Mother Goddess and Navratri

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Jai Mata Ki. Hail the Great Mother of Universe

Every thing that we can perceive in the universe as well as everything that we cannot perceive is a manifestation of God. In fact this may be taken as a definition of God and by this definition everyone believes in God. His consciousness runs through everything in the universe and we as humans share an infinitesimally small part of this consciousness. The female side of it flows as the divine love of every mother, human, animal or gods. We also share an infinitesimally small part of His free will that all living things share in various degrees making them alive as well as responsible for their own individual actions as well as the consequences.

Because of His infinity, God cannot have any form that can be imagined by any human mind or any other living mind in the universe. God alone knows God fully. However human and human like forms of the Universal spirit have been worshiped through the ages for simplicity and one of the primal forms is as Lord Shiva who embodies within his undifferentiated self, both the male and female principles. His differentiated female side is viewed in human and human like form as the Mother Goddess, as a representation of the purest and most divine motherly love.

The consciousness of the Mother Goddess runs not just through living things but also inanimate matter. Because of this some also view the mother goddess as mother earth. It is the womb of all things on earth. Some also see her spirit in specific mountains such as the Nanda Devi and Sunanda Devi, daughters of the Himalayas.

The mother goddess, through the history of humankind, has manifested for brief or long periods through ordinary humans beginning with Eve, the first human female, in order to express her will amongst humans. This period can be as brief as a moment or as long as an entire lifetime. When the manifestation is for a full lifetime in a human body then that human is recognized as a reincarnation of the goddess. There have been innumerable reincarnations of the mother goddess on earth and different devotees worship her as one or more of these reincarnations as a human representation of the divine consciousness. The mother goddess also manifests elsewhere in the universe in non-human forms such as a four, six or eight armed goddess. In these heavenly forms, she has appeared to chosen devotees in visions and in brief appearances through the ages. The mother goddess has thus been depicted by such devotees in numerous non-human forms too.

Truly the representational forms of the goddess are infinite as indeed must be for an infinite spirit. While the worship of the mother goddess has disappeared from some parts of the world such as the Middle East and Persia who were at one time great worshipers of the goddess at the peak of their civilizations, her worship continues in other parts of the world, especially the eastern parts of Asia.America honors her as the Statue of Liberty and the Christian revere her as mother Mary. Many amongst the Hindus of India continue to be devout worshipers of the goddess. Not all Hindus worship the Universal Spirit as a goddess though, because Hinduism allows freedom of belief and some worship the universal spirit in other male or female forms or even as the formless God.

Amongst those Hindus who worship the loving mother Goddess for some the two nine day periods in the year, one in the beginning of spring and the other in the beginning of autumn are especially celebrated. These nine day periods are called the Navratris or the nine nights. The date is decided by the Hindu lunar calendar. Some Hindus celebrate Navratri five times a year in five different seasons. The mother Goddess in the nine days of this festival is worshiped in nine specified forms chosen from amongst her numerous forms. The nine human or human like forms are not chosen because they are the most important ones because each appearance of the goddess in human or human like form is equally important, although representing a different quality or side of the goddess, but rather the nine forms have been chosen because these nine representations taken together represent most of the qualities of the mother goddess as significant to humans.

For the purpose of worship throughout the year a human being may choose any form of the mother goddess that they especially like, from amongst these nine representations or from any one of the other numerous appearances of the goddess. Each human is unique and it is expected that their choice will differ just as it differs in deciding which of the numerous flowers that the mother goddess has sprinkled throughout the universe is the most beautiful one. The nine representations taken together represent most of the qualities of Mother Universe as relevant to humans including the power of creation. Mother Kushmanda the goddess of the fourth night created the universe merely with her smile. It does not need a complicate method for the Infinite power to create the universe. Just as a complex fractal may unfold from a simple formula the entire universe unfolds with all its complexities from a simple smile.


May the Mother Goddess bring Peace, Truth, Love, Beauty and happiness in the lives of all Humans on Earth, while eradicating everything that is ugly and evil, as she has been doing since the beginning of time. The evil emerges as a result of the free wills the father of the universe has granted living beings. It has been permitted by the Universal Consciousness because evil is needed to fight evil that is inherent in a creation made up of a play of opposites, when it cannot be fought with good. If humans fight evil with evil and not just good they tend to gather evil karma.When the balance is disturbed and evil spreads to encroach on the domain of the good the mother goddess sheds her gentle form, adapting temporarily a dreadful form she commissions her weapons to destroy such evil while the lion she rides lets out a terrible roar. The mother goddess loves all her off springs, like any mother,  even those temporarily overcome by evil. She nevertheless eradicates evil to protect the good and restore justice.

Hail Divine Mother. Jai Mata ki.

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