Ganpati Bappa Moraya!!! Mangala Moorti Moraya!!! :-)
My blog, has yet again, been dormant for too long. As always, there were umpteen occasions when I was tempted to document my thoughts here. But somehow, thanks to my busy schedules, those remained mere thoughts. Were never put into words.
There are lots to write about. A wonderful trip to God's Own Country - Kerala, with my friends last month, is on the top of my list to write about. Lot of wonderful memories.... some fantastic moments, some great music, a close friend's grand wedding, meeting wonderful people..... not to forget many hilarious moments as well..... they all need to be put up here, so that we can read them again later and re-live those moments in the future.
But before I start on the trip to God's Own Country, I thought I'll first write about God himself.
The Ganpati Festival season is on in Mumbai right now. Today is the 6th day of the Festival (normally it is a 11 day festival). Earlier, the festival was not celebrated in such a large scale, in public. The public celebration (Sarvajanik Utsav) was the brainchild of the great Indian freedom fighter - Shri Bal Gangadhar Tilak (popularly known as Lokmanya Tilak). He, during the pre-independence era, came up with this masterstroke of an idea, to organise public gatherings, under the garb of 'Sarvajanik Ganpati Mandals'.
The British, back then, were vary of public meetings, and used to disallow any such gatherings from taking place in the country, as it was obvious that the only thing that would be discussed in the meetings, would be regarding the Freedom Movement. Shri Lokmanya Tilak came up with this idea, to organise the Ganpati festival in Maharashtra on a public scale, where in they could have public Mandals housing Ganpati, for a period of 10 days, and people in large numbers could come to pay their respects daily. And the freedom fighters / leaders could use this stage to present their ideas to the public, and motivate them to join the freedom struggle, and create a cascading movement across the state, and in turn, the country.
Thus, in the year 1894, Shri Lokmanya Tilak established a Sarvajanik Ganesh Mandal in Pune (Maharashtra), and since then, the festival has grown in leaps and bounds in the country and even abroad. The manner in which people passionately pour their hearts out, in giving their dear Ganpati Bappa a grand welcome, arranging for his royal stay, and later give him a farewell befitting a King, is to be seen to be believed. This festival is undoubtedly the pride of Maharashtra, and the elephant-headed Lord Ganesha, is undoubtedly our most-loved visitor.
The popular saying in Sanskrit is "Athithi Devo Bhava" - which means 'Your Guest, is equivalent to God'.
But this is one festival in India, where the roles are reversed. We get to experience "Deva Athitho Bhava" - where our God himself visits us as our honoured guest, and we get to play host to him...! :-)
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