नवरात्रि के इस पावन अवसर पे नमन तुझे हम करते हैं.,
झूम झूम कर नाच नाच कर ,अभिनन्दन तेरा करते हैं ;
भ्रमित हुए इस मन को, मान तू ही राह दिखाती ;
लक्ष्मी का रूप देख कर ,मुग्ध हुआ जाता हूँ,
और तेरे आशीष से ,धन-धान्य सुख पाता हूँ;
तेरा गुणगान करू कैसे ,मन भाव विह्वल हो जाता है
बार बार नमन करने को ,ये मस्तक चरणों में झुक जाता है|
SPRING AND autumn are both celebrated by worshipping Mother Divine. At a time when we all are very busy with our lives, festival times are the perfect reason to take a few days off from work and just relax. Navaratri, as it is popularly known in India, is one such time when people take time off to be with their families, delve inside by offering prayers to the divine and experience peace by getting in touch with the spiritual side.
Navaratri is celebrated in India for 9 days as the name suggests, for Nav means nine in Sanskrit. For nine days various parts of India are decked in flowers, lights, dhak, DJ songs and scrumptious food. If one visits Gujarat, Garba would be the order of the day and if one goes to Tamil Nadu then idols decorated and decked with finery on nine steps would be everywhere. One face of the mother divine is worshipped each day for the nine days and Kanya poojan happens on the eight or the last day.
Thus, this is one festival that is uniformly celebrated in different regions of India, although each region has its own special way to celebrate Navratri. For the first three days Durga or Kali, the destroyer of evil is worshipped. Then, the Goddess of wealth is also offered prayers - with the final days devoted to Saraswati. While in Bengal only Durga is worshipped, in North it is Laxhmi who gets prominence and in the south it is Saraswati who is offered prayers.
Navaratri comes to an end with Ramlila, where Ravana is killed by Ram. This again symbolises the end of evil by good. Vijay Dashami is celebrated after this, and as myth would have it - on this very day Lord Rama gained victory over Ravana.
