4. Devi Tara
Goddess as guide and protector, or who saves.
Who offers the ultimate knowledge which gives salvation. She is the goddess of
all sources of energy. The energy of the sun is also a grant from her. She
manifested as the mother of lord shiva after the incident of samudramanthan to
heal him as her child. Tara is of a light blue complexion. She has three eyes,
a snake coiled comfortably around her throat, wearing the skins of tigers, and
a garland of skulls. Her left foot rests on the corpse of shiva. The goddess is
worshiped as guide and protector and savior. Goddess tara is worshipped in both
hinduism and buddhism as the goddess of compassion and protection. In hinduism,
she is a form of the female primordial energy known as shakti. The name comes
from the sanskrit root tar, meaning “protection.” In other Indian languages,
the name translates as “star.”
Tara’s name is derived from tri, which means
“to cross.” One of her epithets is samsaratarini, “she who takes across the
ocean of worldly existence. ”Tara is thus the all-gracious liberator. Tara
first appeared as a deity in hinduism but was later adopted by buddhism. In
fact, in some traditions, she is considered the female buddha. In tibetan
buddhism, she is the most popular deity worshiped today.