There are traditionally two sets of navaratri uthsavams celebrated annually. The first one is vasantha navaratri, celebrated from Ugadi (marking of a new year following movement of the moon, lunar calendar) to Sri Ramanavami. The second one is sarad navaratri celebrated at the end of monsoon leading to Vijaya Dasami.

Darkness is that which blocks the perception capacity of surroundings in a person. Such a person trips down in his path, gets hurt and/or becomes immovable. The same repeats until he is in the dark (ignorance). A dark night can become a new night only if it paves the way for light (knowledge) that will never put you back into the dark (ignorance).

I am not in dark (ignorance), I am knowledgeable. How is this applicable to me?

Jna:na, knowledge is fivefold answering the questions, Who am I? What is my goal? How can I reach my goal? What are the obstacles to reaching the goal? Who can help me in reaching the goal?

Any other knowledge you have can earn you a livelihood but cannot help you come out of the ignorance that is taking you in the cycle of births and deaths. The innumerable lifetimes led by one who is not exposed to this jna:na are represented as countless dark nights.

How do I make my current lifetime a nava ratri, ‘new night’ leading me to ‘light’?

You can do so by taking inspiration from Rama and leading a fair human life. Sri Ramachandra is an example for all human beings fueled by this jna:na. That is why, even after lakhs and lakhs of years, Sri Ramachandra is leading an eternal life by inspiring values in humans, and by being celebrated and worshiped for it every year. We are all in human bodies, bodies that have the mechanism to realize this jna:na and respond accordingly.

I can’t read Ramayana right away, can you give a brief about what makes Him special and inspirational?

Rama gained control over the entire existence by leading a perfect human life. This is proven by an incident where He was able to grant mo:ksha, the ultimate liberation to a bird named Jatayu by giving it the ability to reach the liberated state (out of the cycle of births and deaths)…

gaccha loka:n anutthama:n maya:thvam samujna:thaha 

How is that possible? Maybe he is beyond human being!

When all the devathas tried to tell Him that He is the avatar of Lord Narayana.. .

Can sathyam (speaking truth) get you to that greatness?

Leading life with values such as sathyam does not just mean speaking truth by word. He led a principled life. He never disliked anyone, however He did not compromise on correcting any wrong-doings by anyone. His conduct was fueled by proper jna:na as in Vedas.

That is why, He was loved by all fellow humans, tribals, animals, rakshasas, nature and all others. He demonstrated the values taught by Vedas such as, ‘vishwa jani:na sowbhra:thruthva’, not just ‘viswa ma:nava sowbhra:thruthva’.

How can I implement such great inspiration practically in current times?

Most of the time, we succumb to an unnatural mode of life allowing jealousy, anger, laziness, etc to dominate us because the focus in life is on physical comforts. If your focus in life is to lead a human life where values and principles must take precedence, you will then improve the quality of life multi-fold. You will attain a steady state of mind that can support you efficiently, not being carried away by something that is limited to physical comfort.

Because Rama’s focus was always on leading life by principles, his heart would easily accept any outcome that was hard for the body with ease. Mother Sitha expresses this great quality of Rama to Anjane:ya by giving the example of how He maintained a steady-state happily when he had to leave for exile to forests for 14 years (on na:ra vasthra, simple woven clothing) as opposed to sitting on the throne as a King.

– From the discourse of HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji
– 10^th April 2022, Sri Ramanavami
– Statue of Equality

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