Energise yourself with the purity of gold this Navratri

Today onwards starts a powerful festival that gives both the mind and the soul-entity great energy. Navratri, Shakti Mahotsav or Durga Mahotsav is a festival that increases our trust in subtle principles and enables us to have the energy to meditate. The worship of Ganapati in Bhadrapad is followed by giving Him into water. Then we work on the inherited or DNA based imbalances in human being. The imbalances inherited from the personalities of parents and ancestors and the problems of our society and environment are all managed during the 15 days practice of Pitrupaksha. After all these processes, the body is now quite prepared to receive positive energy.  

The purest essence of the Earth element is gold. The heaviness of both mercury and gold are similar. However, mercury has acquired a dark colour inside and is a poisonous or vitiating element whereas gold is a shining, pure and life enhancing material. Gold is not only pure by itself, it has also has the quality of destroying poisons. Since time immemorial, gold has been a special material that people find desirable and wish to keep close to themselves.  

When buying gold, we say it should be 100% pure. But even 100% pure gold coins have a stamp that says 99.99% pure. This is the power of 9 that even gold, the purest form of the Earth element, remains at 99.99. 9 is the number of creativity. The number 9, when applied or multiplied in any kind of formula, finally gives the value of 9 only. To depict 9 imagine a nucleus with 8 more forms around it. Even the 9 shaktis in our culture are depicted like this e.g. as Navadurga or Ashtabhuja. The journey of life while taking human form, during pregnancy, also needs 9 months and 9 days. If birth happens before this time it is considered premature and if pregnancy lasts a little longer it is not considered completely healthy. In all these ways, looking at the importance of 9, and seeing the suitable energy of certain days in the Sharad season, ancient Indians devised the navratra (9 nights) festival.

The phrase annad bhavanti bhutaani means that all the elements of nature unify to make anna or food. The body is made from this food. Even though this food is extremely important for the body, the spark of consciousness also requires Agni or the fire element. If fire in the body is low, it leads to indigestion, or imbalance in pitta. Neither is low fire good for us, nor is a raging fire element. If we have balanced fire in the required intensity, its creative aspects become apparent and useful. So when pitta increases in the Sharad season, exposure to moonlight, or moonlight bathing and other pitta-controlling therapies are recommended by Ayurveda. But in the same period, when we have been away from sunlight for quite some time during the monsoon, leading to mental lethargy, then it is also recommended to perform external worship of fire as an important therapy. So havan or yadnya rituals and lamp gazing (we maintain a permanent lamp, nandadeep, for 24 hours through these nine days) help us increase shakti through Agni that is external to the body.

In one of the Shakti worship rituals of Navratri, we take a little mud or earth, put some grain seed on it and place a mud pot filled with water on them. With this ritual we can conceive how life originates, how food grain is made and how this universe comes into being. Shakti or energy is of many kinds. Just like we use hands or physical energy to move a heavy object, we can do similar things just with the strength or energy of the mind too.

In physical and spiritual ways, we use fire worship or meditation on fire (light) mantras to enhance Shakti. We need both fire worship and mantras. They are to be done with trust and are accepted as forms of devotion. Similarly, while we need purification in the form of ritual bathing, fasting etc, and we also need techniques and rituals to invite energy and worship it. It appears that since we want or need help from an outside source, or wish to receive energy from the environment, these rituals or efforts have been designed accordingly.

In Navratri, the traditional clockwise and anti-clockwise circular movement of lamps along with the burning of herbal dhoop and camphor (arati), and the circular dance, around a fire nucleus, called garba, are natural methods to enjoy the heightened, spiral energy of the festival.

In this way, we have been strongly recommended the devotion and worship of the three main energy forms, Shri Mahakali, Shri Mahalakshmi and Shri Mahasaraswati.. 

The author is founder of Atmasantulana Village, a world-renowned holistic healing centre. ayurveda@dnaindia.net