6th October 2011
Vijaya Dashami

Adorable Ones,

We embrace prayerfully special times of the year which are deemed auspicious. The current time period since the last new moon is celebrated in many traditions by invoking varying degrees of meditation, austerity, rituals and new ventures.

According to the Vedic soli-lunar calendar, the last new moon (26th Sept. in California) was a special day for ascension rituals to honour the departed souls of family lineages. Thereafter, the auspicious Sharadiya-Navaratri or a nine-night period dedicated to the worship of the Divine Mother has been celebrated. The culmination of this nine-night period ushers in Vijaya-Dashami or the tenth day of Victory.

Victory Day on the tenth day of this ascending cycle of the moon is of great significance and merits a meditative understanding. The Divine Mother worship of nine days (and nights) is of course divided into single days of special prayers and additionally into three three-day periods related to the trinity of Shakti (splendorous aspects of the Divine Mother). Spiritual philosophy teachings relate the nine days to the nine doors of the body.

The nine doors are: two nostrils, two eyes, two ears, mouth, and the two bottom exits related to the physical organs of procreation and excretion. These doors are collectively known in the extant Sanskrit literature as Navadwarah implying the entry points into the citadel of the soul. The tenth door is the somewhat hidden passage to the yonder abode either guiding the pathway of light to the soul or the pathway for final exit of the soul upon closure of earthly life.

When nine doors are conquered by a meditator through dispassion and persistent practice, the passion to expand the experiences of the external world is transcended into compassion, and all work or action is transmuted into service. Thus the sense of doership and attendant frailties of egoism or egotism are transcended and the sensory delusion comes under control. This helps open the tenth door and bring forth inner victory. This is the spirit of the teaching.

The tenth doorway is the BrahmaRandhra inside the anterior fontanel or the soft spot of the baby, which closes in after the birth. This pathway joins with and leads to the subtle body of the heart (or subtle heart) centered inside the chest directly behind the sternum. Unlike the physical heart, this subtle heart is ellipsoidal and as big as the tip of the thumb. It is just to the left of the sinoatrial node, the pacemaker of the heart. Similarly, inside the fontanel little more than an inch below the skull is the subtle body comprising the sense organs (not physical organs); this subtle body in the head (or subtle head) is relatively bigger than the subtle heart and is seated near the pituitary gland at the level of the mid-point between the two eyebrows centered inside the head. The pathway connecting these two subtle bodies is known in Sanskrit literature as the Jñanavahi-Sushumna thus linking the soul in the heart to the doorway in the fontanel that closes in after birth.

Now we have the ethos of birth and death alongside the tenth door as it relates to the count of ten days from the new moon dedicated to ancestors. This particular new moon is immediately followed by the auspicious nine-night period leading up to the tenth Victory Day. The period is an auspicious time to meditate and bring about conquest of the nine doors which otherwise make us worldly or enamoured by the world. The Victory Day then heralds the opening of the tenth doorway after controlling the sense organs and the physical gates, which helps precipitate the light of knowing in the subtle channel of Sushumna-nadi.

May you all have inner and outer victory on this auspicious day of nobility and valour. Let us invoke the blessings and protection of the Divine Mother on this day.

Wishing for abounding motherly grace upon all,

Swami Vidyadhishananda

 

References and footnote: 

Ref. to the theme of nine doors in Bhagavad Gita ch.5/v.13 and in Svetashwara Upanishad ch.3/v.18.

The invocation of the three Veda is related in the following way – Rukveda with MahaKali for the first three days, YajurVeda with MahaLaxmi for the middle three days, and SamaVeda with MahaSaraswati for the last three days, respectively.