Timeless Tales: Chaitra Navaratri celebrates new beginnings and the divine feminine

For generations, devotees have worshipped the Divine Mother in the forms of Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati during Navaratri. But what is the deeper significance of this worship?

Sri Sathya Sai Baba observed, “The life of a man who cannot respect and love one’s mother is utterly useless. Recognising one’s mother as the very embodiment of all divine forces, one must show reverence to her and treat her with love. This is the true message that this nine-night festival gives us. The supreme Shakti manifests herself in the form of Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati. Durga grants us energy – physical, mental, and spiritual. Lakshmi bestows on us all forms of wealth, not just money, but intellectual wealth and the wealth of character. Even health is a kind of wealth. Saraswati bestows intelligence, the capacity for intellectual inquiry, and the power of discrimination. The Navaratri festival is celebrated to proclaim the power of the Goddesses to the world. One’s own mother is the combination of all these divine beings. She provides us with energy, wealth, and intelligence, and constantly desires our advancement in life.”

Worship of the Divine Mother is, therefore, a reminder to value and revere the feminine aspect of creation. This extends to respecting all women, including mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, granddaughters, and colleagues. The tradition of Kanya or Kanjak Poojan, in which prepubescent girls are worshipped on Ashtami or Navami, underscores this ethos. It serves as a cultural reminder that reverence for women must be embedded in character, not confined to ritual.

Each of us is born from a mother who nurtured us in her womb for nine months and endured childbirth. Mothers sustain their children in infancy and guide them through life. For this gift of birth and care, we remain indebted. To be born human is itself a rare blessing.

Human beings alone possess the faculty of discernment between right and wrong. It is through human birth that one can seek liberation or union with the divine.

When we honour the feminine principle, we recognise that Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati are not distant deities but living forces within and around us. Durga manifests as energy and dynamism, Saraswati as speech and knowledge, and Lakshmi as abundance and willpower.

Navaratri can thus be celebrated not only through ritual but by consciously channelling our energy, resources, and wisdom, guided by discernment and willpower, towards a higher spiritual aspiration. Jai Mata ki.

(The writer curates a daily podcast on mythology)