Navaratri: 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.
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
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