A day to revere tools, contemplate and re-commit to profession

Ayudha Puja (or) Astra Puja - Legend says it all started to celebrate the victory of good over evil, when on the Mahanavami day (ninth day of Navratri), the weapons used by Goddess Shakthi to vanquish the demon Mahishasura, were worshipped. There is also a story from Mahabarat, which mentions about Arjuna taking back his weapons that he had concealed in a Banni Tree on this Mahanavami day - a connect we can still see today in Mysore Dusshera festivities - where the royal scion first offers workship to the Banni Tree at Banni Mantap and flags off the grand Dusshera procession.

So what started off as a practice to worship weapons and warfare, moved on to the tools used by people from various walks of life like ploughs, farm implements, tools, musical instruments, electric appliances, vehicles, books and with the increasing “knowledge-workers”, the computers too were added to the list.

In almost every household in Southern India, the books are kept for worship today, the vehicles are decorated and it’s a sight to see the vehicles decorated with festoons, and vermilion. Every auto-rickshaw stand in Tamil Nadu will be celebrating this festival, with decorated auto-rickshaws - a celebration that has been made immortal by this movie song.

While there are many mythologies surrounding the celebrations, in addition to religious fervor I also see this day as:

1. A day for paying reverence to the tools, machines, that help us earn our livelihood. This is a day which focuses specific attention to one’s profession and its related tools and connotes that a divine force is working behind it to perform well and for getting the proper reward. I am not sure if there is a parallel to this in any other culture / tradition.
2. It is more than a ritual - "Reverence does not mean worship or a ritual, reverence simply means you look up to it in a certain way. If you do not look up to it, if you think it is less than you, you will not be involved in it. Where you are not involved, you will not benefit from it. So, anything that you use, you see it as something above yourself and bow down to it so that it brings a deep sense of involvement. Once that involvement is there, you will handle it well and will get the best out of it. You will know the joy of doing things, not just of achieving things. The quality of life is not just in how much you harvested. The quality life is in how joyfully you did what you did. If you treat your implement with reverence, it will bring joy into you because everytime you hold it, it is like touching God – you are constantly in touch with what you consider divine." - Sadhguru
3. Take a pause from the maddening race - just for a day - many of us have been running 24x7 along with our machines, and this day when you turn off your machines - acts as a 'preventive maintenance day' not just for the machines but for yourself - an opportunity to reflect back on the profession, work-life balance, contemplate if you are running in the right direction and then recommit again the next day with renewed vigor

As I keep my tools - my books and my computer for worship on this Navami day today, it is not just a ritual, but a day to pause, reflect, contemplate and recommit to my profession - will be back again tomorrow !!!

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are my personal point of view and do not in anyway represent that of the organization I work for.

I have also recently co-authored a book SHAPE IT focusing on life-skills required for budding engineers to survive and succeed at workplace.