We know it’s Navaratri when we see Indian women, clad in their most elegant attire, hopping around chirpily. The men are on a completely different schedule now. They typically unleash their inner Bakāsur (a gobbling demon) to feast on the sweet-meat spread!

In all, Navaratri, the nine festive nights of Devi, adds color and enthusiasm to life. Even so, the excessive socializing for Navaratri in current times has pushed its real purpose to the backseat. This post is my humble attempt at reviving this festival’s sacredness.

Gratitude for The Seasons

The Navaratri or Navaratra fest happens four times yearly — one for each of the four seasons. From spring to winter, the Navarātris are named after the lunar month of their occurrence. Those are

• Spring: Chaitra Navarātri
• Summer: Ashadha Gupt Navarātri
• Fall/Autumn: Sharad Navarātri
• Winter: Magha Gupt Navarātri

Of those, the summer and winter Navarātris, aptly named Gupt or hidden, aren’t as well known. These are mostly reserved for Sadhana [1].

The spring and fall ones are the most popular, with the latter being a big-ticket event. Famous or not, all four Navaratri are a time to express gratitude to Nature for its beautiful seasons.

Time for Personal Care

The spring and fall Navaratri are famous for a reason. Nature’s conditions make those an ideal time for celebration. When the spring blooms or fall colors are in full swing, it’s easy to admire and express gratitude to Nature. Isn’t it?

At the same time, the spring and fall seasons are notorious for bringing along flu and its cousins! During these times, our bodies and minds undergo many changes to deal with external conditions. Adept at Ayurveda, the ancient sages probably found it sane to focus on self-care at such times.

Following the ideology of SD, the sages took a holistic approach to well-being. Hence, they prescribed the following routine (camouflaged as rituals) for Navarātri:

• quarantine to prevent infections
• eating sumptuous but healthy food to maintain physical fitness
• meditation for emotional strengthening
• prayer for positivity
• other self-purification activities to cleanse the mind

Ironically, a couple of weeks aside for personal care has turned into a social event over the years!

Revering The Goddess

Our next logical question might be — Why revere the Goddess during various seasons?

Worshipping Nature’s different facets by personification is a common theme in Sanatana Dharma. Per the scriptures, the Formless Divine manifests as Parama Shiva and Para Shakti. With them as the parents, the universe comes into being.

Amongst our Divine Parents, Para Shakti is Prakriti or Nature. Hence, Nature-related celebrations were all offered to the Divine Feminine.

Additionally, Navaratri times are the spiritually rich spans in the year when many sages perform Devi Sadhana. That included eulogizing the Das Mahavidya, Nava Durga, Parvati-Lakshmi-Sarasvati, and other feminine forms. Due to that, the world saw an influx of spiritual energy during this time.

The commoners were encouraged to take advantage of those pious conditions for their rapid spiritual growth. Thus, as a society, everyone invoked the Goddess during these times.

Navaratri is Sadhana Time

As you can see now, Navaratri is not a girls-night-out event or a party-all-night fest. It’s a Go Green, Love Nature movement! It’s time to care for yourself and celebrate life, a priceless gift from Nature.

Use Navaratri to sync with Nature and to uplift yourself through spiritual Sadhanas. By doing that, when you learn to live in harmony with Nature permanently, every moment of this life becomes a festival.

All glory to Mother Nature!

Love,
Sri Devi Om

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Footnotes

[1] Sadhana: Anything done with discipline for personal growth is termed Sadhana, which means practice or austerities. This term is most often used to denote spiritual practices.