10/10/2010-16/10/2010

As we are celebrating our festival of Nine Emperor Gods, celebration of Navaratri in Bangalore, Ashram, is going on in full force, both Festivals fall on the same dates, i.e. 8/10/2010-16/10/2010.  Devotees celebrate these two festivals for nine consecutive nights and usually both festivals happen at the same time each year. 

Undeniably, our ancestors are much more smarter and spiritually fulfilled than their generation today.  Imagine a world before globalisation and the era of the internet, where there are no TV and radios, (Yes! We are talking about that long ago) our great forefathers from continents so far apart, after going into deep contemplation during meditation, decided simultaneously that once in every year, there are nine special nights which deserve celebration. 

As celebration in our modern society goes, the most realistic way of celebrating something is to declare it as a public holiday so that we can stay home, instead of going to work. But celebration of Navaratri goes deeper that that.  We have the grace and blessing to have Guruji, who shares the same wave length with our ancestors and is willing to share the ancient sacred knowledge with the world.

According to Guruji, Navaratri is a celebration of our spirit or prana (life force). 'The nine days of Navratri are also an opportunity to rejoice in the three primordial qualities that make up the universe. Though our life is governed by the three gunas, we seldom recognize and reflect on them. The first three days of Navratri are attributed to tamo guna, the next three days to rajo guna and the last three days to sattva guna. Our consciousness sails through the tamo and rajo gunas and blossoms in the sattva guna of the last three days. Whenever sattva dominates in life, victory follows. The essence of this knowledge is honored by celebrating the tenth day as Vijaydashmi.'
(For those who thirst for Guruji's weekly knowledge, log on to Wisdom from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.)

In modern terms, Navaratri is a celebration of our Self, ancient wisdom, a time to let go (even just for a short while) our desires, feverishness and reflect on our inner Self.  In short, it is a journey to the center of the Self.

We celebrate the last day of Navaratri with a group of 8 people, singing sometimes out-of-tune bhajans, playing mostly out of beat instruments, and listening to Guruji's discourse on Bhakti Sutra, about love and pain. Compared to the thousands of devotees that throng the Ashram at Bangalore, ours seemed like a very small and private affair.  Nevertheless, the love, enthusiasm and wisdom flows from the same infinite consciousness.


Don't forget, most fortunate is the one who celebrates life everyday!!!