THE APT NAVRATRI

सर्व मंगला मांगल्ये शिवे सर्वार्थ साधिके
शरण्ये त्र्यम्बके गौरी नारायणी नमोस्तुते

"To the auspiciousness of all auspiciousness, to the good, to the accomplisher of all objectives, to the source of refuge, to the mother of three worlds; to the goddess who is the ray of lights, we bow to you again and again." We worship you.

Navratri is a festival of nine nights, celebrated in the most diverse styles across India to mark the victory over all demons.

As my mom lit the holy “Akhand Jyoti” of navratri at 6:00 a.m. in the morning on the first day of Navratri in all pious faith, I watched her and wondered how I was going to help her tend to it through the nine nights without any real heartfelt sense of devotion. So I decided to google why do we do what we do for celebrating navratri in the hopes of building some faith and it turned out to be something like this.

This festival is the conditioning of one’s mind, heart and soul to set a pattern conducive to growth. The first three nights are Tamasic, next three are Rajasic and and the last three are Sattavic. Tamasic, literally, denotes food that promotes pessimism, negative thought and darkness. Hence, we avoid onions and garlic to promote positivity and good deed. Though, we ought to avoid societal sins, inequality to inculcate peace and justice.  We probably need to move beyond self centred motives for a positive and collaborative growth where no race, religion, cast, creed or gender is left behind. But, to carry the apt tradition, we should not eat onions.

Rajasic phase is the avoidance of bitter and pungent edibles to denote the eviction of hatred and abhorrence towards the community and promotion of love, oneness and fraternity. We should hence be promoting the secularity that our constitution enshrines where a Hindu, a Muslim or a Sikh is more than his Dharma to us. But we have our apt ways of celebrating Navratri.

The Sattvic is symbolism for diet food in ayurveda and Yoga. We prefer these over the routine diet to denote moderation in life and a settled state of mind. Should we not be cutting on the destruction of resources then? We should probably be pledging to not pollute the Holy Rivers, to preserve our mother nature and to conserve the resources that Gods created and humans harmed. But the apt way to Sattvic living is that we fast for another 3 days.

In life, these qualities co exist to make a balance. Navratri is the awakening of divinity where we preach the powerful Goddesses of three forms: Lakshmi, Saraswati and Durga. They are the mothers of all humanity, protecting us from our own demons. So Navratri should mark the respect of our daughters, our mother and our wives so that no other Nirbhaya news flashes again. It should foster in our hearts the power of education and enlightenment and teach us to value them just as a routine worship to phase out darkness from our lives as the apt way of Navratri should be. So I feel we are truly celebrating Navratri in the most appropriate manner. Aren’t we?