The Story behind Navratri
It is that time of the year where Hindus start preparations for celebrating Navaratri, the joyous festival of nine nights, which is dedicated to the Divine Mother Durga. Virtually every Hindu community in the world celebrates Navratri. The major story associated with Navratri is the battle between the great Goddess Durga and the demon Mahishasura, who represents Egotism. To understand this story one must understand the Hindu view of life and society. Hinduism views the world drama as a battle between the forces of light and darkness. But the battle is not defined as a battle between different sections of human society on the basis of belief or disbelief in a particular dogma.
September 25th, 2006 at 8:39 am
Durga, Kaali, Shiva Vishnu Ganesha Hanuman etc are existant maniifestations. and Not some dumb symbolic stories drilled into the susceptible Psyche. You must accept such existences before you reach such perceptions. But If one believes in big-bang crap darwin etc. these Revelations get blocked and cannot manifest. Faith Endless Faith is the pre-requisite.
September 25th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
Durga, Kaali, Shiva Vishnu Ganesha Hanuman etc are existant maniifestations. and Not some dumb symbolic stories drilled into the susceptible Psyche. You must accept such existences before you reach such perceptions. But If one believes in big-bang crap darwin etc. these Revelations get blocked and cannot manifest. Faith Endless Faith is the pre-requisite.
September 25th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Navratri is a religious festival but i want to question how many of these “devout” hindus (aimed at these youngsters) are going because of its religious content. very little i am sure. it is just treated as a club these days with no respect what so ever for mataji. Hindi film songs are played and people have no character are just flirting with the opposite gender. i feel its a disgrace if parents dont question thier kids about the late comings from navratri. This is a religious festival which is supposed to be for women; since when did the men start dancing with the women! i would like opinions on this!!
September 25th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
ow many of these “devout” hindus (aimed at these youngsters) are going because of its religious content. very little i am sure. it is just treated as a club these days with no respect what so ever for mataji. Hindi film songs are played and people have no character are just flirting with the opposite gender…
well sunny, i checked a documentation, which says, when islam invaded india… at that time, hindu womens use to walk naked and stuff…. and they have forced parda system in india…..
but in todays world, if you read carefully… i hold myself more strong to the saying “evil lies inside you, and in your eyes, not in other person, or on his/her cloths”. we have evils like satism… but we never condemn the reason which forced those womens to invent culture like satism 700 yrs back…
you got my answer….. to make a society worthful, you need to teach them truth and have to condemn each and every evil instead of hiding it…
September 26th, 2006 at 3:26 am
What is the preparation for navarathri, why need to take vege for 9 days, and what is the prayer things need to serve for thurga.
September 27th, 2006 at 11:24 am
I am very impressed by the anaysis of Mother Durga and the Demon.
Not delving into the manifestation part, what is important is that it can
be applied into our daily lives now and forever. A battle that continues to rage between the good and evil forces the seeds of which lie within ourselves. We alone are answerable for the good and evil that permeates in this universe. God has given to man the power of discimination beteen what is good and what is evil. It is for us to make this planet into heavenly body or into hellish place. Navratri does denote victory of moral and truthful forces over evil.
September 28th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
Jai Mataji,
Durga Navratri is a great time for Hindus to reflect on their misuse of “God.” This Christian term is, of course, all about a Male Creator. Christians will never say Durga Bless You or even Goddess Bless You. Of course Christians will never say Brahman Bless You, or Siva Bless You or Vishnu Bless You, etc.
May Durga Bless Us (Hindus) and awaken us from our slumber.
September 29th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
Aum tat sat, sat cit ananda,
Aum bhur, Bhuva, svaha, tat savitur varenyam, bhargo devasya dhimahi, diyoyona prcahodayat.
Of meters, I am gayatri.
What categories mere humans want to put that being into. Let us rejoice that that being allows us to It by all our imaginations.
A word of caution, though, our tradition does not allow us to stop thinking. Once an understanding is achieved we still need to push beyond it. Sometimes that means sitting internally with our heart to the mother of divinity. (sometimes it dancing your heart out)
hariaum
October 1st, 2006 at 11:13 am
I agree completely with Sunny on this one!!!
The article spoke about killing demonic forces such as lust, bust these only further themselves through the popular disco-dandia and hiphop-garba which are complete perversions of the true sanctity and beauty of traditional garba in which only ladies took part.
Well done Sunny for speaking out!
Veer, please don’t base yourself on Islamic propoganda!
These very same muslims who ‘civilised’ us were war-loving barbarians who picked up bits and pieces of other’s cultures as they plundered along.
Hopefully a time will come again where Navratri will be celebrated in its TRUE form!
Astu.
October 1st, 2006 at 11:22 pm
Langer_Veer & Sunny:
Both of you sound like the kind of Hindus who endlessly complain about everything and anything.
I’ve been to Navratri several days this year - and for the vast majority of people, they conduct themselves decently, and clearly have respect for the religious aspect, evidenced by the fact that they all do the aarti properly and with fervour.
If you got out more, you’d see this for yourself.
Warm regards, Dangerous
October 2nd, 2006 at 11:22 am
Really dangerous? Do you know the concept of navratri? I doubt it. Navratri is a festival which was assigned for women who took part in it by doing garba around the murti of mataji- i am not a endless complainer but if you go anywhere in the world you’ll see they start advertising contraceptives before garba starts-why? Because these people have abused this religious festival and made into a facade. I have nothing against garba& i am sure in places it’s done with the highest discipline but whereever you mix male & female then there is no way in the world that dharma remains.
October 2nd, 2006 at 11:32 am
To Langeer- Islam invaded india & yes do you know how many hindu women were forced to change religions? and how many didnt and accepted death then to go to the hands of muslim? Well, let me tell you a lot. Indian History has made these muslim moghuls into heroes (Tipu Sultan, Akbar) but these people were the real culprits-they are the ones who forced their religion into our country-they made us forget our past so we would not have a future-why did so many sikh guru’s die for their country and religion? It was against these people-to fend off their religon and to uphold ours. I totally agree that evil lies within our own eyes so why go to places where that eveil is allowed to come out- why go to places where those desires will corrupt your mind? the whole point is to avoid these things so your mind can remain stable.
October 2nd, 2006 at 7:29 pm
But the most important stage of life is not of a sanyasin but of a householder. such a person is fully immersed in artha. Such a person supports all the other stages. Draupadi had four sexual mates. Even Vishwamitra couldn’t escape it.
We are supposed to be passionate, to love, and at times to hate. We are supposed to understand our nature - base and divine. But base and divine are our categories. We are not told that kama, artha, and gyana should be ignored. We are told that these are things in our nature that we seek. We are not bad because we are of the world.
We are not allowed to hide away on mountains and monastaries and then claim moral righteousness. We are to live in the world of conflicts within ourselves and in that become greater. We are to to seek all the goals of life in their right form.
What is marriage without sex? Can you have life without desire? All llife would cease and the world empty. What is giving without wealth? What is compassion withour knowledge?
We are not allowed to take the easy way. We are taught to seek the truth in its complexity. This is absolute non-sense that suggests we all become sanyasins and give up sex, flavorful food, and comradship. Yes there is a time when some will chose this. But Janak did none of it, Rama did not do this, Yudhistra did not do this, Even Bhima remained close to artha even having given up kama.
Don’t hate Kama because we chose to be animals.
hariaum
October 2nd, 2006 at 8:32 pm
Quote (Sunny)
“whereever you mix male & female then there is no way in the world that dharma remains.”
You’re buzzin - you’re supporting a ‘purdah’ type separation concept that I don’t think sits too well with Hindu dharma. I am a believer in human maturity and balance.
Regards
October 3rd, 2006 at 8:50 am
I am not supporting any type of separation- but i’m agianst the idea that men and women who are not related in anyway act “loose”.
Balance and maturity are a must but not when you place a random man and woman together.
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:59 pm
Women are the soul of truth. The ancient greeks understood this as does any person that looks upon the mother.
A random child is born to a random mother. But look deeper at what is male and female. Which is the natraj? Is this a black and white category? We are making distinctions to support our own desires.
hariaum
October 7th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Thanks everybody for hounding Sunny. Shows how defensive people get about things that are undefendable. Sunny i can see where you are coming from brother!
“Even associated bhajans have lost their traditional sanctity, by mixing rhythms of disco and rap, which collectively degrade our ancient music traditions, as well as the maryada- discipline- that is maintained between our womenfolk and menfolk during such festivals.”
- Dr. Hasubhai Yagnik. Gujarat State Sahitya Academy
Expert on Gujarati folk traditions.
October 7th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
Navin
Ever tried reading Shrimad Bhagavat and Udhav Geeta???
Your claims are contrary to these shastras.
So Vishwamitra had a tad bit of a problem at a stage. Did he not also do 60 000(or some huge number)years of tapas before this incident?? If we wish to explore our kama, maybe we should also explore some penance as well?
Krishna danced with the Gopis…
Well, he also danced on Kaliya’s head…
I rate if anybody van try and just kiss a cobra’s forehead, than he can compare himself to Krishna and do raas.
October 7th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
can*
October 7th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
Navin
If you look at all women as mothers, walk the talk and live like Lakshman, who couldn’t even recognise Sitaji’s ornaments because he never looked any higher than Sitaji’s feet.
Walk the talk brother.
October 7th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Hats off to who ever wrote The Story Behind Navratri .I have always known that the most difficult aspects of life ,minds ,emotions and philosophies are told in easy to understood stories representing many symbolic characters.Thank you in letting me see it once again.
Thank you
October 8th, 2006 at 11:28 pm
OK folks. I’ve been too metaphysical. When the greeks referred to the soul as female they included the soul of men.
So a little more concrete: Women are mothers as much as men are fathers. Did you notice that to become a mother or a father the act of copulation is involved.
The distinction of male and female is simplification of bilogical diversity: There are persons born with XY, XX, XXY… once trisomies are included in the experience of being human what do you mean by male or female? What about the social definition of male or female. Where do you place transvestites? If a woman does not have a womb or a man not a penis have they lost their gender? If a woman takes testosterone shots or a man estorgen have they lost their gender.
Now back to religion:
In neither the Bhagvad Gita nor the Udhaav Gita did I read anywhere Krishna telling the men to not see women or talk to them or defend them or be freindly to them. There are injunctions against lust. But lust is not just about women, it is about living life for the senses. Did Arjuna go and abandon his wife after Krishna’s teaching?
Vishwamitra: Here is a great saint that is brought to lust by the prakriti of his body. He has not yet achieved transcendance and thus Narayana (and others) send an apsara to teach him not that the apsara is bad but that he has not yet reached the level he thinks he has reached. He is arrogant to think himself so great. Now here I am. I am not a great sage. I am immediately humbled by his experience. But am I to run away from women because of that humbling? No, I must confront my nature and cause it to be more transcedant. And when I fail, I must pick myself up and get going again.
The siva linga and natraj: clear metaphors that advaita is combined male and female not separrate. (The Linga is beyond measure but it is encircled by the yoni.) If you start importing vicorian concpets on moral behavior you’ll have to discard this most powerful message of the unity of all beings.
As to living like Lakshman: Ah how wonderful that would be. To be in the presence of an avatar and its female part. The Ramayana is wonderful. How many ways we can be attached to God: as a father, a mother, a sibling, a lover, a teacher, an ally, an enemy… And how amazing that it is already true. The person in front of you is Brahman. Can you see it? Even Shankaracharya failed to recognize it when it put on the appearance of an untouchable. But it is here, all around us. To be in love with anything in anyway is to be in love with That. So you see: My parents are Rama, My wife is Rama, My children are Rama, My work is Rama, my very breath is Rama. It is just me that every now and then forgets and have to be reminded by Rama. Then I love Rama even more. Alas, as Tagore did long before, I indetify most with Sita as for a bit of worldly pleasure I allow myself to be captured by the many facets of ignorance and must await my lover’s signet to know I will be delivered soon.
Perhaps I’ve gone to metaphysical again. Sorry.
Hariaum
October 9th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Navin, you interpret the points to justify some lewd action. This is exactly what happens in Islam and you’re doing no different here.
My point is that to be with your wife “1 woman” and to only look at her and consider other women as sisters and mothers is what is being taught from our life long scriptures. Who says you have to renounce your wife and take up Brahmcharya? If you’re with your wife and stay faithful to her and do not engage in intercourse on certain auspicious days then even as a householder you’re considered as a bramchari.
In your point you’re trying to give lust a cause. And yes “Kam” is needed to make the world go round but that doesnt mean to fornicate with whoever you want! And in the Bhagwat Shri Krishna has been known to remain as a bramchari despite doing the Ras leela! And there are shloks which support this.
You cannot conofront the natures of lust, greed, and anger as you even state that great rishis have fallen to them, you cannot calim an say that by doing this activity repeatedly you’ll win it! There is no such example of this!
Infact people that have done this have come out to gain a greater loss - take all these celebreties in life for example.
Overall my point is that if you go to places where they incite your desires then that’ll cause you to take part in bad karma’s which’ll then force you to take another birth. True liberation lies in following the injunctions of god and his Sadhu.
October 9th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Perhaps I’m still being unclear.
Lust is the problem. Whether lust is between a husband and wife, a child and a toy, a man and his nation, or what ever, this is the problem. The solution is not to avoid the woman, the toy, the nation… the solution is to transform oneself to accept Krishna as the cause and effect of all things.
This is not to justify lewd action but to understand it. But lewdness here cannot be allowed to be simply sex. it is lust itself. Kama, as I see it is different than lust though clearly related.
ON the other hand, we are supposed to go through the four stages of life and in doing so we have different sets of desires (kama) that drives us (rajas) to do things (karma). And among the many things that sets our religion apart from most others is that the householder stage, in which we have a family, acquire wealth, fight battles, make political decisions, and need to live life not as an ideal but as a reality - the most complicated part of life - is the most important. This is important because it tests us, trains us, and really because it supports the world of the easy living - kids, hermits, sadhus, and sanyasins.
So in effect, the nature of living is full of inciting desires, the nature of realization and a dharmic life is to become more egoless and more renunciate despite the soma of life. But in that living we are not to run away onto some mountaintop. the mountain top of the rishis is where people can go to find them. The mountain top of the moderns is the academic centers, the captains of industry, the government, the ashrams, the individual soul. As Krishna says, even he must act IN this world, else what would everyone else do.
I don’t support a lustful life. Self restraint is extremely useful as a tool to acquire whatever we desire (lust) it is the instrument that takes the thorn and digs out the other thorn, the dirt that washes out the dirt. But realization and Krishna consciousness is not the denial of the world as it is but the realization of the world as it is. Injunctions are helpful, but cowardice - the hiding away from the ‘dirty’ reality of the world - is not realization.
But perhaps we are not disagreeing (probably more clarifying). The passion of life is there. The use of passion to make one closer to God is there. This same passion can come out as tapasya, bhakti, gyana, but not as moksha. If we put the christo-islamic-victorian construct that sex is dirty and women are the cause of original sin onto hinduism then I think we are fools. Rather I would put the teachings of hindusim onto the bible and koran and say: How could you remove the bond of male and female from the group of the sacred? How could you believe that half of all creation is secondary (women)? How could you believe that god is only a masculine? What elementary understanding of the universe and god do you have that says that god’s creation is dirty?
with respect,
hariaum
October 10th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Navin
You stuck in your own head brother…
i appreciate your deep-thought process as other-wordly it may be…
nothing wrong with copulation, but when the sale of contraceptives goes up by 13% during Navratri in Amdavad( not an isolated case), there is point for concern…
When King Dhananand of Pataliputra asked a brahmchari(a student of Pandit Chanakya):
“What is a woman greatest virtue?”
He replied “Lajja”
THIS
October 10th, 2006 at 9:56 pm
I suppose we are actually agreeing. I am not for free sex. The sale of contraceptives is an epiphenomenon. If it is for sex outside of marriage, that will obviously create problems. I am sure there are people have sex outside of marriage but because I accept sensuality does not mean I accept adultery. Is your concern that the tradition is too sexual? Have you data that marraige and society has fallen apart because of sensuality (without cheating, lying etc of adultery)
I don’t know your last referrance. Could you clarify?
hariaum
October 11th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
The article started with the meaning of Navratri and gradually the writers have immersed themselves in sex. See how easy for people to stray away from values? That is the reason for Hinduism - to be reminded of virtues!
October 12th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
Yes, thanks Gokul, but that is the way of dialogue also adn of course to delve deeper into truth is hinduism.
I gues to me the problem is that Brahma created a road. We now have to chose which side of the road to use. To blame the road for the problems of walking on the wrong side of the road is unfair. Certainly that is harmful. And the passion evoked by bhakti, karma, rajas… are clearly strong and important. The decision not to use it in the wrong way is also important and part of the responsibility of dharma - to teach what the wrong way is. And then when we are not willing to loook deeply at meanings then we argue about superficial understanding of things.
As Krishna says to Arjuna: You speak like a wise man but you really do not understand.
So we are arguing in circles on superficial problems of sex in terms of injucntions, and prohibitions, etc. but not looking at how such injunctions are often used to immobilize femininity, equality, etc, and to maintain a status quo of social mores that prevent women from living full lives. I personally emotionally reject these sanyasin orders that don’t look at or come near women. The oppression of women is present in India and that extent Hindu thinking. It is far less than in the christo-islamic tradition but never the less there.
And to a modern person, this has to be a major lesson of Navratri - we Hindus have accepted western ideas of sexuality and gender. but our scripture and the very heart of the individuals relationship to god is personal and thus does not depend on our gender, our social status, etc. It even does not depend on the name or gender of the divine. Thus in a society (global) where men contol so much power, we need to look, even with passion, at Devi, the Mother, the female aspect of the divine and recognize Her power, truth, and greatness. Westerners see this as drity because that is the basis of their self hate (thus the need for salvation, martyrdom, etc.). We must not buy into this belief. We need the whole road to walk on and the knowledge on how to walk that road.
hariaum
October 21st, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Vrey thought provoking discussion. Happy Navratri
October 27th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Namaste Everyone,
Don’t forget Hindu Voice UK in association with
Shakti Marg is doing the London Diwali Night Garba.
Everyone is welcome.Further details :
London Diwali Garba Night
Friday 2nd November 2007.
Shoreditch Townhall
380 Old Street
EC1V 9LT London
Tickets ÂŁ 5.00
For more information and ticket booking.
email:info@shaktimarg.com
visit www.shaktimarg.com
October 27th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
Trailer for up coming London Diwali Night Garba Nov 2nd
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos