During the festival of Navaratri (nine nights), the Universal Mother is represented and worshipped in three different forms and aspects.

Goddess Durga is worshipped on the first three nights. She is invoked to destroy all the negative tendencies of the mind so that one may develop noble traits and virtues. She is also called Mahishasura Mardini, the destroyer of the demon buffalo. The buffalo stands for tamoguna, the quality of laziness, darkness, ignorance, and inertia. All these harmful inclinations exist in everyone. Although we have a lot of energy and potential inside us, we prefer to do nothing – just like the buffalo that loves only to lie in pools of water. Durga Devi’s killing of the Mahisha demon is, symbolically, the annihilation of the formidable tamoguna within us that is indeed difficult to destroy. In the Durga Devi Havana (sacrifice), we invoke the divine power within to destroy our animalistic tendencies of lust, greed, anger, passion, attachments etc.

For knowledge to dawn within us, we have to prepare our minds. The mind must be pure, concentrated and single-pointed; this purification of the mind is obtained through the worship of Lakshmi Devi who is invoked during the next three nights. In our society, however, when one thinks of Lakshmi, it is only of money. Everybody likes Lakshmi puja because they think She represents solely material wealth. But what is real wealth? Material wealth without discipline, self-control, or the values of love, kindness, respect, and sincerity, will eventually be lost or destroyed. Real wealth is the inner wealth of spiritual values that we practice in our lives, by which our minds become purified. Only when we have these noble values will we be able to preserve our material wealth and make good use of it.

In the Upanishads, the rishis never prayed exclusively for material wealth. In the mantras of the Taittiriya Upanishad, they first invoked the Divine for all positive and noble qualities and then added. “Having gained the noble virtues, thereafter, Lord please bring wealth to us.” The rishis warn humanity that in the absence of right values and virtuous traits, all material wealth is soon misused and squandered away. For example, if money is given to a drug addict or an alcoholic, he will smoke or drink it away in no time.

Our wealth of virtues is the true Lakshmi. Its importance is shown by the fact that Adi Shankaracharya himself, in Vivekcudamani, describes shat sampati or the six forms of wealth (calmness of mind, self-control, self-withdrawal, forbearance, faith and single-pointedness) that are to be cultivated to attain wisdom. These virtues are important because our goal is victory over the mind – such a victory by which the mind remains ever peaceful and happy, and is not disturbed by every change that takes place in our lives. This victory comes only when the mind is prepared and this mental preparation is the symbolism of Lakshmi Puja.

Victory of the mind can be gained only through knowledge, through understanding; so finally, on the last three nights, Sarasvati is invoked for gaining the highest knowledge of the Self. Although there are many kinds of knowledge in the Vedas-phonetics, astrology, archery, architecture, economics, and so on- the real knowledge is spiritual knowledge. Lord Krishna, Himself says in the Bhagavad Geeta: “The knowledge of the Self is the knowledge,” and He adds, “It is My vibhuti, My glory.” In other words, we may have knowledge of many other subjects and sciences, but if we do not know our own Self, then that is the greatest loss. Therefore, the supreme Knowledge is the knowledge of the Self that is represented by Goddess Saraswati.

This is the significance of the three sets of nights and when all these three are gained subjectively, then there will be the tenth day of Vijayadasmi – the day of true victory- the victory over Ravana, over the ten-headed demon of one’s own ego that was living an indulgent life enslaved by the ten sense organs.

At Navaratri time, the rasa dance of Sri Krishna and the gopis is also performed. As the mind becomes purer, calmer, quieter, and more cheerful, and greater understanding is gained do we not feel happier? Similarly the rasa is the dance of joy – the joy of realization.

Why is Navaratri celebrated at night rather than in the daytime? Night is generally the time when we go to sleep, so the spiritual message of nighttime worship is: “You have lived long enough in the sleepy ignorance of tamoguna. It is time to get up now. Please, wake up!”

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