Once again we are celebrating the divine Nine-Night /Navarathri festival worshipping Goddess in the forms of Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi. As mentioned earlier in this blog, Navarathri is the worship of Goddess in the forms of Durga , Lakshmi and Saraswathi on nine days followed by Vijayadasami on the tenth day.
The first three days we worship Goddess Durga who is “Durgathi Haarini “, one who removes all evil thoughts and evil tendencies from our mind. The aspect of “Tamo Guna” characterised by Mahishasura – the embodiment of greed, absolute laziness(jadatwam), filled with immense strength of arrogance is completely destroyed. Hence she is described as Mahishasura Mardhini. In this modern world, we can infer it symbolically as the human mind which is the seat of all good and bad tendencies. The mind is a battlefield where there is always a fight between these two forces – Good Vs Bad.
Mahishasura was the embodiment of all durganaas and symbolically it means that during these holy nine nights festival, one should get the energy from the Supreme Mother to kill all the nine durgunaas or demonical traits that resides in a human, one each day. These demonical traits if not checked and blocked, every now and then, will take a direct control over the internal divine qualities and huge potential that sleeps in a human. Each of these demonical traits have their off springs. For instance, Greed leads to Arrogance, Impatience, Self Destruction etc
The nine demonical traits are lsited as
Kaama-lust
Krodha-anger
Lobha-greed
Moha-desires or attachment
Madha-Egoism
Matsarya–jealousy
Dwesha-hatred
Jadatwa-lethargic or dull Bheethi-fear
Krithaaparadh-guilty
The next three days Goddess is worshipped as Lakshmi, who is very gentle and kind. She also showers material wealth. The term material wealth also means the “wealth of noble virtues” As per Adi Sankara’s Vivekachoodamani, the six forms of wealth that a human has to strive for are Calmness of mind, Self-control. Self withdrawal,Restrain and Tolerance, Faith and Single Pointedness to conquer the mind and thereby opening the path to attain jnana. At this stage, it is said that the mind is overflowing with purity after destroying the tamasic traits inherent in human.
The last three days, Goddess is worshipped as Saraswathi-the Goddess of Knowledge/Learning and Enlightenment to attain “Atma Jnana – Knowledge of Self”. The Sanskrit word SARA means “essence” and SWA means “self.” Thus, Saraswati means “the essence of the self.” SHE awakens the fire of Sattwa Guna deeply buried in all of us phewing away the ashes of Tamo and Rajo Gunas. Hence SHE is been called as the “Embodiment of Knowledge”.
The final day is Vijayadasami. The term Vijaya denotes “victory”. This victory is something special. It is the victory is of one’s own mind by destroying the Tamo Guna depicting Goddess Durga, attaining Purity of mind as mentioned by Adi Sankara -depicting Goddess Lakshmi, and finally reaching the goal of Spiritual Enlightenment and ABSOLUTE BLISS depicted by Saraswati.
Wishing All Friends / Visitors and Well Wishers a very Divine Navarathri.. 🙂
ANURADHA MAHESH 