This year more than ever before, I found myself longing for the Goddess to return, to make her presence felt in my house, my life.

 Not just in the frolicking and the festivities that bring back beautiful memories from my childhood and transport me back to India but, in a quieter way. I longed to sit with her, meditate upon her many forms and names, get to know her away from the outer celebrations. It’s a longing that bubbled up spontaneously like a spring within the deep recesses of my mind and heart. I was called, you might say, to call upon her.

It could be that the increasing chaos and turmoil in the outer world and my own personal churning makes me to lean into the Goddess and seek refuge in her power, her compassion. Whatever the reason I am grateful for her presence in my consciousness.

It’s been a joy going through the rituals of spring cleaning the house, preparing the temple and inviting her divine presence into our home. She who is both the divine force behind all creation and all creation, the manifest reality we exist in.

Different parts of India have their own ways of representing the Goddess as creation. In the South it’s done by elaborate installations of the nine realms of creation…little clay statues of animals and birds and human beings, the ancestors, the gods and goddesses and at the very top the Vishnu in his nine avatars. The custom in Maharashtra, where I’m from, is to sow wheat and place a coconut in the centre of it as the goddess herself. The wheat will sprout over the next nine days symbolising her shakti, her power to transform and create, reminding me everyday that the Goddess is Nature. She is all the splendour of the earth and the sky all and that lies beyond. It will remind me that just as she is soil and the blade of wheatgrass, she is also me!

NINE NIGHTS OF THE GODDESS

We bow to her who is at once most gentle and most fierce

Devi Mahatmyam

Of the Nine Nights the first three are dedicated to Durga- The Invincible. She who is both the warrior goddess and the divine mother. She who brings about untold expansion through radical transformation. Durga slays the demons and the shadows to make space for light and wonder, to make space for all abundance.

And demons we have many. Ego, ignorance, greed, fear, anger, despondency to name a few. These are mighty foes like the powerful demon Raktabeeja whose every fallen drop of blood had the power to create hundreds more clones of himself. We need the power of Durga to back us up if we are to have any hope of vanquishing any of these demons. Just as we need her compassion to hold us through the trials and battles we all must fight.

Vanquishing our demons always means destroying parts of ourselves and it’s a bloodbath, but we rise from it into the light and lightness of being. We rise into the realm of Goddess Laxmi – The One Who Takes Us to Our Goal.

She who is the source of all fragrances, who is always filled with abundance and leaves a residue wherever she reveals herself.

Shree Suktam

Laxmi brings light and abundance of health, wealth, joy and experience into our lives. We experience the splendour of Laxmi in all that is glorious – love, compassion, generosity, the beauty of nature around us, the earth, the sky, the mountain as and rivers.

Whatever our desires, whatever our goals we need the grace of Laxmi to achieve them. Even as Laxmi enriches our life with material and non-material wealth, she prepares the ground for the only goal and desire that truly matters. The longing for wisdom and true knowledge; that sublime space inhabited by the Goddess Saraswati- She who is the essence of the self.

Who is present in the form of knowledge and intelligence, and who embodies Itself; salutations to her.

And so, the last three days are dedicated to Goddess Saraswati- the Goddess of Speech and Learning. She is fluidity, creativity, intellect, wisdom, the power of discernment and the power to manifest into reality what is perceived in thought. Saraswati lifts us to our higher plains generally peeling back the veil of illusion and delusion that hides our reality.

Navratri culminates on the 10th day of Dussera signifying the victory of good over evil. The victory of our higher nature over our lower tendencies.

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