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On Ashwayuja Suddha Panchami this year, the fifth day of the Dasara festival, Goddess Kanaka Durga appears in the form of Sri Lalitha Tripura Sundari Devi.
The presiding deity is adorned as Sri Lalitha Tripura Sundari Devi as Adi Sankara installed a Sri Chakra here with which her furious form turned peaceful and serene.
She is seated on Lord Siva, while Goddess Sri Lakshmi Devi and Saraswati Devi are there on the right and left with vinjamarams (fans) in their hands.
The Divine Goddess is to be meditated upon as seated on the lotus with petal eyes. She is golden-hued, and has lotus flowers in her hand. She holds flowers, a noose, a goad and sugarcane or a bow. The noose represents attachment, the goad represents repulsion, the sugarcane/bow means the mind and the arrows are the five sense objects. She dispels fear of devotees who bow before her. She is the embodiment of peace, and knowledge ( vidya) and grants every kind of wealth wished for.
She is the second form of Tripura trayam and is the ultimate, primordial Shakti, the light of manifestation; and existing prior to Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. She represents the panchabhuta, – vayu (air), jala (water), agni (fire), bhumi (earth) and akasa (space) — the five basic elements of the universe. Lalitha, who is adhisthana devatha of Panchadasakshari and Sri Chakra, bestows Mahadaishwaryam (fortune) to sadhaka of Sri Vidya, according to Vedic scholars.
