Navrathri festival --- turns into a concert

Today is October 13th 2007 , just yesterday the age old festival of Navratri started. I went to one such arrangement made to celebrate this festival, but truly speaking it felt as if I have come to a concert.

Navrathri as all the festivals in ancient India are celebrated with a spiritual and a divine objective. Navrathri means Nine nights of worship to Goddess of Strength. First three nights are for the worship of Mother Durga to invoke her blessings to counter our sinful activities, Second three nights are for the worship of Mother Lakshmi to bestowed upon us spiritual strength and goodness , and the Last three nights are for worship of Mother Saraswati for spiritual knowlegde.
These are the main reasons for which the festival is celebrated. Also every festival has a pure format where in a person can invoke his or her devotional and spiritual energies to attain the ultimate goal of life which is salvation as per the Vedic Literature.

During Navrathri the form of worship is my dancing in circles and singing bhajans and kirtans praising the activitites and nature of Mother Durga, and thanking her for protecting us from the demons. These dances are performed seperately by men and women to maintain the purity of affairs to obtain devotional objective. These have to be followed strictly which will make one blissful and happy during the festivities.

But it was really saddening to see the celebrations in todays Kaliyuga. Today if anyone asks a youngster, that Why do you celebrate Navartri , the common reply would be " To have fun, enjoy, socialize etc", but no mention of the worship to Goddess Durga. Nobody knows why they are dancing in circles before a diety. Navrathri has lost its main spiritual objective. Formerly songs and bhajans were sung using traditional instruments like drums, cymbals to create a divine atmosphere suitable for the festival, today people have become so much advanced that they think that full orchestra will make Goddess happy. They also think that instead of praising Mother Durga through devotional songs, Goddess will become pleased if we sing some cheap Hindi Flim songs and dance obscenly on these songs and while all the stupidity is going on we will perform a short aarti for Mother Durga for about 15 minutes and then again we will start our dancing on Hindi songs like some concert. Moreover people have become even more brilliant , thinking Navrathri festival is a fashion parade , where in people can were any type of revealing clothing to attract attention. Girls no longer care to dress in a decent way , boys are trying to show off their new hair styles. Girls and boys are freely dancing and mingling without any concerns , Some how or other people also started thinking that Mother Durga will be pleased and bestow her blessings on them if they are drunk during the festival. These are some of the malpractices which has crept in the modern day celebration of Navrathri.

People and Organizers of todays world have made a mockery of the divine Goddess and the festival for her and they are acting in order to satisfy their selfish desires of enjoyment. In the selfish quest to fulfill their motives they are spoiling the future generation of people who have no clue why are they celebrating a particular festival, Nobody even cares to ask these questions that what is the purpose of celebrating Navrathri , why is that garba is done, why do we worship Goddess. It is the responsibility of the older generation to impart this knowledge to the younger generation and tell them the significance and importance of this or any festival , inorder to invoke devotion and quest for spiritual knowledge in them, since it is the most important science which should be know , but unfortunately, due to the effect of the age , every one is just very busy in fulfilling their own desires without even caring for the anger of the Goddess.

Many older people themselves are in ignorance and hence are not able to explain the importance of spirituality and the festivals celebrated in Vedic culture. It is a pity that people have adjusted to such malpractices and failed to see the consequences. Now many people out of their sheer ignorance and weakness in mind , which probably they are not able to figure out , are not protesting , but that will not stop the reactions to these irresponsible actions. So it is very important that instead of simply encouraging the younger generation to fall into the ditch of darkness and ignorance, make it a habbit for them to ask the question Why? , since if one does not become inquisitive to understand things, the person will be fooled by the laws of nature again and again. Everything has its reactions. It is very sad that due to lack of knowledge many innocent people who are capable of learning will also have to suffer.

Now let us analyze the original objective of celebrating Navrathi. It was to invoke devotion and spiritual bliss, which is a reality, but due to the corruption , the younger generation thinks worship of GODS and GODDESS to be a mere myth, which diverts them to demoniac propensities which they see around them. Modern So called Disco Dandiya and dancing on Film Songs are no way invoking any kind of bhakti or devotion , infact , such lusty songs and music are just polluting their minds and making their conviction of Goddess worship being a myth even stronger. Moreover , Girls and boys during Navratri are supposed to dance in seperate circles and not intermingle and dance freely dashing with each other. Also The foremost and main intension of Navrathri is to praise the Goddess, but instead of doing that we are keeping Mother Durga aside and Praising Hindi songs. Also this scared festival is to be done in a pure way , where in girls are supposed to dress decently and boys are also have to be traditionally dressed with humility, but today, Navratri has become a hunting ground for boys and girls and a fashion stage, where in boys are interesed in having "cool" haristyles and dress and girls are more intend on dressing more in a revealing manner to attract attention. So one question remains , where is the pleasure of the Goddess for which this festival is meant , to be thankful to her and please her , since we cannot possibly be able to repay her for the blessing she as already bestowed upon us insignificant souls?. If we keep our selfish motive of entertainment in the center instead of Mother Durga and try to enjoy the festival, then there is no surprise that we see so much exploitation, crimes , fights, sexual assaults etc during these festivites, which is a mere reaction to our disobedience of the orders of the Goddess and sign of her displeasure.

Hence it is very essential that instead of encouraging the ignorance of the younger generation, elders and parents have to educate first of all themselves than the younger generation to avoid being pushed into ignorance, or else it will lead them to ruination.