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(Total activity, all pages, all sites, in page reloads, since 9/21/2000)
(9-13-99)
One reader asks:
Can you tell me why Lord Ganesha's idols are immersed during Ganeshotsava, what is the significance?
My response:
The Gods decided to choose their leader and a race was to be held between the brothers' Kartikeya and Ganesh. Whoever took three rounds of the earth first would be made the Ganaadhipati or the leader. Kartikeya seated on a peacock, his vahanam (vehicle), started off for the test. Vinayak or Ganesh was given a rat, which moves swiftly. Vinayak realised that the test was not easy, but he could not disobey his father. He reverently paid obeisance to his parents and went around them three times and completed the test before Kumarswami (Kartikeya). According to him, " my parents pervade the whole universe and going around them, is more than going round the earth." Everybody was pleasantly surprised to hear Vinayak's logic and intelligence.
(BELOW IS PART OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF Immersion of LORD GANESH'S MOORTY)
Meanwhile, Kartik was amazed to see Ganesh completing the holy bath at each river that he reached at and ready for another round of the universe.
Ganesh is remembered on chauth or chaturthi, the 4th day of every month of the Hindu calendered, but most of all on Ganesh Chaturthi which is celebrated as his birthday. Ladoos are distributed on the day-by tradition ladoos were placed in different corners of the house and eaten before the meal. Milk is offered to idols of lord Ganesh at home and at temples, and Ganesh puja is performed at all temples and hi-house prayer rooms. Fasting, feasting and distribution of sweets offered to Lord Ganesh are important aspects of Ganesh chaturthi rituals in India.
(HERE IS ANOTHER REASON FOR IMMERSION OF MOORTY)
Hindus pray to images of Lord Ganesha, large and small, many of them made specially for the occasion by cottage industries and street side artisans, and those that do not wish to keep the idols alive by daily prayers, offerings and lighting oil lamps, immerse them in the nearest water body (all rivers, lakes and the sea which are sacred to Hindus).
DURING POOJA WORSHIP, THE DEITY IS INVITED TO ENTER THE MOORTY. So if you desire to keep the Moorty, you are obligated to tend it every day with offerings and prayers. You have INVITED the Divinity to be your GUEST, and your offerings are HOSPITALITY. [Is this REALLY SO DIFFERENT from The Hospitality of Abraham in Genesis? Abraham entertains and feeds THREE ANGELS who symbolize the Trinity of the One God.] If you do not care to do this, then it is respectful to place the Moorty in a body of sacred water.
I am also reminded of a very charming practice of Saivite worship. The devotee will take some mud and fashion a small Sivalingam on the nail of their thumb. They will worship the Sivalingam and when finished worshiping, they dissolve the mud of the Lingam back into the sacred waters.
As the sacred scriptures tell us, God casts forth these countless worlds and universes, as a spider casts forth its web. And what are caught in this Divine Web of Samsara and Maya but all the countless Jiva (Souls) which are little sparks and microcosms of that Divine Light of Brahman (which is brighter than 10,000 suns). And then God draws the web of the phenomenal world back into Himself again.
So our worship involves Creation, Preservation (in the form of Pooja), and Dissolution (saying goodbye, departure) once again into non-Existence.
Perhaps one can even see an analog to this in Christianity. Out of Nothingness and Chaos, God creates the World. The messiah is fortold, a child is conceived seedlessly, Christ is Crucified, Dies, Is Ressurected, Ascends to Heaven, and Returns, and then the Heavens and Earth are rolled up like a scroll (mentioned only twice; once in Prophet Isaiah and again in the Book of Revelation). Hence a continuously alternating progression from non-being, to being, to non-being, to being, to non-being. [Is any of this REALLY SO DIFFERENT from Hindu belief and worship, when you stand back and see "the forest instead of the trees"?]
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