Every Navratri the same news comes from Gujarat. Condom sales go up during Garba. People forward it like a joke. I don't find it funny, I find it sad. Because most of the people dancing have no idea what they are dancing around.
Garba comes from garbha. गर्भ. The womb.
In the centre of the circle sits a clay pot full of small holes, with a diya burning inside it. This is the garbha deep, the lamp in the womb. The pot is the body. The flame is the Devi who lives inside every being. And we go round and round it, slow in the start, then faster and faster, while the centre doesn't move at all. Everything around Her keeps spinning, She stays still. Time is a circle in our tradition and Garba simply dances that truth.
Tradition says this dance began as Maa Parvati's own lasya. She taught it to Usha, Usha taught the gopis of Dwarka, and from them it reached the women of Saurashtra. Women danced it with that lit pot on their heads, singing to Amba through the night. It was a prayer done with the feet.
The Devi Bhagavata, while describing the Navratri vrata, says the daily worship should end with dancing, singing and music. So yes, dance here is puja. Same text asks the one keeping the vrata to sleep on the ground for all 9 nights, and to worship little girls as forms of the Devi. The Saptashati says it even more plainly. Every woman in every world is Her form.
So by the logic of this festival, the girl dancing next to you in that circle is not an opportunity. She is the same Devi you came to worship.
Now about sin, since people keep asking.
Navratri is a vrata. The smritis are clear that sexual indulgence destroys the fruit of a fast. The Vishnu Purana goes further. On Ashtami, Chaturdashi, Amavasya and Purnima, even a married man is told to stay away from his own wife and spend the day in worship. One who doesn't, it says, falls into a hell where filth becomes his food. Maha Ashtami sits right inside Navratri, and it is just few days away. If the shastra pauses even a sacred marriage on that day, think what it says about a hotel room booked between two aartis.
I am not writing this to shame anyone, specially the young ones. Desire is not the enemy in Sanatan Dharma. In the Gita, Krishna says the desire which is not against dharma, that is Him. The same Gita calls kama a gate to hell. The only difference is dharma. Right time, right place, right relation.
Garba never asked anyone to kill desire. It asks you to hold it the way that pot holds the flame. Inside. Steady. Giving light, not burning the house down.
Even UNESCO, when it listed Garba in 2023, called it a ritual and devotional dance for Shakti. Outsiders understood it. Some of us forgot.
So tonight when you step into the circle, look at the centre first. A lamp is burning inside a womb of clay. That is Her. Look long enough and you will see, that is you also.
Jai Ambe.
In 1984, one man predicted Indira Gandhi's assassination in writing. Before it happened - That man was Shree K.N. Rao.
And HIS birth chart? It is one of the most extraordinary charts I have ever seen.
Let me show you why.
1/20 🧵
After the stunt you pulled in Brazil, even supporters like me, don’t want riot instigators like you in my country. You’re a good guy, keep your altruism is America. We’ve suffered more than our fair share of “noble intentions”. Thanks but no thanks 🙏🏾
मैं @ReallySwara को जौहर पर डिबेट की चुनौती देती हूँ।
भयावह क्षणों को एक सस्ती punchline में बदलना आसान है। दरिंदों से घिरी औरतों के सामने मौजूद उस ख़ौफ़ को A.C. Hall में बैठकर कायराना कह देना आसान है।
एक होता है रहमोकरम पर जीना— एक होता आन बान शान से जीना..
रानी पद्मावती और हज़ारों औरतों ने अपनी देह, अस्मिता सम्मान पर आख़िरी फैसला किसी हवसी आक्रांता पर नहीं छोड़ा…
@Yashraajsharrma Ju (AmK) in 9th of Lagna Chart, in Scorpio(Mars Lord)
& in conjunction with Saturn in 5th of Navamsa Chart, in Aquarius(Saturn Lord).