Ya Devi Sarva Bhuteshu Shakti-Rupena Samsthita / Namastasyai Namastasyai Namastasyai Namo Namah.
To that Goddess who resides in all beings in the form of power — salutations to her, salutations to her, salutations to her, again and again, salutations.
This refrain, repeated with slight variation throughout a section of the Devi Mahatmya, substitutes a different quality in place of “Shakti” — power — each time it recurs: peace, intelligence, sleep, hunger, forgiveness, mother’s love, and many others, each time closing with the same triple salutation. The structure itself makes an argument through sheer repetition: the goddess isn’t confined to a single form, a single virtue, or a single kind of experience.
This is one of the more radically inclusive theological claims in the Devi Mahatmya, extending the goddess’s presence not just to grand, positive qualities but to states typically considered lesser, like sleep or hunger.
When it’s said: Throughout Navaratri, particularly during Durga Puja readings of the Devi Mahatmya in full, and privately by devotees wanting a way to recognize the divine in an unglamorous, everyday moment.
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