RE: Navaratri -- Special Prayers

[Guest guest]

devii bhagavatam explains on how to celebrate navaratri. If I am not

mistaken Satish Arigela wrote about in the past. And also in this same

thread, Sri Ganapathyji explained quite well on how it has to be done.

 

As a very ignorant person and one who is not capable of following the

aachaara. I see one possible way to celebrate it. Please forgive me if I am

wrong.

 

a) For most of us who are caught in the web of mundane life and associated

drudgery, festivals give an opportunity to stop and question our way of life

and also to look at the long term perspective. To worship God all days are

indeed auspicious. That is what sages do. But festival give that day of

light to us, the ordinary folks.

 

b) First place one can look at it, how much we contemplate on God and how

much we keep HER in the back of our mind while doing whatever we do. So

these nine days give a starting point to do it. God is our mother, have you

seen any mother in this world asking her children to stand in front of her

and praise her with stotra-s? No. I think God expects something more and

greater than that from us. Like how we talk to our mother, we should talk to

HER. We can tell every thing. Even bad things we do. After all, what can you

hide from her. It is lot better to accept it and surrender, and ask for

help. To give an example, if one has lustful thoughts, it is better to tell

her and ask for help. Hiding will not help at all. SHE has eyes everywhere,

most of all in our conscience.

 

c) Second thing to look at is our dietary habit. Even though many of us are

vegetarians, we eat all kinds of food in that category. Mostly for taste.

Eating is for nutrition and maintaining the body in healthy way. So one can

question one's way of eating. Lot of people fast during these nine days. It

may be difficult. But one can eat fruits or food with less spices etc and

focus one attention on sattvic and healthy food. bhagavatam says that only

one meal (during lunch) that is rice mixed with ghee should be taken. That

may not be practical for all. I see this an opportunity question the way we

eat.

 

d) Third aspect to it is try to adore and understand God in a simple and

one's own words. kAlika puraNa says that God like the prayers composed by

oneself as the best and it is uttama. Works in shruti smriti etc. are

madhyama, and the works composed by other humans as the last category. You

take the last and make it first by understanding it in depth. Take for

instance, nAmavali. Its true goal is to take close to God by better

understanding. Saying half-heartedly and absent mindedly * namah, really

defeats the goal. Instead one can think of creating one's own version of

nAmAvaLi such as

1) O Divine mother, you are the source and subratum of this universe. To

you I say namo namaH. For all is yours and not mine (na mama)

2) O Divine Mother, you are my mother, father and eternal friend. To you

my namaskarams.

3) O Divine Mother, you are the material and the efficient casuse of this

universe. To you my namaskarams.

4) O Divine Mother, you create, sustain, and destroy this universe. To you

my namaskArams

5) O Divine Mother, your are my guru and guide. Without your guidance, I

am blind and lost. To you my love and namaskarams.

...

 

One can build a sahasranama like this. Basically, it can be from other

sahasranama-s but with our understanding and in the words and language we

understand. So you can set a goal to write atleast 5 lines of your own

prayer to ambaa, each day. I think SHE will love this more than one reading

sahasranaama without understanding. If you have a child, you can immediately

relate to this idea.

 

e) Other thing you can do is take a work like devii maahatmiiyam and

understand (read) the translation. It is far more useful to understand the

text than say it without understanding. Of course ambaa will give the phala

(as she says in ch 12) even if we do the homa etc without understanding. But

right understanding will take us closer to HER.

 

My 2c. I may be wrong.

 

Ravi

 

>

> Prasad Balasubramanian <besprasad wrote:

> namasthe,

>

> If the learned members of the group can

> explain the significance of each day of Navaratri

> and the specific set of Pujas that should be performed

> with the respective name of Slokas and Stotras,

> it'd be very helpful for the devotees all over the

> world.

>

> If it could be done atleast 2 days before start of

> Navaratri, devotees can really use that information

> this Navaratri itself.

>

>