--> Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from September 26, 2009


Animal Sacrifice during Durga Puja Navratri and Dashain is Himsa and should not be practiced – Swami Sivananda

Animal sacrifice or Bali or Balidana is practiced in some regions during Durga Puja and Navratri. It is also widely practiced on Durga Ashtami and Navami during Dashain in Nepal . Swami Sivananda says that we are to offer our inner evil traits of passion, greed, anger, ego, avarice etc as Bali and not poor animals. Worship the Mother of the Universe, the Shakti of Brahman, in her Supreme Form or in her manifested form according to your capacity. I need not stress over the obvious fact that you should strictly practice Ahimsa, Satya and Brahmacharya, if you are to realize Devi, the glorious Divine Power of the Supreme Reality. I stress upon the moral side and the ethical side of Sadhana, because no valuable achievement is possible with out it. Without it, high-flying idealisms will bring nothing; they will be a waste like oblations thrown on ashes. Worship of God or Goddess, if it is to result in spiritual illumination, the observance of Yama and Niyama is absolutely ne