It's NAVREH today

The early day today started with a memorable ritual. The Darshan of the filled in thali as noted in the earlier post (Buth-Wuchun) took me instantly back to our roots. We have experienced an unprecedented revolution in our lives during these years. Though on the face of it everything is normal, even better, as our children have grown financially stronger during these years, they are well off and the dimensions of our thoughts and deeds have widened substantially having come out of the solitude of the valley but still emotionally we are out of place especially we elders. Sometime I attribute it to our stubborn attitude of not accommodating with the changed circumstances.
This festival reverberates our past visits to Hari-Parbat hillock situated in the periphery of Srinagar, an ancient and the holiest of the holy shrine of Kashmir. It’s the abode of Jagatamba Sharika Bagwati also known as Maha-Tripursundari or Raja-Rajeshuri. The eighteen armed Goddess is considered the presiding deity of Srinagar city. The Goddess Sharika is represented by a self-made Srichakra also called Mahashriyantra, which consists of circular mystic impressions and triangular patterns with a dot (bindhu) at the Centre. The holy Srichakra is engraved on a vertical holy rock (Shila) located at the middle of western face of Hari Parbat. Shri-Yantra is the most auspicious, most powerful Yantra worshipped for attaining all worldly desires. The saints and spiritually elevated persons devote themselves to it and achieve liberation from the cares of the world. The shrine called ‘Chakrishwar’ can be approached by a flight of one hundred and eight chiseled stones. The number one hundred and eight has a mystical significance in Hindu mythology.
The devotees used to visit Hari-Parbat regularly and reach the Shrine of Chakrishwar in the wee hours of the morning. On the occasion of Navreh thousands of KPs used to pay obeisance at the shrine and wish for their prosperity. Ashaad Navami (Har Navum) is said to be the Birthday of Maa Sharika. On this day the devotees made a sacrificial offering of ‘Teher-charvan’ (rice cooked with turmeric powder and mixed with oil, salt and cooked liver of goat) to the Goddess. This ritual was locally called ‘Chout Kharun’.
The whole hill of Hari Parbat seems to be the multi-dimensional figure of geometrical figure of Goddess Sharika and at the corner of the hill is this magnificent and holy rock and those who have the eye to look at it can find different geometrical images in the shape of triangles, squares and pentagons. One gets lost while gazing at this energy centre as it emits different figures while concentrating on it.The whole of Hari-Parbat is the holy of the holiest shrines as it’s the abode of numerous gods and goddesses. Since each and every stone, pebble, mound and slope of the hillock is auspicious so there was a tradition of going around the hill (Parikrama) in the wee hours of the morning and in olden days hundreds of KPs used to observe the Parikrama regularly, some of them all their lives, before their daily routine started. Now after the KPs having moved out of Kashmir these auspicious places seem neglected including Hari-Parbat though many a casual visitor visit the shrine and are welcomed by the security forces posted there for security....... (to be continued)