Sharad Navaratri

The demon Mahishasura had meditated for thousands of years to obtain a supreme boon from Brahma: no man or god could kill him. Armed with near-invincibility, he defeated the armies of Indra and seized the three worlds. The gods, homeless and humiliated, channeled their combined divine shakti (energy) into a single blazing stream of light that coalesced into the form of Goddess Durga—radiant, ten-armed, and mounted on a lion.

Each god armed her: Shiva gave her his trident, Vishnu his sudarshana discus, Indra his thunderbolt, Agni his fire dart, Vayu his bow, Varuna his conch, Surya filled her quiver with arrows, and the Himalaya itself gave her a lion as her divine vehicle.

For nine nights and ten days, Durga battled Mahishasura's vast demon army. The buffalo-demon kept shape-shifting—lion, human, buffalo—each time finding Durga had an answer for him. On the tenth day (Vijayadashami), she pinned Mahishasura under her foot and drove her trident through his chest. The nine nights celebrate her nine manifestations: Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kalaratri, Mahagauri, and Siddhidatri—nine faces of the divine feminine from the tender to the terrible.