This year’s Ganesha festival which was celebrated last month proved to be one with a difference for me. A mix of circumstances which began with my wife falling sick resulted in my performing the prayer. Usually, I was very happy to let my wife do it and prior to my marriage my father conducted the prayers. This has been in keeping with my nature of not being a great believer in rituals despite being a firm believer in God.
Well to perform the prayer, I had to get into traditional clothes and on earlier occasions I have made an issue of these things. This year though I got into them without any fuss and sat cross legged on the floor. I repeated the mantras after my father who read them out to me. The prayer lasted for about half an hour or so.
At the end of it all, it was time to ring the traditional bell, bow to the lord and seek his blessings. Strangely, after all this I was filled with a sense of peace and satisfaction. Maybe not the same peace that I felt at the Samadhi of the Father of the Nation at Rajghat.
http://glimpsesintolife.blogspot.com/2009/11/connecting-with-mahatma.html
A peace nevertheless.
Next day it was time for the immersion. Normally since the day after the Ganesh festival is a working day (which is the immersion day for many Tamilians), I have rarely been for these. Since, the next day was a Sunday, I went to immerse the statue of the Lord along with my mother at an artificially created lake near my house. We handed over the statue of Lord Ganesha to a young person who swam a bit and then immersed the idol. As I caught a glimpse of the Lord bobbing up and down with the sacred thread draped around it, I was filled with a senses of peace, quiet and joy. An image that has been captured in my mind in way no high resolution camera can. As the poet said “The music in my heart I bore, long after it was heard no more.”
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Celebrating Ganesha
This year’s Ganesha festival which was celebrated last month proved to be one with a difference for me. A mix of circumstances which began with my wife falling sick resulted in my performing the prayer. Usually, I was very happy to let my wife do it and prior to my marriage my father conducted the prayers. This has been in keeping with my nature of not being a great believer in rituals despite being a firm believer in God.
Well to perform the prayer, I had to get into traditional clothes and on earlier occasions I have made an issue of these things. This year though I got into them without any fuss and sat cross legged on the floor. I repeated the mantras after my father who read them out to me. The prayer lasted for about half an hour or so.
At the end of it all, it was time to ring the traditional bell, bow to the lord and seek his blessings. Strangely, after all this I was filled with a sense of peace and satisfaction. Maybe not the same peace that I felt at the Samadhi of the Father of the Nation at Rajghat.
http://glimpsesintolife.blogspot.com/2009/11/connecting-with-mahatma.html
A peace nevertheless.
Next day it was time for the immersion. Normally since the day after the Ganesh festival is a working day (which is the immersion day for many Tamilians), I have rarely been for these. Since, the next day was a Sunday, I went to immerse the statue of the Lord along with my mother at an artificially created lake near my house. We handed over the statue of Lord Ganesha to a young person who swam a bit and then immersed the idol. As I caught a glimpse of the Lord bobbing up and down with the sacred thread draped around it, I was filled with a senses of peace, quiet and joy. An image that has been captured in my mind in way no high resolution camera can. As the poet said “The music in my heart I bore, long after it was heard no more.”
Well to perform the prayer, I had to get into traditional clothes and on earlier occasions I have made an issue of these things. This year though I got into them without any fuss and sat cross legged on the floor. I repeated the mantras after my father who read them out to me. The prayer lasted for about half an hour or so.
At the end of it all, it was time to ring the traditional bell, bow to the lord and seek his blessings. Strangely, after all this I was filled with a sense of peace and satisfaction. Maybe not the same peace that I felt at the Samadhi of the Father of the Nation at Rajghat.
http://glimpsesintolife.blogspot.com/2009/11/connecting-with-mahatma.html
A peace nevertheless.
Next day it was time for the immersion. Normally since the day after the Ganesh festival is a working day (which is the immersion day for many Tamilians), I have rarely been for these. Since, the next day was a Sunday, I went to immerse the statue of the Lord along with my mother at an artificially created lake near my house. We handed over the statue of Lord Ganesha to a young person who swam a bit and then immersed the idol. As I caught a glimpse of the Lord bobbing up and down with the sacred thread draped around it, I was filled with a senses of peace, quiet and joy. An image that has been captured in my mind in way no high resolution camera can. As the poet said “The music in my heart I bore, long after it was heard no more.”
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