NAVARATRI

Commentary by Sri Swami Krishnananda

Navaratri is one of the great Hindu festivals. As the name implies, this festival is celebrated for nine days in which God is adored as Mother. A period of introspection and purification, Navaratri is traditionally an auspicious time for starting new ventures. During this period, Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati are worshipped as three different manifestations of Shakti or Cosmic energy.

 The festival of Navaratri has a very deep spiritual significance. It represents the march of the human soul from bondage to eternal liberation. The march of the soul is dramatic, a beautiful, sonorous, musical advent and is described in Hindu Scriptures in ‘The Devi-Mahatmya’, in majestic Sanskrit prose. The realisation of this freedom is the dramatic aspect of the great worship of the Divine Mother during the nine days of Navaratri, culminating on the tenth day in Dassehra, which depicts the victory of good over evil.

The march of the human soul to liberation as described in the Devi-Mahatmya takes place in three stages of three days each. In the first stage, Adi-Sakti awakes Maha-Vishnu who was asleep, so that he may destroy the original demoniac forces, Madhu and Kaitabha. In the second stage the same Sakti manifests Herself as Maha-Lakshmi and overcomes Mahishasura and Raktabija. In the last stage, Maha Saraswati destroys Sumbha and Nisumbha. The final victory is achieved on the tenth day and is celebrated as Vijaya-Dashmi. That is the day where one masters the forces of nature and achieves oneness with the Divine.

The first three days of Navaratri are devoted, in psychological terms, in overcoming desire, anger and greed. In the Devi-Mahatmya, the demons Madhu and Kaitabha represent greed, anger and desire, which have to be overcome. Both Madhu and Kaitabha emerged out of the dirt in the ear of Vishnu. These demons represent the lower powers of nature, which are seen as dirt, (Mala) hindering the march of the human soul to freedom. This dirt represents desire (Kama), Anger (Krodha) and Greed (Lobh). The significance of regarding them as dirt is that they cover the consciousness in such a way that it appears to be not there at all. Just as a thin glass covered with black tar cannot be seen, so also the soul cannot march to freedom till the consciousness is revealed. The first three days of Navaratri is hence devoted to worship of Goddess Durga to enable us to slay the demons Madhu and Kaitabha and enable the emergence of consciousness. In the Bhagavad-Gita, the Lord tells us (Chapter III, Verse 37) that it is desire and anger born of rajas, which is the foulest enemy on earth. The root cause of compulsive desire is the Nature-instigated delusive duo of desire and its corollary of anger, or frustrated desire. Desires are silken threads of material pleasures, which the spider of habit continuously spins around the soul to form the cocoon of ignorance. The soul must manage to cut through this stifling cocoon of ignorance to reemerge as the butterfly of omnipresence.

 Once the dirt is removed, the onward march of the soul has to overcome ‘Vikshepa Sakti’, the tossing of the mind. The next three days of Navaratri are devoted to worship in order to overcome ‘Vikshepa Sakti’, represented in the Devi-Mahatmya by the demons Mahishasura and Raktabija.

 The demon Mahishasura was an inexhaustible opponent as he had the ability to change his form. Sometimes he is an elephant, in an instant he has changed his form to a bull and then again to something else making it virtually impossible to subdue him. In a similar manner, the mind is difficult to subdue as every minute it changes its form and refuses to be still. When subdued in one form, it reemerges in another. The more we try to oppose ‘Vikshepa Sakti’, the greater will be its manifestation in some other form. This is much like the demon Raktabija whose every drop of blood could bring forth another demon like him. When the Blessed Goddess severed the head of Raktabija, each droplet of blood, which fell on the ground, created another demon and soon there were millions of demons, which had to be slain. As there was no end to this process, the Goddess invoked Maha-Kali, who spread her tongue across the world. Now, when the demons heads were severed, the blood fell on Kali’s tongue and thus all the demons were annihilated. In a similar manner, we have to adopt the technique of sucking out the very roots of desire and not merely chop of its branches. Otherwise, desires will take various forms like Mahishasura. Desire is not an outward form or an action. It is a tendency of the mind, an inclination of consciousness. This then is the nature of ‘Vikshepa Sakti’ the distraction tossing and turning of the mind, which is the second stage of opposition to overcome in the march of the soul to freedom.

 Ancient masters have told us that while ‘Karma Yoga’ can remove ‘Mala’ or dirt of the psychological structure by unselfish and dedicated service, Vikshepa or distraction of the mind can be removed only by worship of God, by ‘Upasana’. While Karma removes Mala, Upasana removes Vikshepa. After this we enter the third stage of the march of the soul to liberation, and here we encounter the greatest opposition of all, ‘Ajnana’ or ignorance. Ignorance is a subtler opposing power than either Mala or Vikshepa. The Devi-Mahatmya tells us that the three gunas, namely Tamas, Rajas and Sattva have to be subdued. While Mala represents Tamas, Vikshepa represents Rajas and Sattva represents the truth. We always praise Sattva and regard it as a very desirable thing. But it is still an obstacle, much akin to a transparent glass that is placed between us. We have to get through the glass to comprehend and touch the reality that lies beyond. While one can have a vision of reality, looking through the glass, its comprehension lies beyond our reach. It is hence an obstacle to be overcome which acts in a double form; as complacency or satisfaction with what has been achieved and an ignorance of what lies beyond. Too often does the seeker get deluded that the goal has been achieved. These two aspects of Sattva are indicated by the demons, Sumbha and Nisumbha. They have to be overcome by the power of higher wisdom, which is Maha-Saraswati.

Action, contemplation and knowledge are the three stages through which we have to pierce through the veil of Prakriti or the three gunas. The festival of Navratari thus celebrates the dance of the cosmic spirit, in its supernal effort at self-transcendence. Maha-Kali is invoked to destroy the demons Madhu and Kaitabha. The Blessings of Maha-Lakshmi are sought to overcome the demons Mahishasura and Raktabija. And finally Maha-Saraswati is invoked to rid us of the demons Sumbha and Nisumbha. Thus, transformation takes place across the whole range of Prakriti from Tamas to Rajas, from Rajas to Sattva and from Sattva to Supreme Vijaya, mastery in the Absolute, God realization.

All our scriptures, Puranas and Epics, all our ceremonies and celebrations, all our festivals thus have this spiritual connotation, a significance which is far transcendent to the outer rituals which is involved in their performance. Every thought, every aspiration, every ritual and every duty of ours, every action that we perform automatically becomes a spiritual dedication of the soul, for the sake of this one single aspiration which it has been enshrining in itself from eternity to eternity. It is always a song of the soul.

So through the worship of Maha-Kali, Maha-Lakshmi and Maha-Saraswati we worship Mula-Prakriti, Adi-Sakti in her cosmic dance-form of transformation, prosperity and illumination. Through the worship of Maha-Kali, a person breaks the barrier of Tamas and becomes a master and a progressive soul commanding all powers and getting everything that is desired. Through the Worship of Maha-Lakshmi, we break the barrier of Rajas and achieve enlightenment. And finally, through the worship of Maha-Saraswati we break the barrier of Sattva and achieve self-realisation. Thus the festival of Navaratri is in reality a presentation of the cosmic dance form to teach the path a soul must take to achieve total liberation. It shows the path from opposition to prosperity, from prosperity to enlightenment and from enlightenment to self-realisation, culminating in total victory, Vijaya Dashami on the tenth day of the festival.