(September 1974)
On tne 19th of
this month we shall be celebrating the Ganesh chaturthi. In Maharashtra and wherever
the people from Maharashtra are staying, the usual slogan "Ganapati Bappa
Moraya" will be heard very often round about this time. This day is
celebrated on the forth day of the bright half of the month of Bhadrapad every
year.
Other gods like
Vishnu, Rama, Krishna etc. are very attractive in their form. They have got
proportionate bodies and they are dressed with costly silk garments, while
Ganesh or Ganapati has a protruding belly and his head is not that of a man but
of an elephant Though this god has a disproportionate body and the mouth of an
elephant, still he is the most revered God Every religious ceremony starts with
his worship. In fact the education of a child used to start in old days after
paying homage to Ganapati, as the child was first taught to read and write the
letters: “Sri Ganeshayanamaha”
In the Puranas
there are a number of stories narrating the birth of Ganapati, which indicate
how this God came to posses this head of an elephant. One of those stories runs
as follows ;-
Once Parvati,
the wife of God Shankara, was taking a bath. As she wanted someone to guard the
door of her bathroom, she fabricated a human form from her body and placed him
at the door of her bathroom as a watchman. She gave him a strict warning not to
allow anybody to come inside. In the
meantime Lord Shankar came and wanted to enter into Parvatt's apartment; but
this watchman vehemently objected to
that not knowing who the visitor was
Lord Shankar got angry and with his weapon he cut the head of the
watchman. When Parvati came to know
about this, she started lamenting for the death of her son. Looking to this plight of Parvati, Shankar
took pity on her and placed the head of an Elephant, which wasavai-lable
nearby, on the body of the watchman, killed by him and brought him to life.
Thus Shri Ganesh was born. Later on he was placed at the head of a group and
hence he came to be also known as Ganapati (The leader of a group)
In Maharashtra
there is a custom of bringing an idol of earth every year and worshipping it
for one and a half days, five days, seven days or ten days according to
everybody's convenience. Along with this festival, there is a custom of
celebrating the Gauri Pujan. Gauri is another name for Parvati, the mother of
Ganapati. This Gauri is brought after the third or the fourth day from Ganesh
chaturthi and is immersed within three or four days. This festival of Gauri is
given a great importance, almost equal to that of the Hoii festival, by the
people of the non-brahmin community in the Ratnagiri and Coloba districts. Most
of the people who are working in the cities make it a point to go to their
remote villages for this festival During this festival the monsoon is almost
coming to an end and hence the expectation of a good crop makes the farmers
celebrate this festival on a grand scale
This festival
is celebrated as a religious function in most of the houses in Maharashtra. The
idol is usually brought home on the day previous to the Ganesh Chattirthi or in
the morning of Ganesh Chaturthi. After the Pooja and Arati are over, the whole
day is spent in the company of the family members and friends in chit chating
and feasting. As most of tbe Ganapaties in the private houses are of the
duration of one and a half days the Ganesh Ghaturthi day is important for all
of them and most of the people have to visit a number of houses on that day for
taking "darshan" of the Ganapaties.
The second day
is the day of immersion for nearly seventy to eighty percent of the Ganapaties,
In the afternoon you can see long processions going to the places of immersion
of the town or village as the case may be. Similar processions are also to be
seen on other days of immersion.
Lokmanya Tilak
was a man of wide vision. He had to
consolidate the strength of the masses towards national work. He knew that religious and such other
functions could be made use of for this purpose. He therefore started holding public performance of the Ganesh
utsav and the Shiv Jayanti utsav.
This enabled him to carry out lot of propaganda regarding Swarajya in
these festivals as the Ganesh utsav used to last for ten days every year. In the days of Lokmanya Tilak this
festival had a crowded programme of lectures, keertans and "melas" all
aiming at social and political uplift of India, the ultimate goal of which was
to obtain independence.
The public
performance of this festival once
caused a great awakening in Maharashtra.
It also helped the consolidation of the Hindus against the Muslim
agression, which was taking place at several places in some form or the
other. The day of immersion of these
public festival Ganapaties saw mile long processions of these idols accompanied
by "Lezim", band and such other musical instruments. The sudden turn that Lokmanya Tilak gave
to this religious function and made use of it towards achievement of his goal
of swa-rajya, really goes to show his knowledge of mass psychology and tact.
After the death
of Lokmanya Tilak, the importance of this festival had started dwindling and
after independence it took the form of a festival for mere entertainment. The
artists who prepared the idols of Ganapati wanted to show their ingenuity and
the idols of Ganapaties are being prepared according to the changing fashions
of the time. Some are apt to depict mythological scenes while a few others used
to throw light on certain political situations through their art. The ever
increasing costs have also had effect on the cost of the idols and they have
gone up considerably during the last two decades.
At present the
worship of Ganapati is confined to India and it is done only by the Hindus.
Though in all the cities and towns of India there is, as a rule, at least one
temple of Ganapati, though not more, still only eight temples of Ganapati in
Maharashtra are called to be specially sacred. They are called
"Ashtavinayak" (Eight Ganapaties) and special tours are conducted for
paying visit to all these temples in series. This pilgrimage is supposed to
acrue lot of merit to the pilgrims visiting all these Ganapaties.
In the middle
ages the Hindu empires were spreading far and wide in Asia and at that time the
Hindus, who went to far East and the South East Asian countries Like Java,
Sumatra, Combodia, Malayasia, China and Japan, carried along with them their
gods and therefore the idols of Ganapati have been found in all those
countries. It is also a wonder how one idol was found in a far off country like
Mexico. In all the South East Asain countries the Hindu culture thrived for a
number of centuries and a part of it was first wiped out by the Buddhist
Religion and later on by the Muhomadan religion. Still the remnants that can be
seen, give a rough idea how widely the Hindu culture must have thrived and
ruled these countries.
Shri Sai Baba
had very liberal views about religion. He.always insited on every body to
follow his religion, which he was professing before meeting him. He never
directed anybody to leave his religion and get converted to another. Therefore
we Sai devotees, who have deep reverance for Sai Baba, can also go on
worshipping some other gods. Hence those, who are worshipping Shri Ganesh at
their houses, should do so without any reservation and with full faith in Shri
Ganesh. They may also celebrate this festival as a social function? because if
we look at the whole life of Shri Sai Baba, he was never averse to worldly
life. He never adviced people to renounce their normal life and lead the life
of an ascetic. He on the other band started functions like the Ramnavami, Gokul
Ashtami etc at shirdi. Let us therefore give the slogan.
"Ganapati
Bappa Moraya" and welcome Shri Ganesh,