Durga Puja Celebrations

Lessons for the country’s future

By Dr R Neerunjun Gopee

Every Hindu festival has two broad dimensions – one is the ‘celebration’ by performing beautiful rituals (karmakanda) that appeal to the finer emotional, artistic, aesthetic and sensual aspects of our lives and which tend to occupy most of our time and attention. Next is the profounder one of the symbolism associated with the deity: it requires understanding based on the teachings of our rishis (ancient sages) which are continuously recast for contemporary audiences by their numerous successors, our gurus.

The symbolism relates to, fundamentally, 1. Control of the mind, 2. Elimination of adharma or demoniac tendencies, and 3. Restoration of dharma or protection of the good.

Durga-Puja. Pic – Cottage9

Hinduism considers that there are six evil passions: Kama – personal desires; Krodha – anger; Lobha – greed; Moha – delusion; Mada – ego; arrogance; Matsarya – envy.

Control of the mind is essentially about reining in these passions, which usually act in a spiralling sequence that leads to downfall. Thus, a mind which is in delusion (moha) identifies solely with the body and ignores its inner divine essence. Believing in the ego as supreme (‘Me’, ‘My’, ‘Mine’), it becomes arrogant (mada). In such an arrogant mind, personal desires (kama) take over as the driving force and greed (lobha) sets in. Smaller desires not only multiply but become bigger and bigger until at some stage, not all of them can be fulfilled. Anger (krodha) then sets in, followed by envy (matsarya) of others who have more stuff.

Expand this template and we see that ‘stuff’ can also mean power, money, resources, territory that harbours commodities or is of strategic interest/importance, etc. They are coveted by all and sundry, and the numerous rivalries, conflicts, confrontations and wars that are taking place continually around the world are an ample illustration of the aptness of this template to the state of affairs in several countries and regions.

Durga-Puja time is here again, and it reminds us of the centrality of the Universal Mother in our existence. Belief in a Mother Goddess can be found in almost all races and religions in the ancient times, the Semitic, Hellenic, Nordic and Teutonic alike, but what singles out India has been the continued history of the cult from the hoary past till now. As Elizabeth U Harding, the American author of ‘Kali: the Black Goddess of Dakshineswar’ observes: ‘Considering the first being a child relates to is its nurturing mother and considering that primitive people who had no scientific knowledge must have watched the miracle of birth with wonder and awe, it comes as no surprise that our remote ancestors greatly revered the mother. When ancient people began to conceive of a higher supernatural being that would nourish and protect them from evil, they naturally conceived it in the image of the mother.’

Generally, Durga Mata is associated with protection, motherhood, and strength, but like a mother who has to assume many roles and functions, She exhibits several aspects, nine in all, thus Navaratri (nine nights) during which one of them is worshipped daily, and in her form as Chandraghanta she symbolizes control of the mind. How? Chandra means the moon, which as we know waxes and wanes, that is it keeps changing, like the mind. Ghanta means bell – and a bell has a clapper which keeps moving all around and hits its lower part to produce the sound but, importantly, is stopped by this very action and cannot go beyond, that is, the range of its movement is limited, controlled. Thus the symbolism of mind control.

When there is mayhem and disorder in her house, created by her children, a mother has perforce to restore order by strong action, and on a global or cosmic scale one can imagine what kind of power is required to achieve this. Hence Durga as Kali, who arose to defeat the demon, Mahishasura, who was terrorising the world. This is how She came to be associated with both war and protection.

In today’s context, She can be perceived as the collective force of good people needed to overcome the negative and destructive forces that are threatening us, and our planet which together constitute the Mahishasur. Mahi means Earth, asur means demon, and Ish means the one who is the lord of. Therefore, Mahishasur is the megademon of destructive or demoniac forces. They are the collective result of the greed of man, aren’t they? That’s what scientists are telling us, that climate change caused by human activities is responsible for the succession of environmental catastrophes that are assailing us.

Thus, as great thinkers have pointed out, the legend of the Devi-Mahatmya which is recounted during Durga-Puja is an ‘allegorical representation of the continual war that is going on within the divine and the demoniac in man’, between our passions and instincts and our more sublime nature which tries to overcome them.

Further, ‘Her adversaries represent the all too human impulses arising from the pursuit of power, possessions and pleasure, and from illusions of self-importance.’ We have only to look around us in our own country and in the world today, and we will see that many of the ills that are afflicting the country – crimes, drug dealings, unresolved cases of suspect deaths, fierce antagonisms and so many others – derive from these all too human impulses.

They are going to amplify as the campaigning for the forthcoming elections gather momentum. It is customary for politicians to be invited to religious occasions where more often than not they are made to address the audience. They mouth platitudes that once elected they tend to follow more in the breach than in observance. Durga-puja offers sublime symbolic lessons that if learnt and applied can immensely benefit the country in terms of peace, prosperity and harmony. Will these lessons be applied by our leaders? If the past is any guide, I am afraid…

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 11 October 2024