This is the 6th day of the Navaratri celebrations (which are held for nine nights). All festivals are meant to remind mankind that they should cultivate noble qualities by engaging themselves in activities beneficial to one’s own self and society. Sai Baba has told that Navaratri, the nine nights, represents the Nine Planets.
Each planet has its own particular influence upon us and its own significance. Sai Baba said that these planets are not outside, they are within, as universal forces disposing energy as we go on our life path. For Navaratri, we take up an opportunity to examine the energies of the planets within, and examine how the Divine Mother is related to these energies. On this 6th day of Navaratri we will look to the planet Venus, and examine Saraswathi, as this is the day of the main Saraswathi puja during Navaratri. The colour for the 6th day of Navaratri is GREEN, so we scribe in GREEN for this 6th day of Navaratri.
During Navaratri, we invoke the energy aspect of God in the form of the universal mother, often referred to as “Durga,” which literally means the remover of miseries of life. She is also referred to as “Devi” (goddess) or “ParaShakti” (supreme energy or power). It is this energy, which is embedded in the work of creation, preservation and destruction, the evolution and involution of the known universes, and the subtle universe.
Truth, goodness and beauty – these are the attributes of Divinity and true humanness – that is, human beings acting with integrity – vasudeva sarva midam – ever seeking divinity in all things. In Sankrit, Truth is Sathyam; Goodness is Sivam; Beauty is Sundaram.The planet Venus contains, releases and perpetually flashes forth different patterns of cosmic energy. Whether the ever-changing energies coming forth from Venus raises us up or pulls us down, is largely dependent on how we understand and take up, integrate and apply the energies of this planet. Venus is our sense of divine love, beauty and grace.
While Venus is taken to represent the passions, and following our happiness, there is a capacity in the influence of Venus to think and to make quite sharp decisions. Venus may access the intellect in what Carl Jung calls the feeling function (in Jungian typology) which makes decisions on the basis of what is valued, what is felt to be important. So Venus has the ability to make the best, balanced and heart-felt decisions.
In the field of possessions, personal property, Venus gives wealth, houses, property and high status. There is nothing wrong with having wealth, it is not filthy lucre as some joke. It is a form of cosmic energy which we may use to create joy and beauty in our living, our homes, a spending of energy in property and vehicles which expresses proper use of wealth, one of the four goals of life. Excessive attachment and dissemination of ego to possessions (my status, my life is my possessions) is lower expression of this cosmic force. A home with beautiful gardens and flowers expresses the Venus energy in its highest essence.
Saraswathi is the Shakti, the power and the consort of Brahma, the creator. Hence, she is the procreatrix, the mother of all Creation. Saraswathi is considered the personfication of all knowledge, arts, sciences, crafts and skills. Knowledge is the antithesis of darkness and ignorance, hence Saraswathi is depicted pure white in colour.
Saraswathi literally means ‘the one who gives the essence (sara) of our own Self (swa). Sitting on the lotus symbolises that the teacher is well-established in the subjective experience of Truth. Holding the scriptures in her hand indicate that she up holds that the knowledge of the scriptures alone can take us to the Truth. The four hands represent the four aspects of the inner personality of man, e.g., mind, intellect, conditioned consciousness and ego.
During Navaratri, Saraswathi is worshipped as the final stage in man’s spiritual evolution, so that Divinity may be made manifest through study of the scriptures, along with constant reflection and meditation.
View of Venus from the South Pole of this planet.
What is the role of the Venus in the 4th and 5th Dimensions? Venus is a planet of wholeness, balance in all things, and synthesis. In the 4th and 5th Dimensions, the whole person is raised to the conscious experience of greater dimensionality, more being. Venus brings the whole sense of balance – including common sense – to the possibilities of our being, awareness and bliss in these new dimensions.
As Venus is the teacher of the asuras (demons) that might symbolise our lower tendencies within, it is important to acknowledge this side within and make a choice, a choice which may call for help, eliciting the cosmic energies of Venus within the person, for balance and wholeness with these new dimensions of what it means to be human. Calls for help are always answered, immediately. We may call on Venus seeking the emergence of integrity in our character as we begin to experience these new dimensions.