Tomorrow, day 9 is the big day for Navaratri and already preparations are being made. There are 108 traditional ingredients for the final fire yagya, and they have to be acquired, sorted, and made ready to offer into the yagya fire while Chandi Path is recited for the final time.
Interestingly most of the items are seeds, roots, bark, all of which have applications in ayurveda. As we were unwrappign them, the priest was identifying them and talking about some of their uses. It is easy to see why historically, India was the legendary spice source for the world.
The pujas were great as usual but there is a combination of looking forward to the final day which is much mroe elaborate and takes all day….but then again there is the pang of sadness that this yagya series will be over soon. Even though for the past 8 days it has been nothing but pujas for 8-10 hours every day, I wish it could continue. There is a subtle but unmistakable connection with the divine here, both in this place (Kanchipuram) and in this Navaratri ritual. It doesn’t really manifest in an emotional way, but rather as an undeniable sense of connectedness with something culturally and spiritually significant.
Our young girls for today were very cute, as usual, and were excited to be dressed up for this special occasion.
There is something wonderfully organic about the “tools” used in the yagyas, a brass pot for water, stalks of darba grass, some sticks of wood, and ghee.
Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge and would therefore be associated with the lotus as being symbolic of the unfoldment of knowledge, so the special offering into the yagya fire today were lotus seeds.
