What is Ganesh Chaturthi & Why is it celebrated?

OM GAN GANAPATHY NAMO

What is Ganesh Chaturthi & Why is it celebrated?

OM GAN GANAPATHY NAMO

Dear Friends all over the Globe,

Wishing you all a very Happy Ganesh Chaturthi.  Let’s get together and pray to Ganapathi Bappa with sincerity and He will surely bestow upon us his blessings.

At the same time, we all must know What is Ganesh Chaturthi and Why is it celebrated?  

If we are not aware of subject that we will never ever understand what it is all about and be blind believers as everyone is praying and celebrating so why not let me too to do the same.

There are, of course many of our seniors who do know the mythology behind Ganesh Chaturthi, otherwise would not be celebrating it for years.  But for the younger generation they have to have some knowledge of this celebration.

Wishing you all the best,

What is Ganesh Chaturthi & Why is it celebrated?

We celebrate this 10-day-long festival every year. But how many of us know what Ganesh Chaturthi is and why it is celebrated? So it is better not to be ignorant of what we are doing.

Ganesh Chaturthi is a ten-day Hindu festival celebrated to honour the elephant-headed God

Ganesha's birthday. He is the younger son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati.

Ganesha is known by 108 different names and is the Lord of arts and sciences and the deva of wisdom. He is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies as he's considered the God of beginnings. He's widely and dearly referred to as Ganapati or Vinayaka.

There are two different versions about Ganesha's birth. One has it that Goddess Parvati created Ganesha out of dirt off her body while having a bath and set him to guard her door while she finishes her bath. Shiva who has gone out, returned at that time, but as Ganesha didn't know of him, stopped him from entering. An angry Shiva severed the head of Ganesha after a combat between the two. Parvati was enraged and Shiva promised Ganesha will live again. The devas who went in search of a head facing north of a dead person could manage only the head of an elephant. Shiva fixed the elephant's head on the child and brought him back to life.

The other legend has it that Ganesha was created by Shiva and Parvati on request of the Devas, to be a vighnakartaa (obstacle-creator) in the path of rakshasas (demonic beings), and a vighnahartaa (obstacle-averter) to help the Devas.

Maharashtra is the state known for grand scale Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations.  This is where me and my family came to know about this festival, as we were in Mumbai visiting the Tata Hospital with my husband, saw the way people rejoicing to the maximum. Seeing this and a visit to the Sidhivinak Mandir inspired my family all the more and they decided to start celebrating Ganapathy Chaturthi in our home. And from then on we celebrate this festival every year.

There are four main rituals during the festival - Pranapratishhtha - the process of infusing the deity into a murti or idol, Shhodashopachara - 16 forms of paying tribute to Ganesha, Uttarpuja - Puja after which the idol could be shifted after its infusion, Ganpati Visarjan - immersion of the Idol in the river.

Ganapathy Bappa is dressed in the morning followed by prayers - singing of (Bhajans) hymns.  The plate containing the Modak (Ganesha’s favourite sweet) is supposed to be filled with twenty-one pieces of the sweet.

Then again there is the evening prayers and of course all friends and relatives who are there have to have langar - i.e. food before leaving. The next day in the morning there is Havan (Prayers) followed by immersion.

Lokmanya Tilak changed the festival from a private celebration to a grand public event "to bridge the gap between Brahmins and non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them".

Some of you may or may not know that Lord Ganesha is also worshiped in Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Nepal and China.

“Lord Ganesha of curved elephant trunk and huge body, Whose brilliance is equal to billions of suns in intensity, Always removes all obstacles from my endeavours truly,

We invite You, the Lord of spiritual faith (of Lord Shiva). You are the wisest among the wise, the best to be given as a standard of comparison. You are the senior Lord, Lord of the Vedic mantras, listening to our prayers. Please visit our home with prosperous things and be seated here.

OM GAN GANAPATHY NAMO

Bidding adieu: Devotees carry statues of Lord Ganesha for immersion into the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai. The idols are immersed into oceans or rivers at the end of the ten-day-long festival.

“All join in this final procession shouting “Ganapathi Bappa Morya, Pudhchya Varshi Laukar ya” (O father Ganesha, come again speedily next year). ”

And that is the way we bid farewell to Lord Ganesha.  We really feel sad when we immerse Ganapathy because it is the end of the festive season and our normal life routine starts again. So that’s it we will wait till next year. Well everything has an end - as the saying goes whoever that is born has to come to an end. It goes for us humans also.  

Parsan Narang

4th September 2016