Dussehra or Navaratri - By Sri Preethaji

11/16/20 • 4 min

Dussehra or Navaratri - By Sri Preethaji

Dussehra or Navarathri is a celebration of the mother goddess. However Krishna ji and I see it also a celebration of the feminine in all of us. Navaratri to us is also the journey of a spiritual seeker towards Enlightenment.

Hinduism is one of the world's oldest religion and its timeless messages are often communicated not in the lengthy explanations, but are coded in symbols, they are coded in images.

Most Indians assume Dussehra is celebrated because Durga killed the demon Mahishaasura in some parallel reality, in Some by-gone time.

But do you want to know the truth?

The truth is that we are the goddess and we are the Asura or the demon.

To me the goddess is not a force outside of us. She is the mother, the feminine, the shakthi, the divine womb in which universes are birthed and dissolved, who can be accessed in our consciousness.

And the demon also is not outside us. It is our own unawakened, ignorant, separate self.

They call Dussehra as Navaratri, meaning 9 nights instead of Nava Dina or 9 days. Do you know why? Close your eyes for a moment. What do you see? You see ratri.

Ratri symbolizes the darkness that happens when you are sitting with your eyes shut in meditation. It is an unfoldment in consciousness.

The first three days of Navaratri is the play of Durga.

Goddess Durga accordingly to the myth wakes up the Yoga Maya of Mahavishnu and kills the demons Madhu and Kaitabha.

On the seekers path the death of these asuras means, the dissolution of the two core suffering states of anger and greed.

In a state of meditative awareness, the seeker summons the power of the mother goddess and goes through a deep powerful spiritual process of dissolving all anger related states of frustration, hate and vengefulness.

The seeker through a process dissolves all the greed related states of jealousy, anxiety and covetousness.

The mother goddess as Durga dispells darkness or dispells thamas from our consciousness. With this first milestone crossed, a spiritual milestone crossed, we have transcended Durgati or the downward collapse of our destinies into a disastrous fate.

When we transcend these states with the blessings of the divine mother, blessings of abundance begins to pour into our lives. That is why the 4th, 5th and 6th days of Navaratri are dedicated to mother goddess as Maha Laxmi.

Dussehra or Navaratri - By Sri Preethaji

Hinduism is one of the world's oldest religion and its timeless messages are often communicated not in the lengthy explanations, but are coded in symbols, they are coded in images.

Most Indians assume Dussehra is celebrated because Durga killed the demon Mahishaasura in some parallel reality, in Some by-gone time.

But do you want to know the truth?

The truth is that we are the goddess and we are the Asura or the demon.

And the demon also is not outside us. It is our own unawakened, ignorant, separate self.

They call Dussehra as Navaratri, meaning 9 nights instead of Nava Dina or 9 days. Do you know why? Close your eyes for a moment. What do you see? You see ratri.

Ratri symbolizes the darkness that happens when you are sitting with your eyes shut in meditation. It is an unfoldment in consciousness.

The first three days of Navaratri is the play of Durga.

Goddess Durga accordingly to the myth wakes up the Yoga Maya of Mahavishnu and kills the demons Madhu and Kaitabha.

On the seekers path the death of these asuras means, the dissolution of the two core suffering states of anger and greed.

The seeker through a process dissolves all the greed related states of jealousy, anxiety and covetousness.

Previous Episode

Depression or search for Meaning ? - By Sri Krishnaji

How do you know if what you are going through is depression or a deeper search for meaning ?

The line is thin and the demarcation hard.

But let us enquire deeper.

Does life intrinsically have meaning? Does the tree that stands outside your window have a meaning?

It is existence isn’t it?. Pure existence.

Do the droplets of rain falling to the ground have a meaning?

They are rivulets of existence. Pure existence.

Does your breathing or waking up have a meaning in itself?

It is a movement of existence. Pure existence.

The tree may not have a meaning but it is true that it does serve a purpose.

The tree is necessary for the earth and its existence serves millions of life forms

So does the drop of water falling from the sky in nourishing the earth

So does your smile in bringing a smile to someone else's face.

This search for meaning is an existential quest. Why do I exist at all? what is the meaning of it all?

marriage ?

job?

money?

mine - not mine?

holding?

owning? it is as if you are relentlessly searching to go to the root of everything.

For some of you this search is a conscious act. It is a quest you are on. For some others it is as if the search has possessed you. Everything loses its charm quickly and discontent grips. All relationships, all achievements, all glamour - everything feels utterly superficial. Life feels fake, like a Truman show - all display and nothing real.

Let me ask you a critical question here. Does your discontent feel like an inner calling to rise beyond separation, beyond the mind created suffering to something beyond, to a state that is untouched by sorrow?

Or does it feel like a habit?

a depression?

a meaningless self engagement

a continuous process of taking offense for the smallest remarks

a feeling that life is going wrong

a helpless process of clinging on to something

Where do you think you are going?

Pause. Know your answer. And your answer will show you the way forward.

Whether you recognize that yours is a spiritual quest or that what you are going through is depression the journey ahead will only be beautiful.

you either have two stops or one.

your first stop could be healing your brain and body of depression and then to a process for spiritual awakening to never again fall into the trap of mind-created suffering.

Yours is a single stop journey, a journey to awakening into higher states of consciousness.

When your consciousness truly wakes up, the search ends, living begins.

Next Episode

EKAM MEANS ONENESS - By Sri Preethaji

Awaken to the truth of oneness of humanity - By Sri Preethaji

EKAM MEANS ONENESS

To us, every human experience is sacred. We see that there is one human experience, one humanity.

That is what Ekam means - it means oneness. Ekam is an enlightened state of consciousness where you are awake to the oneness of our existence.

We are one with all forms of life. We are one with the Universe.

When you are not established in this great spiritual realisation that we are one, your actions and behaviour cause division and conflict. You inflict pain upon yourself and another. Your actions lead to disharmony in nature and destruction to earth.

You move away from oneness when you begin to see the other as being different from you. Very often in your conversations you tell people, ‘I am not like you’ ‘I don’t behave like you’ ‘I am different from you’. You may not behave like someone else or express emotions the way someone else does. But are you really different from the other? We are one in our experience of sorrow and happiness, we are one in our fears, peace, pain and pleasure.

Right from childhood, you are taught to emphasize your differences and prove your superiority. You are taught to build your identity on how different you are. Division is at the very basis of our educational system and the foundation upon which you build your career and your achievements.

May be a thousand years ago, humanity had lesser number of factors upon which people divided themselves. But with civilizational progress and scientific advancement, the walls that differentiate us and divide us have become numerous. Our obsession to be unique and stand out as being different from the rest has assumed maniacal proportions creating distortions and aberrations in personality. As a civilization, we are inventing ever new ways, through our clothes, through our life style, through our activities - to constantly be different from the other.

This disease and sickness of the human mind has to be healed for you to move into a space of oneness. When division ceases conflict ceases to exist. You feel one, you live in harmony, you naturally care for another from a space of love.