Happy Navratras

NAV YATRAS

Namaste! Yes, i know, the word for these pious days is Navratras, i know that a huge lot of people worship Durga, the divine mother, with a tremendous amount of faith for eight days, One vidya (a form with name and attribute) for each day has goddess Durga! And its culminating festival is Mahanavmi.But I prefer to call them Nav Yatras. Why? Because my friends, this is a great time for you to embark on a personal inner pilgrimage.

Adepts and devotees alike throng their favourite sanctorums,chanting mantras , waving artis in platters,distributing alms, in a bid to be noticed by the almighty Goddess. And these celebrations are our heritage, we must carry them out to the best of our individual capacities. But it is equally important to live the spirit of the holy ,sacred nights into our lives. Since Ma Durga whom we worship, is the most intelligent being of all, she would easily see through a superficial act, a formality as we say, when someone does something just because it is expected, and not because he or she is actually involved in the spirit of doing so. If we give alms to kanchuks (young girls), but do not honour the feminity in them, we treat girls as lesser beings, perpetrate dowry,encourage female infanticide, so on, i can assure you, no one is going to be more angry than Durga riding her fierce lion... When it comes to Ramnavmi, we all talk about Ram rajya, we all want Ram rajya, but without understanding what it really stands for .It is a universal term that means happiness for all, including Lord Ram Himself. So, when we do not all attempt to direct our lives towards harmony, leaving only God Ram to go about his dispositions of doing everything for us, we sometimes land up being very harsh,sitting on judgement, to the extent of even putting Lord Ram's loved one on trial! And history bears evidence,we come out with this very sadistic side, especially when it comes to the treatment of the very ones who come for upliftment. Has anybody forgotten what we, as mankind, have done to Sita, Jesus, Mahavir, joan of arc? Isn't it ironic that not Ravana, but the own people of Lord Ram eventually managed to separate Sri Ram from his most beloved Sita? We canonise joan as saint of arc, after having put her to the stakes and burning her alive. But,this is not like a newspaper item where we can issue a corrigendum of error regretted- we will have to change our own approach into the necessary correction. Till today, honest to God, we love our own daughters, but the other's daughters who must one day enter our homes as brides ,are worth only the gold they bring. Can you see where we go wrong? When we dont keep the spirit of worship in our lives as a permanent feature. When, immediately after the festival, we resume our sadistic nature alongside our mundane routine, When we leave Durga in her temple after the Navmi, when we don’t acknowledge her presence in these little durgas, our own daughters in our midst. When, we as a society are still getting horrendous instances of Rape and brutality. How can we collate the two? Can we be a proud Nation of Mother worship, and actually live in a society where girls are unsafe? This is a deep question facing us all. Each one of us. We must learn to live sagaciously, not just put up an act. We must embark on new paths. when will we begin to love all the daughters as devis? i suggest now! Don’t let go of these Navratras without paying Real homage to Devi Ma, Don’t let these Navratras go with ordinary worship, do something unique, become divya(divine) yourself, so that Devi is pleased.
Love all your daughters as young Durgas. Jai Mata Di!