Celebrating Navratri

Practice - 9 nights - 9 lights **- 9 pm **

This year Navrātri begins on October 17th, following the New Moon on Friday, October 16th.

This is how it works: The night following the New Moon is the first night of the nine nights. The first nine nights of the lunar cycle that comes to completion with Dussehra. Dussehra is one of the premier celebrations in the Indian culture associated with Hinduism.

For the 9 nights following this Friday, October 17th, I will light a candle at 9 pm, with the intention to invite and invoke the divine mother and strengthen our alignments towards her and towards the heart retreat.

####About Navrātri

Navrātri, culminating with Dussehra, is a cultural festival of great importance and significance for all. It is a festival that is all about the goddess. In Karnataka, Dussehra is about Chamundi (that’s a name of MahaKalik, the one who destroyed the bad guys “Chanda” and “Munda”, Passion and Anger) in Bengal it is about Durga. like this, it is about various goddesses in different places, but essentially it is about the feminine goddess or the feminine divinity.

Navrātri is replete with symbolism about vanquishing evil and wanton nature, and about having reverence for all aspects of life and even for the things and objects that contribute to our wellbeing. The nine nights of Navrātri are classified as per the three basic qualities of Tamas, Rajas and Sattva.

The first three days are Tamas, where the goddess is fierce, like Durga and Kali. The next three days are Lakshmi related - gentle but materially oriented goddesses. The last three nights are dedicated to saraswati, as the representative goddess of the sattva cycle. It is related to knowledge and enlightenment. Investing in these three will make your life in a certain way.

If you invest in Tamas, you will be powerful in one way. If you invest in rajas, you will be powerful in a different way. If you invest in Sattva, you will be powerful in a completely different way. But if you go beyond all this, it is no longer about power, it is about liberation.

After Navrātri, the tenth and final day is Vijayadashami.- that means you have conquered all these three qualities. The brings home the message of how being in reverence and gratitude towards everything that matters in our lives leads to success and victory.