Navratri rejuvenates you and brings you relief at three levels of existence — physical, subtle, and causal. This is a time for self-reflection and transformation, a time to come back home to the source. This is the time of the year when nature sheds the old, and life rejuvenates and emerges afresh in the spirit. The nine nights of Devi Shakti are associated with three gunas — satwa, rajas, and tamas. When satwa guna increases, awareness, knowledge, wisdom, happiness, joy, evenness, calmness — all these qualities manifest in life. When rajas increases, restlessness, desires, and craving manifest. Rajo guna also brings a little bit of sadness. And when tamo guna reigns, dullness, sleep, lethargy, and dejection manifest.
The nine days of Navratri are a wonderful opportunity to rejoice and transcend the three gunas, or the primordial qualities that make up the universe. Though the three gunas govern our lives, we never take the time to recognise and reflect on them. The three primordial gunas are considered part of Shakti, or the feminine force in this creation. When we worship the Mother Divine during Navratri, we harmonise these three gunas and raise sattva in the atmosphere. Our consciousness moves through the tamo and rajo gunas and blossoms in the sattva guna in the last three days.
We take this journey during these nine days and nights through fasting, prayer, silence, and meditation to return to our true source, which is love, joy, and peace. Whenever sattva dominates in life, victory is sure to follow. The essence of this knowledge is honoured by celebrating the tenth day as Vijayadashmi.
The three gunas are transcended by the worship of the three forms of Mother Divine during the nine days. Goddess Durga is invoked first, praying to whom removes impurities from the mind. This way, we begin with winning over the tendencies of the mind, like cravings, aversions, pride, and greed. Once we have subdued these negative tendencies and patterns, we move ahead on the spiritual path to nurture and strengthen our positive qualities.
Goddess Lakshmi is prayed to, and she nurtures these noble values and qualities in our hearts and minds. In the last three days, Goddess Saraswati in her various forms is propitiated for gaining the highest knowledge of the Self, when sattva remains high. We offer flowers and fruit to Mother Divine during these auspicious days. But the flower truly represents human blossoming, who we are, so full, charming, light, and beautiful. Fruits symbolise completeness or totality. In the life cycle of a plant, fruits denote completeness, or fullness, just as we feel when we offer the symbolic fruit as prasad to Mother Divine with all gratitude. We also light lamps. In the Indian tradition, we use tall brass lamps with a swan carving on the top, which has a beautiful meaning. In Sanskrit verses, a swan is said to be blessed with ‘Neerakshiraviveka’, meaning it can differentiate between milk and water even though both may be mixed.
According to legend, the Divine Mother or Devi killed the demons Mahishasur, Shumbha-Nishumbha, Madhu-Kaitabh, Raktabeejasura, Chanda-Munda, and Dhoomralochan. All these demons symbolise qualities within us that pull us down. For instance, Mahishasur symbolises inertia, Shumbha-Nishumbha pride and shame, Madhu-Kaitabh extreme forms of cravings and aversions, and Raktabeejasura obsessions. During Navratri, the divine consciousness or Devi energy overpowers all these qualities.
Many yagnas are conducted during these nine auspicious days. The yagyas performed during Navratri celebrations touch all three levels of existence — the outer physical world, the subtle world of divine energies, and the supreme consciousness. Therefore, the yagyas bestow upon us both spiritual and material benefits. While you sit for these yagyas, immerse yourself in love and devotion with the feeling that everything is well, everything is being done for you. When corn is warmed up a little, it becomes popcorn. In the same way, consciousness is Divinity, and with the chanting of mantras, it blossoms and manifests. This is a beautiful occasion for letting the consciousness blossom.
These nine nights of Navratri are the best days in the year to ponder questions like, “How was I born? What is my source?” As one spends time with Divine consciousness, one becomes more creative and inculcates the ability to succeed. When negative forces like craving, aversion, uncertainty, and fear haunt us, we are disturbed and we grumble. When sattva dominates in life, victory follows. To get rid of all these, we need to go to the source of energy within us.
Creation is cyclical, not linear; everything is recycled by nature — a continuous process of rejuvenation. According to Vedic sciences, matter reverts to its original form to recreate itself again and again. The human mind, however, lags in this cycle of creation.
Navratri is a festival for one to take the mind back to its Source. Just as a baby rests in the mother’s womb for nine months before coming into this world, similarly, during these nine days and nights, the seeker, through fasting, prayer, silence, and meditation, reconnects with its true source. While fasting detoxifies the body, silence purifies the speech and brings rest to the
chattering mind. Meditation takes one deep into one’s own being. The entire creation becomes alive, and we recognise life in everything, just as children see everything as alive — the moon talks to them and so do the stars. The Mother Divine, or pure consciousness itself, pervades all forms. Navratri is the occasion where the bridge between the subtle and the gross world is more obvious than at other times. Navratri is when you recognise that the universe is governed by the subtle force. The mind is governed by the subtle force. Honouring and adoring that subtle force is Navratri. The mind is part of the duality: faith and doubt; happiness and sadness; or connectivity and disconnection.
The last obstacle to bliss
While elevated levels of sattva can help you turn inwards and meditate, they do not guarantee that you reach samadhi, the place of absolute equanimity and rest. The last obstacle could be your own intellect stuck in the world and the sense of separate identity or ego.
A striking truth about the Divine Mother helps us overcome this last obstacle. The Divine Mother is recognised as the cause of all causes and the energy that pervades the entire creation. For instance, she is not just the brilliance of intellect (buddhi), but also the sense of confusion (bhranti); she is not just abundance (lakshmi), she is also hunger (kshudha) and thirst (trishna).
Acknowledging this duality brings total acceptance to the mind and puts it at ease. Realising the multi-dimensional nature of the Divine Mother in the entire creation leads one to a deep state of samadhi. Recognising the one divinity in every form and every name is the celebration of Navratri. The tenth day is ‘Vijaya Dashmi’, the ‘victory day’. It is only after we have honoured something that we can gain victory over it. It is usually celebrated as a victory of good over evil, but that is a limited way of looking at it. From the Vedantic viewpoint, victory is of the absolute reality over the seeming duality. The great sage Ashtavakra says — ‘It is merely the poor wave that tries to keep its identity separate from the ocean, but to no avail.’
(The writer is a spiritual master, humanitarian, and founder of the Art of Living, inspiring peace and harmony worldwide)