Mother Nature's Revenge: Mula Nakshatra

The highest spiritual realms are a dream, they're the sole point of doing any spiritual practice, because they represent something mystical. We often seek mystical experiences for egotistical reasons maybe to gain fame, recognition, money, love etc. All of this solidifies and signifies the inseparableness of Shiva-Shakti: the pursuit of knowledge to fulfill desire, the accomplishment of desire leads to wanting to know more beyond it.

Despite being so aware of the obvious nature of our desire, we remain blinded to the seeking the source of desire to end this seeking from lifetime to lifetime. It is through this greediness, we are never still or in a state of balance, we become vikrit (opposite our true nature).

In Natyashastras, the pure dance, without a story that constantly changes is also known as Nritta. It is the dance that is void of any flavour, expression or structure because it is ecstatic, fierce and is solely dependent on the will and freedom of the dancer. Nritta is one of the upcharas (services) offered to Lord Shiva because He represents this ultimate freedom and bliss which is unrestrained. Mother Nature is the mirror in which Shiva knows Himself and can have physical form, She as Maya is so deeply intelligent that Shiva leaves His hermetical nature to care for the world like a father. Mother nature in Her soft, vegetative, non-violent and giving form is known as Shakhambari (She who bears vegetation). Human beings are the children of Mother Nature, She is kind enough to lend us this body as a gift from Her body, when we die we have to go back to Her.

However, like most children are, we are also needy and sometimes extremely selfish creatures and are constantly weeping about our desires. Despite having more than enough, we have this greed for more and the greed is never fulfilled so we forcibly begin to snatch, claw and force our Mother to give us more. More resources, more food, more space. This state of taking more than what we need is called Steya (stealing, thieving) in the yoga shastras because when we take more than what we need, we're also taking something that might not be ours.

Nritti

The Goddess Nritti is one that rules over Mula nakshatra (the root star in simple words). Nritti is the dikpala (guardian deity) of the South-West direction which has the planetary ruler Rahu. Rahu is often related to tribal and indigenous people who are the protectors of land and also have practices that can be considered 'outcast' by the mainstream. Rahu when we look at the Samudra Manthan was also the one who stood up against the act of Vishnu stealing the amrita and keeping it only for the 'elites' (devatas). Nritti is often known as things like 'adharma', 'chaos', and 'calamity' only because our own ideas of 'dharma' and 'calmness' are painted by colonizers. People in the modern day consider their job that makes money to be dharma, so they make money off the backs of other people and exploit them as much as possible to do their 'job' right. Colonization also took place due to the British viewing other nations as backwards and barbaric and wanted to subdue them because most of them were making far more progress in fields that were not confined only to material sciences. Colonization, slavery, pillaging etc. are huge acts of adharma that were and are still being celebrated by society in the name of monetary progress. Nritti as mother nature is constantly fighting adharma with adharma. Nature fights back with diseases, natural calamities and also by bringing things back to balance. We often think that natural calamities are extreme because we believe we're living balanced lifestyles but this ideology itself is constantly harming nature. Nritti is also known as 'atula' or non-balanced because She puts up a mirror in front of us, asking to examine the ways we've been dealing with life and what core principles we follow in it. Mula nakshatra is known as the star of prosperity because it has the ability to discern. The shakti of this nakshatra is known as 'bahrana shakti' which means the energy to tear apart. The materially prosperous side of this nakshatra is harvesting resources from earth, to tear apart Her body and extract what we need. The spiritually prosperous side of this nakshatra is one being able to tear themselves away from the ways of man-made civilization. Nritti is the abyss in which the unlawful are punished in the way they're in darkness forever which is a representation of the ways in which they've bought darkness to the world. This is however, also the reason why people born under this nakshatra are extremely empathetic and patient with the dark side of humanity and work towards rehabilitating and giving them a sense of balance.

Mula

Mula nakshatra is the power of nature which is why one of the names of Devi in the Lalita Sahasranama is 'mulaprakriti' -the root of nature. It is also said that Nritti keeps evolving, changing shape and form to adapt to the changes of society which is why the root of Her being remains grounded, stable and divine. This nakshatra shows the beauty and danger of change while sitting at a gandanta point which makes it even more powerful. The first gandanta point is to be looked at as the Brahma granthi (Brahma's knot) where one leaves selfishness and produces an heir (Ashlesha-Magha). The second gandanta point is known as Vishnu granthi and it represents the need to leave the kingdom and all of it's prosperity behind and begin the journey inwards (Jyeshtha-Mula). This journey is significant of one being a true yogi at heart because it gives them the ability to let their inhibitions go when it's needed and stay true to their divine selves.

गिरयस्ते पर्वता हिमवन्तोऽरण्यं ते पृथिवि स्योनमस्तु ।बभ्रुं कृष्णां रोहिणीं विश्वरूपां ध्रुवां भूमिं पृथिवीमिन्द्रगुप्ताम् । अजीतेऽहतो अक्षतोऽध्यष्ठां पृथिवीमहम् ॥

O Mother Earth, may your hills and snow-clad mountains (spread its coolness within us); may your forests spread its delight within us, you present a Vishwarupa with your many colours - Babhru (brown of mountains), krishna (blue of rivers), rohini (red of flowers); (but behind all these enchanting appearances) O Mother Earth, you are like Dhruva - Firm and Immovable; and you are protected by Indra, (on your firm foundation) which is unconquered, unslayed and unbroken whole, I stand firm and whole, O Mother.

-Bhu Suktam

ॐ फम। (Om Pham is the beeja of Mula and is known to destroy evil) 🔥