NAVARATRI
Every festival in India is celebrated with a divine purpose so as to receive the grace of the almighty. Navaratri means nine nights. According to a Hindu belief, the last thought one entertains before one’s death determines the next birth. How does one have a sacred thought before death? It is possible through self-discipline. We sleep everyday. Sleep is similar to death except that we wake up. Sleep can thus be termed as mini-death. If we were to discipline our mind by invoking a sacred though prior to sleep everyday, it will certainly help us thieve a sacred thought during the time of death, Mahatma Gandhi said ‘hey ram’ before his death as he was self – disciplined.

Nava also means ‘new’. If we invoke the blessings of Saraswati , Lakshmi and Shakti before going to sleep every night, we will experience newness every night. Night or ratri also means darkness denotes ignorance. For this too, invoking the goddesses can prove fruitful. Through grace, our ratri or ignorance will vanish. Grace cannot be understood logically. It is a quantum leap in the field of consciousness. In physics, quantum leap is a great discovery. It involves electrons disappearing from one point and between them there is no time gap. Hence it id called quantum leap. Similarly, in the field of consciousness, when grace descends there will be a quantum leap in us.

During Navaratri, three nights of worship are assigned to each of the three devis. Nava or newness in the form of grace is invoked. The tenth day is Vijayadashami, denoting victory – victory of higher consciousness through the blessing of the goddesses. The greatest victory is the dispelling of darkness or ignorance.

Grace of the Devis always exists; it’s just that we should be worthy to receive them. The inner apparatus suitable to receive them is pure mind. Impure mind is like dirty muddy water, which cannot reflect the light of the moon. Moon exists but to reflect in water, the water has to be clean. This is called partibimba nyaya. Our mind has to be pure in order to receive grace.

Navratri, therefore, is the celebration of removing ignorance. Our ignorance exists in the form of ego. E-G-O can mean edging god out. Hence we find Shakti dancing on Shiva’s chest. It may appear disrespectful but it is symbolic: an egoless lord Shiva allows his wife to dance over him. It means Devi’s grace can descend in any form… but one should be available to receive it.