Devotion And Worship – Kannada
Devotion And Worship
Navaratri is one of the most important festival in Bharatiya tradition and is celebrated for a period of nine days. This festival is celebrated in different parts of India in their own unique ways. According to Swami, the true worship of Navratri is to pay obeisance to Nature. Why should we love and adore Nature? What is the relationship between Nature and God? Let’s find out what Swami has to say on this topic.
According to Swami, the basis of the whole creation is Nature or Prakruti. It is important to worship Nature and receive the blessings of the Lord. Swami explains that seeds in our hand by itself have no value ore use. Only when they are sown in the ground, they grow into trees and bear fruits. It is Earth that makes this possible. So, for existence, earth is the basis. Swami further explains that for anything to be successful, both human effort and Divine Grace is needed. From time immemorial, worshipping Nature was a practice followed by all ancient cultures. Worshipping Nature by default ensures that we do not misuse Mother Nature. Worshipping Mother Nature is equivalent to worshipping all the three deities or the Divine Mothers, Goddess Lakshmi, Goddess Sarawathi and Goddess Durga.
It is not correct to experience and enjoy the benefits of Nature and then forget the abundant Grace of God. This is the reason why the Upanishads paid their obeisance to Nature. Offering Namaskars to Nature also signifies doing good deeds. Mother Nature is made up of the three Gunas – Satwa, Rajas and Tamas. The inner significance behind the worship of Mother Nature which is composed of the above three Gunas is that, there should be purity of thought, word and deed. This will alone enable us to receive the grace of God.
According to Swami, a true human being or a Noble man is one who has the unity of thought, word and deed. Only he can dispel darkness or ignorance. Goddess Lakshmi who is the embodiment of all prosperity is represented by pure heart or thought. Goddess Sarawathi who is the Goddess of Learning is represented by pure words and Goddess Durga who represents Shakti or energy represents pure or good actions. Navratri is a festival that is celebrated with the objective of dispelling darkness from our life.
True Devi Puja is observance of Trikarana Shuddhi which means Unity and Purity of thought, word and deed. Navratri leads man to the sacred path thereby destroying both ego as well as ignorance. Nowadays, people do not put much effort in understanding the meaning of festivals. They give importance to rituals and practices blindly. Like, for Dussehra people are more excited to neatly arrange Golus (toys and idols of various deities) and offer their worship. The main aim should be to experience Divinity. Worship should not be mechanical and artificial. Rather it should be full of earnestness and devotion.
According to Swami, the internal worship is to achieve purity in thought, word and deed. The external worship should be worshipping Nature, the manifest form of Goddess Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. Nature is Bhudevi or Mother Earth. Mother Earth satisfies all our needs and more. She is very generous. Mother Nature has given us bountiful precious gifts and it is our duty to protect all that she has given us. We should not misuse any of the wealth given to us. We should save electricity, water and strive to keep the environment pollution-free. The ozone layer is getting depleted. Ozone layer protects us from harmful UV rays. Without this layer all the water would get evaporated. There will be no water.
There are many ways to keep the environment clean. We should work together to reduce pollution. We can plant more trees, we can cycle to work or car pool, we can avoid bursting fireworks etc. Can you think of other ways? Noise pollution is also today a great concern.
Have you ever thought that Nagarsankirtan and Bhajan singing also helps to cleanse the environment by giving out positive and good vibrations to the surroundings? It also cleanses our minds.
So, this Navaratri, let us pledge to practice internal worship and achieve purity in thought, actions and deeds. As part of external worship, let us worship Mother Nature by protecting her bountiful gifts and wealth!
[Ref:http://media.radiosai.org/journals/vol_12/01OCT14/Respect-nature-and-purify-thought-word-and-deed-dasara.htm]