FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS ie DEEPAVALI
This festival will be celebrated from 7.10.2007 upto 11.10.2007.
WELCOME ! THE FESTIVALS OF LIGHTS.
Monday, October 29, 2007
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this photograph has been taken from a site on the internet and the sole reason is to project the eyes of shree ganesh. if one observes they look so real. much importance is given while 'opening ' the eyes of shree ganesh.doesnt this photograph look real?
this photograph is of the idol of one of the pandals of shree ganesh celebrated by one of the prominent locality in mumbai.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
the mouse is supposed to be the vehicle of lord Ganesha.
there is a story to it . one day lord ganesha was mounting on this vehicle and had a fall, the legend says the moon laughed, ganesha was angry he cursed the moon that nobody will even look at him , the moon begged parden and asked for forgiveness. ganesha pardoned the moon, but not fully on the ganesha chaturthi day if anybody looks at the moon then he will bear the curse of ganesh. the curse was that he will be falsely implicated in a crime.this is what the legend says.
with the month of shraavan, bhaadrapad,-the fourth and fifth month in the hindu calender starts a whole lot of festivals which are celebrated in konkan.
Sukhkarta dukhaharta, vakratunda mahakaya…..These are the names and adjectives attributed to shree ganesh
Shree ganesh is the one of the gods of the Hindus.
Shree ganesh or the “elephant- god” is considered the beginner of all things auspicious. People before starting out on any venture pray to this deity.
In the month of “bhadrapad”, fourth day ie the chaturthi as per the Hindu calendar, all Hindus celebrate the ‘ganesh chaturthi festival’ the idol of ganesh is brought and decorated and this festival is called the ganpati festival. Lokmanya balgangadhar Tilak was the pioneer of starting this festival as a social event where a locality celebrated it jointly. This was started as a freedom movement.
However, here we will be observing the celebration of these festivals in private homes by the people of konkan.
This festival is celebrated for either one and a half day, five days seven days or eleven days. The idols are prepared of clay mud or plaster of Paris. While bringing this idol the man of the house will generally wear a white cap, at the entrance the idol is worshipped ie welcomed and then the “pratisthapana” ie placing the idol at its due position takes place. “Aarti” is a kind of verses sung in the praise of the god. This aarti is generally sung twice in the day. Once in the afternoon before lunch and in the night before dinner. It is sort of offerings to ganesha in the form of food, sweets and flowers. The household as a ‘prasad’ later savors the offering
To be contd ….
Sukhkarta dukhaharta, vakratunda mahakaya…..These are the names and adjectives attributed to shree ganesh
Shree ganesh is the one of the gods of the Hindus.
Shree ganesh or the “elephant- god” is considered the beginner of all things auspicious. People before starting out on any venture pray to this deity.
In the month of “bhadrapad”, fourth day ie the chaturthi as per the Hindu calendar, all Hindus celebrate the ‘ganesh chaturthi festival’ the idol of ganesh is brought and decorated and this festival is called the ganpati festival. Lokmanya balgangadhar Tilak was the pioneer of starting this festival as a social event where a locality celebrated it jointly. This was started as a freedom movement.
However, here we will be observing the celebration of these festivals in private homes by the people of konkan.
This festival is celebrated for either one and a half day, five days seven days or eleven days. The idols are prepared of clay mud or plaster of Paris. While bringing this idol the man of the house will generally wear a white cap, at the entrance the idol is worshipped ie welcomed and then the “pratisthapana” ie placing the idol at its due position takes place. “Aarti” is a kind of verses sung in the praise of the god. This aarti is generally sung twice in the day. Once in the afternoon before lunch and in the night before dinner. It is sort of offerings to ganesha in the form of food, sweets and flowers. The household as a ‘prasad’ later savors the offering
To be contd ….
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
vengurla
Vengurla
This place is one of the best amongst the others. Here life is like the other towns very “sushegat” (relaxed in a way). The seashore has its own natural beauty .the additional attraction being the clean seashore and seawaters.
Here is a photo graph depicting a few of the beaches,
It is also well known Hindu temples the sagarika temple, shri mauli-devi temple, shri redi ganesh temple. Aajgaon, shiroda, redi,aachra etc all these are names of small towns and villages. It is often found that majority of the population around this area is of the saraswat Brahmin or bhandari community. The “sir-names” will be shirodkar from shiroda village, achrekar from achra village the redkar from village redi so the village and names are inter-woven or inter-connected. Vengurla being a beach and a beautiful place was looted and plundered in ancient times.
Here I would also like to explain the word “gramdaivat”.
What is a gram-daivat?
A gram daiwat is the god of the village.gram means village and daivat is god or some supernatural power. Even today, if you go to these villages one finds people desperately having beliefs and blind belief. Endless arguments are carried on as to what is a belief and what is a blind belief.
This can be explained with a small example. Suppose we take the example of “nag-panchami”. Nag means snake and panchami is the fifth day coming in order after a new moon day in the month of “shraavan” of the Hindu calendar. On these days until date, actual snakes brought in small cane baskets. Then people will come and perform puja. Puja means offering of ones obeisance and other offerings to a revered deity. Then the snake will be offered a small dot of vermicelli and red powdered “tikka”dropped (they will not touch it for fright of being bitten). Then this puja ends with the offering of milk to a snake on this day. Therefore, the firm belief was the snake drinks this milk, is happy and blesses.
Now the million-dollar question. How did all this start?
Probably in olden time’s snakes was a great help/nuisance to farmers so to keep them happy this festival has been initiated. There are a couple of other stories too.
So to cut the story short due to efforts of N.G.O. like friends of the animals etc have put an end to this practice of catching live snakes, now puja is done of the image of the snake. So also drinking of milk by the snakes has been stopped and people call it blind belief.
To me it is always a question that those things not proved are beliefs which are all blind and contradictary to the truth or Actual fact and there can never be a blind belief or otherwise.
Coming back to the earlier explanation each village has one god guarding the village. The temple of this god will be at the entrance of that village and every house initiating any new project will first pay obedience to this god. Do not worry the gods grants the blessings by entering a persons body and he or she will start whirling around making all sorts of noises and loud talks and ask for eatables like mutton and fruits or whatever. It is fun to watch all these happenings. Not only this, there are plenty of beliefs and disbeliefs. Each one having its own story, relic, whatever you call it.
Actually, it is very sad to watch all cause this is a part of India the other extreme: uneducated, full of blind-beliefs, poor, ignorant, and unaware of the happenings of the world, exploited by the politicians, urbans educated and the rich.
To be continued
This place is one of the best amongst the others. Here life is like the other towns very “sushegat” (relaxed in a way). The seashore has its own natural beauty .the additional attraction being the clean seashore and seawaters.
Here is a photo graph depicting a few of the beaches,
It is also well known Hindu temples the sagarika temple, shri mauli-devi temple, shri redi ganesh temple. Aajgaon, shiroda, redi,aachra etc all these are names of small towns and villages. It is often found that majority of the population around this area is of the saraswat Brahmin or bhandari community. The “sir-names” will be shirodkar from shiroda village, achrekar from achra village the redkar from village redi so the village and names are inter-woven or inter-connected. Vengurla being a beach and a beautiful place was looted and plundered in ancient times.
Here I would also like to explain the word “gramdaivat”.
What is a gram-daivat?
A gram daiwat is the god of the village.gram means village and daivat is god or some supernatural power. Even today, if you go to these villages one finds people desperately having beliefs and blind belief. Endless arguments are carried on as to what is a belief and what is a blind belief.
This can be explained with a small example. Suppose we take the example of “nag-panchami”. Nag means snake and panchami is the fifth day coming in order after a new moon day in the month of “shraavan” of the Hindu calendar. On these days until date, actual snakes brought in small cane baskets. Then people will come and perform puja. Puja means offering of ones obeisance and other offerings to a revered deity. Then the snake will be offered a small dot of vermicelli and red powdered “tikka”dropped (they will not touch it for fright of being bitten). Then this puja ends with the offering of milk to a snake on this day. Therefore, the firm belief was the snake drinks this milk, is happy and blesses.
Now the million-dollar question. How did all this start?
Probably in olden time’s snakes was a great help/nuisance to farmers so to keep them happy this festival has been initiated. There are a couple of other stories too.
So to cut the story short due to efforts of N.G.O. like friends of the animals etc have put an end to this practice of catching live snakes, now puja is done of the image of the snake. So also drinking of milk by the snakes has been stopped and people call it blind belief.
To me it is always a question that those things not proved are beliefs which are all blind and contradictary to the truth or Actual fact and there can never be a blind belief or otherwise.
Coming back to the earlier explanation each village has one god guarding the village. The temple of this god will be at the entrance of that village and every house initiating any new project will first pay obedience to this god. Do not worry the gods grants the blessings by entering a persons body and he or she will start whirling around making all sorts of noises and loud talks and ask for eatables like mutton and fruits or whatever. It is fun to watch all these happenings. Not only this, there are plenty of beliefs and disbeliefs. Each one having its own story, relic, whatever you call it.
Actually, it is very sad to watch all cause this is a part of India the other extreme: uneducated, full of blind-beliefs, poor, ignorant, and unaware of the happenings of the world, exploited by the politicians, urbans educated and the rich.
To be continued
Friday, September 7, 2007
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