Ma is here

Bengal's biggest festival, Durga Puja (worshipping of Goddess Durga), has kicked off from today. Goddess Durga, our mother, is here. As a manifestation of 'Shakti' she embodies the victory of good over evil.

Every festival that we Hindus celebrate has legends and stories woven around them and here Ma travels to earth, after defeating the demon - Mahishasura or Mahish the demon (asura). She is visiting her parents and is accompanied by her four children. The celebrations are spread across six days ('Panchami', 'Sasthi', 'Saptomi', 'Asthami', 'Nobomi' and 'Doshomi') and no Bengali, irrespective of where he stays, can't but feel the religious fervor in the air.

The festivities hide a deeper message where, the actual act of worshipping the Goddess is designed as a huge assimilation exercise. The puja rituals uses different kinds of plants, each with some therapeutic value, water from the sea and the holiest of holy rivers, the various natural foods that we eat and accompanied by music – the soul’s own language. (The Puja’s has its own distinctive drum style). The assimilation attempt, not only brings together all the elements but people of all castes together. It would also be important to note that the demon finds a place along with the Goddess, in the sanctum sanctorum. It goes to illustrate that, while ‘evil’ may not far from the ‘good’, it (evil) need not be despised but instead understood, won over and forgiven.

While we all get lost in the festivities – feasting, pandal hopping, staring at jaw dropping pandal designs, lighting arrangements etc we also need to go back to the original message – that God resides in all of us and we need to reconnect the wires that connect us to Him. In this fast paced world the Durga Pujas gives us that window of opportunity to move towards Spirituality – our ultimate goal and destiny and on a more mundane plane reflect on how we can recognize, understand and win over all negative emotions.

While I write all this, I wish I could reconnect and reflect. It’s so easy to get lost in the milieu.