in the heart-lotus, where Her self-luminous Intelligence burns always in the silent core of your being.
Her Appearance and Symbolism
The gods beheld Ma Bhuvaneshwari's divine form first, before they heard Her speak. This is an important insight to contemplate, because much of Her form’s meaning lies in what She chooses not to carry.
Each attribute is a teaching in itself, revealing something of the Goddess's nature, power, and the unique way in which She guides Her devotees. Ma Bhuvaneshwari is depicted as a beautiful Goddess with a complexion resembling the rising sun.
She is adorned with the crescent moon in Her hair, representing Her mastery of time and the cycles of creation, sustenance, and destruction. Her three eyes represent Her ability to perceive the past, present, and future while seeing beyond the veil of illusion (Maya).
In two of Her hands She carries a noose (Pash) and a goad (Ankush), which symbolise Her ability to bind devotees with love and guide them toward spiritual progress. The other two rest open: one extended downward in the gesture of giving (Varad Mudra), one raised in the gesture that quiets fear (Abhay Mudra).
Raghavabhatta, the classical commentator on the Sharada Tilakam, a tenth-century Tantric text on Mantra and ritual, classifies these symbols as Ayudhas, i.e., implements of the Goddess. In some depictions, such as the Navam Patal of Sharada Tilakam, She also rests Her foot on a jewelled vessel, representing Her dominion over material wealth and spiritual treasures.
Ma Bhuvaneshwari's implements are not always weapons. They bind and redirect rather than cut or shoot. The Devi Bhagavat Puran describes a Mother whose mercy does not require Her to be mild, and in that light the noose and goad read as two aspects of the same care: the noose drawing the wanderer back, the goad turning the one in danger away from the danger they cannot see. The open hands complete the movement: seek your higher good and do not be afraid.
In this form She expresses restraint, redirection, generosity, and the removal of dread. The Devi Bhagavat Puran declares that the whole world is woven into Her, and nothing moving or unmoving exists apart from Her. She sits on a lotus throne, symbolising Her purity even amidst the impurities of the world, and spiritual enlightenment.
Ma is smiling (Smitamukhim). Most of us arrive before the Divine already rehearsing, holding something forward. This form of Ma does not ask for any of that. You come the way you come to a mother: with nothing, and knowing that She already knows what troubles you and what it is that you need.
Lalita Tripura Sundari bears the same noose and goad, but Her remaining hands hold a bow of sugarcane and five flower arrows. In the Sri Vidya reading, these are not ordinary weapons: the bow is the mind, the arrows the five senses, and Her sovereignty lies in mastering the very instruments that bind the soul. Ma Bhuvaneshwari’s remaining hands are raised in Varad and Abhay Mudras. Her sovereignty needs no such instruments, because mind and sense, like everything else, arise within Her.
Her Place in the Das Mahavidyas
Ma Bhuvaneshwari is the fourth one in the sequence of the Das Mahavidyas, following Ma Kali, Ma Tara, and Ma Tripura Sundari.
Her specific role relates to the Gyan Shakti (knowledge force) of the Divine, representing the perceptive power that enables all beings to experience and understand reality.
While Ma Tripura Sundari represents Iccha Shakti (the force of desire), Ma Bhuvaneshwari embodies the knowledge aspect that manifests as space and cosmic awareness.
Ma Bhuvaneshwari and Ma Tripura Sundari
The two Goddesses share enough that the question of their similarity needs to be addressed further. In their familiar four-armed forms, both hold the noose and goad. Both are connected to the seed-syllable Hreem, and both are celebrated as forms of Mahadevi. A Sadhak encountering them for the first time could therefore be forgiven for wondering whether any real distinction exists at all.
The distinctions are real nonetheless, and one that matters most for practice is the seed-syllable, or Beej. Hreem belongs to Ma Bhuvaneshwari as Her principal Maya Beej and is also called the Shakti Pranav in Shakta traditions. In Sri Vidya, the same syllable appears three times within the longer Panchadashi Mantra of Ma Tripura Sundari, closing each of its three sections, or kutas; it also forms part of related Shodashi formulations. Hreem therefore remains a Beej within Her larger mantra structure, but it is not the complete or exclusive Beej Mantra of Tripura Sundari. Traditional explanations of verse 8 of the Tripuratapini Upanishad identify these three occurrences of Hreem within Panchadashi as the Bhuvaneshwari Beej.
A stronger basis for their convergence is found in the Sri Bhuvaneshwari Sahasranama, whose closing verses reveal it is actually a part of the larger Rudrayamala Tantra. Its opening verses clearly identify the syllable Hreem as Ma Bhuvaneshwari’s sacred Beej. The Sahasranama then calls Her Tripura and Mahatripurasundari, while also placing the names Tripura and Sundari together (introductory declaration and verses 8–10). Later, it describes Her as Sarvarupa, Sarvamayi, and Advaitanandarupini: She who assumes every form, consists of all forms, and embodies non-dual bliss (verse 65). Because of this, the hymn shows that both forms are ultimately one and the same supreme Goddess.
Yet what they do not automatically share is their ritual form. Ma Tripura Sundari, also known as Lalita or Shodashi, is the central Goddess of the Sri Vidya or Sri Kula tradition. The Tantraraj Tantra belongs to Her textual and ritual tradition: its mantra system and chakra-centred worship are directed towards Tripura Sundari. Ma Bhuvaneshwari, meanwhile, is one of the ten Mahavidyas and possesses Her own independent body of mantra and ritual practice.
The Rudrayamaliya Bhuvaneshwari Panchang is a section of the Dasavidyarahasya, which traces back to the larger Rudrayamal. Alongside it, the Bhuvaneshwari Pujapaddhati details how She should be regularly worshipped. Together, these texts prove that Her worship stands on its own and is not simply borrowed from the rituals of Ma Tripura Sundari.
There is also a direct scriptural basis for placing Ma Bhuvaneshwari within Kali Kula. The Niruttara Tantra gives the following classification:
Kali Tara Raktakali Bhuvana Mahishamardini |
Triputa Tvarita Durga Vidya Pratyangira tatha ||Kalikulam samakhyatam Srikulam cha tatah param |
Sundari Bhairavi Bala Bagala Kamalapi cha ||Dhumavati cha Matangi Vidya Svapnavati priye |
Madhumati Mahavidya Srikulam paribhashitam ||"The 10 Goddesses said to constitute Kali Kula are Kali, Tara, Raktakali, Bhuvana or Bhuvaneshwari, Mahishamardini, Triputa, Tvarita, Durga, Vidya, and Pratyangira. The 10 Goddesses said to constitute Sri Kula are Sundari, Bhairavi, Bala, Bagala, Kamala, Dhumavati, Matangi, Svapnavati, Madhumati, and Mahavidya."
— Niruttara Tantra, first Patal, verses 6–8
These verses support placing Ma Bhuvaneshwari within Kali Kula. Ma Tripura Sundari, on the other hand, is the presiding Goddess of Sri Vidya and Sri Kula.
Their forms tell the same story. Ma Tripura Sundari is depicted as an eternally youthful girl of sixteen, the embodiment of divine beauty and playful sovereignty in the three realms. Ma Bhuvaneshwari is the motherly figure, vast and serene, whose body contains the worlds themselves. Devi Lalita is the one who delights in the three realms, while Ma Bhuvaneshwari is the space in which all the worlds exist.
Within the Das Mahavidya framework, Ma Tripura Sundari and Ma Bhuvaneshwari are therefore best understood as distinct Mahavidyas of the one Goddess. At the highest spiritual level, they may be understood as forms of the same supreme Mahadevi; within formal practice, however, their particular mantras, ritual systems, and modes of worship remain distinct.
There is one important interpretive aspect to keep in mind when we see another Goddess’s name appear among the names of Bhuvaneshwari in her Sahasranam. It may indicate that the hymn recognises that Goddess as a form, power, function, or expression of Bhuvaneshwari. This kind of divine inclusion is common in Sahasranam literature.
A Story of Her Grace
According to oral and later written hagiographies connected to Akkalkot Swami Samartha, a remarkable true story about the Grace of Ma Bhuvaneshwari involves a young Brahmin who was born with intellectual disabilities. After his parents died from the shock of his condition, the boy became an orphan.
He wandered from village to village, facing rejection and humiliation wherever he went.
In desperation, he reached the Ma Bhuvaneshwari temple in Bhilwadi village, Maharashtra, where he sat before the goddess for three days without food or water. In his anguish, he cut his tongue as an offering to the goddess, pleading for her Darshan (divine vision) and threatening to sacrifice his life if she did not appear.
The goddess appeared in his dream, explaining that while she could not change his karmic fate, a spiritual master on the other side of the river could help him.
On the other side, the boy found Akkalkot Swami Samarth meditating under an Audumber tree. Though he could not speak due to his severed tongue, the compassionate saint understood his plight.
Swami Samarth moved his hand over the boy's back, and miraculously, the tongue was restored.
This incredible healing demonstrated the interconnected nature of Divine Grace flowing through the goddess and the realised Master, and how true faith can manifest this Grace.
Her Mantra Practices
Spiritual practices involving Ma Bhuvaneshwari Sadhana or a Ma Bhuvaneshwari Puja offer practitioners a comprehensive path toward both material success and spiritual realisation.
The practice traditionally begins during auspicious periods, particularly on Bhuvaneshwari Prakatya Divas or Bhuvaneshwari Jayanti, the time Ma first manifested. Her Sadhana can also be begun on full moon days.
Practitioners typically commence their Sadhana after 9 PM, wearing white or yellow robes and facing north or east.
The foundational element involves the use of specific yantras and sacred geometric diagrams that serve as focal points for meditation and energy concentration.
A seeker who undertakes this Sadhana with sincerity and faith will begin to feel Her energy flowing through them, filling them with joy and peace, sensing Her guidance and protection in every situation.
They will experience Her love and compassion not only for themselves but for all beings, marking a significant shift in their consciousness.
Her Most Auspicious Days in a Year
Not every date on a sacred calendar carries the same kind of authority. Some are anchored in scripture. Others grow from the living soil of devotional practice. Both matter. But they matter differently, and mixing them obscures something worth knowing.
The Devi Bhagavat Puran records that after years of unbroken worship in the Himalayas, the gods witnessed the supreme radiance resolve into Her form on the Navami tithi of Chaitra, a Friday. This is Her Prakatya Divas, or the day of Her appearance, preserved in the Puran’s own narrative.
What the Sanskrit verse does not specify is the fortnight. Certain devotional traditions have since placed the event in the bright fortnight, Chaitra Shukla Navami, which coincides with Ram Navami. This is a legitimate interpretive tradition. It is not, however, the text’s claim.
Navami itself recurs as significant throughout Her textual corpus. The Rudrayamala-attributed Sahasranama names Ashtami, Chaturdashi, and Navami as especially auspicious for recitation. The Rahasya pairs the nine-syllable Mantra with Navami on a Monday. The tithi holds weight across seasons, not only in Chaitra.
Her Jayanti is a different matter entirely. Devotional tradition observes it on Bhadrapada Shukla Dwadashi: the twelfth day of the bright fortnight of Bhadrapada, arriving each year in August or September. Temples hold special pujas. Practitioners gather. The primary texts do not name this date; it belongs to the community that has kept Her worship alive across generations.
One occasion is scriptural, the other is traditional. Neither is diminished by the distinction.
She Who Contains the Worlds
Before there were worlds, there was the space in which worlds could arise. Before there was a worshipper seeking the Goddess, there was Ma Bhuvaneshwari, from whom both the seeker and the path arise.
She is called the Queen of the Worlds, but no throne can contain Her. She does not inhabit space as we do. Space inhabits Her.
The sages called Her Mahamaya, not because the world is an illusion, but because She is the mysterious power by which the One appears as many. But She always remains The One. She is the veil and what the veil conceals. Every form declares Her, and no form exhausts Her.
Her heart is heard as Hreem, which marks Her presence gathered into a point, as a tree is gathered into a seed. The worlds unfold from it; the mind returns through it.
To praise Ma Bhuvaneshwari is impossible as a mortal, for every word used to praise Her already belongs to Her. Every thought rises through Her power. Even the silence after the final word is spoken is another form of Her presence.
May Her noose gather what has been scattered within us.
May Her goad awaken what has fallen asleep.
May Her hand of fearlessness steady us for what must be faced.
May Her giving hand grant not only what passes, but what cannot be taken away.
May She who contains the worlds make the heart vast enough to know Her.
Hreem!
Awakening Her Through the Tantra Sadhana App
If these words have unlocked a door within your heart, drawing you toward the wisdom of this Mahavidya, step into your practice with the Tantra Sadhana app.
Founded by the Himalayan monk Om Swami, the App offers guided Sadhana for each of the Das Mahavidyas (10 Wisdom Goddesses of Tantra), rooted in classical texts and living lineage: Her Mantra, Her Yantra, Her worship, approached on Her own terms. Not as symbols but as a living presence.
Om Swami, who renounced his multimillion-dollar software company to pursue spiritual awakening in the Himalayas, has personally experienced and invoked each of the ten Mahavidyas. His extensive spiritual journey, which included meditating for over 15,000 hours in solitude, forms the foundation of the Tantra Sadhana app.
In it, practitioners can engage in powerful rituals, such as Shav Sadhana, Khanda Munda Sadhana, and Panch Mundi Sadhana, which are traditionally reserved for initiated practitioners.
The app provides potent, energised Mantras of the Mahavidyas, previously accessible only through direct initiation from a qualified Guru.
What makes this application exceptional is its progressive structure. You begin your journey by performing the Sadhana for Ma Kali, the first Goddess to be worshipped in the Das Mahavidyas, and complete the cycle by finally worshipping Ma Kamalatmika.
Each Mahavidya includes an 11-day preparatory ritual, involving Jap (mantra chanting) and Yagna (fire offerings), before unlocking the main Sadhana.
The main Sadhana ranges from 21 to 40 days, depending on the specific Mahavidya.
This approach ensures practitioners develop deep devotion towards the Devi before engaging in advanced practices.
Reference: greatgurusofindia.wordpress.com