Durvashtami is observed on the eighth day of the Shukla Paksha (waxing phase of moon) in Bhadrapad month. Durva Grass, an important item in Hindu ritual, is worshipped on the day.
Pujas and rituals are offered to Durva grass. Fruits, flowers, rice and other usual pujas accessories are offered on the day. It is believed that observing this Vrata will help in the long life of children.
Our culture is a culture of Aranya or Jungle. In this culture, making of a man and sustaining his life is possible only when we are constantly in touch with nature.
When a child enrolls with the Gurukul, no matter whether he learns engineering or medicine or any other skill, he or she has to go into nearby sacred groove/jungle for collecting wood. They also have to play a role of cowboy and go with the cattle on grass lands.
In Hindu rituals, the durva grass plays an important role. Rings made of the grass are often worn before starting either the ritual of homa — offerings to fire — and puja. It is considered as purification impact on Muladhar chakra (Ganesh).
In Veda, three grass are mentioned.
- Kusa
- Darbha
- Durva
They play important role in rituals and day to day life.
Some of the Atharva Veda hymns glorifying grass are compiled here:
“Driving away foes and casting them beneath me, mount with the strength of the mighty ones, O Darbha!” –
“Achieve heroic deeds with Darbha, wearing this Darbha never let thy soul be troubled.”
This is just a summary. If we do in depth research, we can find more detail about importance of grass.
Unfortunately, the development model of modern India does not like grass lands. They sell them to corporates for new wave of industrialization.
http://files.prokerala.com/festivals/pics/650×400/lord-ganesha-durva-grass-207.jpg
It is not some bacterium but Prana. Grass is powerful Prana storage who captures Prana’s different forms from Sun. The grass that can store maximum prana is powerful medicine.
This is the reason, rituals which demands healthy pranamay sharir of the performer, has grass as essential element.
If we talk about Durva grass, The plant pacifies vitiated pitta, kapha, burning sensation, haematuria, wounds, conjunctivitis, headache, skin diseases, stomach problems and general debility. The whole plant is medicinal according to Hindhu medical God Dhanwantari who gave to the world the science of Ayurveda. The plant is medicinal when used both internally and externally. It helps to stops bleeding increases the amount of urine excretion and checks dysentary. this plant also serves as medicine for treatment of skin diseases , diabetes , urinary tract infections ,blood disorders . In siddha system of medicine karuka grass is used to detoxify the body.
In short, durva and other sacred grass, helps your prana to maintain purity and stability which leads to tridosha balance. It can solve issues in muladhara like
- Irregular periods
- Indigestion
- Blood issues (immunity, skin)
Here is the research paper which talks about potency of grass as medicine:
Research
Microbe found in grassy field contains powerful antibiotic
One bacterium, from a grassy field in Maine, produced a compound with powerful abilities to kill a variety of other bacterial species, including many human pathogens. Moreover, these pathogens failed to develop resistance to the compound: There were no surviving individuals that had evolved to withstand its attack. (Resistance usually develops when a small percentage of microbes escape an antibiotic because of a mutation and then those bacteria multiply.) Lewis initially took this total devastation as a discouraging sign—the mark of “another boring detergent.” (Bleach, after all, is a strong antibiotic, but it’s a little tooeffective at killing any surrounding cells.) However, it turned out that the new compound, which the group named teixobactin, was not toxic to human cells in a dish.
And it showed other qualities of a good antibiotic, the team reports online in Nature. On bacteria growing in lab dishes, it outperformed vancomycin, a drug long relied upon to treat the obstinate methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), by a factor of 100, Lewis says. In mice infected with MRSA, injections of teixobactin led to a 100% survival rate at lower doses than vancomycin.
The compound isn’t effective against so-called Gram-negative bacteria, increasingly feared in hospitals for their resistance to existing drugs. But the authors suggest it could be of great value to people fighting MRSA, tuberculosis, and infections with rare-but-nasty Enterococcusbacterial strains that aren’t responding to available drugs.
