Saturday 26 July 2014

Mahadevi puja – the way it’s done


Durga Puja Vienna is an important festival that is celebrated all over India with zeal and huge fanfare. The day is celebrated because on this day, the goddess killed the dreaded Mahishasura who had rendered havoc not only planet Earth buteven in the heavens. When not even the most powerful deities could cause any harm to the demon, Lord Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh combined and manifested themselves as a powerfulbeautiful goddess who had 10 hands and in each hand there was a celestial weapon. Though the festival is celebrated across the country but one can see a totally differentflavour in Bengal where the festival is celebrated with utmost zeal.
The festival lasts for 9 days and is celebrated in September October when then whether is at its peak best which further intensifies the joy and celebration of people. All the nine days differ in significance and each day is eventful accompanied by different rituals, invocations and offerings. At the end of nine days comes dashmi. It is a quite eventful day for married women and men alike. Married women play the vermillion game where they apply a sindoor on each other’s forehead. The sindhoor signifies the long life of their husbands. Post that they greet the statue of goddess mahadevi for the last time before she is immersed in water. The rituals do not end here even the bangles and bracelets and other ornaments are touched up and finally womengreet each other by offering sweets. Men of same age embrace each other while the younger men touch the feet of those elder to them
The vastness and precision of rituals of Durga Puja Austria is not a cup of tea for everyone and therefore people who wish to delve deep into the traditions and precisions of the rituals work really hard to gain some insight. Even people who wish to get the puja done find it really hard to find a genuine guru since many of them fraud people and perform false pujas. It is therefore recommended to do a thorough search on the internet. There are websites which enlist some of the most established gurus who charge nominally to perform such pujas.

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