Vinayaka Chavithi festival

Today is Vinayaka Chavithi and it is an important festival in our household where the whole family contributes to the puja and participates in the celebration.

Vinayaka is considered to be a God who will remove all obstacles. Ganesh is another name to him and he uses a mouse as a vehicle. He is depicted as a person with the head of an elephant in mythology.

From childhood, this festival has a special place in our hearts and my sister and myself used to eagerly wait for this festival. Purchasing a new dress is kind of a madatory. We used to purchase different types of fruits, flowers, different types of leaves (patri) and an idol of Ganesh made from mud. We take head bath on Ganesh Chathurdhi wearing new dresses, decorate our homes with flower garlands at the entrance with mango leaves bunch. We clean our pooja area, place the mud Ganesh idol on a stand, tie palavalli(a wooden construction to tie fruits) above the idol. We prepare special dishes to offer to Ganesha like undrallu, talukalu (jaggery sweet with rice powder), panakam (drink with water, jaggery and pepper powder), vadapappu (soaked moong daal), chalividi (sweet with jaggery and rice powder) before pooja. Children place their books before pooja with a swasthik marked with turmeric paste and pray to God to make them study well without any failures and obstacles.We all do pooja and read a story about Ganesha and give haarathi (camphor light).

This Ganesha idol will be kept at home for 1 or 3 or 5 or 7 or 9 or 11 days and then will be merged in any lake(nimajjanam). This festival is very famous and celebrated well especially in Hyderabad and Mumbai. Very large Ganesha idols are prepared for the occasion and large processions will be held before merging them in a lake, which is called nimajjanam.

So, that's about the festival and its importance in our culture. Look at these photos from my archive of Vinayaka Chavithi Pooja.

Happy Ganesh Chathurdi to all :-) May God bless you all with happiness and good health on this occasion.

Until next time,

Reason to pray GOD?

Do we all need a reason to pray God? or we simply follow our rituals as part of culture without any reason? I mean, many of us do deeparadhana (lighting of lamp), reciting slokas daily. Do we have a reason for this? Few may pray for mental peace, for health, wealth and prosperity of family. Few perform special poojas for festivals, go to temple, offer coconuts, sweets to God and pray for their and their family's well being. These simple things have become very part of our lives, that we do them without any reason.

I never felt there should be a reason to pray God. I can thank him for everything that i have achieved as a human being through a prayer or pooja. I want to pray both in good and bad times. To thank him in good times and to ask his support in bad times. For me, prayer doesn't mean lighting lamp compulsorily and offering naivedyam for the Deity. It means reciting his names or slokas with concentration. If you simply perform pooja daily and worry about lot of things like getting late to office, completing cooking or sending children to school meanwhile, i don't think, there is any use. Instead, praying for 5 mins without thinking of anything else other than God, will suffice. What do you say?

Festival season is in now. Navaratri celebrations are going on here. Each day we pray each incarnation of Goddess Durga. It is celebrated for 9 days. Next would be Diwali, which is festival of lights. We pray Goddess Lakshmi for this festival. 

There is one product from Cycle pure agarbathies - Lakshmi pooja pack.
If you are wondering what this pack is about.. it contains an instructional booklet and CD, so that you can recite slokas together and perform pooja. I can use the instruction book to prepare required materials before pooja, and recite ashtothara namas as per CD.

Now, my reasons to pray with Lakshmi pooja pack on Diwali :) 
I will pray for:

•  Safety and security of women in India (I know, iam not that selfless to pray for this alone :p)
•  Health and happiness to my family :)

So, let me know what are your reasons to pray in this festival time :)

Until next time,

Image courtesy: www.revangelicalblog.com

This post is written for cycle pure agarbathies contest.