Navratris

Actually, there are four Navratris. One in each of the four seasons. Though we have six seasons, but the main four seasons have one Navratri each.

         This is the Navratri in spring, which starts from new year, Ugadi. The new year is the same.

        You know it is so wonderful to discover that even Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey they all share same new year. And they do exactly the same what the people in Kerala do for new year. They do ‘vishu kani’, morning you have to keep in a plate: two lamps, some fruits, some vegetables, and then a mirror, a sacred book. All these are kept and first thing in the morning you are supposed to see this and feel abundance. New year begins with a sense of abundance, with a sense of knowledge.

          See, the way Iranians celebrate the new year, very similar to the Vaidic New Year or the Vaidic days the new year is being celebrated. Of course in Kerala it is there, in Tamil Nadu it’s there, here in Karnataka. And also when you go to Maharashtra, the Gudi Padwa, slightly different.

- Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji