Navratri : Swami Chinmayananda

[Guest guest]

Symbolised by Navratri Festival

(Gratefully acknowledged for our online readers - The following is an extract

from a long letter written by Sri Swami Chinmayananda from Uttarkasi

(Himalayas) on 20th October 1950, which happened to the Vijaya Dasmi Day to

Sri. P.B. Menon of Ernakulam, Kerala, and published in "Glory of the Mother" by

Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, Bombay).

Religion without philosophy is superstition. Philosophy without religion is

mere theory. And nowhere is the wedding of these two so perfect and enduring as

in the great religion of Hinduism.

Religion, everywhere, includes three sections: the ritualistic forms and

symbols, the mythology and the philosophy. These three are three stages

regular, systematic, measured and graded. A deluded Jiva (embodied soul) is to

be taken from the first, through the second to the last. Since the first two

are preparations for the third, the previous ones also must have for their

basis the essence of the last. This is true in Hinduism. All our rituals and

mythology represent the Truth of VEDANTA. Self-Realisation through a constant

God-consciousness is the message, be it in the ritualistic stage or in the

mythological stage of evolution.

In this light let us view Navratri, the nine day's Devi Puja and the glorious

end of it all on the tenth day, the Vijaya Dasami. What do we do in these nine

days? Every house is cleaned, and there is an air of festivity in the entire

village or town. Each house is converted for these ten days to serve as a

Temple. For ten days there is regular Poojas, Kirtans, Songs, and reading of

the spritual books.

Now what exactly is the procedure? These nine days are divided into three

sections, each three days; the first three days are dedicated for Durga or

Kali, the second for Lakshmi (the Raja Rajeshwari) and the last three days for

Goddess Saraswathi. The nine days' Pooja ends in the great festivity and joy

inexpressible, on the tenth day - the Dussera Day, the Vijaya Dasami Day. Thus

the ritual, with forms and symbols - "the burning of the Devil" at the dawn

heralds in the Vijaya Dasami, and the merry laughter and joyous feasting.

"It is all very well. At best it is a crude communal festivity, once a year,

just after the harvest season is over for the winter". This is the opinion

generally of the blind, college-trained-illiterates of our young brethren! In

this age of intellectual idleness, the generation has neither leisure nor the

spirit of enquiry to make them think and understand. All their thinking is done

for them by the editors (and) the news reporters.

But let us be honest to ourselves and make an investigation into this exact

ritual, most popular even today among us. Some light may come out of all honest

and persevering enquiry.

WHAT THEN DO THESE NINE DAYS OF CELEBRATION MEAN?

The first three days we invoke Sree Kali Matha: Mother Durga. Durga is the

"Power Terrible", that manifested out of the Unmanifested Eternal which is

Paripoorna, (full or complete in all respects) and so has in THAT all powers.

"Mother Terrible" took the "form dreadful" to kill and end the "Rakshasas"

(Devils) that were roaming about the world of men, tyrannising over the

faithful, the devoted: the divine "Sadhaks" (spritual seekers). This is the

story in a nutshell as we read it in the Puranas. The Puranic stories are all,

Chinmaya repeats, all figurative voiceless truths of the Upanishads, the

Brahmasutra and Geeta - the great oceans of the highest philosophies in the

world.

Puranas are written for the crude and uncultured to grasp. It entertains,

flares up imagination, kindles faith, and makes the reader live a life of

righteousness and enduring values of love and dharma.

Yes. Surely. Man, the imperfect, the bound, the sorrowful, has a thousand

enemies within. He is riddled with negative thoughts, fears and yearnings.

There are desires, passions, lusts, hopes, vanities, anger, greed, selfishness,

jealousy, meanness, prejudices and hatreds - just to mention a few of the most

terrible. If the Sadhak has to get rid of these lawless villains within, in

Mother Kali's Kripa (mercy) these tyrannous monsters are to be annihilated. No

amount of soft persuasion can be of any avail with them. The force of Sree

Rudra must be applied. There must be a deep, determined, adamantine resolve,

and a fight royal within, as bloody as the Kali's ferocious dripping-sword; and

unless the Sadhak is ready to wear about his neck the skull-garland of these

murdered false values, there can be no peace or order in the within. So then,

the first three days - representing the initial stage of a Sadhak who has

started on his pilgrimage to Freedom and Perfection - are the invocation of the

Mother Terrible. This power is also in us; it is only a question of invoking it.

The self within is omnipotent; every power is in it. Only invoke any power you

want it will manifest according to the degree of invocation. In your chair and

table is fire! Only it needs invocation; set fire: tend it: nourish it until it

is well set - thereafter the whole house can be brought down by that very chair

on which you are so comfortably sitting now! Just look around: the almirah, the

windows, the doors, the table, the shelf each containing some thousands of

calories of heat. And yet, when not invoked, you are comfortable with them:

yet, all the same, the fire is full-packed in them. Invoke the fire, and what a

terrible conflagration! What a terrible heat!

So also the Self has all the Powers in it. When we know the trick of invoking

whatever power we want at will out of it, we are the masters of the Self.

Supreme Perfection is only in the Lord-the Self. To become the Lord is the

state of the Absolute from where there is no return. He who has attained this

State is a Jnani.

Thus, as we have seen, the very first stage in self-perfection is to invoke the

Mother Terrible, to help us by eliminating from within us all negative forces

all weaknesses. It is these that have removed us from ourselves: the Supreme

"Parameswara swaroopa" which we all really are!

Now a mere elimination of our weaknesses in itself is no achievement permanent;

for, if the bosom is thus empty, they will again enter by the "back doors".

So then, we must understand that though we have to eliminate many wrong trends

of thinking, acting, feeling and asserting that are now with us, we have to

also side by side invite in, plant well, cultivate, collect or learn new

healthy enduring values. In short, mere negative "Sadhana" (Spiritual

practices) alone is of no avail; we must equally emphasise the positive side in

our right effort: then only the Purushartha* (* four factors necessary to make

life full - Dharma or right action, Artha or wealth and happiness, Kama or

desires and aspirations and Moksha or spritual realisation which is the

ultimate goal of all existence) becomes complete and whole. Not only strive to

assert that "I will not be dishonest" but in the same breath, as it were, we

must assert "I will be honest at all costs".

Fear is meaningless. I am not afraid of anything - I am Courage Absolute. I am

He: He am I. I am courageous. Nothing is or can be there which can frighten ME.

By such an invocation of the positive, we grow! This growth is the next stage

that should follow the efforts at elimination and self-purification of the

"Sadhak". And this is the meaning of worshipping the Goddess Raja Rajeshwari,

Sree Maha Lakshmi, the lady of all "Aiswarya" - (divine wealth).

In the first three days through the "Power Terrible" we have met, fought and

killed the devilish tendencies in us. The "Rakshasic" Forces have been won

over. This period of war is immediately - and even side by side followed by the

constructive efforts at the organisation of order and security by patronage of

order and security by the patronage and growth of the Divine Forces in us.

Lakshmi is not the Goddess of Rs. And Ps. She is the Goddess of "Aishwarya:

Devi Sampath", Divine wealth. She is the embodiment of Love, Charity, Kindness,

devotion, Peace, Tranquility, Honesty, Courage, Faith, and Mumukshutwa! (desire

for liberation).

These are to be engendered, and the vacancies created by the elimination of the

negative qualities must be filled in by these positive traits..

Hence the Lakshmi Pooja for three days following Kali Pooja of the first three days!

When a "Jiva" on his march has thus purified himself, and gets recharged with

the Devi Sampath (the Divine wealth), he is a fit Adhikari - a fit student - to

be initiated into the philosophical side of religion. He is told of the Supreme

Reality, the State of Sat-Chit-Anand (Absolute Knowledge, Absolute Existence,

Absolute Bliss, the "Padvi" (State) of "Sivoham", the becoming of the Lord, the

merger of the Jiva to become "Maheswra", the final walking from this dream of

samsara into realisation that "I am the All Pervading knowledge in itself. Pure

existence beyond Time, Space and Causality - where the experience is "I am God".

This knowledge is the last and final stage in the evolution of man. There the

mortal rises to become immortal. Death has no more strings for him - beyond

death, beyond birth, beyond maddening cruelties of "Dharma" and "Adharma",

pleasure and pain, heat and cold, success and failure, love and hatred. The

Sadhak drops his deluded conception "I am a man, devotee", and realises,

remembers -"I am He"! (Nitya-Mukta-Chinmayoham!).

With the Jnan (knowledge)I and Siva are one - I in Siva - Siva in me - Siva

is Jagat - Jagat is naught but in Siva - Siva alone is "I am": the man has

risen to Godhood. Jnan is the last stage through which Sadhak - the Bhakta

(devotee) walks to reach this Native House of his, The Param Padam (Supreme

State) - Stage of Absolute Perfection.

The Godess of Jnan is Devi, Mother Saraswati. Her Veena is tuned within when

the heart strings are polished off it's clogs - the Asuric Sampath, non-divine

traits. In the resulting peace, the Bhakta sees His Lord in the Peaceful,

Purified Within. The soft floating tunes waft from within as the Lady of Veena

passes Her tender fingers blessingly over thy heart-strings. The Siva Bhakta

melts in that Music of the Within and becomes one with Siva!

Now "I am He, He am I ". This is the great victory . . . . .the total Victory,

the VIJAYAM.

Thus in nine days, in three stages, even the ignorant is made to go through the

right invocations in their required sequences of worship, and on the tenth day,

make a huge bon fire of the devil "the Samsarin in me" - the mortal, who

dreamt, and wept his dreams.

Now you know everything. As a Guru, Chinmaya has initiated you to the Vidya

Supreme - the Para-Vidya. You are told about the Destination - you are told

about the route. Enough "means-to-go" has been placed at your disposal.

Hari Om

-- devishakti_india( divyabhakti )(

http://spiritualhinduism.blogspot.com

)