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Feasts, fasts and fun in Indian Festival of Navratri

In northern India, devotees break their fast every evening with specially prepared food, devoid of spices. Whole communities gather every evening to watch Ramlila, the enactment of the Ramayana. On Dussehra, the tenth day, huge effigies of Ravana and his brothers are set up. When Ram’s flame-tipped arrow pierces the demon, setting him ablaze, the crowds go berserk with joy, even as fireworks light up the night sky.

In West Bengal, this is “Pujo” time; the entire population gets down to the serious business of celebrating these ten days. Much of the festive atmosphere comes from the public celebrations. Huge, exquisite papier-mâché idols of Ma Durga are erected in various parts of cities and towns. Every evening, families and friends gather to pray, eat and socialize and engage in cultural activities. On Vijayadashami, the last day, the idols are borne in a triumphal procession to be submerged into a river.

In western India, particularly Gujarat, Navratri is linked both with fertility and agricultural rites. Community dances are a fascinating aspect of the celebration. Men perform the wonderfully energetic dandiya-raas to the beat of the dholak. Women perform the garba. Holding painted sticks in their hands, the dancers move around in circles, creating complex patterns, with their full, glittering skirts swirling around in a kaleidoscope of hues.

In southern homes, Navratri is a more private celebration. Many families set up a traditional ‘kolu’ or display of handcrafted dolls. A typical kolu would have scenes from Indian village life or the life stories of saints. Floors are beautifully decorated with colorful rangoli patterns. After evening prayers, women and girls dressed in their traditional best, visit each other’s homes. This is very much a Ladies’ Day Out for nine continuous days!

Navratri Legends

Gods are easy to please with prayers and meditations. The demon Mahishasura, once extracted a boon from Brahma that gave him protection from death at the hands of any male in the three worlds. Soon, Mahishasura was wreaking mayhem on heaven and earth. Since no single god could confront him, they came together to create a being imbued with their collective strength, a fearsome warrior goddess who killed the demon and came to be called Mahishasuramardini.

Another story has it that during this time, Parvati, Shiva’s consort, comes to visit her parental home in the Himalayas. She is Shakti, the creative energy of the universe; the festival is a thanksgiving for her gift of all Creation.

Navratri is associated with Lord Ram whose prayers to the Goddess led to his victory over the demon-king Ravana as per the Hindu epic, The Ramayana.

On the trail of the Mother Goddess. The Festival of Navratri

Shakti, Mahalakshmi, Saraswati and Kali – these are the many splendored forms of the sacred feminine in Hinduism. Goddess worship in India has been an unbroken tradition from the time of the Indus Valley civilization. Navratri (literally, nine nights) is the festival dedicated to her.

Why nine nights? Because three major aspects of the goddess are worshiped, each for three days. The first three days are dedicated to Ma Durga, protector against evil. During the next three days, she is worshiped as the benign Goddess Lakshmi, giver of wealth and plenitude. Finally, Saraswati is invoked for her gifts of knowledge and wisdom.

Navratri falls in the lunar month of Ashwin (September-October) and is celebrated with exuberance and colorful pageantry.

Navratri begins today, Sept 19, 2009

Yoga & Hindu Mythology

Mythology has played a powerful and important role in survival and popularity of yogic principles. Yoga is associated with the god Shiva, who is revered as the Adi Guru or first teacher. And therein lies a tale! For millennia, the blue-throated, ash-smeared god with dread-locks would remain in deep meditation. Coming out of his trance, he would dance ecstatically over the mountains, blissed out, as moderns would say! He was different from other divinities, the most realized of them all. Curious, the Gods approached him for the secret of his evolved state, whereupon Shiva expounded upon the various types of yoga.

Shiva’s first student was his wife Parvati, Goddess of creation, to whom he taught yoga with great gentleness and detail. His classroom was the shore of an uninhabited island. Parvati, eager as she was to learn, fell asleep during the exposition. However, there was a listener hiding in the sea – the sage Lokesvara. Shiva appreciated his keen interest and named him Matsyendranath, or Lord of the Fishes; the sage was conferred with the authority to disseminate the techniques of Hatha Yoga, the yogic school that is most widely practiced worldwide. Matsyendranath passed his knowledge on to his disciple Goraksa and the tradition continued. Possibly, Lokesvara and his disciple were historical personalities. Of more interest is the question: why did Parvati fall asleep? Was she, god forbid, bored? Most myths have hidden meanings and so does this one. Shiva, in yogic philosophy, represents the Universal Soul or transcendent Self (in Sanskrit, “paramatma”); Parvati is us, the individual self (“jivatma”). Like her, we too go through life “asleep”, unaware of our spiritual potential. Yoga is the means by which we may attain union with that Self.

A second set of yogic teachings came down to the Saptarishis (the seven sages), or guardians of divine laws, near Kedarnath, Shiva’s icy shrine in the Himalayas. On Mahashivaratri, the festival that honors Shiva, devotees fast and stay up all night. On this night, the alignment of the planets in the northern hemisphere creates a rise in cosmic energies. Sitting with the spine upright in a state of wakefulness on Mahashivaratri is believed to boost spiritual powers.

The Origin of Yoga

The origin of most ancient Indian contributions to philosophy, the arts and science are lost in time. The Vedas (sacred texts), treatises on performing arts, or indigenous medicine were orally transmitted down the generations and only later preserved in the written form. So it was with Yoga, the holistic, mind-body system of exercise that has seen an upsurge of interest in the modern world since the twentieth century.

Between 300 BCE and 100 CE, the sage Patanjali wrote the Yoga Sutras wherein he defined how the practice of certain techniques allowed an individual to gain control over his mental processes and cleanse his body of accumulated toxins, thereby achieving a state of psychological and physical well-being.

Patanjali though, did not claim to be the originator of Yoga; he was merely the first to compile its practice in an organized form. Yoga is not necessarily a Hindu practice, but as with most classical Indian traditions, it is approached with a deep sense of devotion. Perhaps, the wise ones who devised these traditions felt it necessary to imbue their works with a sense of the sacred, in order that they may be preserved and valued down the generations. Mythology played a powerful and important role in this thinking.