Its now festive season in India.Though our country is secular, yet majority of the population is Hindu. Out of all religions, Hinduism is the only religion who worships nearly 33 crores Gods and Goddesses. That is why,in India we observe a number of festivals. Out of these Gods and Goddesses, three are considered as supreme and they are Lord Brahma,Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. It is believed that Lord Brahma is the creature of the Universe.Lord Vishnu maintains the activities of the creatures. And Lord Shiva punishes the offenders who violates the law of nature .
A few days back, India celebrated the festival of Goddess Durga who is believed to be the Goddess of power.It is celebrated in different parts of India,Nepal,and also in some parts of Bangladesh in a large scale.An interesting mythological story is related with the creation of Goddess Durga.
In Hinduism, it is believed that there exist three world-Earth , Heaven and Hell. Human beings exist in Earth ,Gods and Goddess live in Heaven(who are also known as Devas) and Demon lived in Hell. God Indra was considered the king of Heaven.Pawan(God of wind),Varun(God of rain),Agni(God of fire),Laxmi(Goddess of wealth),Saraswati(Goddess of knowledge)etc are some of the Gods and Goddess of Heaven .There were seperate places for three Lords.Baikunth for Lord Vishnu, Kailash for Lord Shiva and Brahmalok for Lord Brahma.
Lord Brahma
Lord Vishnu.
Lord Shiva.
During that time,yoga and meditation were an integral part of life which is still relevant today. With continous practice of meditation for several years,a few human beings were able to connect with God and they were termed as Priests. They acquired so much power through meditation that they could even curse someone. Even the devils also practiced yoga and meditation .
One such Demon was Mahishasur,king of Hell. His mother was a Princess.But due to a curse by a Priest,she was forced to become a Water Buffalo for a long time.During that time,her son Mahishasur was born.Therefore, Mahishasur was able to take two forms-demon and buffalo. As he grew young,he involved himself in deliberate meditation in search of Lord Brahma. After several years of tough meditation without any food and sleep he was able to satisfy Lord Brahma. The Lord finally appeared before him and asked what boon Mahishasur wanted from him. Mahishasur wanted to be the most powerful of all creatures ever created. So he wished that he would not be killed by God,man or animal.
Lord Brahma knew that if the demon's wish is fulfilled then lots of chaos would occur in the world but as Mahishasur meditated whole heartedly,so Lord was bound to fulfill his wish.Very soon he became one of the powerful creature.He started to conquer the whole world.No one could stop him as he seeked the boon from the Lord.He grew so powerful that one day he attack Heaven.Indra as well as other Gods could not stop him and had to fled away .In this way,after conquering Heaven ,Earth and Hell he started torturing all the creatures .
Finding no other alternatives, Devas went to Lord Brahma.But Lord Brahma had no solution
with him therefore he along with Devas went and met other two Lords-Vishu and Shiva.They ultimately found a way. As no God,human being or animal could kill him,the three Lords decided to create a powerful woman to kill him. For this ,three Goddesses namely Laxmi,Saraswati and Parvati(wife of Lord Shiva) have to incurnate their powers together.
When they came together,Shiva,Vishnu and Brahma gave out a blinding white light,which fused with the merged bodies of the three Goddesses.The light was so fierce that it could not even be seen by Devas with their eyes.
From this light emerged a woman which was looking ferocious and beautiful at the same time.
Thus,a new Goddess was created.This new Goddess had ten hands .The Devas gave their weapons to this Goddess .The God of mountain gifted her a lion to ride.Very soon Goddess Durga involved in a battle with Mahishasur. The army of Mahishasur could not survive the attack of this beautiful and ferocious Goddess whom they have never seen before .Finally,Mahishasur himself came to fight.He was indeed a strong opponent of Goddess Durga giving tough fight to her. In this way,the battle continued for nine days and nights. On the tenth day,at dawn,tired Mahishasur took the form of buffalo and rushed towards her for final attack. But due to the lion (on which Devi rides) his attack was unfulfilled..Finally,with a weapon called Trishul,which was gifted by Lord Shiva,Mahishasur was killed by Durga.
Therefore,it is believed that Goddess Durga comes to Earth every year for ten days in a particular season to destroy the evil powers and to bring peace. That is why,people of India celebrates Durga Puja festival for these ten days. From sixth day onwards,Goddess statue made up of clay are placed and all the religious rituals starts from that day. It continues for ten days.People come in large numbers to seek blessings from Goddess Durga.In this way,a large number of statues are placed in different places of India and people gather around these places and due to this many temporary shops are set up to attract the people.
People gathering to seek blessings from Devi Durga.
On the tenth day,it is believed that Goddess used to return back. Therefore ,after completing all the rituals, people used to bring the statues to the rivers to dispose it and this ritual is called 'Bhasan'.Thus,in this way the Durga Puja festival comes to an end.
Devi Durga's statues made of clay at different places.
I am uploading a few pictures of the statue of Goddess Durga. Along with Devi durga riding on a lion, the two other Goddesses are Laxmi and Saraswati. Other two Gods are Kartik and Ganesh,sons of Lord Shiva.
Also uploading a video of a small boy worshipping Devi Durga with fire.He is accompanied by a musical beats played in a rhythm.This musical instrument played specially in Durga Puja is called ' Dhak '.
