Ayudha Pooja is one of the most significant aspect of Navaratri. In Indian culture, we set up this aspect that whatever tool it may be, first we bow down it with respect. If we want to use our plough, first we bow down to it and then use it. If we want to use a book, first bow down to it and then use it. Ayudha Pooja means, every implement that we use, whether it is in industry, agriculture or anything else, you approach it respectfully. Unless we approach something with a certain sense of reverence and a deep sense of involvement, it will not yield. The same musical instruments become different things in different people’s hands. In one person’s hands it becomes noise, in another person’s hands it becomes absolutely enthralling music because of the way you approach it.
Reverence does not mean worship or a ritual, reverence simply means we look up to it in a certain way. If we do not look up to it, if we think it is less than our ownself, and we will not be involved in it. Where we are not involved, we will not benefit from it. So, anything that we use, we see it as something above our ownself and bow down to it so that it brings a deep sense of involvement. Once that involvement is there, we can automatically handle it well and will get the best out of it. We will know the joy of doing things, not just of achieving things. The quality of life is not just in how much we harvested. The quality life is in how joyfully we did what we did. If we treat our implement with reverence, it will bring joy into us because every time we hold it, it is like touching God – we are constantly in touch with what we consider divine.
But of all the instruments we use, the most fundamental instrument is our body and mind. Ayudha Pooja means to become reverential towards our own body and mind. If we become reverential towards something, reverence naturally brings a certain distance. If we become reverential towards our own body and mind, we will establish a clear distance between what we are and what our body is, and what we are and what our mind is. If there is a clear distinction between us and our body and mind, there is the end of suffering. Any suffering that we have known has entered in us either through the body or the mind. If it is a living experience for us that we are not the body, we are not the mind, can suffering touch us? If there is a certain distance, it gives us the freedom to do whatever we want with life, but life leaves us untouched. It does not wound us in any way.