Navratri, Unifying Force of Existence

Navratri, nine nights and the tenth, a culmination, an explosive amalgamation of color, form, festivity, the turning of night into day, the vanquishing of the forces of darkness and the ascendant of the absolute powers of the earth mother, Gaea, the mother Goddess, a celebratory interpretation of a variety of myths and legends of yore juxtaposed with modern mating rituals, urban angst, sponsored market driven advertising coupled with the ostentatious display of wealth, power, rhythm and blues.

The festival of Garba, culminating in Dussehra, ever so many intertwining folk myths, their apparently diverse rivulets eventually melding into the embryonic folds of the mother Goddess, a single riveting image of sustenance, power and indisputably motherhood, a symbolic celebration of the power of good over evil, the colorfully explosive flowering of the all encompassing magic circle, an abstract rendering of fertility, womanhood and the rekindled romance of myths. Interlinking stories coalsing within nine nights of mystically cathartic abandon. Shiv/Shakti; yin and yang, the synchronized balance between the apparently opposing forces, each a necessary complement to the other. The aspects of good and evil, their unending battle till Armageddon is actually an European imposition as Indian philosophy defines the forces in nature as creative partners in a ballet of a contigineous improvisational dance of the cosmos, where every ‘Rig Vedic’ molecule holds the propensities of universal creation wafting through chance.

What originally began as a confirmation of the earth mother and fertility, later ushered in Dussehra and the phoenix like arson of effigies eulogizing the victory of Ram over Ravana, not as components of good and evil but elements of duality in creation. The nine day festival of ‘Navratri’ is best known by the folk dance of ‘Garba’ in all its myriad traditional variations, mutating into urbanized modern influences leading to interpretations from the sublime to the grotesque with music, serene and relevant jarring into the absolute bizarre; a fashion parade of urban chic in a gross imitation of subduadly cultured textiled tradition with each color and pattern having a relevance within the scheme of ritual. the ‘Garba’ or ‘Garbh’ a symbolic manifestation of the womb, a culmination of womanhood, surrounded by the dance of a magic circle with its heartbeat rhythms of musical notations, a dance form at once hypnotic, enduring and protectively all encompassing. The ‘Garba’ is a ceremonial dance to the Goddess, in effect a stylized mirror image of a multi-universal dance of creation. Through its rendering, it pays homage to the very birthing of the universe, thus becoming one of the extensions of various rituals enacted in honor of the mother Goddess.

The earth mother, ‘Devi’ or ‘Shakti’, in Indian socio-religious psyche is encountered in numerous guises and forms enabling her to fulfill niche needs in a society, which venerated nature in all her supernatural forms. The earth mother was considered the womb of all life and had a direct link with all the flora and fauna of different regions and climes leading to an approximate 1008 manifold incarnations spread over the length and breadth of Hinduism.

The most popular and enduring myth is that of ‘Mahisasura Mardini’, an aspect of Durga, Parvati, Shakti, the mother Goddess, whose folk myth is the mainstay of the nine days festival of Navratri. At a point in cosmic time, ‘Mahisasura’ was granted power unlimited by ‘Brahma’. Using this divine boon, he vanquished the ‘Devas’ and established his supremacy over the three planes. The ‘Devas’ appealed to ‘Shiva’, who endowed ‘Durga’ with the essence of 33crore Gods and Goddesses of the Hindu pantheon. It was thus ‘Durga’, as ‘Mahisasura Mardini’ in an epic battle lasting nine days that vanquished the usurper and re-established the balance of the cosmos.

Ever so many myths, ever so many tales, so much of happiness, dance, revelry and the celebration of life cutting across barriers of geographical, social, economic and cultural ethos.

Published:Ahmedabad Mirror

The Mother Goddess, Devi, Shakti in the Hindu pantheon is the symbolic Earth Mother, the womb from which springs all of nature in her beatific bounty. The all encompassing Mother Goddess in her myriad guises, roles, interpretations and manifestations, occupying niches of needs and desires is embedded deep within the Indian psyche. Fables and legends grew and spread carried by wandering communities through illustrative and musical modes of communication, thus transgressing the often confusing babel of geographically dispersed dialects and languages. Thus the Hindu pantheon has always been image oriented with all the foibles and quirks of early settlers woven into the fabric of its behavioral characteristics. It was much easier for those communities to identify with a being or beings akin to them, but who in times of crisis would rise above baser instincts and epically carry forward the story to victory, thus maintaining the power of the legend.

Entwined in cultural folk myths and legends, the Mother Goddess or Shakti is the divine power that manifests, sustains and transforms the universe, the one unifying force of existence. She is the embodiment of creative energy and is conceived as the Universal Mother. Early origins, gleaned from Puranic literature, have been conceiving her in myth forms, verses, metaphors and tales, reinventing her varied manifestations. Folk art traditions have been envisaging her in extensive forms. In the folk enchantment of music, the primordial sound, ‘nad brahma’, or the celestial clash of light at the birthing of the universe is attributed to her and her variable chants reverbing across the multi-verse. Later religious customs and ritual practices have perceived the goddess through various conventions and gradually applicable needs.

Vedic cultures contemplated the cosmic world as a co relation of the male and female force, each in balance exerting a covertly sobering factor over the other. Early civilizations worshipped the natural forces of the sun, fire, and wind and denoted them as male. This male force or ‘purusha’ was the main principle progenitor of generative power but held dormant by a flamboyantly volatile feminine principle symbolized through the forces of Earth and water. This feminine force also termed ‘Prakriti’, then is the wellspring for the manifestation of power or ‘Shakti’

Etymologically interpreted, the word ‘Shakti’ suggests energy and has its roots within the Sanskrit language. The ‘Svetasvatara’ Upanishad defines Shakti as the supreme power, denoting strength, effort, capacity or energy. She is divinity in the feminine form or the active counterpart of a male deity personified in later patriarchal societies as his wife or consort. She is then ‘Adi Shakti’, the unique energy source of creation. She is the initiating embodiment of the cosmic dance of Shiv and Shakti and the resultant birthing of the universe in all its multitudinous variations strung across a time space continuum. Shiv and Shakti, yin and yang ,necessary aspects facilitating the energy of creation. Shakti, gentle and protective on one hand or fierce and destructive on the other and therein lie the variable manifested images of Devi, the mother goddess.

Today, the mother goddess in her myriad incarnations, is revered across the sub- continent and beyond, achieving a form and purpose born out of need and social factors. Her divine presence is a part of India’s richly diverse cultural and religious heritage.

Primitive man has always been aware of the ecological balance of nature and the worship of the Mother Goddess automatically elevated nature to a divine position. A woman was also accorded a superior position in older societies. She not only symbolized life but was also a creator of life. Primitive tribal societies or family groups centered around her. Her maternal attributes were thought to be endowed with generative powers and so became life giving symbols. In earlier phases of social evolution, it was this maternal and procreative power that formed the focal point of religion. This matriarchal principle, in the course of time became personified as the Mother Goddess.

Published: Ahmedabad Mirror