The Timeless Significance of Durga Puja

[Guest guest]

CHENNAI (September 27, 2006): The best tribute to the myriad aspects

of eternal India and its culture was paid by Mark Twain in his

book "Following the Equator," in these words:

 

"This is indeed India! The land of dreams and romance, fabulous

wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendour and rags, of palaces and

hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin

lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the

country of hundred nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand

religions and two million Gods, cradle of the human race, birthplace

of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-

grandmother of traditions, whose yesterdays bear date with the

smouldering antiquities of the rest of nations -- the one country

under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable interest for

alien prince and alien peasant, for lettered and ignorant, wise and

fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land that all men desire

to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that

glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the world combined."

 

Twain continued, "India has two million Gods, and worships them all.

In religion all other countries are paupers; India is the only

millionaire. So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left

undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most

extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing

seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked."

 

India is indeed a land of million Gods and billion festivals. India

is a large, beautiful and bountiful country. While monotheistic

faiths like Christianity and Islam believe in only one God, we

Hindus are indeed blessed with a multitude of them.

 

This is the Durga Puja season. While Durga Puja is the most

important annual festival of Bengal, it must be understood that it

is also celebrated on a grand scale in several other parts of India

as well every year -- such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar,

Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

 

The Bengalis have appropriately coined a popular phrase: "Baro

mashey tero parban" -- meaning, "12 months and 13 festivals"! There

are enough valid reasons for having so many of them -- our country

is large; its dialects are many; climatic conditions vary from area

to area. Obviously, if one part of the country celebrates a festival

to pay homage to the Gods for a good harvest, those in some other

area will have to wait for their turn.

The Durga Puja festival begins with Mahalaya in the last week of

September or first week of October depending upon the time of the

solstices every year. Mahalaya is an auspicious occasion observed

seven days before the Durga Puja, and heralds the advent of Durga,

the goddess of supreme power. It's a kind of invocation or

invitation to the mother goddess to descend on earth - Jago Tumi

Jago. This is done through the chanting of mantras and singing

devotional songs.

 

This festival is dedicated to celebrate the Glory of the Divine

Mother. The religious and spiritual sanction for the celebration of

the grand festival arises from the DEVI MAHATMYAM. This is a sacred

text that sings the Glory of the Divine Mother. This text,

consisting of 13 chapters, has 700 Slokas on Goddess Durga and is

also called the DURGA SAPTASATHI or the CHANDI. Three aspects of the

Divine Mother -- Maha Kaali, Maha Lakshmi and Maha Saraswathi --

have been depicted in this Holy Book. The whole of the DEVI

MAHATMYAM is chanted on special occasions especially during

Navaratri (the Festival of Nine Nights).

 

Some of the merits of reading this sacred text are described in its

12th chapter, where the Devi says: "For whomever with a concentrated

mind shall pray to me constantly with these hymns, for that devotee

I shall without doubt disperse every trouble. And those who shall

laud the destruction of Madhu and Kaitabha, the slaughter of

Mahishasura and the slaying of Shumbha and Nishumbha. And those also

who shall listen with devotion to this sublime poem on my greatness

on the eighth, the fourteenth and on the ninth days of the fortnight

with concentrated mind, to them nothing wrong shall happen, nor

calamities that arise from wrong doings, nor poverty and never

separation from their beloved ones. They shall not experience fear

from enemies, or from robbers and kings, or from weapons, fire and

flood."

 

She concludes, "Hence this poem of my greatness must be chanted by

devotees of concentrated minds and listened to always with devotion;

for it is the supreme course of well-being. The place of my

sanctuary is where this poem is duly chanted everyday; that place I

will never forsake and there my presence is certain."

 

The demon "Mahisasura" signifies the multifarious faces of evil and

the weapons of Durga signify the innumerable weapons at our own

disposal to tackle the evils that we face every day. The weapons

were gifted to her by the Gods -- with the single purpose of slaying

the demon. Lord Shiva gave her the trident; Vishnu stepped in with

his Sudarshan Chakra; Indra chipped in with thunder; Surya, the Sun

God, gave her the bow and arrow; whilst Viswakarma gave her a shield

and other protective clothing. Brahma contributed the kamandalu;

Kuber, the multi-jeweled necklace and Yamraj, the kaldanda! In

addition, the Himalayas gave her the lion, to carry her into the

warfront.

 

The festival of Durgotsav, as it is called in Bengal, starts from

Mahalaya -- this is the day that Godess Durga is supposed to have

started her journey from her husband's house in Mount Kailash in the

Himalayas to come to her mother's place in Bengal, accompanied by

her children. On this auspicious day, early in the morning, at four

o'clock to be precise, a two-hour-long program is broadcast in

Bengali from Akashvani Kolkata. A translated version in Hindi is

subsequently transmitted from all other important radio stations.

The translation is restricted to only the text. The beautiful,

memorable songs are left untouched. Many of the artistes are no

longer in our midst but their recorded voices still reverberate in

each and every Bengali house on Mahalaya day.

 

Titled 'MAHISASURMARDINI' (which means "Slayer of the Demon-in-the-

Guise-of-a-Buffalo'), this program narrates how Durga was conceived,

how she was armed with a variety of weapons given by the Gods to

destroy the demon, and how she achieved her goal in bringing peace

and happiness to the World. [...]

 

The celebration of Durga Puja in India goes back to the dawn of

history. To conclude in the words of Annie Besant:

 

"After a study of more than 40 years of the great religions of the

world, I find none so perfect, so scientific, none so philosophical

and none so spiritual as that great religion popularly known by the

name of Hinduism. Make no mistake -- without Hinduism, India has no

future. Hinduism is the soil into which India's roots are stuck and

torn out of that she will inevitably wither as a tree torn out from

its place. And if Hindus do not maintain Hinduism, then who shall

save it? If India's own children do not cling to her faith, then who

shall guard it? India alone can save India -- and INDIA AND HINDUISM

ARE ONE."

 

SOURCE: An essay by V. Sundaram, a retired Indian Administrative

Service (IAS) officer, from the September 27, 2006, edition of News

Today, "South India's leading English evening newspaper," produced

in Chennai.

URL: http://newstodaynet.com/2006sud/06sep/2709ss1.htm