It was Navaratri festival going on. I, along with few of my friends, were dancing in our campus. All of us were in great mood to enjoy, firstly, because it was Navaratri and secondly, our exams just got over. It was around 11:00 PM in the night and we all were in a plan to dance the whole night. After some time an American, who was standing at some distance from me, turned up to me. He asked me about the festival. His direct question was, "Why people are dancing and enjoying?", "why there is so much cheer?", "what is Navaratri?" I was completely blank faced---what to reply!!! Then somehow I gathered my thoughts, looked at him and said, "Oh, it is a nice thing. A social gathering. Just enjoy, sing, dance, eat and then go!!!" The American went away but I was not happy with my answer. I was feeling like I am ignorant. I don’t know about the culture of my own country. So I came back to my room at 12’O clock and straight away went to sleep. The thought of not knowing about Navaratri was continuously coming in my mind. Then I read some texts and now I will explain what actually Navaratri is.
As the name suggests, “Nava” means Nine and “Ratri” means Nights. Therefore Navratri means “Nine nights”. At Navaratri (nine nights), the Goddess is worshiped in Her various forms as Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. Though the Goddess is one, She is represented and worshipped in three different aspects. On the first three nights, Durga is worshipped. Lakshmi is worshipped on the next three nights, and then Saraswati devi on the last three nights. The tenth day of the festival is called Vijayadasami. “Vijaya” means victory, the victory over our own mind that can come only when we have worshipped these three: Durga, lakshmi and Saraswati.
Now I will explain you the reason for worshipping them. The first three nights of the festival, we worship Durga. The symbolic meaning of Durga is “durgati harini”. She is a Goddess who removes all evil tendencies. One’s these evil tendencies are removed, the human mind is in position to gain noble virtues. Durga was also the destroyer of “Mahisa asura” (deamon) and is also known as “Mahishasura Mardini”. The meaning of mahisa is “buffalo”. The buffalo is a symbol of “tamoguna”, that is, the quality of laziness, darkness, ignorance and inertia. This buffalo resides in every human body. Although we may have a lot of energy and potential inside us, but we prefer to do nothing—just like the buffalo who loves only to lie in the pools of water. Durga devi’s killing of the Mahisha deamon is, symbolically, the destruction of the “tamoguna” within us that is very difficult to destroy. Therefore by worshipping Durga, we invoke this divine power to destroy our animalistic tendencies.
The next three nights of the festival, Lakshmi is worshipped. The symbolic meaning of lakshmi, as most of the people think, is money. In our society, when we think of lakshmi, we think only of money—counting dollars!!! This is why if one goes to lakshmi temple, one can find heavy crowds there. But this is not the correct meaning. Lakshmi means spiritual values. The knowledge of wisdom is lakshmi and is worshipped to attain pureness of mind. Worshipping Lakshmi brings him “sat sampati”, that is, six forms of wealth. The “sat sampati” is calmness of mind, self-control, self-withdrawal, forbearance, faith and single-pointedness.
The remaining three nights we worship Saraswati Devi. Goddess Saraswati represents the highest knowledge of the self. One may have knowledge of many other subjects and sciences, but if we do not know our own self, then that is the greatest loss. Therefore the supreme knowledge is the knowledge of the self that is represented by Goddess Saraswati.
Thus to gain the victory over the mind, Goddess Durga is invoked first to remove impurities from the mind. Then Goddess Lakshmi is invoked to cultivate the noble values and qualities. Finally, Saraswati is invoked for gaining the highest knowledge of the self. This is the significance of the three sets of three nights, and when all these three are gained, then there will be Vijayadasami, The day of true Victory!!!
