Today marked the beginning of Navaratri, an important Hindu festival which celebrates the Great Goddess, Durga Ma, over nine nights.
As an anglo-Australian who fell in love with yoga in my late 20s I did not grow up worshipping the Goddess. My introduction to Devī has been through my yoga teachers and through study, so while I acknowledge and honour the Goddess at this time, I note oh, how different it would look were I was raised in a Hindu family. How eagerly I might have anticipated the new moon in Ashwin (the Hindu month when Navratri occurs). How might I have considered what outfits I would wear to honour each of the nine different aspects of the Goddess over the nine days - for each day there is a different manifestation of the Goddess to worship, and each of these aspects has its own name and form and myth and colours to wear as well as distinct offerings to make and qualities to call in. And how might I have helped to prepare the puja (altar) perhaps purchasing ghee to keep the lamps constantly burning throughout the festival, gathering flowers and fruit, or planting the barley seeds that sprout and grow over the nine days? Perhaps I might have helped my family prepare special foods for fasting. How I might have anticipated the fun of the tenth day, when statues are plunged into the river or, as I read somewhere, sometimes there are effigies of Ravana (symbolising evil) burned in a fireworks display. I imagine perhaps that’s a scene I would have enjoyed. And maybe one day I’ll travel to India and take part. But right now, I can’t really tell you from the inside of those experiences. I can’t taste the smoke and feel the sparks landing on my skin, or dazzling my eyes.
I could tell you stories of Christmas from an embodied and personal place drawing on my own history and recalling the feelings and sensations etched in memory forever. However my experiences with Navaratri are limited. It’s not my cultural heritage and so I can hardly capture the richness and the layers to it but merely report what I’ve learned from my teachers and own reading.
I learned about the Goddesses and Nondual Shaktism from my first yoga teacher Suzanne Faith who studied with Sally Kempton. Being a lover of story I was captivated by the mythology and felt compelled to find out more. One course I did, only 3 years ago, with Dr Kavitha Chinnaiyan, called the Inner Path to Shakti, helped me to understand the symbolism in the myths that are told as part of the Navaratri celebrations. During the course, she also guided us in how to use the nine nights, broken into three groups of three and the three chapters of the Devi Mahatmyam (an ancient text that is recited during the festival) as a framework for Sadhana.
And so, while my household isn’t all aflutter tonight with excitement for the festival, this morning and throughout the day I have made an effort to honour and acknowledge the auspiciousness of the occasion.
Part of my motivation is a sense of responsibility I have as someone who shares yoga and participates in practices that are part of cultural tradition, to do my best to honour and pay respects wherever possible to that tradition but also, it’s part of me trying to, in the words of Vimala Thakar, “live the truth that I do understand” - however limited my understanding is.
And so I’m following the guidance of Dr Chinnaiyan who recommended chanting the Navakshari Mantra to honour the Goddess in her triple aspect as Durga/Kali, Lakshmi and Saraswati. It’s a powerful mantra, that has the power to cause radical shifts within, when practiced earnestly over a long time. This morning, I set off for my walk along the beach and began reciting the mantra. It’s my intention to keep working with it every day for 40 days (so I’ll be going until November 15).
One of her other recommendations for this time, is to notice how the Gunas - qualities of nature - are present in your life. The three Gunas are Tamas (inertia, stagnancy, dullness), Rajas (dynanism, movement, activity) and Sattva (clarity, luminosity, purity).
The first three days of Navaratri is the time when we particular look at where Tamasic energy dominates. So the question to ask is, where am I feeling stuck?
Of course, Tamas is a necessary quality in nature - we need it to sit still and be steady and committed but, as another teacher from the Shakta tradition, Rose Baudin, notes, each of the Gunas has two octaves. That is, there’s the tamasic energy that’s related to rigid beliefs, stubborn egoic patterns and depression and more and there’s the tamasic energy that helps us to sit for our meditation, that provides a sense of being grounded.
So that’s what I’ve been sitting with today… How is Tamas showing up for me right now? Especially, the lower octave stuff.
I’m asking myself:
- What’s stuck?
- Where am I lacking in motivation? Tamas is that energy that’s present when I feel I know what would be good for me but I have no resolve to do it. When does that happen?
- What habits have formed, that I’m outgrowing or am ready to move?
- Are there any dynamics present in my relationships that I am ready to shift?
- What am I holding onto that’s feeling a bit heavy (metaphorically speaking)?
As I’m doing this work of feeling into ‘lower octave tamasic stuff’, I’m trying to be very tender with myself.
Oodles of self compassion is required. Otherwise, I tend to self-protect and not allow myself to really see what’s stuck. I kind of keep it hidden away, even from myself. That sounds a bit like this: “No, I don’t have a problem with staying up too late, eating too many sweets and back to back eps on Netflix…” “No, I haven’t got any unresolved issues in my familial relationships” “No, life is perfectly harmonious, I never have conflict” “Don’t know what you’re talking about! Stuck, sticky, me? Never. Practically enlightened.”
So I have a few things to work with this time round. Some tendencies that are present from time to time that I’m aware of. I love to laugh at myself and my humanness as it is one of the ways that I offer myself compassion. And so there are some habits that I’ve noted. And then there’s some stuff that I can’t quite laugh at yet. Some deep seated beliefs that I can’t quite see clearly yet but I have a sense of. But I’m not concerned about those. I’m just leaving the question open so that as I practice, whatever wants to come up, the invitation is there, the door is wide. I trust that when the time is right whatever is ready to be brought to the surface will arise.
In my experience, it’s enough to set an intention and then do the practice. You don’t have to necessarily have a super clear ‘issue’ or ‘thing’ that you are trying to ‘work on’. Some teachers and some modalities, might suggest differently. But I feel it’s enough to set the intention that you’re ready to expand or grow beyond limitations. Or you can request for the support of Ma Durga to help you to shift that which is holding you back. The part of you that ‘knows’ knows… if you know what I mean. There’s a part of you that understands perfectly. It might not have registered in your rational mind yet. But then we do the sadhana, and we watch and see what happens.
So that’s what I’m up to… Come mid November, it will be interesting to see what’s shaking in my little world.
I’ll let you know if there’s something of note to report. If you’re on a similar journey, I’d love to hear how it’s shaking for you too.
Jai Durgā Mā! (Victory to the great Goddess!)