Navaratri Sadhana-I : Pujya Gurudev

Navaratri Sadhana : The Bestower of Celestial Boons

=Pt.ShriRam Sharma Acharya

The festivals of Navaratri are auspicious occasions for the purpose of sadhana. They fall around the two main six-monthly equinoctial divisions of the year and have special temporal and spiritual significance. The importance of morning and evening sandhya (specific prayer-rituals) at the junctures of day and night in daily life is also because of this. The wise do not waste this time in eating, sleeping and other mundane affairs. Rather they use this time for prayers and meditation like sandhya-vandan, self-contemplation and self-refinement, because at a subtle level these times are so charged with harmonizing vibrations that even small effort in sadhana bear extraordinary fruit. During this auspicious confluence of seasons, the subtle nature undergoes great changes. In the Puranas, it is even held that the seasons remain in a state of menstruation for the nine days. Just as a menstruating woman has to observe a certain discipline about food, thoughts and conduct, even so during the transitional time-slots of dawn and dusk, one ought to remain in a calm and receptive mental and physical condition. 

According to arogyashastra (the normative science of health), too, this nine-day period generates a tidal wave in the physical life force, which nullifies and expels whatever toxic elements had accumulated in the body during the preceding six months on account of irregularities in food and living schedule. Routine bodily imbalances like fever, cough, cold, etc. should be considered a natural symptom of this elimination process. Similarly, there is an enhanced flow of vital spiritual energy all around during the Navaratri period. Therefore, sadhana done during this period fructifies with multiple benefits ranging from expulsion of toxic wastes from the body and mind to the bestowal of divine gifts of fulfillment of noble aspirations. Those with intuitive insight (prajna) never miss the special occasion of Shakti- sadhana (Shakti - the energy aspect of Divinity) during the Navaratri Parvas. This sadhana takes different forms. 

The devotees of Ram read the Ramayana while that of Krishna, the Gita or Srimadbhagvat. The Devi-worshippers devote themselves to different forms of Durga-stuti. Ascetics undertake rigorous penance and austeristies. In tantric cults, Shava- sadhana (sadhana with a corpse), Kumari-pujan (worship of a maiden), Kundalini-jagaran (awakening the kundalini), chakra-vedhan (piercing extra-sensory energy centres) and other such practices are especially undertaken during this period. 
The prajna-parijans perform the mini anusthana of Gayatri sadhana in the form of 24 thousand mantra-japas. It is necessary to grasp the essence of Navaratri - anusthana propounded by our rishis. According to them, Navaratri symbolizes the nine doors or sense organs, which are situated in the Ayodhya of the human body. Through misuse or abuse, bred by ignorance, they are clogged with dross. Hence, through anusthana, we have to reflect on all the doors (one door each night) and by cleansing them awaken the divine potencies latent in them. Indeed, this is the real meaning of Navaratri - sadhana. For want of self-restraint and discipline, all the inner energy gets drained out of these outlets making the individual emaciated, feeble and poor. Through sadhana, this wasteful discharge of energy is checked and the purpose of Shakti- sadhana fulfilled. In the anusthana, the sadhak, with solemn inner determination, conducts himself within a set frame work of discipline and austerities and adopts a specific method of upasana (worship). 

Thanks GOD, Thanks Sadguru,

Shiv Sharma