One of the most invoked forms of the Great Goddess is her manifestation as the youthful, multi-armed deity who successfully battles the mighty buffalo demon that symbolizes among other things the elemental powers of brutish ignorance and oppression. In this incarnation she is referred to as Durga, the "unattainable".

The Great Goddess Durga was born from the energies of the male divinities when the gods lost the long drawn-out battle with the demons, asuras. All the energies of the Gods united and became a supernova, throwing out flames in all directions. That unique light pervading the Three Worlds with its luster, combined into one and became a female form, "Devi".

The Devi projected an overwhelming omnipotence. The awesome three-eyed Goddess was adorned with the crescent moon. Her multiple arms held auspicious weapons and emblems, jewels and ornaments, garments and utensils, garlands and rosaries of beads, all offered by the gods. With her golden body blazing with the splendor of a thousand suns, seated on her lion vehicle, Durga is one of the most spectacular of all personifications of Cosmic Energy.

The tremendous power of the Goddess was poised ready for the grim battle to wipe out the asuras, whose exaggerated ego-sense was destroying the balance of the universe and whose sole purpose was to dominate and control the entire universe. It was the universal war between knowledge and ignorance, truth and falsehood, the oppressor and the oppressed.

The world shook and the seas trembled as the Goddess engaged the great demon "Mahisasura" ("mahisa" – buffalo) and his hosts in a fierce battle, creating her own female battalions from her sighs breathed during the fighting.

The Great Goddess first annihilated the army of the titan. She then roped Mahisasura’s mighty buffalo-form with a noose. The demon escaped, however emerging from the buffalo body in the form of a lion. Immediately, the Goddess beheaded the lion whereupon "Mahisa", by virtue of his Maya-energy (maya – illusion) of self-transformation escaped again, now in the form of a hero with a sword.

Ruthlessly, the Goddess riddled this new embodiment with a shower of arrows. But then the demon stood before her as an elephant and with his trunk, reached out and seized her. He dragged her towards him, but she severed the trunk with the stroke of a sword. The demon returned to his favorite shape -that of the giant buffalo shaking the universe with the stamping of its hoofs. But the Goddess scornfully laughed and again roared with a loud voice of laughter at all his tricks and devices. Pausing a moment in full wrath, she serenely lifted to her lips a bowl filled with the inebriating, invigorating, liquor of the divine - life force and while she sipped the matchless drink, her eyes turned red. The buffalo-demon, uprooting mountains with his horns was flinging them at her, shouting defiantly all the while. But with her arrows, Durga was shattering them to dust.

She called out to the shouting monster: "Shout on! Go on shouting one moment more, you fool while I sip my fill of this delicious brew. The gods soon will be crying out for joy and you shall lie annihilated at my feet".

Even as she spoke, the Goddess leapt into the air, and came down on the demon's neck. She dashed him to the earth and pierced the trident through his neck. The adversary attempted once again to abandon the buffalo-body, issuing from its mouth in the shape of a hero with a sword, but he had only half emerged when he was caught. He was half inside the buffalo and half outside, when the Goddess with a swift and powerful stroke beheaded him. The chief demon "Mahisasura" was dead, and the gods praised the Goddess Durga, joyfully worshipping her with flowers, incense and fragrant paste.

In our mythology and in various parts of India, "Durga" is worshipped in many forms and names as "Jagad-dhatri" (Keeper of the world), Bhavani, Amba, Chandika, Gauri, Parvati, Mahishasuramardini. She is sometimes depicted riding on a tiger instead of a lion. Durga, in the "Jagad-dhatri" form is generally worshipped in the month of March.

In eastern India, especially in Bengal, the Durga Pujo is the principal festival during Navratri and Sharod Utsav.

It is celebrated with gaiety and devotion through public ceremonies of "Sarbojanin Pujo" or community worship. Huge decorative temporary structures called "pandals" are constructed to house these grand prayer services followed by mass feeding and cultural functions. The earthen icons of Goddess Durga accompanied by those of Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesh and Kartik are taken out on the tenth day in a triumphal procession to the nearby river, where they are ceremonially immersed. Bengali ladies give an emotion-charged send-off to Ma Durga amidst ululations and drumbeats.