vAk devi - Interaction facilitating speech
'Speech' powered interaction developed the homosapiens, differentiating them from all other beings in the planet. It is the speech based interaction that gave them the power to rule over other beings in the planet and enabled them to be the top of the biological chain. It is because speech gave physical form to their thoughts, helped it freely flow across minds, manifested as knowledge and improved their intelligence.
This speech or expression that facilitates interaction is called 'vAk' devi or 'vac'.
vAk devi is described in Rg Veda 10.125. In my studies vAk is not exactly interaction facilitating human speech or expression. But this interaction facilitating speech is the equivalent of vAk in human domain. So for the purpose of this article, vAk devi is speech or more correctly, 'expression' that facilitates interaction.
VAk devi or Vac, the speech, the expression is said to be the mother of vedas. For all the knowledge that we have, she is the mother. She is the Queen of Heavens.
VAk devi is the Durga, Lakshmi and Sarasvati.
Though the Nava-ratras have nine forms of goddesses being worshipped, they are derived from the three main goddesses of Durga, Lakshmi and Sarasvati. All of them are expressed in one, vAk devi.
So actually we are celebrating the nine forms of vAk devi, the speech, the expression in this period of nava-rAtras.
Lakshmi Durga and Sarasvathi
A human expression has three components. They are 1. Conceptualization 2. Formulation 3. Articulation.
Conceptualization (Lakshmi - Wealth of thoughts):
Our consciousness drives our thoughts. We put our thoughts together coherently and conceptualize what we need to communicate. Conceptualization brings out the consciousness, through thoughts, in the form of a message that we want to communicate.
In my book on Ganapati, Lakshmi Sarasvati, I had explained how Lakshmi is 'Consciousness'. Lakshmi means 'sign' or 'mark'. Our consciousness is the sign or mark of another supreme consciousness.
Lakshmi is also the wealth. The real wealth of human beings is our 'thoughts', which symbolize consciousness. As long as we are able to think, we are wealthy.
Diversity of thoughts is the real wealth for us. Hence Lakshmi is synonymous with wealth.
Formulation (Durga - Courage to express):
Formulation is moving our thoughts into some physical form. The physical form could be vibrations of sound. It becomes speech. It could be words or images in a paper. It is writing. It could be words or images on a rock or metal. It is art or sculpture. It could be words or images in a computer. It is software programs and algorithms.
Essentially it is giving physical shape to our thoughts. It is the physical motion/movement of our thoughts.
Shiva is Energy, Shakti is momentum. Energy and Momentum cannot be separated like Shiva and Shakti.
Dur-ga means tough movement/motion. Dur-ga is a form of shakti, the momentum (motion). Dur-ga is the ability to go through tough/difficult physical movement and bring our thoughts to some physical form.
Dur-ga has lot of blockers. It is not easy to express our thoughts. It is tough. Hence it is dur-ga.
It needs courage to express what we think in spite of the 'tough/difficult' situation around. Many of us chose silence, not because we don't think, but because we don't have dur-ga, the ability for tough/difficult movement.
Hence Durga becomes synonymous with courage or bravery.
Articulation (Sarasvati - Knowledge from flow of thoughts):
Saras means free flow. Sarasvati means one who is freely flowing. Sarasvati is freely flowing thoughts from sender to receivers. It is articulation that allows the information to flow from sender to receiver and be received.
This articulation or free flow of thoughts between sender and receivers leads to knowledge. Hence sarasvati is knowledge.
When we celebrate Durga, Lakshmi, Sarasvati in Navaratri, we are celebrating our ability to have diversity of thoughts, courage to express the thoughts and ability to articulate it well so that it becomes knowledge.
Importance of Durga, Lakshmi, Sarasvati
These three goddesses define human interaction. It is human interaction that drives the knowledge evolution in the planet. Without wealth of thoughts, without courage to express these thoughts and easy/free flow of transfer of thoughts, human interaction and evolution of intelligence will not happen.
But who are the enemies of Durga, Lakshmi, Sarasvati, the enemies of Vak devi..?
There are several enemies of vAk devi in her form of durga, lakshmi and sarasvati.
Many times we conceptualize easily. We have a wealth of thoughts in us. We can articulate well and a free flow of thoughts improving knowledge.
But we don't take effort to get over our fears, come out and express ourselves. Giving physical shape to our thoughts is the most difficult thing to do. Hence it is called dur-ga, tough to move. Hence most of the enemies of vAk devi are enemies of durga, the physical manifestation of our thoughts.
Enemies of durga - mahiSa - The herd mentality
The prominent enemy of Durga, the physical manifestation of our thoughts is mahiSa.
mahiSa is a buffalo. A buffalo by nature is heavy, slow and herd mentality. The strong herd mentality that every one of us have, have to be overcome and defeated by Durga, for our thoughts to physically manifest. We have to have the courage to exit the herd to give physical shape to our thoughts.
This herd mentality and keeping quite is the most prominent enemy we need to defeat.
Enemies of durga - dhumra-locana - The confusers
There are also other enemies. For eg. dhumra-locanna, the smokey-eyed and his sixty thousand variations..
As we give physical shape to our thoughts, we are afraid of people who are going to throw smoke around our thoughts and confuse us. There are umpteen variations of these confusions and we are afraid we will lose our coherence of thoughts to these smoke filling/confusing dhumra-locanas.
We need to get over this fear.
Enemies of durga - canda and munda - opposition and directionless
Then there are other enemies. For eg. Canda and Munda.
As we give physical shape to our thoughts, we are afraid of people who are going to fiercely, violently resist it. These are the Candas. We need to find ways to encounter these Candas.
We are also afraid of people who are going to be pointless, making our thoughts directionless, like a headless chicken. These are the Mundas. We need to circumvent them.
Enemies of durga - shumbha and nishumbha - Bhakt mentality
There are also still other enemies. For eg. Shumbha and Nishumbha
As we give physical shape to our thoughts, we have to encounter people who want us to submit to them and accept their supremacy. These people don't discuss on merit of our thoughts. They are encapsulated by their own ideas, extremely passionate about their own ideas. They would simply want our thoughts to be submitting to them or accepting them. If we don't they try to burn us down, instead of discussing our thoughts.
These Shumbhas are the passionate bhakts who shoot the messenger and not listen to the message, if the message is not in conformance with their existing ideas.
Then there are the brothers of Shumbha, the nishumbhas. They are same as shumbhas. But even if we vanquish them with our arguments, they will rise from that corpse and fight again.
Nishumbhas also shoot the messengers, but they keep doing it even after they are defeated, because they are extremely vengeful.
As we give physical shape to our thoughts, we have to encounter these shumbhas and nishumbhas also.
Hence giving physical shape to our thoughts is not easy. Hence the power that fights all these and enables us to give that shape is called 'dur-ga', the tough movement.
Navaratras - Slay the demons
Navaratras are the time we slay these demons.
These demons of herd mentality that stop us from voicing our thoughts. The demons that we fear which creates smoke-screens and confuse us. The demons of fierce opposition to our thoughts. The demons that we fear will make our thoughts go pointless and directionless. The demons of bhakt mentality that we fear will want to overpower our thoughts and make us submit to them, without any interaction.
We slay the demon of herd mentality by being ready to fight alone. Finally durga jumped alone on the mahiSa and slaying him.
We slay the demon of confusion by making our thoughts structured and coherent.
We slay the demons of fierce opposition by reasoning and logic. Reasoning and logic are the two heads that Camunda holds in her hands.
We slay the demons of bhakt mentality that shoots the messenger instead of message with a trident or trishul. Trishul represents Power (Rajas), Will (Sattva) and determination (Tamas). We need to have the determination to stay the course, Will to challenge status-quo, power in the thoughts that we share
vAk devi is expression, speech that enables interaction, which in turn creates knowledge.
Being ready to fight alone, making our thoughts structured and coherent, with proper reasoning and logic, with power in the thoughts we share, with determination to fight the challenges, with will to challenge status-quo is the way vAk devi can become victorious and develop knowledge in our society.
That's the real meaning of Nine nights, the nava-ratri.
Let's worship vAk devi by breaking our silence, voicing our thoughts in the above manner.
-TBT
'Speech' powered interaction developed the homosapiens, differentiating them from all other beings in the planet. It is the speech based interaction that gave them the power to rule over other beings in the planet and enabled them to be the top of the biological chain. It is because speech gave physical form to their thoughts, helped it freely flow across minds, manifested as knowledge and improved their intelligence.
This speech or expression that facilitates interaction is called 'vAk' devi or 'vac'.
vAk devi is described in Rg Veda 10.125. In my studies vAk is not exactly interaction facilitating human speech or expression. But this interaction facilitating speech is the equivalent of vAk in human domain. So for the purpose of this article, vAk devi is speech or more correctly, 'expression' that facilitates interaction.
VAk devi or Vac, the speech, the expression is said to be the mother of vedas. For all the knowledge that we have, she is the mother. She is the Queen of Heavens.
VAk devi is the Durga, Lakshmi and Sarasvati.
Though the Nava-ratras have nine forms of goddesses being worshipped, they are derived from the three main goddesses of Durga, Lakshmi and Sarasvati. All of them are expressed in one, vAk devi.
So actually we are celebrating the nine forms of vAk devi, the speech, the expression in this period of nava-rAtras.
Lakshmi Durga and Sarasvathi
A human expression has three components. They are 1. Conceptualization 2. Formulation 3. Articulation.
Conceptualization (Lakshmi - Wealth of thoughts):
Our consciousness drives our thoughts. We put our thoughts together coherently and conceptualize what we need to communicate. Conceptualization brings out the consciousness, through thoughts, in the form of a message that we want to communicate.
In my book on Ganapati, Lakshmi Sarasvati, I had explained how Lakshmi is 'Consciousness'. Lakshmi means 'sign' or 'mark'. Our consciousness is the sign or mark of another supreme consciousness.
Lakshmi is also the wealth. The real wealth of human beings is our 'thoughts', which symbolize consciousness. As long as we are able to think, we are wealthy.
Diversity of thoughts is the real wealth for us. Hence Lakshmi is synonymous with wealth.
Formulation (Durga - Courage to express):
Formulation is moving our thoughts into some physical form. The physical form could be vibrations of sound. It becomes speech. It could be words or images in a paper. It is writing. It could be words or images on a rock or metal. It is art or sculpture. It could be words or images in a computer. It is software programs and algorithms.
Essentially it is giving physical shape to our thoughts. It is the physical motion/movement of our thoughts.
Shiva is Energy, Shakti is momentum. Energy and Momentum cannot be separated like Shiva and Shakti.
Dur-ga means tough movement/motion. Dur-ga is a form of shakti, the momentum (motion). Dur-ga is the ability to go through tough/difficult physical movement and bring our thoughts to some physical form.
Dur-ga has lot of blockers. It is not easy to express our thoughts. It is tough. Hence it is dur-ga.
It needs courage to express what we think in spite of the 'tough/difficult' situation around. Many of us chose silence, not because we don't think, but because we don't have dur-ga, the ability for tough/difficult movement.
Hence Durga becomes synonymous with courage or bravery.
Articulation (Sarasvati - Knowledge from flow of thoughts):
Saras means free flow. Sarasvati means one who is freely flowing. Sarasvati is freely flowing thoughts from sender to receivers. It is articulation that allows the information to flow from sender to receiver and be received.
This articulation or free flow of thoughts between sender and receivers leads to knowledge. Hence sarasvati is knowledge.
When we celebrate Durga, Lakshmi, Sarasvati in Navaratri, we are celebrating our ability to have diversity of thoughts, courage to express the thoughts and ability to articulate it well so that it becomes knowledge.
Importance of Durga, Lakshmi, Sarasvati
These three goddesses define human interaction. It is human interaction that drives the knowledge evolution in the planet. Without wealth of thoughts, without courage to express these thoughts and easy/free flow of transfer of thoughts, human interaction and evolution of intelligence will not happen.
But who are the enemies of Durga, Lakshmi, Sarasvati, the enemies of Vak devi..?
There are several enemies of vAk devi in her form of durga, lakshmi and sarasvati.
Many times we conceptualize easily. We have a wealth of thoughts in us. We can articulate well and a free flow of thoughts improving knowledge.
But we don't take effort to get over our fears, come out and express ourselves. Giving physical shape to our thoughts is the most difficult thing to do. Hence it is called dur-ga, tough to move. Hence most of the enemies of vAk devi are enemies of durga, the physical manifestation of our thoughts.
Enemies of durga - mahiSa - The herd mentality
The prominent enemy of Durga, the physical manifestation of our thoughts is mahiSa.
mahiSa is a buffalo. A buffalo by nature is heavy, slow and herd mentality. The strong herd mentality that every one of us have, have to be overcome and defeated by Durga, for our thoughts to physically manifest. We have to have the courage to exit the herd to give physical shape to our thoughts.
This herd mentality and keeping quite is the most prominent enemy we need to defeat.
Enemies of durga - dhumra-locana - The confusers
There are also other enemies. For eg. dhumra-locanna, the smokey-eyed and his sixty thousand variations..
As we give physical shape to our thoughts, we are afraid of people who are going to throw smoke around our thoughts and confuse us. There are umpteen variations of these confusions and we are afraid we will lose our coherence of thoughts to these smoke filling/confusing dhumra-locanas.
We need to get over this fear.
Enemies of durga - canda and munda - opposition and directionless
Then there are other enemies. For eg. Canda and Munda.
As we give physical shape to our thoughts, we are afraid of people who are going to fiercely, violently resist it. These are the Candas. We need to find ways to encounter these Candas.
We are also afraid of people who are going to be pointless, making our thoughts directionless, like a headless chicken. These are the Mundas. We need to circumvent them.
Enemies of durga - shumbha and nishumbha - Bhakt mentality
There are also still other enemies. For eg. Shumbha and Nishumbha
As we give physical shape to our thoughts, we have to encounter people who want us to submit to them and accept their supremacy. These people don't discuss on merit of our thoughts. They are encapsulated by their own ideas, extremely passionate about their own ideas. They would simply want our thoughts to be submitting to them or accepting them. If we don't they try to burn us down, instead of discussing our thoughts.
These Shumbhas are the passionate bhakts who shoot the messenger and not listen to the message, if the message is not in conformance with their existing ideas.
Then there are the brothers of Shumbha, the nishumbhas. They are same as shumbhas. But even if we vanquish them with our arguments, they will rise from that corpse and fight again.
Nishumbhas also shoot the messengers, but they keep doing it even after they are defeated, because they are extremely vengeful.
As we give physical shape to our thoughts, we have to encounter these shumbhas and nishumbhas also.
Hence giving physical shape to our thoughts is not easy. Hence the power that fights all these and enables us to give that shape is called 'dur-ga', the tough movement.
Navaratras - Slay the demons
Navaratras are the time we slay these demons.
These demons of herd mentality that stop us from voicing our thoughts. The demons that we fear which creates smoke-screens and confuse us. The demons of fierce opposition to our thoughts. The demons that we fear will make our thoughts go pointless and directionless. The demons of bhakt mentality that we fear will want to overpower our thoughts and make us submit to them, without any interaction.
We slay the demon of herd mentality by being ready to fight alone. Finally durga jumped alone on the mahiSa and slaying him.
We slay the demon of confusion by making our thoughts structured and coherent.
We slay the demons of fierce opposition by reasoning and logic. Reasoning and logic are the two heads that Camunda holds in her hands.
We slay the demons of bhakt mentality that shoots the messenger instead of message with a trident or trishul. Trishul represents Power (Rajas), Will (Sattva) and determination (Tamas). We need to have the determination to stay the course, Will to challenge status-quo, power in the thoughts that we share
vAk devi is expression, speech that enables interaction, which in turn creates knowledge.
Being ready to fight alone, making our thoughts structured and coherent, with proper reasoning and logic, with power in the thoughts we share, with determination to fight the challenges, with will to challenge status-quo is the way vAk devi can become victorious and develop knowledge in our society.
That's the real meaning of Nine nights, the nava-ratri.
Let's worship vAk devi by breaking our silence, voicing our thoughts in the above manner.
-TBT
