Nine-night Gupta Navaratri festival, dedicated to the nine forms of Shakti or mother Goddess began in the city with great religious fanfare this year. The festival falls in the month of Ashadha and is also known as Gayatri Navaratri.
The festival started with Ghata Sthapana, as one of four Navaratris celebrated in a year as per Hindu calendar, on June 24 in the city. The local newspapers covered the ceremony of Ghata Sthapana in the temples dedicated to Maa Kali. Navaratri is dedicated to celebration of Shaktism stream of Hinduism.
In Shaktism school of spirituality, Shakti is deemed as the Supreme Being. At times, Divine Mother is called Adi-Shakti that is the ultimate power inherent in all Creation in the cosmos. Some Vedic scriptures go the extent of saying that Shakti is the Supreme Brahman and both female and male are considered to be her manifestations.
Shaktisangama school of thought holds, "Woman is the creator of the universe, the universe is her form; woman is the foundation of the world, she is the true form of the body. In woman is the form of all things, of all that lives and moves in the world. There is no jewel rarer than woman, no condition superior to that of a woman."
Here is my sentence acrostic on SHAKTI describing feminine virtues.
S: Sacred feminine divine that resides in our
H: Hearts to be reclaimed by inner
A: Awakening through values of co-creation, nurturance, love, cooperation and cosmic
K: Kinship rather than perpetuation of headiness of T: Tough competition, control, domination, externalization and
I: Inequalities.
