9th Goddess

Today we look at the last Goddess on this last day of Navaratri and how we can apply this teaching to our own life. Again, I encourage you to exercise your own mind by using it to find higher spiritual meanings in the everyday events of your life. So let's look at the 9th Goddess, the 4-armed Mother Siddhidatri, seated on a lotus flower. 

The worship of the last Durga comes only after having worshipped the other eight Durgas during the Navaratri. It is said that after completion of worshipping Siddhidatri that all desires, both worldly and spiritual, are fulfilled--but the beauty is that there remains no desire at all in the devotee! The seeker has transcended all material desires! Spiritually he moves into the divine abode of the Devi. The absolute nearness of the Goddess becomes the only aim of his actions. After acquiring this position, there remains nothing for him to desire or require. This is also called Moksha, the Sanskrit word that translates as Liberation. This is the final stage of enlightenment, total freedom.

The angels remind us that it is desire itself which causes us to suffer. One desire leads to another. The ego mind is never satisfied. At the base of all human desire is fear, and so it is fear that runs our lives. No wonder the world is in such a state! As far back as human memory can look, there have always been wars, hunger, and poverty. There has been greed and corruption. It is not that there is not enough in the world. There is enough of everything. It is that ego greed and ego need rule the world. 

Happily, there is a solution, and yet that solution is not to be found by going outward into the world, but by going inward. The spiritual path is simply the process of turning inward, towards the heart. The 9 days of worship of the Navaratri remind us that we must be diligent and disciplined on our path. As the angels continually remind us, we must show up! We must not be lazy students.

To be without desire is to be without the highs and lows of human existence, which is to be without suffering. To be without desire does not mean we do nothing. We can accomplish more when we allow a higher energy to work through us, when we are not constantly held back by the low energy of dark thoughts and emotional ups and downs. Life becomes much more beautiful because we are not expecting or contriving for anything to happen. We are simply showing up, doing what is ours to do, guided by a higher power, watching life unfold, serene and peaceful.