There are four Navaratri (nava –‘nine’, r tri –‘nights’) festivals in the year, at the changes of the seasons. Sharadiya –‘autumn’ radiya –‘autumn’ is the most important and most widely celebrated. Vasantha –‘spring’ Navaratri is also popular, at the start of the month Chaitra around the beginning of April.

While Navaratri is a period of celebration, it is also a time for introspection. The Goddess is worshipped at this time partly because we need extra protection when the season is changing and winter is approaching.

At Navaratri time the gates of both Heaven and Hell are more widely open and, as well as receiving the protection of the Goddess against the demonic forces, we can also more easily connect to and worship
Shri Mataji with that devotion and dedication which is the key to our emancipation.

Worshipping Shri Mataji as the Goddess Incarnate gives us extra depth and power to delve into ourselves and weed out the workings of the Six Enemies and other demonic tendencies within us. Shri Mataji laid particular stress on the sixth day, being the day when we should clear our ego, because if we fail in that the rest has little meaning.