“Navaratri is a festival of spiritual renewal celebrated in the spring and fall across India and worldwide when we honor Mother Divine.” Over these nine days, we celebrate the victory of Goddess Durga in all her forms, who vanquishes Mahishasura, representing the demons within us all. Mother dispels the darkness of illusion so that our light shines. During Navaratri, we go inside to discover dimensions of ourselves that we do not normally examine or express. From my perspective, these aspects are extremely critical not just for our transformation but for the planet's evolution.

Before I moved into the path of Brahmacharya, I focused completely on outside goals: getting the best grades in school up until I received my doctorate; billing and selling the most as a consulting psychologist; and earning the most money. When I met my guru over 30 years ago, Her Holiness Jagadguru Sathya Sai Maa Lakshmi Devi, my focus turned completely inward as I started to examine the habits and patterns that covered the truth of who I am, who we all are, in our divinity, in our multidimensionality.

Through Mataji’s teachings, practices, and energetic work, I embraced traits, values, frequencies, and powers that were veiled and hidden up to that point. Prominent among those were aspects of the Divine Feminine, enabling me to achieve greater inner balance and harmony of the masculine and feminine. As I mentioned in another article I wrote during last spring’s  Navaratri, some of these traits include: compassion, tenderness, caring, generosity, devotion, grace, beauty, abundance, authenticity, empathy, and inclusion.

Navaratri serves us now as we move from an old era or cycle based in fear (Kali Yuga) to a new era of truth, of being who we are in our essence as love (Sathya Yuga). As our planet raises in its frequency, and new cosmic energies arrive on the planet, we are required to access those inner love-based, higher frequency qualities of Mother. Finding these hidden treasures is an important reason to celebrate Navaratri for all of us, so we find inner balance and harmony, and spread this in society and on the planet. During this festival, we have the opportunity to focus on those Divine Feminine attributes so our actions are based upon spiritual values, so we serve the greater good of society, and we spread the power of Sanatana Dharma across the planet.

I share here words of Jagadguru Sai Maa about Navaratri:

“I invite you to welcome and to celebrate your inner divine feminine. Celebrating the divine feminine is celebrating life. Bringing balance into life. The blossoming of your potentiality. Yes, Navaratri is dedicated to the feminine divine nature. Nothing exists without the Mother, this feminine aspect. These nine days are dedicated to the balance of the feminine. And then the masculine will take over, the yin yang. It is important to love Mother-Father-Creator within, the parents of the universe. The love out of the limitless, boundless love merges and becomes beloved, and beloved becomes love. Both parents are made, created from the same Shakti. They are to be one, as two is duality.”

During these tumultuous and fast-changing times, we need to harness all our internal power to be flexible, creative and resilient. We are breaking apart the old way of being, what we can call the old paradigm, and we are creating of ourselves and our world a new way of being, a new paradigm. When we take time now during Navaratri to discover and activate our Divine Feminine qualities, we are maximizing our capacity to not just address what we are facing in life, but to create a new world.

Through spiritual practice (sadhana) and sacred ceremonies, Navaratri offers us the opportunity to unlock our inner power and unite us collectively for greater awareness and social transformation. For example, at our Sathya Sai Maa Shaktidhaam Ashram in Kashi, combined with the Shakti and profound energetic work of Jagadguru Sathya Sai Maa, Mataji has arranged for highly reputed pundits to preside over very powerful yagyas or fire ceremonies that are activating energies never experienced before on this planet. We are benefiting from the immense power of Bagalamukhi over nine days, who shatters our obstacles and patterns so we realize the clarity of our truth; and Maha Lakshmi over 2 days, who fills us and our world with abundance and prosperity on all levels.

If you celebrate Navaratri, take time now to reflect on the festival’s impact on your life, and what you are experiencing during this celebration. What is your intent for what you want to transform in yourself and your life through the power and attributes of Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, Saraswati, and other forms of Mother? If you have never celebrated Navaratri, would you like to learn more, perhaps add some Divine Mother practice to your sadhana (a mantra for example)?

On the spiritual path, through dedicated sadhana and the grace of a guru—if we are blessed with one—we awaken to the depths of our true being. We unveil our hidden aspects, embrace our multidimensional nature, and step into our inner power. We maximize our capacity for self-awareness, self-healing, and transformation.

Navaratri offers us an important opportunity to ignite our inner journey. The festival calls upon us to awaken and embody the Divine Feminine energies that reside in us all. It empowers us to harmonize the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine within, to deepen our sadhana, to come together in unity, and to radiate our collective higher frequency. In this way, we become catalysts for a greater shift. Together, we uplift society and accelerate the emergence of a new era—one rooted in love and illuminated by the boundless grace of the Divine Mother.

Writer Swami Parameshwar Das Maharaj Mahamandaleshwar Mahant 108 is a renowned practitioner of Sanatan Dharma

“Navaratri is a festival of spiritual renewal celebrated in the spring and fall across India and worldwide when we honor Mother Divine.” Over these nine days, we celebrate the victory of Goddess Durga in all her forms, who vanquishes Mahishasura, representing the demons within us all. Mother dispels the darkness of illusion so that our light shines. During Navaratri, we go inside to discover dimensions of ourselves that we do not normally examine or express. From my perspective, these aspects are extremely critical not just for our transformation but for the planet's evolution.

Before I moved into the path of Brahmacharya, I focused completely on outside goals: getting the best grades in school up until I received my doctorate; billing and selling the most as a consulting psychologist; and earning the most money. When I met my guru over 30 years ago, Her Holiness Jagadguru Sathya Sai Maa Lakshmi Devi, my focus turned completely inward as I started to examine the habits and patterns that covered the truth of who I am, who we all are, in our divinity, in our multidimensionality.

Through Mataji’s teachings, practices, and energetic work, I embraced traits, values, frequencies, and powers that were veiled and hidden up to that point. Prominent among those were aspects of the Divine Feminine, enabling me to achieve greater inner balance and harmony of the masculine and feminine. As I mentioned in another article I wrote during last spring’s  Navaratri, some of these traits include: compassion, tenderness, caring, generosity, devotion, grace, beauty, abundance, authenticity, empathy, and inclusion.

Navaratri serves us now as we move from an old era or cycle based in fear (Kali Yuga) to a new era of truth, of being who we are in our essence as love (Sathya Yuga). As our planet raises in its frequency, and new cosmic energies arrive on the planet, we are required to access those inner love-based, higher frequency qualities of Mother. Finding these hidden treasures is an important reason to celebrate Navaratri for all of us, so we find inner balance and harmony, and spread this in society and on the planet. During this festival, we have the opportunity to focus on those Divine Feminine attributes so our actions are based upon spiritual values, so we serve the greater good of society, and we spread the power of Sanatana Dharma across the planet.

I share here words of Jagadguru Sai Maa about Navaratri:

“I invite you to welcome and to celebrate your inner divine feminine. Celebrating the divine feminine is celebrating life. Bringing balance into life. The blossoming of your potentiality. Yes, Navaratri is dedicated to the feminine divine nature. Nothing exists without the Mother, this feminine aspect. These nine days are dedicated to the balance of the feminine. And then the masculine will take over, the yin yang. It is important to love Mother-Father-Creator within, the parents of the universe. The love out of the limitless, boundless love merges and becomes beloved, and beloved becomes love. Both parents are made, created from the same Shakti. They are to be one, as two is duality.”

During these tumultuous and fast-changing times, we need to harness all our internal power to be flexible, creative and resilient. We are breaking apart the old way of being, what we can call the old paradigm, and we are creating of ourselves and our world a new way of being, a new paradigm. When we take time now during Navaratri to discover and activate our Divine Feminine qualities, we are maximizing our capacity to not just address what we are facing in life, but to create a new world.

Through spiritual practice (sadhana) and sacred ceremonies, Navaratri offers us the opportunity to unlock our inner power and unite us collectively for greater awareness and social transformation. For example, at our Sathya Sai Maa Shaktidhaam Ashram in Kashi, combined with the Shakti and profound energetic work of Jagadguru Sathya Sai Maa, Mataji has arranged for highly reputed pundits to preside over very powerful yagyas or fire ceremonies that are activating energies never experienced before on this planet. We are benefiting from the immense power of Bagalamukhi over nine days, who shatters our obstacles and patterns so we realize the clarity of our truth; and Maha Lakshmi over 2 days, who fills us and our world with abundance and prosperity on all levels.

If you celebrate Navaratri, take time now to reflect on the festival’s impact on your life, and what you are experiencing during this celebration. What is your intent for what you want to transform in yourself and your life through the power and attributes of Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, Saraswati, and other forms of Mother? If you have never celebrated Navaratri, would you like to learn more, perhaps add some Divine Mother practice to your sadhana (a mantra for example)?

On the spiritual path, through dedicated sadhana and the grace of a guru—if we are blessed with one—we awaken to the depths of our true being. We unveil our hidden aspects, embrace our multidimensional nature, and step into our inner power. We maximize our capacity for self-awareness, self-healing, and transformation.

Navaratri offers us an important opportunity to ignite our inner journey. The festival calls upon us to awaken and embody the Divine Feminine energies that reside in us all. It empowers us to harmonize the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine within, to deepen our sadhana, to come together in unity, and to radiate our collective higher frequency. In this way, we become catalysts for a greater shift. Together, we uplift society and accelerate the emergence of a new era—one rooted in love and illuminated by the boundless grace of the Divine Mother.

Writer Swami Parameshwar Das Maharaj Mahamandaleshwar Mahant 108 is a renowned practitioner of Sanatan Dharma