Navaratri… Make use of nature’s support

Mystic’s Musings By Sadhguru – Founder, Isha Foundation

Navaratri is dedicated to the feminine nature of the Divine. Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati are symbols of three dimensions of the feminine. They also represent the three basic qualities of existence — tamas, rajas and sattva.

Tamas means inertia. Rajas means activity, passion. Sattva, in a way, is the breaking of boundaries, dissolution, melting and merging. Among the three celestial objects with which the very making of our bodies is very deeply connected — the Earth, the Sun and the Moon — Mother Earth is considered tamas. The Sun is rajas. The Moon is sattva.

Those who aspire for power, for immortality, for strength, will worship those forms of the feminine which are referred to as tamas, like Kali or Mother Earth. Those who aspire for wealth, for passion, for life and various other gifts that the material world has to offer, naturally aspire towards that form of the feminine which is referred to as Lakshmi or the Sun. Those who aspire for knowledge, knowing and transcending the limitations of the mortal body, will aspire for that aspect of the feminine which is referred to as sattva — Saraswati is the representative of that — or the Moon.

To approach these nine days and every other aspect of life in a celebratory way is most important. If you approach everything in a celebratory way, you learn to be non-serious about life but absolutely involved. The problem with most human beings right now is if they think something is important, they will become dead serious about it. If they think it is not so important, they will become lax about it — they don’t show the necessary involvement. The secret of life is in seeing everything with a non-serious eye but absolutely involved, like a game.

Now you are sitting on the earth; you must just learn to simply be one with her. You are anyway a part of her. Only when she wishes, she throws you out; when she wishes, she sucks you back in. So what was absolute inertia has become dynamic rajas and may transcend or may again go back to the same thing.

Durga, Lakshmi; Durga, Lakshmi — Saraswati never happened. That means you are in the cycle, in the trap of life and death — transcendence is yet to come. These two aspects — tamas or inertia and rajas or activity — will anyway happen. But the important thing is, a human being has the capability to break the cycle and transcend.

Tamas is the nature of the Earth and she is the one who gives birth. The gestation period that we spend in the womb is tamas; it is a state which is almost like hibernation, but we are growing. So tamas is the nature of the Earth and of your birth. The moment you come out, you start activity — rajas begins. And if you are aware enough or fortunate enough, sattva will touch you.

Investing in these three will make your life in a certain way. If you invest in tamas, you will be powerful in one way; if you invest in rajas, you will be powerful in a different way; if you invest in sattva, you will be powerful in a completely different way. You must draw upon these three dimensions of existence and sustenance for yourself because you need all these three. But if you go beyond all this, it is no longer about power, it is about liberation.

After Navaratri, the tenth and final day of Dussehra is Vijayadashami — that means you have conquered all these three qualities. You did not give into any of them, you saw through every one of them. You participated in every one of them, but you did not invest in any one of them; you won over them. That is Vijayadashmi, the day of victory.

[Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times best-selling author. Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service. www.ishafoundation.org]