What have we learnt from the Shakti Puja?  Sooner or later this great Puja will yield the desired results.  When the Hindus realize the true magnificence of the worship of the Mother, they will be roused from the slumber of ages, and the auspicious dawn of awakenment will light up the horizon.  You must acquire great power from the worship of the Mother.  Ganesh, the god who grants success, has his seat assigned to him on the left of the great Mother.  Why should you despair of obtaining success?  Look at Kartiki, the god who is the chief commander of the armies of the gods, who has stationed himself to the right of the Mother; he is coming forward with his bow, to assist you against the demons of sin, who stand in the way of your accomplishing that great object, and as he is up in arms, who can resist?

The Khulnavasi breaks out into poetry:—­

For what sins, O Mother Durga, are thy sons thus dispirited and their hearts crushed with injustice?  The demons are in the ascendant, and constantly triumphing over godliness.  Awake, Oh Mother, who tramplest on the demons!  Thy helpless sons, lean for want of food, worn out in the struggle with the demons, are, struck with terror at the way in which they are being ruled.  Famine and plague and disease are rife, and unrighteousness triumphs.  Awake, Oh Goddess Durga!  I see the lightning flashing from the point of thy bow, the world quaking at thy frowns, and creation trembling under thy tread.  Let a river of blood flow, overwhelming the hearts of the demons.

The Kalyani chides the Hindus for breaking their Swadeshi vows to Durga:—­

You have made all sorts of vows to stick to Swadeshi, but you are still using bilati [foreign] salt, sugar, and cloths which are polluted with the blood and fat of animals.  You swear by the Mother, and then you go and disobey her and defile her temples.  Do you know that it is owing to your sins that Mother Durga has not come to accept your worship in Bengal this year?  In fact, she is heaving deep sighs of sorrow—­sighs which will bring a cataclysmic storm upon you.  If you still care to save your country from utter ruin, mend your ways and keep your promises to the Mother.

In other provinces where other deities are more popular it is they who are similarly called in aid.  The Bedari of Lahore, for instance, reproduces from the Puranas the story of the tyrant Rajah Harnakath, who brought death on himself at the hands of Vishnu for attempting to kill his son Prahlad, whose offence was that he believed in God and championed the cause of justice, in order to liken British statesmen and Anglo-Indian officials to the wicked Rajah and the Indians to Prahlad.  As most British statesmen and their representatives abroad are the enemies of liberty and justice and support slavery and oppression, the fall of Great Britain is near at hand, and India will then pass into the possession of her own sons.