Navarathri – Celebrating the Feminine Divine at Sri Meenakshi Temple

By Ranjana Narasiman

PEARLAND: This is the season to celebrate, divinity in the feminine form.  Each year, during the month of October, starting on the new moon day and for nine nights, Devi, the Goddess manifestation of the ultimate Divinity, is celebrated in a variety of cultural ways all over India.  The Hindu diaspora continues this tradition off the shores of India.

Sri Meenakshi Temple Society in Pearland, primarily a Shakthi temple, celebrates this event each year, South Indian style,  by creating a colorful and spectacular display called the “Golu” of the multifarious manifestations of the divine..figurines of animal and human forms, the saints, temple deities representing  the three predominant streams of worship, the Saiva, Vaishnava and Shakta, the various avataars, the dissolver Shiva and consort Durga, the preserver Vishnu and consort Lakshmi and the creator Brahma and consort Saraswathi. All representing the cyclical nature of the universe, from creation to sustenance to dissolution and back to creation again. They are displayed on steps showing the different levels of manifestations of the one single divinity called BRAHMAN. On each of the nine nights of Navarathri, the “Golu” display provided a forum and background for the display of local and imported talents in the classical arts, music, dance, and the poetic narration of stories called Katha Kalakshepam.  The focus of this festival’s celebration is the feminine divine form of Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi, symbolic of valor, wealth and wisdom, the three qualities in their purest forms, so desirable on earth, which we know in modern terms as security, economics and education, perhaps, to remind us of our duties of protecting the family, managing economics and striving for knowledge.  Each of these feminine forms is devoted three days respectively, culminating in Saraswathi Pooja on the ninth night and Vijaya Dasami on the tenth day.  Students are initiated into learning the art form of their choice on the tenth day.

Hundreds of devotees visited the temple to pray, perform and enjoy during the week.  The Friday of Navarathri (Navarathri Vellikizhamai) is the most auspicious for the Goddess, who, on this evening, blesses “Suvasinis”, the young girls, with gifts.  In addition to the Golu, the procession deities take on different garbs to depict the many stories from the Puranas (the ancient story books) of the Shaiva, Vaishnava and Shaaktha streams of worship.

Sri Meenakshi Temple, with its primary deity as Goddess Meenakshi along with Lord Sundareshwarar and Lord Venkateshwarar, artistically displayed many tales  such as that of  Mahisasura Mardhini, Vamana Avataar, Krishna Avataar, Meenakshi’s Siva Pooja and many others.

Being a temple dedicated to Shakti, the Goddess form of Brahman, the very power that provides the energy needed for manifestation, this festival has become one of its three signature events. Mahotsavam in spring, Navarathri in fall and Deepavali in winter.