HINDU FASTS & FESTIVALS : 3-12.

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3. Durga Puja or Navaratri-12.

Let us, therefore, examine in detail the spiritual significance of Navaratri.

The central purpose of existence is to recognise your eternal identity with the supreme Spirit.

It is to grow into the image of the Divine.

The supreme One embodies the highest perfection.

It is spotless purity.

To recognise your identity with That, to attain union with That, is verily to grow into the very likeness of the Divine.

The aspirant, therefore, as his initial step, has to get rid of all the countless impurities, and the demoniacal elements that have come to cling to him in his embodied state.

Then he has to acquire lofty virtues and auspicious, divine qualities.

Thus purified, knowledge flashes upon him like the brilliant rays of the sun upon the crystal waters of a perfectly calm lake.

Swami Sivananda
To be continued  ....




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