Nine forms of Devi during Navaratri

Navaratri literally means nine divine nights of Goddess. Each day different form of Goddess is worshiped with different offerings.

Below is a chart that describes various forms of Goddess, goal of her each incarnation, power that is predominant in that incarnation, her appearance and benefits of worshiping that form and offerings prescribed for each day.

The source of these details is Srimad Devi Bhagwatam

Day	Avatar of Devi	Shakti	Goal	Devi's Form	Devi's appearance	Benefits of worshiping Devi on this day
1	Durga	Icchashakti	Vadha of demons Madhu and  Kaitabha	Maheshwari	Abhaya hasta, varada hasta, book, akshamala (kumari durga bearing akshamala)	Get rid of poverty Increase in the life span
2	Durga	Icchashakti	Begins the journey for killing Mahishasura	Kaumari	Rajeshwari holding sugarcane, bow, flower and parashu	Get rid of diseases and improvement in health
3	Durga	Icchashakti	Vadha of demon Mahishasura	Vaaraahi	Kalyaan Durga having  trishula and standing on the  head of Mahishasura	Increase in the wealth and food grain
4	Lakshmi	Kriyashakti	She accepts the various obeisances paid by Devas	Mahalakshmi	She is sitting on lion as Jai Durga	Getting rid of enmity
5	Lakshmi	Kriyashakti	Hears the message from messenger Sugriva	Vaishnavi	Kali Durga	Achieving the desired wealth
6	Lakshmi	Kriyashakti	Vadha of demon  Dhumralochana	Indrayani	Chandika Devi with a serpent, akshamala,  skull,  and lotus flower	Win in disputes. Prosperity
7	Saraswati	Dnyanashakti	Vadha of demons Chanda and  Munda	Brahmi	She is in the form of Shambhavi Durga, sitting on  diamond throne   with one leg on lotus flower and  playing veena	Will get mukti and siddhi
8	Saraswati	Dnyanashakti	Vadha of demon Raktabija	Narasimhi	Karuna Durga with a sugarcane bow, surrounded by  ashta maha shakti	Will get all boons that you ask for
9	Saraswati	Dnyanashakti	Vadha of demons Shumbha and  Nishumbha	Chamundeshwari	She is in the form of Subhadra Devi having  bow and arrow, trishula and  ankusha  in her hand	Will get desired siddhi
10	Mahashakti (Mahisha-sur-mardini)	Mahashakti (Ambika)	The day on which she wins	Shivashakti	In the form of sthoola rupa	Get all the happiness and wealth etc

Details about flowers, saree and naivedya to be offered for each day.

Day	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Flower	Mogara	Jai-Juee	Chapha	Double Mogara (Double layered mogara)	Lata Kanheri Phul	Jaswand	Ketaki	Gulab	Lotus	Lotus
Saree	Green	Green	Yellow	Blue	Indigo or Navy blue	Red	Tarrot Green	Red or Orange	Green with Dark Border	Pale Pink
Naivedya	Khara Pongal (Ven Pongal)	Green Gram (Matki Usal)	Sweet Pongal	Sambar Rice	Curd Rice	Coconut Rice	Lemon Rice	Milk and Rice Kheer	Payasam (Kheer)	Milk Payasam (Pudding)

Why Naamahasmarnaa? (Chanting of the Name!)

Preface:

This is seemingly an Eternal Question, even asked by the Eternal Purusha/Nara  - ShreeKrishna - Himself. Of course the answer was provided Him by the Eternal Stree/Naari Herself.

Would like to share some stories heard and inferences drawn on this seemingly Eternal Question.

Hopefully, the core message comes across in the narrative below. Here goes:

A.

ShreeKrishna met ShreeRadhe before the start of the Epic War Mahabharata. During that meeting, He handed over His Murali (Flute) to ShreeRadhe for safe-keeping and only adorned His ShreeChakra. (Well, all resorts to avoid the war had been exhausted - as if the song of His Murali had fallen on deaf ears. What else could possibly lead to the declaration of war?)

After the war, ShreeKrishna again met ShreeRadhe and received His Murali back. As He simply blew some air in, the Murali emitted the chant of His Name seeped in love. ShreeKrishna was spellbound by this divine phenomenon. He inquired of ShreeRadhe - Why do you chant my name incessantly? Doing so, what do you find that is so irresistible? What is the bliss, the allure in the chanting of the Name?

ShreeRadhe replied simply - This cannot be explained. Only doing so - chanting of the Name - can help You understand this phenomenon.

Now, ShreeKrishnaa had to action His own mantra of "karma".

Following this lead from ShreeRadhe, a guidance/directive actually, to satiate His own curiosity, ShreeKrishna reincarnated Himself has Chaitanya MahaPrabhu in Bengal. He indulged Himself with His own Naamahasmarnaa to realize the Truth, the bliss hidden in unconditional love -- the Name is inseparable from the person when remembered with unconditional love!

Thus through incessant Naamahasmarnaa, ShreeRadhe ensured that She was never separable from ShreeKrishnaa! Forever with Him!

Her Karma = Her Choice.

And chanting in the form of Chaitanya MahaPrabhu, ShreeKrishna became ShreeRadhe and again all duality ceased to exist!

Chanting helps elevate one to Bliss! It all becomes One! Or more correctly, Non-dual!

One could also use the term non-duel, but with caution! When there is no duel between the material and the spiritual... all layers of existence, verily, non-duel elevates to Non-dual!

Thus, when all duels cease to exist, one attains Bliss!

If the Lord Himself could not understand or be explained, and had to resort to doing His karma, how can one be helped to understand without one doing their karma? The taste of the pudding is in ...! Thus the revelation is in self-experience; self-purification through chanting/ doing one's karma!

Further:

B.

In recent past, when a devotee asked Gondavalekar Maharaj about the way of Naamahasmarnaa, its effect or outcome, Maharaj offered his finger to be taken close to the ear of the curious devotee. The devotee heard the incessant chant/Naamahasmarnaa  of "Ram" emanating from the finger!

C.

Once it so transpired that being fed up of the incessant ill-treatment by certain members of the Gondavale village, and seemingly all prayers to Lord Rama to intervene being ineffective; Gondavalekar Maharaj started on his exit journey, as if to a place where his Lord Rama would allow him to do His Naamahasmarnaa in peace. He had not even reached the outskirts when the very same members who were rejoicing their success on his departure came rushing to plead for forgiveness and implore him to come back. Their gross folly was revealed to them when they saw tears roll down Lord Rama eyes in the temple sanctum sanctorum!

Verily, there was no such place as the Lord is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.

Also, may one elevate their surrender to the Lord (Bhakti) to a level where not only the Lord may perform a test but the Lord surrenders too, as if to a test by the Bhakta! (Gondavalekar Maharaj would not have started leaving had he not equated the idea to leave the village and his worship there as Lord Rama's will.)

His (Gondavalekar Maharaj's) Surrender = His (Lord Rama's) Surrender.

D.

Reportedly, the city officials of San Francisco supported the ISKCON movement and its chanting of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra - where all else was failing to solve the problem of (LSD) drug-addiction and similar social issues, the chanting of the Mahamantra was leading to an unimaginable, unforeseen, fundamentally positive transformation. It was alleviating human suffering and bringing peace back to individuals and the city.

Significance of Varalakshmi Vrata

Mother Parvati once asked Lord Shiva if there is any way by which women can obtain all auspiciousness and prosperity which will in turn help them to live happily with their husband, children, grandchildren, relatives and friends. Pleased by selfless desire of Parvati, Lord Shiva revealed to her Varalakshmi Vrata, performance of which can help all women to satisfy their wishes and lead a happy life full of joy.

This vrata is performed by married women on Friday that comes before Sharaavan Pournima. Vrata procedure itself is very short but the benefits it confers are great. It involves prayers to Goddess Mahalakshmi, consort of Lord Mahavishnu, to provide all things needed to lead happy and prosperous life.

They say that many women in the past have received grace of Goddess Mahalakshmi by performing this vrata and achieved all happiness.

The story of origin of this vrata goes like this. When Lord Shiva revealed this vrata to Parvati, he also narrated the story to illustrate its significance. There was a lady named Charumati who was very pious and devoted. Pleased with her devotion Goddess Lakshmi appeared in her dreams and instructed her to perform Varalaskhmi Vrat. Charumati, as per instructions of Goddess Laskhmi, performed vrat and invited all her neighbors to participate. Not only Charumati but all who participated in that vrat achieved happiness and prosperity.

Here are few links that have more stories of Varalaskhmi Vrata and its significance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varalakshmi_Vratam
http://www.hindu-blog.com/2009/07/story-of-varalakshmi-vratam.html

Rama Setu – great example of extraordinary team work

They say that if one wants to look for, in history of mankind, an example of marvelous engineering team work that marvels in all aspects of engineering and management then there is no better example than construction of bridge on the sea between Rameshwaram and Sri Lanka. In Ramayana itself the activity of construction of this bridge is described as achintya – unimaginable, asahyam – impossible to achieve, adbhutam – wonderful. It is mentioned that all those who witnessed that construction had their hair stand on end due to the amazement.

Everybody who was involved in construction had only one goal and that was to help Lord Rama in his effort to bring back his consort Sita who was abducted by Ravana.

When Rama came to know from Hanuman that Sita was indeed in Lanka, he started praying God of Ocean to help him cross the ocean. When ocean did not appear in person after repeated prayers by Rama, Rama got angry and resolved to dry up the ocean with his arrows. That very time God of Ocean appeared before Rama and told Rama that Nala, one of the vanaras (monkeys), is indeed son of Vishwakarma and he is capable of building bridge across ocean. God of Ocean promised that he will hold that bridge and then disappeared.

Then under the leadership of Nala all vanaras started constructing the bridge. Those huge bodied monkeys, while loudly chanting the name of Rama, literally uprooted huge mountains and trees and then transported them to the sight of bridge for use in the construction of bridge.

Those highly spirited moneys constructed the bridge in five days. Not only the monkeys but every animal was carrying equal spirit and finding joy in helping construction of bridge because it was being built for Rama and what could be better opportunity than opportunity of working for Lord Rama. 

There is a very interesting story about a squirrel. While supervising construction of bridge, Rama saw a squirrel who was first rolling on sand, wetting it’s body and then going down the bridge and doing this repeatedly. Astonished by this scene Rama tried to find out what that squirrel was doing and to his amazement he found that that squirrel was actually collecting sand by rolling on the sand and then taking it between rocks of bridge to act as glue.

Even reading this story makes hair to stand on the end. What an amazing story. No wonder they say that there is no better elixir for mind than reading such enchanting stories from scriptures like Ramayana and in turn learning great lessons.

Complete Ramayana can be found online on this link - http://valmikiramayan.net/

Guru – given by nature upon birth

Guruvirahita aso naye (from Daasbodh) – one should not remain without Guru – advise saints. Having Guru is more a mental state than physical state. Nature already provides Guru to every human being. But to know this Guru requires great learning, blessings of elders and faith in scriptures and saints. Scriptures describe about this guru, given by nature, through three important sentences – maatrudevo bhava, pitrudevo bhava and acharya devo bhava. First guru for every person is his/her mother. With the blessings of mother one gets to know the second guru i.e. father and with the blessings of father one gets to know third guru i.e. acharya (teacher or preceptor) and through preceptor one gets on the path to the knowledge of Self – atmagyan, the ultimate knowledge that one can achieve in human birth.

Being born with human body is just a natural phenomenon. But the real birth is the birth of desire for moksha. If this birth does not take place then all the time spent on earth is a waste of time. Through mother’s body a human body is born, but with mother’s blessings a desire for moksha is born. The success of all great people can be attributed to their mother’s blessings. It was Mother Jijabai who, through story telling, instilled in her faithful son Shivaba the desire to establish a great ethical kingdom. Shivaba became known to the world as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. It was Mother Putlibai whose strict insistence on speaking truth instilled truthfulness in Mohandas who became known to the world as Mahatma Gandhi.

There are four goals prescribed for every human being – dharma, artha, kama and moksha. Through one’s own efforts one may be able to achieve success in first three goals i.e. dharma, artha, kama. We may find many examples who have achieved success in these goals. But it is very difficult to achieve success in the fourth goal i.e. moksha. The challenge is it is not possible to find examples of achievers of this goal or to put it in other words it is very difficult to recognize the achiever of this goal because it is about getting liberation from the cycle of birth and death. This is where the line of faith starts. One needs a great faith in understanding the importance of this goal and also faith in scriptures that prescribe this goal. In fact one may even read all scriptures that prescribe this goal, but to really appreciate and pursue this goal one needs grace of Guru.

To achieve grace or blessings of Guru it is important to remember Guru. And they say one remembers Guru only through Guru’s grace. The easiest way to attract grace or blessings of Guru is to stick to the upasana prescribed by him. It doesn’t matter if we have learned all scriptures or not, but it does matter if we are following or not following instructions of Guru. Guru instructs various upasana depending on personality of disciple. Instruction could be as short as lighting a lamp in front of God or as large as studying all scriptures. Difficulty or easiness of instruction does not matter, what matters is strict and sincere following of at least one instruction.

Guru Pournima is a day to examine ourselves and realign our efforts to perform upsasana. They say at least on this day if one does what Guru has instructed to do it helps in long way.

Wish you all Happy Guru Pournima which is occurring on this Friday July 31, 2015.

Hitakaarak karma makes life worthwhile

They say human birth is greatest of all births. Humans are the leaders of the universe. They are endowed with the unique ability to think and speak so that they can guide the self and other beings to higher purpose of life.

The goal of intellect and mind is to find out the purpose of human birth and live the life for that purpose. Living for the purpose is what is hitakaarak – beneficial, which is different from pleasing. What is pleasing may not be beneficial and vice versa. It is important to maintain the balance of pleasing and beneficial activities. For example bittergourd is bitter in taste but inclusion of small amount of it in diet is beneficial for health whereas spicy food is pleasing to tongue but excess intake of it can ruin the health. In the same way living for the higher purpose may not be pleasing as it demands sacrifice of personal selfish objectives. But the slow practice of this sacrifice is greatly beneficial in progress to the next desired higher level for human being. We have received this human body after going through the cycle of 84 lakhs of species. In all creations in this universe - i.e. in all 84 lakhs species - human specie is considered as zenith of creation. It is in human birth that, with the unique abilities of thinking and speaking, one can get to know the creator of this universe and become one with Him. Another great thing happens, in this effort of knowing creator, is the escape from the cycle of birth and death through 84 lakh species.

By nature the bodily actions are driven by trigunas – satvik, rajas and tamas. Each guna has its own purpose in the ecosystem. The mixture of these gunas in varied percentage drives the quality of action and hence its outcome. Scriptures advise that to elevate our consciousness we should develop satvik tendencies. It is the dominance of satvik guna that helps to experience the closeness with the creator of universe.

Usually when it comes to becoming satvik the first thing considered is food, that is eating satvik food. That is true. It is famous saying - you become what you eat. So eating satvik food is definitely the most important activity in an effort to become satvik. However food is just one part of it. Anna in Sanskrit is not limited to food. It means whatever we intake through ten senses. So in addition to food it is important to pay attention to other activities such as thinking, listening, speaking and daily duties. All these activities also need to be transformed into satvik activities. That is thinking, listening and reading satvik content, engaging into satvik activities and also being in company of satvik people.

To do this transformation Saints advise to use our own discretion to divide 24 hours of the day in such a way that one can practice spirituality. For example on an average one could spend 6 hours for sleep, 12 hours for worldly activities, 4 hours for family and remaining 2 hours for the spiritual pursuit. They say these 2 hours for spiritual pursuit can greatly help one to become strong and get the most required focus to achieve higher purpose of life.

Scriptures are the great sources of information to find out about not only spiritual activities but even how to conduct oneself in family and society. Two of the most important and widely read scriptures of Indian culture are Bhagwad Gita and Srimad Bhagwatam. Bhagwat Gita, as we all know, is the famous dialogue between Lord Shrikrishna and Arjuna on the battlefield. This dialogue reveals many secrets of creation and also describes in detail the goal of human birth and importance of satvik guna. Srimad Bhagwatam is known as literal incarnation of Lord Shrikrishna meaning Lord Shrikrishna in the form of book. It contains the glorifying stories of Lord Shrikrishna’s pastime as well as stories of all ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu.

Shravan i.e. listening to these glories of God is the first step from nine steps of devotion i.e. nava vidha bhakti. By regular listening of stories of God one gets into the second step i.e. kirtan i.e. singing the glory of God and by regular listening and singing glories of God one gets into third step i.e. Vishnu smaran i.e. continuous remembrance of Lord Vishnu. And once one gets established into this step, they say that one progresses through remaining six steps without much effort. Remaining six steps are archana (worship), vandana (salutation), paadsevana (worshiping lotus feet of God), dasya (serving the God ), sakhya (friendship with God) and atmanivedana (self surrender).

Engaging in spiritual activities is not only beneficial to an individual but it is beneficial to one’s own parents, family as well as society.

Idol worship – the path to never ending happiness

Every human being or for that matter every being is bound by effects of karma. This binding is called bhavabandha. Every karma, i.e. action, results in effects which in turn become cause for either binding or freedom depending on motive of karma.

There are three types of karmas

dushkarma – a bad karma, karma that is performed with an intention of hurting of other being and hence results in paapa (sin). paapa becomes cause for suffering.

sukarma – a good karma, karma performed with good intention in return expecting to earn punya (merit). punya becomes cause for material happiness.

akarma – a karma that is performed without any expectation. Because such karma is performed without any expectation this results neither in paapa nor in punya. Since the only intention of this karma is to please God, fruits of this karma are determined by God himself. People who perform such actions are indeed saints and they experience happiness that is not dependent on any matter.

One of the names of Lord Krishna is swabhakta-chittaranjana – i.e. one who takes responsibility of entertaining the mind of his devotees who perform all their actions only as a service to Lord Krishna without any expectation thereof.

To be able to reach a stage to perform akarma, i.e. karma without expectations, the mind should be filled with nothing but the form of God. When mind is filled with the thoughts of God, and God alone, then every karma performed becomes an offering to God and hence becomes a cause for freedom from all bad or good effects of karma and ultimately results in vishranti i.e. peaceful rest.

And this is where idol worship helps. It is a way to get into practice of performing dutiful actions with only intention of pleasing God which in turn results in mind occupying only thoughts of God.

Idol worship starts with inviting God and then performing sixteen or five rituals of hospitality as listed below.

aavahan (inviting God), aasan (offering seat to God), padyam (washing God’s feet), arghyam (offering water to God and washing hands of God) , achaman (offering God water for drinking), snaan (offering bath to God), vastra (offering clothes to God), upavita (offering sacred thread to God), gandha (applying sandalwood paste to God’s forehead), pushpa (offering flower to God), dhup (waving an incense stick in front of God), deep (waving light in front of God), anna or naivedya (offering food to God), pradakshina (circumventing God), namaskar (offering salute) and visarjan (offering bon voyage to God)