Symbolised by Navratri Festival.
This is an extract from a long letter written by Sri Swami Chinmayananda from Uttarkasi (Himalayas) on 20th October 1950, which happened to be the Vijaya Dasami Day, to Sri. P.B. Menon of Ernakulam, Kerala. It is interesting to note that Sri Swamiji started writing this letter around midnight and completed it at 4 am, the sacred Brahma-Muhurta on the Vijaya Dasami Day. We are grateful to Menon's family, who made the precious manuscript available to us for our use.
Religion without philosophy is superstition. Philosophy without religion is mere theory. And nowhere is the wedding of these two so perfect and enduring as in the great religion of Hindusim.
Religion, everywhere, includes three sections: the ritualistic forms and symbols, the mythology and the philosophy. These three are the three stages regular, systematic, measured and graded. A deluded Jiva (embodied soul) is to be taken from the first, through the second to the last. Since the first two are preparations for the third, the previous ones also must have for their basis the essence of the last. This is true in Hinduism. All our rituals and mythology represent the Truth of VEDANTA.
Self-Realisation through a constant God-consciousness is the message, be it in the ritualistic stage or in the mythological stage of evolution.
In this light let us view Navaratri, the nine day's Devi Puja and the glorious end of it all on the tenth day, the Vijaya Dasami. What do we do in these nine days? Every house is cleaned, and there is an air of festivity in the entire village or town. Each house is converted for these ten days to serve as a Temple. For ten days there is regular Poojas, Kirtans, Songs, and reading of the spiritual books.
Now what exactly is the procedure? These nine days are divided into three sections, each of three days; the first three days are dedicated for Durga or Kali, the second for Lakshmi (the Raja Rajeshwari) and the last three days for Goddess Saraswathi. The nine days' Pooja ends in the great grand festivity and joy inexpressible, on the tenth day-the Dassera Day, the Vijaya Dasami Day. Thus the ritual, with forms and symbols-"the burning of the Devil" at the dawn heralds in the Vijaya Dasami, and the merry laughter and joyous feasting.
“It is all very well. At best it is a crude communal festivity, once a year, just after the harvest season is over for the winter”. This is the opinion generally of the blind, college- trained-illiterates of our young brethren! They know not what they are criticising they understand not and so they cry down; because to own "I don't understand" needs honesty, a stout heart and a sincere thirst to know! In this age of intellectual idleness, among a generation of newspaper-wise amoeba-men, the generality has neither leisure nor the spirit of enquiry to make them think and understand. All their thinking is done for them by the editors the news reporters; all their understanding ends with the Korean situation, or the price of gold in Canada or the way the cannibals mate or eat! Wrecked in their own negativity, a sick generation has reached the depth of deprivation and animalism where to feed the newspaper columns they make world wars!
Lord, Thy Leela is as humorous and laughable to one who knows Thee and witness Thy Play, as it is agonising and dreadful to those who know Thee not and have come to forget themselves in the part they play!
But let us be honest to ourselves and make an investigation into this exact ritual, most popular even today among us. Some light might come out of all honest and persevering enquiry.
WHAT THEN DO THESE NINE DAYS OF CELEBRATION MEAN?
The first three days we invoke Sree Kali Matha: Mother Durga. Durga is the "Power Terrible", that manifested out of the Unmanifest Eternal which is Paripoorna, (full or complete in all respects) and so has in THAT all Powers. "Mother Terrible" took the "form dreadful" to kill and to end the "Rakshasas" (Devils) that were roaming about the world of men, tyrannising over the faithful, the devoted: the divine "Sadhaks" (spiritual seekers). This is the story in a nutshell as we read it in the Puranas. The Puranic stories are all, Chinmaya repeats, al figurative voiceless truths of the Upanishads, the Brahmasutra and the Geeta- the great oceans of the highest philosophies in the world.
Puranas are written for the crude and uncultured to grasp. It entertains, flares up the imagination, kindles faith, and make the reader live a life of righteousness and enduring values of love and dharma. These stories are, as it were, vast canvases over which are painted in enlargements the miniature, the subtle and deep inner happenings in man. Whatever we see without must be in the within: for, we see in and through our self. If the Self is not, the world is not.
Yes. Surely. Man, the imperfect, the bound, the sorrowful, has a thousand enemies within. He is riddled with negative thoughts, fears and yearnings. There are desires, passions, lusts, hopes, vanities, anger, greed, selfishness, jealousy, meanness, prejudices and hatreds-just to mention a few of the most terrible. If the Sadhak has to get rid of these lawless villains within, in Mother Kali's Kripa" (mercy) these tyrannous monsters are to be annihilated. No amount of soft persuasion can be of any avail with them. The force of Sree Rudra must be applied. There must be a deep, determined, adamantine resolve, and a fight royal within, as bloody as the Kali's ferocious dripping-sword; and unless the Sadhak is ready to wear about his neck the skull-garland of these murdered false values, there can be no peace or order in the within. So then, the first three days representing the initial stage of a Sadhak who has started on pilgrimage to Freedom and Perfection-are the invocation of the Mother Terrible. This power is also in us; it is only a question of invoking it. The self within is omnipotent; every power is in it. Only invoke any power you want, it will manifest according to the degree of invocation. In your chair and table is fire! Only it needs invocation; set fire: tend it: nourish it until it is well set-thereafter the whole house can be brought down by that very chair on which you are so comfortably sitting now! Just look around: the almirah, the windows, the doors, the table, the shelf each containing some thousands of calories of heat.
And yet, when not invoked, you are comfortable with them: yet, all the same, the fire is full-packed in them. Invoke the fire, and what a conflagration! What a terrible heat!
So also the Self has all the Powers in it. When we know the trick of invoking whatever power we want at will out of it, we are masters of the Self. (But not of course, "Jnanis"!-persons of spiritual realisation. Because, Power means a field to use-and somebody other than you for whom to invoke. or against whom to invoke. Supreme perfection is only in the Lord-the Self. To become the Lord is state of the Absolute from where there is no return. He who has attained this State is a Jnani.
Thus, as we have seen, the very first stage in self- perfection is to invoke the Mother Terrible, to help us by eliminating from within us all negative forces all weaknesses. It is these that have removed us from ourselves: the Supreme "Parameswara swaroopa" which we all really are!
Now a mere elimination of our weaknesses in itself is no achievement permanent; for, if the bosom is thus empty, they will again enter by the "back-doors"; or if you guard against them very strictly, some yet unsuspected vice will thrive the merrier within, for, the whole field is free for it to live upon!
So then, we must understand that though we have to eliminate many wrong trends of thinking, acting, feeling and asserting that are now with us, we have to also side by side invite in, plant well, cultivate, collect or learn new healthy enduring values. In short, mere negative "Sadhana" (Spiritual practices) alone is of no avail; we must equally emphasise the positive side in our right effort: then only the Purushartha [Four factors necessary to make life full: Dharma (right action), Artha (pursuit of wealth and happiness), Kama (desires and aspirations) and Moksha (spiritual realisation which is the ultimate goal of all existence). While the pursuit of wealth and happines are legitimate human urges culminating in the fulfillment of desires and aspirations, the Scriptures insist that trees be gained through righteous means (Dharma), धर्मात् अर्थश्च कामाश्च (from Dharma flow Artha and Kama).] becomes complete and whole. Not only strive to assert that "I will not be dishonest"- but in the same breath, as it were, we must assert "I will be honest at all costs".
Fear is meaningless. I am not afraid of anything-I am Courage Absolute; my very nature is Courage- for, the Lord is the embodiment of courage, bravery, heroism and leadership. I am He: He am I. I am courageous. Nothing is or can be there which can frighten ME.
By such an invocation of the positive, we grow! This growth is the next stage that should follow the efforts at elimination and self-purification of the "Sadhak". And this is the meaning of worshipping the Goddess Raja Rajeshwari, Sree Maha Lakshmi, the lady of all "Aiswarya"-(divine wealth).
In the first three days through the "Power Terrible" we have met, fought and killed the devilish tendencies in us. The "Rakshasic" Forces have been won over. This period of war is immediately-and even side by side followed by the constructive efforts at the organisation of order and security by the patronage and growth of the Divine Forces in us. Lakshmi is not the Goddess of Rs. and Ps. nor has She any number in the Dollar- Sterling Exchange Dances! She is the Goddess of "Aishwarya: Devi Samptah", Divine Wealth. She is the embodiment of Love, Charity, Kindness, Devotion, Peace, Tranquility, Honesty, Courage, Faith and Mumukshutwa! (desire for liberation).
These are to be engendered, and the vacancies created by the elimination of the negative qualities must be filled in by these positive traits.
Hence the Lakshmi Pooja for three days following the Kali Pooja of the first three days! How pregnant!
When a "Jiva" on his march has thus purified himself, and gets recharged with the Devi Sampath (the Divine wealth), he is a fit Adhikari-a fit student-to be initiated into the philosophical side of religion. He is told of the Supreme Reality, the State of Sat-Chit-Ananda (Absolute Knowledge, Absolute Existence, Absolute Bliss), the "Padavi" (State) of "Sivoham", the becoming of the Lord, the merger of the Jiva to become "Maheswara", the final walking from this dream of samsara into the realisation that "I am the All Pervading knowledge in itself, Pure existence beyond Time, Space and Causality- where the experience is "I am God!". This knowledge is the last and final stage in the evolution of man, There the mortal rises to become the Immortal. Death has no more strings for him-beyond death, beyond birth, beyond the maddening cruelties of "Dharma" and "Adharma", pleasure and pain, heat and cold, success and failure, love and hatred. The Sadhaka drops his deluded conception "I am a man, devotee", and realises, remembers-"I am He"! (Nitya-Mukta-Chinmayoham!)
With the Jnan (knowledge): "I and Siva are one-l in Siva-Siva in me-Siva is Jagat-Jagat is naught but in Siva-Siva alone is-"I am" is a conception which is Jagat and Jagat is not in Him, the Siva!! Sivoham-Sivoham": the man has risen to Godhood. Jnan is the last stage through which Sadhak-the Bhakta (devotee) walks to reach this Native House of his, the Param Padam (Supreme State)-the Godman-Stage of Absolute Perfection.
The Goddess of Jnan is Devi, Mother Saraswati. Her Veena is tuned within when the heart strings are polished off its clogs-the Asuric Sampath, non-divine traits. The strings are "tuned" when the inner heart-strings are adjusted with the cultivated Devi Sampath. In the resulting peace, the Bhakta sees His Lord in the Peaceful, Purified Within. The soft floating tunes waft from within as the Lady of Veena passes Her tender fingers blessingly over thy heart-strings. The music is the magic touch that turns the Premi into Prem! the Lover into Love!! The Siva Bhakta melts in that Music of the Within and becomes one with Siva! As Sree Saraswathi sings Her Divine Song of Joy, the Kalyan Muhurta, the auspicious moment of wedding is on. The devotee is in wedlock bound to the Lord of her [The devotee is considered the bride and the Lord, the bridegroom.] heart for ever!! This wedding is the Success Supreme-the achievement is incomparable-the victory absolute! After this marriage there is no more Karthavya, (duty, or obligation)" I am Siva! I am Siva!". Oh Lord, Thou art not knowing that Thou hadst Thyself played this game a fantastic dream of a hundred thousand millions of births and deaths, meeting parting, earning and spending-all just a moment's Play of Mine!! I myself, for my own entertainment created within myself a Samsar and lived through the pains which were not, and enjoyed the joys which were not!!
Now "I am He. He am I". This is the great victory.....the total Victory, the VIJAYAM.
Thus in nine days, in three stages, even the ignorant is made to go through the right invocations in their required sequences of worship, and on the tenth day, make a huge bon fire of the devil "the Samsarin in me"--the mortal, who dreamt, and wept his dreams. The ever weeping, stupid, limited, wretched, self-arrogating Ego "I Mr. so and so" is a lie! it is a dream phantom. Only the Lord is: Thou art the Lord. With the Jnanam (Knowledge) "I am He", the wretch, the perishable body with its bundles of relationships, duties, hopes and desires, that Gross Caricature of the Lord, "I Mr. so and so is hooted at, laughed at, and in a merry procession taken to the burning place and burnt by the very hands that made it: you yourself in festive joy will then once for ever light this bon fire of the Devil: "I Mr. so and so". With the end of this Mithya Jnan, False notion, ends all sorrows, all limitations. "I am God-I am the All- All are in ME". The great day of Dassera literally means the "Dasa-papa-hara"-the end of the ten sins, The Vijaya Dasami Day, the day of Sree Parameswara Prapathi, Attainment of the Supreme Lord!!!
The main ten sins are the temptations of the ten Indriyas. Through the Indrivas the sense impulses reach the mind; these impulses form the food of the mind. The mind thrives and grows fat upon these impulses. The mind is the Ghost Stuff that throws the terrible shadow of the "I-Mr. so and so". The ego comes to be. And identifying oneself with this ego, one becomes mortal, afraid, bound, gagged, weeping in agony and despair!! Dasahara is the victory over the senses over the mind which ends in the disappearance of the dreadful shadow "I", that cauldron of weaknesses, yearnings, slavery, imperfections. When mind is off, what remains is the Blissful, the Omnipotent and Omniscient mass of beauty and grandeur, the Supreme Mother!! Bring about a Dassara in thy life. Celebrate the life's Vijaya Dasami-through Purushartha, which in the Bhakta is not a stupendous task of adventure and strife, but a pleasant Pooja Festival-a Mahanavami Celebration.
Sing His Names. It is only for the beginner the rule: "Half-an-hour Jap in the morning". But to the developed it is a purposeful self-charging: this morning and evening Japa. All the rest of the time mental Smaran (remembrance) and Jap must go on. The Sastras declare that "Nitya-Nirantara" God-consciousness is the way and the Goal. "Nitya" means daily, day-by-day, so long as this body is alive. "Nirantara" means ever-every moment of each day's wakeful hour. In short, now you, by wrong Abhyas (practice) through millions of births, have come to keep a "Nitya-Nirantara- Deha-Smaranam, I am Sree so-and-so". This is never forgotten, and without any particular conscious effort on your part, it is ever and ever ceaselessly chanting from within "I am I", "I am I". In a Perfect God-man also there is such an endless inner music: "I am I", "I am I"-only with this difference: in the Samsarin "I" is the body; to the God-man "I" is the Lord, the Supreme Reality. Replace the body consciousness with God-consciousness-is the WAY for the Goal to be reached-where is eternal peace, all Power, Pure Existence, Light-Bliss-Knowledge-GOD.
Now you know everything. As a Guru, Chinmaya has initiated you to the Vidya Supreme-the Para-Vidya. You are told about the Destination-you are told the route. Enough "means-to-go" has been placed at your disposal: Niskhama Seva (selfless service), Divine Life, the Mala (Rosary), the Diary and the knowledge. Now-so long!! Fare thee well!! Good Bye to the Samsarin! Step on the accelerator: dash through the open wide road of Bhakti, (devotion to the Lord); only don't sleep at the wheels!! Be alert, avoid the wayside "lamp posts" and "trees"!! They are sufficiently far way from the route. Have enough "food and water with thee."
"Replenish the stock" on the way-never spare any chance to serve even the poorest of poor. Love all even the criminal, the liar, the thief. Show love to hatred; answer with kindness all injury. Embrace even a serpent or a tiger with as much affection as your child. Respect every woman as your Mother: Keep unfailing Brahmacharya! This is the water to sustain thee on the way, very precious. Tell yourself: "I am the servant of all; for, the All is my Master, my Lord. "Be good, do good, be kind and pure. No anger, no hatred, no pride. Meek and modest, level in both joy and sorrow, praise and curse, a Shanta Murti, embodiment of Peace, of immense power, yet kind and humble, live thy Life of Dassera! Burn down the ugly monstrous Rakshasa Roopa (demoniac form) that we have ourselves built up in the previous nights; and in joy and holiday and revelry, dance round the wrecked blazing Monster-"the I". Renounce "I"-you have renounced all. And thus become a Jnani a God-man at home! This is possible; in a wink this transformation can take place. Have confidence, courage and determination: Perfection is then already thine!!
Hari Om
