Navami offering of bali to Goddess Durga; today largely symbolic (ash gourd, sugarcane, banana)

Durga Balidan is the ritual offering of bali to the Goddess on Maha Navami, an ancient part of the Shakta worship described in the Kalika Purana and the Devi Purana. In the classical rite the bali represented the surrender of life-force to the Mother who had slain Mahishasura, the buffalo-demon, and historically animal sacrifice was performed in many Bengal, Assam and Odisha pujas. Over the last century most households, community pujas and institutions such as the Ramakrishna Mission have replaced it entirely with a symbolic bali — an ash gourd (chalkumro), sugarcane, cucumber or banana — offered with the same mantras. Spiritual teachers interpret the bali as the sacrifice of one's own inner beast: the six enemies of kama (lust), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (delusion), mada (pride) and matsarya (envy), offered to the Mother so that she may destroy them as she destroyed Mahishasura. Some ancient Shakta shrines retain older customs according to their own traditions. For the household devotee, the essence of Durga Balidan is surrender — the offering of the ego at the Goddess's feet.

Devotees fast until pushpanjali on Navami.