I received an excellent write up on the significance of Navarathri (9 nights) from Chinmaya Mission that is posted below. Navarathri is also called Dussehra or 'Dasa-hara'. 'Dasa' is 10 and 'hara' is eliminate; so the word indicates our effort to eliminate the sins accumulated through our ten sense organs (5 organs of perception and 5 organs of action). The culmination of our effort is the 10th day of 'Vijaya Dashami' which indicates the 'Vijaya' or win from the pulls and pricks of our senses !
The Spiritual Significance of Navaratri by Swami Chinmayananda
Ratri means "night" and
Nava means "nine". At Navaratri ("nine nights"), the Lord
in the form of the Mother Goddess is worshipped in Her various forms as Durga,
Lakshmi and Saraswati. Though the Goddess is one, She is represented and
worshiped in three different aspects. On the first three nights of the
festival, Durga is worshipped. On the following three, Lakshmi and then
Saraswati Devi on the last three nights. The following tenth day is called
Vijayadashami. Vijaya means "victory", the victory over our own minds
that can come only when we have worshiped these three: Durga, Lakshmi, and
Saraswati.
Durga
To gain noble virtues, all evil
tendencies in the mind must be destroyed. This destruction is represented by
the Goddess Durga.
Durga is durgati harini:
"She who removes our evil tendencies." This is why she is called
Mahishasura Mardini, the destroyer of Mahishaasura (demon), mahisha meaning"buffalo."
The buffalo stands for tamoguna,
the quality of laziness, darkness, ignorance and inertia. In the Puraanic
story, Durga Devi's killing of the Mahisha demon is, symbolically, the
destruction of the tamoguna within us that is very difficult to destroy. In the
Durga Devi Havana (sacrifice), we invoke that Divine Power within us to destroy
our animalistic tendencies.
Lakshmi
For knowledge to dawn within us,
we have to prepare our minds. The mind must be pure, concentrated, and
single-pointed; this purification of the mind is obtained through the worship
of Lakshmi Devi.
The real wealth is the inner wealth
of spiritual values that we practice in our lives,
by which our minds become purified.
Only when we have these noble
values will we be able to preserve our material wealth and make good use of it.
Otherwise money itself becomes a problem.
In the Upanishads, the Rishis
never asked for material wealth only. In the mantras of the Taittriya
Upanishad, they first asked to have all the noble virtues fully developed in
them. "Having gained the noble virtues, thereafter Lord please bring
wealth to us". The Rishis express here that in the absence of right values
and good qualities, all our money will be wasted, and there are countless
examples of this in the world around us.
Our wealth of virtues is our true
Lakshmi. Its importance is shown by the fact that Adi Shankaracharya himself,
in Vivekachudamani, describes that sat sampati, or six forms of wealth
(calmness of mind, self- control, self-withdrawal, forbearance, faith and
single-pointed ness) that are to be cultivated to attain wisdom.
These virtues are important because our goal is victory over the
mind - a victory such that we do not get disturbed by every change that takes
place in our lives.
This victory comes only when the
mind is prepared, and this mental preparation is the symbolism of the Lakshmi
Puja.
Saraswati
Victory over the mind can be
gained only through knowledge, through understanding; and it is
Goddess Saraswati who represents this highest knowledge of the Self.__._,_.___