NAVRATRI PART 3

Rajas – A Process of Liberation

Among the three celestial objects with which the very making of our bodies is very deeply connected – the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon– Mother Earth is considered tamas. The Sun is rajas. The Moon is sattva. Tamas is the nature of the Earth and of your birth. The moment you come out, you start activity – rajas begins. Once rajas comes, you want to do something. Once you start doing something, if there is no awareness and consciousness, the nature of rajas is such, it’s good as long as the going is good. When the going gets bad, rajas is going to be super-bad.

A rajasic person has a tremendous amount of energy. It is just that it has to be channelised properly. Every action that you perform can be either a process of liberation or entanglment. If you perform any activity with absolute willingness, that activity is beautiful and creates joy for you. If you perform any activity unwillingly for whatever reason, that activity creates suffering for you. Whatever you are doing, even if you just sweep the floor, give yourself to it and do it with total involvement. That’s all it takes.

When you are passionately involved with something, nothing else exists for you. Passion does not mean “man-woman” passion. Passion means unbridled involvement with something. It could be anything – you can sing passionately, you can dance passionately, or you can just walk passionately. Whatever is in touch with you right now, you are deeply passionate with that. You breathe with passion, you walk with passion, you live with passion. Your very existence is with absolute involvement with everything.

Dandiya Raas

Every night of Navaratri at the Adiyogi Alayam, people of all ages celebrate Dandiya Raas. Originating from Vrindavan, Dandiya Raas is said to have its roots in Krishna’s Leela and his Raas with Radhe and the gopis. Sadhguru explans, “The word ‘rasa’ literally means ‘juice,’ but it can also indicate passion.” Dandiya is a rhythmic, lively dance that involves dancers going in tune with a beat, carrying dandiya sticks, which are about 10-12 inches long, in each hand. Taking measured steps to the beat, they strike the dandiya sticks held in other dancers’ hands.

A Story About the relation between celebration and the feminine,  Krishna’s first Rasa at Vrindhavan, which has an unexpected visitor – Shiva.

 It fell on Shiva’s ears that a fantastic dance happens on the Yamuna’s banks. He became aware that people just danced their way to what he had achieved through meditation. Shiva being Nataraja, the Lord of Dance, was very amused that Krishna, this little boy, his devotee, was taking people to transcendental states simply by dancing and blowing upon his flute. He wanted to witness this. So he walked from the Himalayas to the Yamuna and said to a boatman there, “Take me across to Vrindhavan. I want to see Krishna’s Rasa.” The boat man replied, “You cannot go like this. When you go to the Rasa, Krishna is the only man, everyone else is a woman. If you want to go, you have to go as a woman.”

Shiva is considered the ultimate of the masculine – the purusha among purushas. So it was a strange request that Shiva had to become a woman. But the Rasa was in full swing and Shiva wanted to go there. Shiva looked around. No one was looking, so he wore the clothes of a Gopi and went across. He is such a sport!

There is something very feminine about celebration. Feminine means exuberance, and that is how you should be every moment of your life – exuberantly alive. Celebration should not be limited to a particular occasion. Your whole life, your very existence should become a celebration.

Devi – A Dynamic Force

When we talk about feminine, it is not about being female. Being female is a very bodily thing. Being feminine is not of the body, it is much more than that. This is a culture that has greatly celebrated the feminine. At the same time this is also a culture which has seen a terrible exploitation of the feminine. The basis of this culture is in celebration of the feminine, but slowly the culture evolved into an exploitation of the feminine.

Tara

The original word to describe the feminine was “re.” The word “re” refers to the Mother Goddess of the existence and is the basis of the more recent word “stree.” “Stree” literally means a woman. The word “re” means movement, possibility, or energy.

In terms of creation, how did the feminine happen, first of all? The story goes like this. The forces which were detrimental to the existence rose and started threatening the very existence which was still in an infant state. So the three main gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, met. These three gods signify three different qualities. They understood that a combination of these three qualities was needed. So all of them exhaled powerfully, letting out the best of what they were. This exhalation from these three forces merged and became the feminine, or the Devi. So Devi is the space which holds the three fundamental forces in the existence. It is this force that we refer to as “De-vi.”