Navratri … The Festival of Nine Nights

 

Navratri is a very important Hindu festival celebrated in India, which is devoted to Goddess Durga. The festival is celebrated with great reverence and faith across the country. It stretches over a period of nine days, with each of the nine days being dedicated to one of the nine forms of the Goddess. Talking about the history of Navratri festival, it can be explained through the stories mentioned in the Hindu scriptures

 

"Nav-ratri" literally means "nine nights." This festival is observed twice a year, once in the beginning of summer and again at the onset of winter.

There are a number of beliefs and legends of Navratri festival which have been around for ages.

Legend says that when Mahishasura, the spiteful demon, who was a devotee of Lord Shiva, acquired unbeatable powers of eternity, he started taking away innocent lives. In order to stop him from taking over all the three lokas, Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Mahesh of the Hindu Trinity united their supreme powers and created a warrior goddess Durga who entered a war with Mahishasura. This war extended for nine days and on the tenth day she beheaded him. These nine nights signify the festival of Navratri.

As per Hindu mythology, Uma, daughter of King Daksha of Himalayas, married Lord Shiva against the will of her father. In order to take revenge, King Daksha arranged a yagna where he invited all the deities except Lord Shiva. The story goes that when Uma visited her parents to take part in the yagna, her father offended Lord Shiva. Unable to bear the insults meted on her husband, Uma jumped into the agnikund, which is why she is also known as Sati. In her rebirth, she married Lord Shiva and also made peace with her parents. It is said that Sati comes to stay with them for nine days, which is celebrated as Navratri.

It is also said that Lord Rama worshipped Goddess Durga in all her nine forms, for nine days, in order to gather all the powers required to vanquish Ravana the demon, and release his wife Sita from his clutches. Those nine days imply Navratri, and the tenth day when he killed Ravana, came to be known as Vijaydashmi and is celebrated as Dussehra.

What's the Significance of Navratri?

During Navratri, we invoke the energy aspect of God in the form of the universal mother, commonly referred to as "Maa Durga," which literally means the remover of miseries of life. She is also referred to as "Devi" (goddess) or "Shakti" (energy or power). It is this energy, which helps God to proceed with the work of creation, preservation and destruction. In other words, you can say that God is motionless, absolutely changeless, and the Divine Mother Durga, does everything. Truly speaking, our worship of Shakti re-confirms the scientific theory that energy is imperishable. It cannot be created or destroyed. It is always there.

Why Worship the Mother Goddess?

We think this energy is only a form of the Divine Mother, who is the mother of all, and all of us are her children. "Why mother; why not father?", you may ask. Let me just say that we believe that God's glory, his cosmic energy, his greatness and supremacy can best be depicted as the motherhood aspect of God. Just as a child finds all these qualities in his or her mother, similarly, all of us look upon God as mother. In fact, Hinduism is the only religion in the world, which gives so much importance to the mother aspect of God because we believe that mother is the creative aspect of the absolute.

Why Twice a Year?

Every year the beginning of summer and the beginning of winter are two very important junctures of climatic change and solar influence. These two junctions have been chosen as the sacred opportunities for the worship of the divine power because:

(1) We believe that it is the divine power that provides energy for the earth to move around the sun, causing the changes in the outer nature and that this divine power must be thanked for maintaining the correct balance of the universe.

(2) Due to the changes in the nature, the bodies and minds of people undergo a considerable change, and hence, we worship the divine power to bestow upon all of us enough potent powers to maintain our physical and mental balance.

Now the first three days of this festival is devoted to the goddess Durga who is the
warrior goddess.  Each of the three days is devoted to a different aspect of womanhood, from girl child to young woman to a fully mature woman representing three different incarnations of Durga.

The second three days are devoted to the goddess Laxmi.  She is the goddess of prosperity and wealth.

The next two days are devoted to the goddess Saraswati who is the goddess of knowledge
and arts.

The final day is a celebration marked by a traditional ceremony involving children.

Why Nine Nights & Days?

Navratri is divided into sets of three days to adore different aspects of the supreme goddess. On the first three days, the Mother is invoked as powerful force called Maa Durga in order to destroy all our impurities, vices and defects. The next three days, the Mother is adored as a giver of spiritual wealth, Laxmi, who is considered to have the power of bestowing on her devotees the inexhaustible wealth. The final set of three days is spent in worshipping the mother as the goddess of wisdom, Saraswati. In order have all-round success in life, we need the blessings of all three aspects of the divine mother; hence, the worship for nine nights.

During these nine days we are strictly vegetarian to honor the goddesses.  Some people, depending on their own beliefs are also fasting.  A fast means they are allowed to drink water, tea and milk and can eat fruit items only.  No other foods are allowed.  Some people fast for the entire eight days before the final festival on the ninth while others will fast on certain days only.

Finally on the ninth day the festival culminates with a small ritual involving nine young girls.  These girls are all pre-pubescent and represent the nine forms of the goddess herself.  The nine girls are invited into your home and treated as living forms of the goddess to be worshiped.