Nava Grahas in Durga Puja

The festival frenzy is on over drive in India with last year being a damp squib of celebrations & post vaccination the enthusiasm is at a new level. Its ‘revenge’ travel & tours with devotion high on emotions!

The entire East India (West Bengal along with Orissa, Assam & other North Eastern states too) goes into Durga Maa frenzy with pandal hopping(all through the night & it’s safe too, with entire police force out there to help especially tourists) starting from Sashti (the 6^th day) & culminates with Devi Visarjan on Dashami (the 10^th day).The City of Joy -Kolkata comes to a halt with Puja Pandal springing up in every nook & corner. Every year the various associations compete amongst each other they have the biggest, costliest, most innovative & so-on & so forth. In fact, from the last 20 years, it has become a 10-day festival with an unheard marketing & brand push by enterprising companies.

Durga Puja in West Bengal, mainly in the capital city Kolkata, is synonymous with opulence & themed-pandals, which depict the various aspects of human life. It draws people from across the state — sometimes even the country and the world — who make a pit stop here to enjoy the creative splash of one of the biggest cultural events in the country.

Kumartuli is a small area within North Kolkata where many traditional clay potters reside & make the idols every year (of course there are local artisans who have spread to other parts of West Bengal & India, but Kumartuli remains the hub)

Last year, amid the pandemic, the coronavirus was a hit theme among idol makers & pandal planners. If you remember, there was even the ‘Migrant Mother’ (Goddess Durga in Kolkata’s Barisha Club fashioned to look like a migrant worker carrying her children), which made a lot of news, owing to how topical it was.

In fact, this year the city has installed a unique pandal at Sreebhumi Sporting Club. The club has designed an iconic 145 feet pandal in the Lake-town based on the theme of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa(250 workers took 2 months to make this pandal) & believe it or not 45 Kgs of Gold worth Rs.20 Crores (sponsors: Senco Gold will take it back after a token immersion post the festival) to decorate the Idols of Goddess Durga & her children Laxmi, Ganesh & Saraswathi, Kartikeya (in the East India mythology legend, Durga is the daughter who visits her maternal home every year along with her four children)

Bengalis based outside their hometown, always ensure to have their community & cultural connect during the Pujo.Across India in cities like Delhi,Mumbai,Hyderabad,Bangalore & even abroad like London,New York,Sydney from decades have a very active Bengali cultural association & they come together for the festival. In fact, in July itself in extremely well packaged acrylic covering the Idols are exported from Kumartuli to NRIs in advance.

The CM of West Bengal is quite often the Chief Guest on Day One to inaugurate the festival in some of the well-known/established pandals.Sourav Ganguly,Moon Moon Sen,Roopali Ganguly are always the favorites too & off late even popular Bollywood TV & Cinema personalities are flown in just for a day to ‘light the lamp’!

A Kolkata based friend told me, it’s a Rs.50,000 Crore business which becomes a great tool for various brands to make their foray or to reinstate their presence by sponsoring the pandals in lieu of their hoardings being displayed across the lane leading to the pandal—from Gold,Real Estate,FMCG products to under-garments—all jostle for space in Kolkata!

We all know that Goddess Durga gives us boons and save us from dangers of life-“DurgatTrayateiti Durga”– which saves us from ‘Durgati’ or downfall in life is known as Durga Shakti. People perform Durga festival with much pomp & ceremony in every Spring (March-April commencing with Ugadi & culminating with Ram Navami as per Hindu calendar-Chaitra month) & Autmun (Sept-Oct commencing with Shailaputri & culminating with Dasara as per Hindu Calendar-Ashwin month) season which is the well-known & BIGGER of the two, but the hidden truth and the spiritual force behind Goddess Durga is not known to many.

The main idol of Durga is golden yellow in color and represents the SUN(Surya) who gives spiritual energy. The white Lion, the vehicle of Goddess is the MOON(Chandra). Sun rays falls on Moon and nourishes the vegetable & animal kingdom.

The open mouth of Lion is NORTH NODE(Rahu) and its  tail  is SOUTH NODE(Ketu).

Lord Ganapati representing Buddhi & Siddhi is  the planet MERCURY(Budh), Lord Kartikeya is the planet MARS(Mangal) who is the commander of Divine Army.

Goddess Laxmi is JUPITER(Bruhaspati) who gives wealth and prestige. Goddess Saraswati is the planet VENUS(Shukra) who gives music & fine arts. The Serpent biting Buffalo is SATURN(Shani) the latest poison.

This year when you celebrate the festival & worship the deities –remember you are also worshipping the Nav Grahas which supposedly govern our lives !

Vaccine is the Blessing & Mask is the prevention for a Happy Festival!