NAVRATRI

Navratri is the nine night celebrations of worshiping Mother Goddess Shakti. It begins on the first day of the month of Ashwin (October) and culminates on the tenth day of the month.

There are three basic forms of the Feminine aspect of God: Maha Durga, Maha Lakshmi and Maha Saraswati, corresponding to Shiva, Visnu and Brahma respectively. Each of the three deities gave rise to three more forms representing the finer meaning of each form. Hence in all, these nine forms are known as Navdurga.

Maha Durga:

First three days corresponds to worship of Durga in three forms: Shailputri, Brahmacharini and Chandraghanta. Durga literally means one who has qualities to accomplish the highest (durg). A human being cannot achieve anything if he has tamoguna. Tamoguna means laziness, darkness, ignorance and inertia. Durga represents the power that removes the tamoguna and makes one qualify for Lakshmi. Worshiping Durga invokes the power within the worshiper and destroys all the evil and lethargic tendencies of the human being.

The three aspects Shailputri, Brahmacharini and Chandraghanta signifies the qualities of determination, austerity and fearlessness respectively. These three qualities are essential to destroy the animalistic tendencies in the human being.

Maha Lakshmi:

From third day to the sixth day of Navratri one should worship Goddess Lakshmi. Three forms worshiped in these days are Kushmanda, Skandamata and Katyayani. Lakshmi signifies spiritual wealth. As it is important for a person to get rid of negative qualities, it is equally important for the person to acquire positive qualities. Lakshmi signifies the positive qualities to acquire knowledge or to prosper.

Lakshmi does not mean only material money, rupees or dollars. These are only representations. Real wealth is the purified mind. Unless one has the qualities of self-discipline, kindness, respect and sincerity, all the material wealth cannot stand by his side and in no time all the material wealth slip away without trace just as water slips away from a slippery mountain-side. The Deity of Lakshmi resides in water and holds a lotus flower. She signifies the purity of the mind to keep secure the Divine wealth.

Maha Saraswati:

The last three days of Navratri are dedicated to the worship of Saraswati. Mother Saraswati is worshiped to seek the spiritual knowledge. Knowledge of the Supreme is the ultimate goal of the human life. One can get the spiritual knowledge by virtue of the good qualities achieved by Lakshmi. The most important thing to acquire knowledge is surrendering to a spiritual master. Unless there is a master there is no knowledge. Lord Brahma is representation of the Supreme Knowledge and Saraswati is his consort who represents surrender and submission to the possessor of Knowledge.

Supreme Knowledge is knowledge of the self. One may have knowledge of many subjects and sciences like phonetics, economics, archery, astronomy etc, but if one do not know who he is and what is the ultimate goal of the human life then all other knowledge is considered to be a knowledge of a play game, in other words, it is useless. Thus by worshiping Goddess Saraswati one can surrender to the Supreme master and acquire the transcendental knowledge that can release the soul from bondages.

Vijaya Dashami Representing Victory:

All these nine days culminate to Vijaya Dashami. Vijaya Dashami signifies the victory of good over the evil. It represents the victory of purpose of human life. On the whole Navratri holds lot of meaning and purpose which, if seen from the spiritual point of view, can lead to ultimate salvation of the human life.