Navaratri is the annual Hindu festival of worship of God in the form of Goddesses for nine days.
During the first three days, Goddess is worshipped as Durga, the Goddess of Strength. She blesses with good health, physical power and freedom from disease. This is the basic necessity to be able to pursue higher goals in life. The Goddess in this form is also called Kriya Shakti – the power of skill to get things done.
The next three days, Goddess is worshipped as Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth. She blesses with wealth, happiness, food, family, success, peace and prosperity. This is the next necessity to pursue higher goals in life. The Goddess in this form is also called Iccha Shakti – the power of motivation to get things done.
The last three days, Goddess is worshipped as Saraswati, the Goddess of Wisdom. She blesses with knowledge, memory, understanding, right perspective, intuition and wisdom. This is the next necessity in life. The Goddess in this form is also called Jnana Shakti – the power of knowledge to get things done.
These three needs of man listed several centuries ago in the ancient Hindu scriptures, mantras and stories have been also listed in the popular English proverb: “Early to sleep, early to rise, keeps a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
This sequence also indicates how life has evolved. Primitive living beings had only the survival instinct. It is manifested in the part of the brain called “reptilian brain”. This is responsible for reflex actions that are important to preserve the body, and other automatic functions in the body like breathing, heart-beat, digestion, etc. Then life evolved to form herds, helping friends and family, etc. It is manifested in the part of the brain called “limbic brain”. This is responsible for emotions, feeling of bonding, likes and dislikes, etc. Then life evolved intelligence to be able to make connections between facts, mentally simulate constraints and predict outcomes, consider the long term pros and cons of various options, etc. This is manifested in the part of the brain called “neocortex”. This is responsible for all higher level thinking. These are identified in Vedanta and Sankhya systems as the three parts of the Sukshma Sharira – the subtle body. They are Pranamaya kosha, Manomaya kosha and Vijnanamaya kosha respectively.
These three are also the bonds by which we are bound to the world. We depend on the world for security and survival. The body and the world are totally undependable. Health can never be perfect. Even if a person manages to live without disease, old age cannot be avoided. Death of the body cannot be avoided. We depend on relationships and sense objects for our pleasure. These are also totally undependable. We depend on mental abilities to define ourselves. There is nothing called perfect memory. No one is free misunderstanding and wrong judgement. Knowledge is always limited. So we can never make an absolutely moral judgement. Our sense of individuality is the root of all limitations. These three bonds are presented as Brahma granthi, Vishnu granthi and Rudra granthi respectively. Thus, these three Goddesses also represent our bondage and limitations.
Our real nature is beyond all these limitations. Our real nature is as the Pure Witness to everything. But, we cannot get there without the Goddesses freeing us from these bondages. So, we worship the Goddesses not only to bless us with health, wealth and wisdom, but also to free us from the dependence on these very things. To live in the world, we need these. To go beyond, we need to become free from depending on these. The first step towards that freedom is to depending on the Goddesses, instead of the world for health, wealth and wisdom.
Today is Vijayadashami. The tenth day, the culmination of the festival. The tenth day is when all the three Goddesses are worshipped together to take us beyond all limitations.
These days also mark the time when the ten-days war was fought between virtuous Rama and vicious Ravana. This indicates the victory of good over evil. The victory of love over lust.
Let us all worship the three Goddesses who are various manifestations of the fundamental powers of Nature.