1. “NAVRATI”
THE FESTIVAL OF NINE NIGHTS

2. INTRODUCTION
 Navratri is the festival of worship of
sakthi, dances and festive. Navratri
literally means NINE NIGHTS in Sanskrit.
During these nine nights and ten days, nine
forms of sakthi (Devi) are worshiped. The
10th day is commonly referred to as
vijaydhashami or Dashera.
Navratri is celebrated 4 times in a year.
Vasanta Navratri, Gupta Navratri, Sharana
Navratri, Paush Navratri, Magha Navratri.

3. TYPES OF NAVRATRI
Vasanth Navratri or Basanta Navratri is
celebrated during the Spring season (March-
April). These nine days of festivals is also
known as Raama Navratri.
 Sharvana Navratri or Sharad Navratri is
celebrated during the Winter season
(September-October).
Gupta Navratri is also referred to as
ashadha or Gayatri Navratri. It is
celebrated during the month of June-July.

4. HISTORY BEHIND NAVRATRI
 There are many stories explaining the
history of navratri and the reason behinds
its emergence. Let us now take a look at
these historical stories.
It is said that the trinity god Bhrama, Vishu
and Maheshwara granted Mahesasura “the
buffalo demon” a boon that he cannot be
defeated by any man power. After this boon
received by Mahisasura, he started
conquering the world, heaven and brought
about the defeat of king deities Indra. After
the pleading of God Indra, Lord Brahma, Lord

5. The nine nights known as Navratri,
symbolize thenine days of battle between
Devi Durga and Mahisasura, while the tenth
day, which is vijayadashami-literally
means the victorious tenth day of conquest
of good over evil.

6. THE EASTERN BELIEF(LORD SHIVA’S
DANCE OF DESTRUCTION)
There was a king named Dhaksha who ruled
Himalayas and was married to Menaka.
Dhaksha and Menaka was blessed with a
daughter named Uma who was an ardent
devotee of Lord Shiva from her childhood.
She worshipped Lord Shiva considering him
like her husband. Shiva satisfied by the
devotion and faith of Uma agreed to marry
her. But Dhaksha was not happy of Uma
getting married with Shiva who wore a tiger

7. Later Dhaksha arranged for an yagna for
which everyone except shiva was invited.
Uma, feeling ashamed of this behaviour of
her dad and the attitude he possesed
towards Shiva immolated herself.
Shiva on hearing this came to place of
Dhaksha and started dancing in anger
having the body of uma on his shoulder. The
world was on the verge of destruction due
to the tandav of Shiva. Narayana onr of the
trinity came forward for the rescue . Using
his chakra he started to cut the body of
Uma into pieces. Those pieces started to fall
off from the shoulder of shiva at fifty two

8. Another story tells that Lord Rama who
wanted to release Sita from the clutches of
mighty demon king Ravana prayed Goddess
Durga in nine aspects for nine days in order
to gather the strength and power to kill
Ravana. Those nine nights became to be
known as Navrathri and on the tenth day
Rama killed Ravana that day is called
Vijayadashmi or Dashera.

9. THE CUSTOMS AND ITS
SIGNIFICANCE
 During Navratri, Goddess Durga is
worshipped for the first three days, Godess
Lakshmi is worshipped the next three days
and Goddess Saraswathi is worshipped the
last three days. This symbolizes that the
life of every individual is divided into three
phases, the first phase is to gain energy (
Durga Devi), the second phase is to earn
money (Lakshmi Devi) and the last or the
third phase is to share the knowledge
gained through all the phases of life.
 All nine days of navratri is celebrated

10. RULES FOLLOWED IN
PERFORMING GOLU
 The first three tier from the top should
have the dolls of the Durga, Lakshmi,
Saraswathi, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesh
and all other God and Goddess. The first tier
must have a kalash. Kalash is a pot
(tamil:sombhu) filled with water the mouth
of the pot holds a coconut surrounded by
mango leaves. The coconut is applied with
turmeric paste and the kumkum is kept like a
bindhi. The Kalasha symbolically
represents creation. The vacant pot,
symbolizes earth, and the water filled
symbolizes the primordial water from which

11.  The steps 4 to 6 from the top must have
saints like Buddha, Guru Ragavendra, Sai
baba, Azhwar, Nayanmar and the like. It
can also hold men and women of importance
like Gandhi ji, Nehru ji, Annai Theresa and
the like.
The 7th step from the top can have set of
dolls on themes like marriage, family,
deepavali, ramnavami, krishna jeyanthi and
the like.
 The 8th step from the top can be organized
with dolls of one‟s own creativity and
imagination. It can also hold chettiar dolls.
It is said that the chettiar doll signifies the
art of managing the family economically

12. SIGNIFICANCE OF NAVRATRI
 It is not just the celebration Navratri is
said to hold lot other significance. As the
nine days of celebration is due to the
victory of good over evil it contains the
spiritual message that it exhorts mankind
to wake up from the slumber of ignorance,
remove all negativities, purify the mind and
cultivate positive virtues. This alone can
help one gain the
necessary spiritual knowledge to
transcend all earthly limitations and
achieve salvation - the highest goal of

13. attain moksha).
The first three days are dedicated to Lord
Durga invoking shakthi. Durga is invoked for
her strength and ferocity which are
required to cut out from the mind it's strong
rooted, deep-seated negative tendencies.
Noble virtues and the knowledge of self can
only be gained when all evil tendencies in the
mind are destroyed. The killing of
Mahishashura (Mahisha demon) by Durga Devi
actually symbolizes the destruction of the
evil tendencies of the mind. To destroy our
innate evil tendencies is very difficult. The
buffalo stands for the malefic qualities in
everyone of us. It reminds us that despite

14. On the next three nights, Goddess Laxmi is
worshipped. For the knowledge of self-
realization to dawn on us, we have to first
prepare our minds. Our worship of Goddess
Lakshmi is actually our attempt to seek the
blessings of the divine being to help us in
obtaining the purification of mind. Goddess
Lakshmi represents wealth that we assume
to be only material wealth.
But material wealth is needed only in this
world and without self discipline, respect,
sincerity, kindness and love, wealth can
make our life miserable. The real wealth is
the spiritual wealth that we can gain by the
practice of the right values in our lives,

15. The final three nights are spent in the
invocation of Goddess Saraswati. Victory
over the mind can be gained only through the
proper knowledge and thorough
understanding; Goddess Saraswati
symbolizes this highest knowledge of the
Self. Lord Krishna himself says in
the Bhagavad Gita: "The knowledge of the
Self is the knowledge"; and He adds, "It is My
vibhuti, My glory." If we do not have the
knowledge of the Self, then our knowledge of
all other subjects has no real worth. The
knowledge of the Self that is represented by
Goddess
Saraswathi.

16. THE NINE FORMS OF DURGA
The Nine form of durga are
Shailaputri,Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta,
Kushmanda, Sakanda Mata, Kartyayini,
Kaalratri, Maha Gauri, Siddhidatri.

17. SHAILAPUTRI DEVI: "Shail" means mountains, "Putri"
means daughter. Parvati, the daughter of the King
of the Mountains Himavan, is called 'Shailputri". The
first among nine Durgas. Shailputri is not worshipped
alone but with her consort Lord Shiva. Shiva and
Shakti are not different but one. All living beings
are created by nature, nurtured and destroyed by
it. No one is different or distant from nature. In the
form of Shailaputri goddess Durga is worshipped as
a girl child i.e. the first phase of a woman.
Worshipping Shailaputri devi heals the past karma,
removes the blocks and bestows the light on us
healing the trauma emotions and thoughts. This first
day of Navratri is considered to be highly auspicious
to start anything new.
BRAMACHARINI DEVI: The second aspect of Divine

18. CHANDRAGHANTHA DEVI: She is very bright and
charming. Chandra + Ghanta, meaning supreme bliss
and knowledge, showering peace and serenity, like
cool breeze in a moonlit night. . It represents
matured woman.
KUSHMANDA DEVI: The fourth form is Maa Kushmanda.
The worshippers are blessed with basic necessities,
and every day sustenance to the world. She shines
brightly with a laughing face in all ten directions
as the Sun. She controls whole Solar system.
SKANDAMATA DEVI: Skanda Mata is worshipped on the
fifth Day of Navratri. She had a son „Skandaa and
holds him on her lap . Its said, by the mercy
of Skandmata, even the idiot becomes an ocean of
knowledge. The worshipper is blessed with bounties
of all kinds.

19. KALRATRI DEVI: Mata Kalaratri is worshipped on
the Seventh Day of Navratri . She is dark and black
like night, hence she is called as „Kalratri‟. the
destroyer of darkness and ignorance. She spills
out fire from her nostrils. She holds a sharp Sword
in her right hand and blesses her devotees with her
lower hand. As she blesses her devotees with
prosperity, she is also called as „Shubhamkari‟.
MAHAGAURI DEVI: Mata Maha Gowri is worshipped on
the Eight Day of Navratri. Maha Gauri looks as
white as moon and jasmine. Peace and compassion
radiate from HER being and SHE is often dressed in a
white or green sari. She is kindest of all the
avatars of Goddess Durga.
SIDDHIDATRI DEVI: Mata Siddhidatri is the worshipped

20. A New approach
Navratri is one such great festival than any
other festival. It signifies every women in this
world and tells that both men and women are equal
and as like women are incomplete without men, men
are also incomplete without women. In every stage
there is a women playing an important role be it a
role of a mother, a role of a sister, a role of a
partner or a role of a daughter she has her own
significance and always tries to serve her duty
wholeheartedly.
 If we give a deep look in Navratri celebration it
will be mostly like the win of good over evil. It is
very important for every individual to overcome
their negative be it a attitude which one show
towards others or an negative thought which would

21. Humanity, morality, ethics are some important social
components which is needed for every individual is not
present. There are many such evidence in the present
which is fact to be felt bad with. The reason for
civilization is missing and also we are reversing back
through the path of civilization. Learning Science for
mere income is not very important but understanding
the importance of social and acquiring it is highly
important as only the quotient of social
acquaintance in an individual tells how humanly are
they.
 During Navratri there is a practice of lightening
Macrocosm : The Universe of ours is as
diya inside a pot with holes called garbo. The concept
an earthen pot and light (Sun, Sakthi)
of Garbo is related to microcosm (smaller) and
energy of the supreme reality shining
macrocosm (larger) analysis.
through. Moving around a circle in a
Garbo, indicate the never-ending cycle
Microcosm : An earthen pot with holes, through which

22. Hence everywhere there is a view of god within us
which is viewed universally without any
stratification of religion, region or language. Hence
every individual must be treated equally. Again here
comes equality. Hence in every form what our
ancestors had stressed upon is Humanity, Morality
and Ethics which we had lost in the present for mere
survival which in due course of time will surely lead
to the destruction of man kind. I would definitely want
to stress here we needn‟t save earth as it has seen
numerous extinctions through the evolution of life on
it, We must save ourselves “the human kind” which
alone is going to get extinct due to the blind greedy
super fast travel taken by every individual
unethically for mere money and status.
It is 200% sure that the nature will balance
everything in life. We must never ever think that we

23. Therefore from this Navratri I believe and wish all
who has come across this presentation will make it a
point to start their life in new dimension leaving
back survival and begin to live their life lively. We
shall also take an oath that
(i) From now on we will be with complete humanity,
ethics and morality as for as possible and take
our negative emotions just to take our fellow
friends in the path of positive attitude.
(ii) We will also guide and set a path for the
generations to come through this path of positive
attitude.

24. TIME FOR GIFTS
SELECT YOUR
GENDER

25. Wish You a Happy Navratri. I believe
that this presentation has helped us
to know what Navratri is and why we
celebrate Navratri. From now on let
us take an oath that we will give
equality to every single individual,
killing all our negative attitude,
growing with morality and humanity,
gaining all genuine prosperity in life
and will guide every single individual
connected to us in the right way with
all we have gained.

26. Wish You a Happy Navratri. I believe
that this presentation has helped us
to know what Navratri is and why we
celebrate Navratri. From now on let
us take an oath that we will give
equality to every single individual,
killing all our negative attitude,
growing with morality and humanity,
gaining all genuine prosperity in life
and will guide every single individual
connected to us in the right way with
all we have gained.