There are 3 aspects to Bhajan.

 

There are 3 aspects to Bhajan. 

1. Stuti (praising). Stuti is singing the glory of the divine. What happens to you when you the sing glory of anybody? Your consciousness expands. Your consciousness gets elevated. To elevate our consciousness, we sing the glory of divinity. That gives you immense pleasure and deep love. It kindles deep love. When you love someone, then you keep talking about them. When you talk, when you praise, it kindles love and devotion inside you.

2. Prarthana (prayer). Prayer is offering your needs and botherations to the divine. What happens when you pray? All that you want, you have offered, you have become free from desires and wishes. You have prayed knowing that your prayer is granted, then will you keep that wish again? No. Imagine that it is already fulfilled. When a wish is fulfilled, it is gone. If it is not the right wish, then the divine knows or the Mother knows that it is not to be fulfilled and she takes care of it. Offering our fears, anxieties, desires, wishes is prayer.

3. Upasana. There is no word for Upanasana in English so we have to use the same word. Upasana is creating a relationship with the divine; connecting with the divine. In a very deep sense, you are a part of it and divinity is part of you. Everything is mother divine: intellect,  memory, even confusion. Even confusion is mother divine. Recognising the divinity in everything and in yourself, connecting with the divinity, establishing a deep sense of connection is called Upanasana.

These three things together make a Bhajan and that is what makes life a celebration. Where you are free from all that you want to be free from and realize that you are totally dependent on the divinity is the way to invoke love and devotion in ourselves and this festival is for invoking the devotion, to invoke the truth that all is one. And that one is everything. This truth that God is not difficult to achieve. You should not strive and strain yourself to achieve God. God is already here. All that you need to do is in the here and now, relax. Only in deep rest, divinity dawns. Not by doing too many things. In deep rest, divinity dawns. 

Navratri is a celebration of this recognition. I am That. I am She. She is me. She is everything. The whole universe is all permeated by divinity, is of divine.

Deep acceptance, total rest and deep peace. This is the way to realize God who is here and now. 

But what stops us from doing that? Our mind and our desires. So stuti - praising the divine, prarthana - offering all your desires and becoming free from desires. And then upasana, getting connected to the divinity. The Divine is anyway connected to you. You have to simply recognize the connection, and then life becomes a celebration. Not then, now. Now life becomes a celebration. You have to do this now. Right away.- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar