Complete ban of non-veg and only thoughts of God

Today is the first day of last five days of this holy month of Kartika, when we completely abstain from from all types of non-veg, even onion and garlic are not used. Usually many people do not eat non-veg during this entire month, but those who still cannot resist , they stop eating during these last five days at least. Usually its the gents who do not obey - but the ladies are very restrictive on this matter - they do not allow it inside home.

During this entire month, ladies get up very early in the morning, and go to the temple and then come back and put rangoli outside home. Though we have lost practicing this in our apartment houses, people in villages practice it. However, in our society the temple priest puts a new rangoli every day and all ladies gather together in morning as well as evening and offer the puja and sing devotional songs. And during these five days, all the ladies gather before the sunrise and do the Kirtan( a devotion in the form of music, going seven rounds in the society). I had to rush to stay with my Mother in my native place ( because her health condition was critically bad a week back, she is now out of danger), else I would have captured some snaps. I still managed to capture few snaps of the daily rangoli when I was there for few days.

The priest definitely has a very artistic hand. He comes very early and completes the puja and then does this rangoli . Usually I go for walk / exercise very early and get the glimpse of these and share. And there is a very interesting tradition - a diya is lighted for the entire month.

Along with the rangoli , the priest takes care of this Aakash Deep ( a diya that is enlightened at a height in the sky). He takes it down every evening, adds the oil and then takes it up. It happens for the entire month.

All these interesting traditions definitely have advantages. And they also are now being backed by scientific evidences. As I stated in my earlier post, little did our ancestors knew about science. They made all these traditions based on their observations of nature. Setting up all these ambience ( in modern words) definitely sets right the perfect mood to believe in their values and become more near to God.

And our living God Jagannath goes through five different attires in each of these days - widows across the state come to see these. There will be ladies who barely can walk, but still they come to see - that's the power of belief. Mom has recovered a bit and she made me dig vegetables from ground for this - I will keep it for the next post. Until then, wish you all a happy Panchaka - five days of pure holiness. Leave non-veg food if you can.