Paras Ra­moutar

Hin­dus in Trinidad & To­ba­go join with their coun­ter­parts the world over in the ob­ser­vance of Nau Raa­tri which be­gan on March 23 for a nine-day pe­ri­od. Nau Raa­tri is an ob­ser­vance to the fe­male as­pect of God­head, and comes amidst the Chris­t­ian pe­ri­od of Lent. Re­li­gious lead­ers see the ur­gent need to en­rich so­ci­ety by en­hanc­ing cos­mic val­ues aimed at fight­ing in­jus­tice and spir­i­tu­al de­cay that haunt mankind. Hin­dus be­lieve that spe­cial obla­tion, penance, med­i­ta­tion, de­vo­tion and prayers to their god­dess­es will pro­vide a new man­i­fes­ta­tion for a spir­i­tu­al­ly-charged hu­man­i­ty. This spir­i­tu­al en­vi­ron­ment is long over­due.

All mandirs and oth­er places of wor­ship will hold spe­cial re­li­gious ser­vices in ho­n­our of the God­dess­es dur­ing the pe­ri­od. This ob­ser­vance is called Nau Raa­tri and is ded­i­cat­ed to the wor­ship of Ma­ha Shak­ti. Shak­ti means en­er­gy or pow­er, and the uni­verse is an ex­pres­sion of the di­vine en­er­gy. Dur­ing these nine-days and nights, the fem­i­nine as­pect of God in the form of Moth­er Dur­ga, Moth­er Lak­sh­mi and Moth­er Saraswat­ti is ex­tolled and revered. The first three days are ded­i­cat­ed to God­dess Dur­ga, who is the de­stroy­er of anger, greed, ha­tred, vi­o­lence, pride and mal­ice. Once one wor­ships God­dess Dur­ga on these days, this devo­tee im­bibes her di­vine qual­i­ties. The sec­ond three days are ded­i­cat­ed to God­dess Lak­sh­mi, the Pu­ri­fi­er. With de­vo­tion and med­i­ta­tion to God­dess Lak­sh­mi, one cul­ti­vates pu­ri­fy­ing thoughts and fills one­self with pos­i­tive qual­i­ties such as pa­tience, love, kind­ness, com­pas­sion, hu­mil­i­ty and non-vi­o­lence.

Obei­sance to God­dess Lak­sh­mi is not ex­clu­sive to ma­te­r­i­al wealth and pow­er, but it al­so bless­es one with great hu­man val­ues and thoughts and acts. The last three days are de­vot­ed to obei­sance to God­dess Saraswati, the be­stow­er of di­vine wis­dom and by whose grace di­vine con­scious­ness is merged and be­comes a re­al­i­ty. As the gross im­pu­ri­ties are re­moved by God­dess Dur­ga, and life is filled with di­vine qual­i­ties by the gra­cious­ness of God­dess Lak­sh­mi, then the au­ra of spir­i­tu­al mo­bil­i­ty is il­lu­mined by God­dess Saraswati. God­dess Saraswati is the very per­son­i­fi­ca­tion of di­vine con­scious­ness as she be­stows di­vine con­scious­ness and di­vine wis­dom up­on her devo­tees, and this will even­tu­al­ly lead them to self re­al­i­sa­tion.

Pri­or to the com­mence­ment of this ob­ser­vance, Hin­dus will have cleansed their homes and bod­ies from all al­co­holic, meats or any forms of mer­ri­ment. Nau Raa­tri is con­sid­ered as one of the most holy pe­ri­ods in the Hin­du cal­en­dar, as it is not on­ly to cel­e­brate spe­cial obei­sance to the Hin­du god­dess­es, but it is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to give, rev­er­ence and ho­n­our to one's earth­ly moth­er. It is a very se­ri­ous pe­ri­od for not on­ly Hin­du women, but for all women, as these god­dess­es, ac­cord­ing to the var­i­ous scrip­tur­al texts, be­come eas­i­ly ac­ces­si­ble to mankind. Hin­dus be­lieve if one shows true af­fec­tion, de­vo­tion and love to one's moth­er, then bless­ings from the heav­en­ly moth­ers will be as­sured.