After this year’s nine nights of worship to the Divine Mother, Amma led celebrations for the triumph of light over darkness. In her message, Amma explained how the goddesses Durgā, Lakṣmī, and Sarasvatī provide the essential human needs—strength, wealth, knowledge, and justice.
During Navarātri, people fast and perform rituals to reflect upon life’s external and internal challenges. The tenth day, known as Dusshera or Vijayadashami, brings joy and hope for a world that shines with love, compassion, and peace.
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On this auspicious occasion of Navarātri, Amma would like to share some thoughts on the festival’s deeper meaning. During Navarātri, we worship the infinite power that carried the universe in Her womb, giving birth to and sustaining all that is sentient and insentient. It is this divine power that we worship in the forms of Durgā, Lakṣmī , and Sarasvatī.
Even in ordinary life, it is the mother who is the pillar of strength for the family. She imparts mental strength, good values, spiritual wealth and the initial life lessons to her children. The cosmic embodiment of this concept of motherhood is represented as Jagadambā—the source and cause of the universe.
The celebration of Navarātri is not to be limited to some external rituals. It should be considered as an intense spiritual practice. Navarātri worship is the process of the spiritual aspirant supplicating and inviting the boundless divine power through the form of the Goddess into their heart with the sincere prayer, “Please reside in my heart forever!”
The forms of Durgā, Lakṣmī and Sarasvatī represent the three powers that reside in human beings, jñāna-śakti, icchā-śakti, and kriyā-śakti—the powers of will, knowledge and action. Goddess Lakṣmī represents icchā-śakti. Goddess Durgā represents kriyā-śakti. And Goddess Sarasvatī represents jñāna-śakti.
To perform any action, our organs of action require strength. To acquire wealth, the mind and desires should have strength. To acquire knowledge, the heart must be open. This is why we pray kara-madhye sarasvatī—“May Sarasvatī reside in the middle of my hand.”
These three powers are fundamental to the sustenance of life. In whatever field one may work, to achieve success we need all three of these powers. However, in reality, these three powers are not separate; they are one.
In essence, the nine days of Navarātri symbolise the spiritual journey of a seeker in pursuit of self-realisation. Initially, the seeker has to develop spiritual values—inner spiritual wealth. In the end, he has to reach the ultimate goal, which is beyond all such values. The final goal of this journey is to end where one initially started. This is the real essence of Navarātri and Vijayadaśamī.
Health, wealth, education and the strength to fight injustice are essential in human life. Durgā, Lakṣmī and Sarasvatī provide us these four fundamental human needs.
May my children be able to live a blessed life. This is what we must strive to remember, nurture, awaken and instil in our lives through the principle of the Divine Mother. May we all attain this, and may divine grace bless my children to achieve it.
