Nilakshi Sharma
Replete with many rice-filled fields
right up to the village frontiers,
resonant with the cries of herons
and with frost appearing now:
these are all delightful traits
that steal away young women’s hearts;
may this time of snow bestow
every joy upon you all.
- Ritusamharam by Kalidasa
Pausha is a month of silence and solitude; of turning our focus and energies inwards, of seeding our strengths and nourishing our foundations; but most of all, Pausha is the time of remembrance. Traditionally, Pausha is the month dedicated to ancestors.
In this month the cold hush of winter envelops the land, and nature seems to be frozen in stillness. The days are grey, the Sun is a pale disc leached of colour and warmth and with Winter Solstice on December 21, we experience the very heart of winter – when the day is the shortest and night the longest in the Northern Hemisphere.
Harking back to a time when humans lived solely by the light of the Sun, Winter Solstice has held a potent sway over our imagination. There are many myths, legends and pagan rituals associated with Winter Solstice. Because of the increasing length of the nights leading to the solstice and the decrease in daylight, the Winter Solstice was once linked to the myth of the Sun’s death and rebirth. Fitting, given that at this time the earth seems to be shrouded in silence and shadows.
But the month of Pausha offers us more than merely the fascination with the shortest day of the year. It offers us the opportunity to remember, to reflect and to start afresh.
Rituals of Reflection
Pausha is a time of remembrance and of turning inwards. In the still solitude of winter, when outdoor activities are limited, it is ideal to turn our attention towards the practices and routines that nurture and nourish our bodies and minds. This month is ideal for meditation and meditative practices. Also, since the month of Pausha invariably runs from sometime in December to approximately mid-January, the Gregorian New Year always starts during this traditional month. And as we all know, that brings with its own emotional stress in the form of regrets over things left undone or things we wish to put behind us as well the desire for a fresh start in the New Year. Thus, what we choose to practice and put our energy into in this month can have a profoundly positive impact on us.
Meditation: This can be an ideal practice for helping us heal in the form of an emotional cleanse and help us reset ourselves as it were. One of the traditional meditation practices ideal for this purpose is Trātak, loosely translated as flame gazing. Trātak traditionally is one of the Shat Kriyas or Cleansing Practices of classical Yoga.
The practice of Trātak aims to focus your awareness on a single point – the flame, in order to promote awareness, concentration, still the mind and simultaneously soothe and strengthen the eyes and the nervous system. Ideally Trātak is done with the flame of a Diya (earthen or metal lamp) using pure Ghee (clarified butter). As a meditation and cleansing practice, Trātak can help ground and centre us powerfully within ourselves and calm our nervous system. It is also thought to help improve memory and concentration, while offering relief from anxiety, and insomnia.
Journaling: This modern practice can be highly effective as a tool for self-reflection and release. Writing can be a beautiful way also of processing all that we are going through and feeling. More importantly, it can become a ritual of release. Many years ago, at a workshop in Paro, one of our speakers suggested a beautiful but gentle exercise – a list of ‘things you are grateful for in this year’ that was designed to encourage us to start a journaling practice. But it is, I feel, equally apt to create a much-needed ritual of release to say goodbye to the year and allow us to start the new year with a cleaner slate. Think of it as cleansing ourselves in preparation for the new year.
The exercise is simple: Take a notebook and pen or a pencil. And create two lists – one that lists all the things that you are grateful for in the year that is coming to a close. Secondly, a list of all the things/ habits/ moments that you want to leave behind, to let go of along with the year that is coming to a close. The lists can be as long or as short as you need them to be. There can be more than these two lists. The aim is to help us become consciously aware of what made us happy or filled us with gratitude and joy over the last 12 months and what made us sad or what we would like to leave behind as we enter the new year.
Rituals of Warmth
In this cold month, we all need warmth. And that can come in many different ways – from selfcare rituals for the body to the food that we eat. Below are some simple but highly effective traditional practices.
Seasame Seeds: Traditionally these seeds, which are a nutritional powerhouse, are a regular part of our winter diet. Either on their own or as Laddus. Whichever way you prefer, it is very beneficial to make them a part of your daily diet in this month.
Warming Self-massage: Abhyanga, the Ayurvedic practice of self-massage with gently warmed oil is perfect as a daily self-care ritual in this month. Mustard oil is a good choice as it is a heavy, warming oil. Sesame seed oil or medicated Ayurvedic oils are also good choices. Avoid lighter, cooling oils such as Coconut or Almond oil. Gently warm the oil and massage the body in slow, long strokes. Bathe after thirty minutes with warm water. Avoid soap – you can use traditional cleansing grains such as ubtans instead. Better blood circulation and nourished skin are two among the many benefits of this practice.
Winter Remedies: Despite all our precautions we are likely to experience more mucous-related ailments such as cold, congestion and phlegm at this time of the year. Traditional tisanes and practices are a good way of dealing with some of the ailments typical of this wet and cold season.
- Heating Winter Tisane: A warming winter tisane, this concoction enhances digestive fire, helps with better elimination and better circulation.
Ingredients: 1 tsp Ginger powder, 1 ½ tsp Cinnamon powder, ¼ tsp Cardamom powder. Mix all the powders and store in an airtight container. To make the tisane: Steep 1 teaspoon of the mix in a cup of boiling hot water. Let stand for 5 to 7 minutes. Drink warm after adding a little Honey.
- Clearing Excess Kapha: This is an Ayurvedic home remedy recommended by Dr Lad. It helps in preventing and clearing excess Kapha from our respiratory tracts, allowing us to steer clear of Kapha-related imbalances such as congestion.
Ingredients: ½ tsp Ginger powder + ½ tsp Ground Mustard powder + 1 tsp Honey. Mix all three together into a paste and have twice a day. Sip hot water along with it if desired.
Pausha and Prayers
Along with ancestors, Pausha is also the month of two goddesses.
Pausha Amāvasya: Amāvasya or the New Moon of Pausha is the most important day for rituals dedicated to ancestors. In this month, they are thought to be especially attentive to us. Thus, we honour them and seek their blessings with prayers and ritual practices. Thus fasting, a ritual bath in a sacred river such as the Ganges, prayers and giving of grains and clothes as dān (charity) are some of the traditional practices followed on Pausha Amavasya. This year Pausha Amāvasya will fall on December 30.
Pausha Lakshmi: One classical description of Hemanta rtu focuses on the fact that while the world is shrouded in mist and blanketed by snow, and the Sun is pale, all the “light and colour of the seasons seems to have taken refuge in the ripe rice-plants, which shine like gold”. Rice planted in the rainy season is harvested in November-December, i.e., Pausha. This bounty of the earth; which comes to fill our granaries just as we enter the coldest fallow season, when the earth will be laden with frost and snow; is one that was once celebrated as a blessing of abundance and worshipped as Pausha Lakshmi or Saubhāgya Lakshmi.
There are few remnants left of this traditional agrarian festival; in parts of Bengal the ritual worship of Pausha/ Dhan Lakshmi is celebrated as ‘Lokhi Pujo’. The goddess is worshipped not as an idol but as ‘Lokhi Shora’ – an earthen disc upon which the goddess Lakshmi is drawn, or hand painted. Often even this disc is replaced by earthen pots filled with paddy that are then worshipped as Dhan Lakshmi. Other rituals include the making of ‘kola ghacher bhela’ – boats carved from the stem of Banana trees. Perhaps these signify the successful storage of harvested grain – which in earlier times would have been a form of wealth. Even the bhog or prasad offered to the goddess is typically vegetarian and consists of grains, nuts and seeds.
Shākambhari Purnimā: The month of Pausha ends with a Full Moon celebration of an oft forgotten goddess – Shākambhari Devi, “She who brings forth vegetation”. Legend has it that after a century of persistent drought, the earth was ravaged by famine and devoid of vegetation. In desperation gods and men alike beseeched the Great Goddess – Shakti, for help. Shakti answered the prayers by manifesting upon earth as Shākambhari Devi. For nine days and nine nights her body sprouted vegetation to regenerate the earth. She sublimated her body into the flora and forests that feed and sustain life. The days that took to rejuvenate the earth were once celebrated as Shākambhari Navratri. The Shākambhari Navrātri begins on Pausha Shukla Ashtami (January 7, 2025) and ends with Pausha Purnimā (13 January, 2025).
Pausha Shukla Ashtami is known as Banada Ashtami or Banadashtami. One of the names of Shākambhari is Banadevi (the goddess of the forest). In Karnataka this goddess is known as Banshankari Devi.
May the stillness and solitude of Pausha offer you peace and clarity and may the two goddesses of this month bless you with the grace of renewal and rejuvenation.
