SACRIFICE

Akal Bodhan, or the untimely awakening, while not originating from the Valmiki Ramayana, has had such a powerful impact on the consciousness of the Hindu people that even today the celebration of Durga carries on unabated and continues to grow year after year during this particular period.

The Shakta texts have a retelling of this episode. Briefly, as the battle between Rama and Ravana raged on, the great goddess of war, Ranachandi/Kali, who had been awakened by Brahma, watched in mild amusement. Meanwhile, seven days of war had been fought, and neither party could win. The gods looked down from heaven in wonder and amazement and wished Rama a speedy victory. Yet the war continued without a clear end in sight. Only the goddess smiled in amusement. The implication was that Ravana himself was an upasaka of Kali/Chandi, and as long as the blessings of the great goddess were on an individual, not even the Vishnu Avatara could kill him.

When it became clear to Brahma, he immediately approached Rama and proposed that he should worship goddess Chandi/Durga and make her favorable; only then would victory come. So on the 8th day, Rama, it is said, performed the first Durga Puja in the battlefield during this phase—earlier Durga Puja used to be only during the earlier Chaitra Navaratri time (the Navami of which was also Rama’s birthday). Since it was Dakshinayana, when the gods sleep, it was the awakening of the devata in an untimely manner—akala (untimely) and udbodhan (awakening), which becomes Akal Bodhan.

During the puja, Rama offered to give 108 lotus flowers to the goddess. To test his devotion, she deliberately removed one lotus from the pack. When it was time to offer the flowers to the goddess, Rama found one missing, and finding no other option, he decided to pluck out his own eyes and make an offering because the texts say that his eyes are Padmalocana—or as beautiful as lotuses. Just as he was about to pluck out his eye, the goddess appeared, held his hand, and told him that she was only testing the depth of his devotion. Victory was assured.

The very next day, Ravana, who had held on until then, was dead. This, therefore, became the origin of the Durgotsava during the Sharad Ritu.

Like all spiritual events that leave a deep impact on the human world, this too is rich with meaning for a genuine upasaka of goddess Durga.

1. She manifests most easily during battles, inner or outer, physical or spiritual. No battle is waged without her presence in some way or another. Those who are scared of battles cannot enter into a true sadhana of Durga. And this does not mean just knowing the puja padhyati or having some dikshas, but the actual sadhana with the aim of entering into communion with the deity.

2. During the course of Durga upasana, as one goes closer to the deity, expect the severest of tests to be thrown at the individual. No one who has not been thoroughly tested can gain her full blessings.

3. Only those who are pure inside can pass these tests, for no amount of technical jugglery is enough to cross these barriers. Ravana was a great expert in Devi upasana and the Vedas, and his knowledge was without parallel, and yet, in that crucial moment, his devotion could not match the absolute purity of heart and mind displayed by the avatara of Vishnu. That changed the result.

4. Purity is not taking three baths a day, though that is how it can start. It is eventually taking the consciousness beyond the lower three chakras and making sure one does not fall from that state, with a singular devotion towards the deity, without material calculations. This is not easy for most, but the goal is clear.

5. Purity is the difference between someone attaining some lower-order abilities—siddhis—and one who enters the conditions of salokya to sayujya state with the deity. Or, in other words, this is the difference between an average ‘jadu-tona’ type tantric worshipping Kali and Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, for there has been no greater upasaka of the goddess than Sri Ramakrishna in the last 200 years.

6. Ramakrishna attempted to give off his own head to Ma Kali. Rama wanted to pluck out his own eyes as an offering. After all the texts have been mastered, all the worship has been done, and every sadhana has been completed across lifetimes, there will come that one crucial moment—a leap from the ordinary mentality into the divine state—and there is no formula for how to do it, except via anugraha. The deity pulls one into that state, and it can only happen via sacrifice. One must sacrifice something from oneself, something most dear, without calculations. It is a statement of absolute commitment—that the whole world is on one side and the deity on another. The physical act of sacrifice is less important, while the perfection of inner commitment is the main thing. It cannot be imitated. Only the rarest individuals who have reached that threshold state are capable, and THAT sacrifice is then ACCEPTED by the goddess, and a moment of occult miracle happens, which is beyond rational understanding.

7. Since we are neither Rama nor Ramakrishna, and imitation does not work, we must carry on sadhana in our own limited scope across lifetimes, by the rules framed by texts and acharyas, so that we attain greater purity and someday become competent enough to reach the condition where we can sacrifice without the calculations of the mind, and a powerful alchemy of transformation is triggered—of base metal into gold.

That, then, is bliss. And it cannot be taught or learned from books. Each one has to rediscover this secret individually.