Navaratri

All of us have grown with Navaratri being celebrated at our homes by our parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, and neighbours. We all have some idea about it, but with time, many of us have gotten away from it since there was no one to explain us the deeper meaning. This week, Navaratri celebrations started all over India. Although I had never done this in the past including my childhood, my wife Vandna and I along with our children have been involved in celebrating Navartri at the International Centre of Art of Living at Bangalore for the last few years. We have just returned from ‘Adhyatma Sadhna Kendra’ in Chhatarpur, New Delhi where Navaratri is being celebrated in the most traditional manner by the Art of Living Centre in Delhi-NCR. It is a most beautiful experience, something we had not imagined.

Earlier this week, the following article was written by H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the Founder of Art of Living, in Times of India (Speaking Tree). This gives the perspective, something to which all of us would be able to relate. It takes us deeper, away from what we have seen on the surface.

Navaratri Is Celebration Of The Universe

The festival of Navaratri is celebrated with prayers and gaiety in the beginning of autumn and spring. This period is a time for self-referral and getting back to the source. During this time of transformation, Nature sheds the old and gets rejuvenated.

Vedanta says, matter reverts to its original form to recreate itself again and again. The creation is cyclical, not linear; everything is recycled by nature in a continuous process of rejuvenation. The human mind, however, lags behind in this routine cycle of creation. Navaratri is a festival to enable us to take the mind back to its source.

The seeker finds the true source through fasting, prayer, silence and meditation. Night is called ratri because it brings rejuvenation. It gives relief at the three levels of our existence — physical, subtle and causal. While fasting detoxifies the body, silence purifies speech and brings rest to the chattering mind, and meditation takes you deep into your own being.

The inward journey nullifies our negative karmas. Navaratri is a celebration of the spirit or prana which alone can destroy Mahishasura (inertia); Shumbha-Nishumbha (pride and shame) and Madhu-Kaitabh (extreme forms of craving and aversion). They are opposites, yet complementary. Inertia, deeply ingrained negativities and obsessions (Raktabeejasura); unreasonable logic (Chanda-Munda) and blurred vision (Dhoomralochan) can be overcome only by raising the level of prana and shakti, the life-force energy.

The nine days of Navaratri are also an opportunity to rejoice in the three primordial qualities that make up the universe. Though our life is governed by the three gunas, we seldom recognise and reflect on them. The first three days of Navaratri are tamo guna, the second three of rajo guna and the last three of sattva guna. Our consciousness sails through the tamo and rajo gunas and blossoms in the sattva guna in the last three days. Whenever sattva dominates life, victory follows. The essence of this knowledge is honoured by celebrating the tenth day as Vijaya Dashami.

The three primordial gunas are considered as the feminine force of the universe. By worshipping the Mother Divine during Navaratri, we harmonise the three gunas and elevate sattva in the atmosphere.

Navaratri is celebrated as the victory of good over evil. From the Vedantic point of view, the victory is of absolute reality over apparent duality. In the words of Ashtavakra, it is the poor wave which tries to keep its identity separate from the ocean, but to no avail.

Though the microcosm is well within the macrocosm, its perceived separateness is the cause of conflict. For a gyani or a wise person, entire creation comes alive and he recognises life in everything in the same way children see life in everything. The Mother Divine or pure consciousness pervades all forms and has all names. Recognising the one divinity in every form and every name is the celebration of Navaratri. Hence, special pujas honouring all aspects of life and nature are performed during the last three days.

Kali is the most horrific manifestation of Nature. Nature symbolises beauty, yet it has a horrific form too. Acknowledging the duality brings a total acceptance in the mind and puts the mind at ease.

The Mother Divine is recognised not just as the brilliance of intellect (buddhi), but also the confusion, (bhranti); she is not just abundance (Lakshmi), she is also hunger (shudha) and thirst (trishna). Realising this aspect of the Mother Divine in entire Creation leads one to a deep state of samadhi. This gives an answer to the age-old theological struggle of the Occident. Through wisdom, devotion and nishkama karma, one can attain advaita siddhi or perfection in the non-dual consciousness.