Navratri Festival:The Adventure of God-Realization New Delhi : Imagine your mundane existence. A boring day to begin with. A normal routine morning where you unhappily and almost predictably go through the morning newspaper and prepare for your daily chore of getting ready to go to your office. You get your car out in the traffic and flow with the traffic and reach your office. Again, the routine is predictable and you somehow get through the day. Stop and search yourself and see where youhave gone wrong. Question yourself. Where are you going wrong? Where should you correct yourself? What should you do? When you explore your purpose of living you will get answers to your questions. Brahm Gyan the Eternal knowledge of Supreme is the mysterious esoteric secret that unveils this special zest for living and achieving purpose of life fully. A person who meditates on this Eternal mysterious Absolute within himself, lives every moment with a purpose. He does not contemplate too much on future or cry and languish over his past mistakes. Energy which was being used for negative purposes in him is now utilized for positive growth. This is only possible with the help of realized sages who are wise and have the power of discrimination. The Hindu festival of Navratrastoo signify this aspect of acquiring and reaffirming positive qualities leading to dynamically enlightened personalities who are an asset to humanity. Shailputri: Daughter of the mountain: 'Shail' meaning a mountain and the mother worshiped in this form is signifying the steadfastness of devotion/purpose in a being. Brahmacharini:The second day reaffirms the purity and strong chaste character necessary in a being to reach the height of bhakti and devotion. ‘Brahmcharini’ meaning the one who is stead-fastly rooted in ‘Brahman’. This stead-fastness in Brahman can be achieved when a perfect master bestows the knowledge of ‘Brahm Gyan’ upon us. Chandraghanta:The third day mother goddess is prayed in a form where She is having I0 hands. They are signifying the five senses and subtle senses. This is the Jeetendriya stage where you are able to successfully overcome your dependency on the senses. The heart and mind free from senses alone can lead an independent fearless life. Kushmanda:The fourth day is celebrated to signify the aspect of the mother the Supreme, who is capable of extracting and sustaining energy from any seed or egg is eulogized by her devotees. This is a symbolic aspect directing us to the goal of our life,that is in essence the Supreme Almighty. Skanda Mata:A representation of the Satvic energy in us is celebrated in this form. Mother is beholding her son who in turn is considered the commander of the Gods. ‘Skanda’ means light and ‘Asura’ means darkness. Death, destruction, darkness, negativity, falsehood are all vanquished with Skanda signifying light, valour, truth, eternal life etc. She is encouraging us to adopt this Knowledge and truth signified by ‘Skanda’ in life as our commander and be victorious in life. Katyayani: The celebration of mother in this form is reaffirming the vanquishing of our lower tendencies which are hindering our growth. Kaalratri:An aspect which has the power to destroy everything material. From the womb of kaal (Eternal) emerges everything and into it is everything merged. She frees you from fear of death giving you ‘Abhaya’. In other words, you are not tied down in the bondage of failure which is essential to succeed. Maha Gauri:The celebration of your true self as the Eternal intelligence and light will revolutionize your whole life and this is true message of the mother on the eighth day of Navratras. Siddhidatri:Mother is celebrated as the bestower of Siddhis. She is the Eternal Truth and we reap these Siddhis only when we have attained the essence of all knowledge- ‘Brahm Gyan’ in our life. When we merge in our true Self we realize that she is in us and we are in her. All these nine wonderful days are a wakeup call to humanity, to encourage us to unearth and celebrate our true dynamic self and stop languishing in our defeating attitudes.Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan wishes all its readers a blessed Navratri.