Maha Prathyangira, one of the most intoxicating personifications of primal energy in the cosmic drama, She is a power-symbol embodying the unity of the transcendental.
In Maha Prathyangira, there is an overwhelming intensity, a mighty strength, a force to shatter all obstacles. She is there for swiftness, for immediate and effective action, for the direct stroke, the frontal assault that carries everything before it. Awe-inspiring, determined and ruthless, she destroys evil force.
Sri Maha Prathyangira Devi is a form of Atharvana Badhra Kaali. Ma Kaali takes different manifestations which are for certain definite purpose, and in reality there is one Devi who assumes various forms to fulfil various purposes. Sometimes she assumes a frightening form and sometimes a benevolent form.
Prathyangira is the lion faced form of the mother. Sri Maha Prathyangira Devi is believed to have been manifested to calm Narasimha Swami's anger and to save the world from his ugraham after he killed demon Hiranyakashipu. Narasimha Swami's ugraham was unbearable since he consumed the intense evil and could not be pacified by other Gods. They feared that his anger and the consumed evil energy of Hiranyakashipu within Him might destroy the three worlds and all creations will come to a stand-still.
When all the Gods failed to calm him, they approached Lord Shiva to help calm Narasimha Swami.
Lord Shiva invoked the Tri Shakthis (Parvati, Mahalakshmi & Saraswathi) and with their combined powers manifested in the form of a Sarabha Pakshi as Lord Sarabeshwara. This is the most powerful aspect of Lord Shiva and even then Narasimha Swami was not pacified and battled successfully with Lord Sarbeswara. Our Divine Mother Maha Mayee, the origin of our universe finally appeared as a huge fearful Goddess called Prathyangira. Devi Pratyangira along with Soolini Durga gave wisdom to Narasimha Swami who then realized the mission of his Avataram and calmed immediately and thus allowing for creation to continue.
Sri Maha Prathyangira Devi is the sustaining Mother, the Abosrber of all. In the equilibrium of the potential state there will always be disturbance arising from the desire for creation - a cycle of Kaali's 'opening' and 'closing'. Her world is an eternal living flux in which all things arise and all disappear again. She is the archetypal image of birth-and-death, giver of life and its destroyer, 'the vital principles of visible universe which has many faces - gracious, cruel, creative, destructive, loving, indifferent - the endless possibility of the active energy at the heart of the world.
She is the Supreme Goddess and is the source of all 'energies'. Though the Goddess is one, and there can be nothing apart from her, according to the capability and desire of the worshipper she is conceived of innumerable forms.
She is also Kaali, the first of Maha Vidya-time, Tara-the potential of re-creation, Sodasi-the power of perfection, fullness; Bhuvanesvari, supporter of all existence, space-consciousness; the end of existence, the distributor of life-energy; Bhairavi, the active power of destruction; Dhumavati, the power of darkness, inertia; Bagala, destroyer of negative forces; Matangi, the power of domination, dispeller of evil; and Kamala, the state of reconstituted unity. They are not separate from Mother Prathyangira, they are one and all with Mother Prathyangira.