Our Rishis have provided deep significance of each and every religious occasion we have. Navratri celebrations are an example of these traditionally celebrated occasions. In this article, Pujya Bhaishri explains the reason why we celebrate Navratri.
Any individual, whether man or woman, cannot be nurtured well without a mother. Hence, the custom to celebrate Navratri was introduced to heartily present our love, respect and faith to our mother of this world.
The festival of Navratri includes not only the worship of Maa Shakti, who destroyed demons, but also respect to the entire motherhood in this world.
We perform the stuti:
Ya devi sarva bhuteshu, maatri rupen sansthitaa
Namastasye, namastasye, namastasye namo namah.
Meaning:
To the divine Goddess who resides in all existence in the form of universal mother, we bow to you, we bow to you, and continually we bow to you.
We worship Maa Durga who rides on a tiger. Not everyone has the courage to ride on a tiger, people run away on encountering a tiger. The goddess who rides on a tiger has eight hands, four on each side. Have you ever seen someone with eight hands? What is the symbolic meaning of the eight hands of Devi Maa?
There are four classes in Hinduism: Bhramin (scholars), Kshatriya (warriors), Vaishya (merchants) and Shudra (labourers). This signifies that two hands belong to Bhramins, two to Kshatriyas, two to Vaishyas and two to Shudras. If all these hands unite, then the strength that emerges from this unity is Maa Durga.
This strength, Shakti, Maa Durga, is the destroyer of the demon Mahishasur. The Mahishasur of communalism will only die if such strength will be born from unity. This is why it is said, ‘sanghe shaktihi kalyuge’, meaning unity is strength and the name of this strength is Maa Durga. We must worship this divine Goddess.
A very auspicious Navratri to you all!
Durga Mata ki Jai!
