Durga Puja Journal - V
Today is Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. Today is also Dashami and she is gone. It’s the time for Bijoya (Vijaya says Wikipedia) and sweet shops are doing brisk business. Its also a time for showing respects to elders by touching their feet and men hug each other (called kolakuli) in a ritual of camaraderie.
I am writing this from a cybercafe which has kept open and opposite to us is an empty pandal with a little oil lamp burning. The image has been taken for immersion, to the accompaniment of dhak beats, dancing devotees and Bollywood inspired band parties carrying green petromaxes for a surreal effect.
The streets are still crowded with revellers but the metro services will not run throughout the night. I have come here on a friend’s motorcycle who has slipped into a bar while I write this. Bijoya is also a time for smoking bhang or ganja (cannabis) as a sign of comradeship with Shiva and also to forget the sadness of the Mother’s departure.
In some of the old family pujas there still exists the tradition of releasing nilkontho birds from captivity, after the immersion of the Goddess. The story goes that these blue plumed birds fly to Shiva (maa Durga’s husband) and inform him that his wife has begun her journey back. TV shows us Sonia Gandhi releasing white doves on the occasion of Ram Lila in Delhi which coincides with Dashami day of Durga puja. Ram Lila is the occasion for burning effigies of the ten headed demon Ravana who stole Ram’s wife Sita and took her to the kingdom of Lanka. Alongwith Ravana, effigies of Meghnad his son and his brother Kumbhakarno are also burned. Another symbolic triumph of good over evil.
Many of the images, will not be immersed today. For those pandals whose the idol is immersed, the stage where maa Durga spent the past few days will be used for theatre, song, dance and other cultural activities.
The death toll in the Bengal floods is close to hundred, the district of Nadia is also badly affected. What does puja festivities mean to someone whose near and dear passes away or who does not have enough to eat? How does the triumph of good over evil, shakti over darkness, play out in the minds of affected people? Small mercies: the government of the province has declared a relief package.
Today a Bengali TV channel (Star Ananda or Chobbish Ghonta I forget) was reporting about the tradition of a village Puja in rural Bengal of taking the idol of the goddess to the house of a Muslim neighbour before immersion. The Muslim neighbour grants his permission on which the immersion procession continues on its way. Such a rare and beautiful tradition. So significant in this time of hatred and violence.
Which brings me back to Gandhi who was remembered with due respects all over the country and further shores, today. This Dashami day as we celebrate the triumph of good over evil throughout the nation, one thinks what would have happened if Durga or the Gods (devas) who created her used non-violent and Gandhian means to deal with the demon-Mahishashura. Would Mahishshura at last bow down before the great power of non-violent engagement or would he have carried on with the tyrannies that was his wont? Turning away from myths and scriptures if we think of the battle between Durga and Mahishashura or that between Ram and Ravana as happening everyday within our minds, as we are pulled apart time and again by conflicting attractions of consumerism vs a simple life, power vs peace of mind and so on and endlessly till we die, as this eternal battle rages deep within our selves, we can think and ask ourselves how the ideas and ideals of non-violence, satyagraha, self-mortification and self-analysis can help us achieve a finer balance and integrate us better with the stream of life that ever flows and bears us along.
(©Copyright reserved by author. Published work.)
(Photographs are from www.calstreet.com, www.wikipedia.org and www.holidayspot.com. Check out www.calstreet.com for a good collection of Durga Puja photos from this year)
I am writing this from a cybercafe which has kept open and opposite to us is an empty pandal with a little oil lamp burning. The image has been taken for immersion, to the accompaniment of dhak beats, dancing devotees and Bollywood inspired band parties carrying green petromaxes for a surreal effect.
The streets are still crowded with revellers but the metro services will not run throughout the night. I have come here on a friend’s motorcycle who has slipped into a bar while I write this. Bijoya is also a time for smoking bhang or ganja (cannabis) as a sign of comradeship with Shiva and also to forget the sadness of the Mother’s departure.
In some of the old family pujas there still exists the tradition of releasing nilkontho birds from captivity, after the immersion of the Goddess. The story goes that these blue plumed birds fly to Shiva (maa Durga’s husband) and inform him that his wife has begun her journey back. TV shows us Sonia Gandhi releasing white doves on the occasion of Ram Lila in Delhi which coincides with Dashami day of Durga puja. Ram Lila is the occasion for burning effigies of the ten headed demon Ravana who stole Ram’s wife Sita and took her to the kingdom of Lanka. Alongwith Ravana, effigies of Meghnad his son and his brother Kumbhakarno are also burned. Another symbolic triumph of good over evil.
Many of the images, will not be immersed today. For those pandals whose the idol is immersed, the stage where maa Durga spent the past few days will be used for theatre, song, dance and other cultural activities.
The death toll in the Bengal floods is close to hundred, the district of Nadia is also badly affected. What does puja festivities mean to someone whose near and dear passes away or who does not have enough to eat? How does the triumph of good over evil, shakti over darkness, play out in the minds of affected people? Small mercies: the government of the province has declared a relief package.
Today a Bengali TV channel (Star Ananda or Chobbish Ghonta I forget) was reporting about the tradition of a village Puja in rural Bengal of taking the idol of the goddess to the house of a Muslim neighbour before immersion. The Muslim neighbour grants his permission on which the immersion procession continues on its way. Such a rare and beautiful tradition. So significant in this time of hatred and violence.
Which brings me back to Gandhi who was remembered with due respects all over the country and further shores, today. This Dashami day as we celebrate the triumph of good over evil throughout the nation, one thinks what would have happened if Durga or the Gods (devas) who created her used non-violent and Gandhian means to deal with the demon-Mahishashura. Would Mahishshura at last bow down before the great power of non-violent engagement or would he have carried on with the tyrannies that was his wont? Turning away from myths and scriptures if we think of the battle between Durga and Mahishashura or that between Ram and Ravana as happening everyday within our minds, as we are pulled apart time and again by conflicting attractions of consumerism vs a simple life, power vs peace of mind and so on and endlessly till we die, as this eternal battle rages deep within our selves, we can think and ask ourselves how the ideas and ideals of non-violence, satyagraha, self-mortification and self-analysis can help us achieve a finer balance and integrate us better with the stream of life that ever flows and bears us along.
(©Copyright reserved by author. Published work.)
(Photographs are from www.calstreet.com, www.wikipedia.org and www.holidayspot.com. Check out www.calstreet.com for a good collection of Durga Puja photos from this year)
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