Ganesha is one of the most popularly revered of the five Hindu
deities Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and Durga. He is considered as lord
of success and destroyer of evils and obstacles, besides worshipped
as god of education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth. Ganesha the son
of Shiva and Parvati has an elephant like appearance with curved
trunk, large ears and a pot-bellied body. The deity’s figure
personify many attributes such as the head denotes wisdom and its
truck represents OM, symbolic sound of cosmic. The upper right hand
that holds the goad is meant to guide mankind to eternal path and
remove obstacle from the way and the noose dangling from left hand
is to capture all difficulties. The broken tusk in his lower right
hand is an act of sacrifice in order to write the great Indian epic
story Mahabharata, whereas the hand that hung a rosary represents
pursuits of knowledge. He carries laddoo, a sweet ball, on his
truck indicating the discovery of sweetness in soul. His fan like
large ears means that he is ears to our problems. Around his waist
runs a snake representing all forms of energy. Riding on small
creature a mouse shows his humbleness.
There is a myth attached to Ganesha as to how he took this
elephantine form goes like this: the goddess Parvathi while she was
bathing created a boy out of the dirt of her body and instructed him
to stand vigil outside the bathroom. Shiva her husband when he
returned was shocked to discover a stranger stopping him from
entering and in his rage he struck off the boy’s head. This incident
left Parvathi in deep sorrow. Shiv in order to please his wife
Parvathi gave instruction to his men ( gana) to fetch a head of any
sleeping being facing the north. They encountered first a sleeping
elephant and returned with his severed head. Shiv attached the head
to the boy’s body and restored his life. He made him leader (pati)
of his troops and that is how Ganesha got the name as ‘Ganapati’.
Shiv bestowed a boon on Ganapati that people who worshipped him by
invoking his name before undertaking any venture, would bear fruit
Every year during the month of September the people of India
especially in Maharashtra celebrates Ganesh chaturthi. Devotees of
Ganesha install the clay made sculpture of Ganesha at home and place
it on decorated structures known as Ganesha mandap located at street
corners. People in large numbers throng at these mandaps to have
glimpse of Ganesha during the festival. Rituals and devotional
songs are rendered ten days of festival. During the tenth day of
the festival idols of Ganesha is taken out in a colorful procession
with huge followers amidst dance and songs. All the roads and
streets leading to the sea, river and ponds are sight of Ganasha
procession being taken out. Then Ganesha is finally immersed in
the water marking the end of the festival.
During India’s freedom struggle Lokmanaya Tilak, the well known
freedom fighter used Ganesh festival as a pretext to assemble people
and hoodwink the British officials to carry out his freedom struggle
activities. Many believe that is how this festival grew in
popularity and became the people’s festival.
Lalbaugcha raja is Mumbai’s most popular Ganesh madap located in
heart of the city at Lalbaug. They have been celebrating Ganesh
festival since 1935 and with every passing year it has been growing
in stature and fame. There is a popular belief that a person who
visit Lalbaugcha raja and worships there, his or her wishes get
fulfilled. During this ten days of festival millions of
worshippers visit Lalbaugcha raja to get the glimpse of lord Ganesha.
It is common sight to see long serpentine line of people leading to
Lalbaugcha raja. The money donated by devotees is used for various
charitable works and contributions are made during time of natural
calamitous like floods and earthquakes.
I bring you images of Lalbaugcha raja taken during my recent visit.
