Love without attachment is light - Norman O Brown
After meeting Him in the numerous pandals, its time to bid Goodbye to Ganeshji…
Day 11, Anant Chaturdashi –
Life in the city throbs, even more so today, today being Ganpati Visarjan (immersion), the last day of the Ganesh Chaturthi Festival. Lacs of idols will be immersed in sea, artificial lakes and ponds as HE returns to His Heavenly abode. He is given a grand farewell… amid sounds of music, drums and prayers, begins His final journey to the sea…
He is taken in cars, trucks and carts or carried in hands for the visarjan.
Devotees dance and sing as He is taken towards the waterfront.
He is surrounded for the final prayers as devotees
seek His blessings before bidding adieu.
He stands in line, waiting for His turn.
All religious paraphernalia are removed before immersion.
He is handed over to the youngsters around the lake. And slowly they carry the idols into the lake for visarjan.
Devotees watch the visarjan from the lake-side.
Finally He departs to His Heavenly abode...
Chants of Ganpati Bappa Morya, Pudhchya Varshi Lavkarya fill the atmosphere. Slowly, the idol dissolves out reminding us of the perishable nature of things in life. In a way, the festival inspires us to not get attached to material things in life. It also reiterates the fact that though the form dissolves, blessings remain. Though the mood is somber but the energy is uplifting. It also seems to seep inside and warms the hearts from within.
With moist eyes we have let You go;
But keep Your promise, O Lord –
‘Do come back early next year!’
31 Comments
How very Fascinating!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYes, it is really fascinating. In Hyderabad, it is much more, for every Ganesha idol situated in every corner of the city is brought and immersed in Hussain Sagar lake. And, that was the most beautiful moment with hundreds of Ganesha idols most sacredly prayed for blessings, in a long queue waiting to be immersed!
DeleteThis post exactly fits the same.
And, very beautiful photography. You should have included the details of the camera model also.
A beautiful post and lovely pictures!
ReplyDeleteWhat a good variety of pictures you have taken to capture this somber occasion. Not as happy as the first, I see. I do like your quote about light and love, I never thought about it that way.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful sight this must be, I feel privledged to have learnt about it. Many thanks Chitra for another informative and colourful post.
ReplyDeleteMy sincere apologies Arti. I am so mortified that I called you Chitra - my excuse? I have none. Again, please accept my apologies.
ReplyDeleteArti, your photos are so full of energy!!!
ReplyDeleteGanapati Bappa Moraiya, Pudcha Varshi Loukar yah!
ReplyDeleteI love this festival Arti, You shared wonderful pictures. Yes ,I was with you during the entire festival.
I like what you said about not holding too tightly to material things; they can slip away from us so quickly.
ReplyDeleteSuch lovely pics, havent seen this from a long time...thanks for sharing arti
ReplyDeleteGood one... which lake was that??? Its been ages since I went for visarjan, and it was a surprise to see the neat lines waiting..
ReplyDeletePretty neat tradition!...Christine
ReplyDeleteFascinating tradition with great pictures of joy and movement.
ReplyDeletewonderful series!!
ReplyDeleteNicely written!!
ReplyDeleteAwww....that's so touching esp the last 3 lines.
ReplyDeleteReally lovely pics..if possible could you give a description below the pics( where they were taken etc) it would be even more enjoyable!
Arti -- that looks like a wonderful festival --full of history and mysticism. I really loved your description of city life -- cities do throb! A wonderful choice of words.
ReplyDeletenice pictures of the end of Ganesh Chathurthi. Here in my city, there was no water to solve the idols and i don't know what people did. They must have taken it to the nearby seashore city.
ReplyDeletePictures said everything.
ReplyDeleteWhen we used to live in Madhya Pradesh[Betul] we used to go in night to watch Ganesh Pandals the atmosphere used to be great.
Now here in Western U.P. not many people celebrates Ganesh Chaturthi which is miss.
This Post rightly deserved Blogaddas Spicy Saturday Pick.
nice photography with excellent description! .....
ReplyDeleteThanks for appreciation on my art work :)
Greetings, Arti! Thanks for stopping by Paree and commenting on my silliness!
ReplyDeleteThis series is utterly fascinating. It's hard for me, not being religious, to wrap my mind around this kind of devotion but it is certainly interesting and colorful!
You took some wonderful shots of the festival. Very colorful and interesting.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful images, so full of life.;)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your recent visit and a kind comment,
xoxo
Beautiful photos of a beautiful tradition. So true about material things. I've lost many material things during my life, many of which I loved at the time. But it's true, blessings remain.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this wonderful way of looking at things. And thank you for visiting my blog. Lindy and I love visitors.
Kay
Alberta, Canada
Fascinating. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen shri Ganesh visarjan ,thanks a lot for sharing this.jai ganeshaye namah.
ReplyDeleteGood ganesh visargan photos, wonderful that you shared with the world of bloggers
ReplyDeleteAnother informative blog… Thank you for sharing it… Best of luck for further endeavor too.
ReplyDeleteDear Arti
ReplyDeleteWe are an organisation publishing travel guides, presently we are working on a Mumbai Tourism project for which we are looking for some good photos of Ganesh Visarjan. With reference to your blog, we wish to use the Goodbye Ganesha first photo for our project/ book. Kindly give us the permission to use it. We will publish your name in our editorial page.
Waiting for a positive response
Please get back to me at ritu.de@mapmyindia.co.in
Hello Musafir hu Yaaro,
ReplyDeleteMumbai Tourism project sounds interesting!
Thanks for contacting me... Sure, you can use the picture. Only that, I request you to attach my blog name too along with my name in the credits and if possible, can you send in a copy of your published project book to me? As a traveler, I would love to have a read at it! :)
Thanks.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteDelighted you stopped by... Your suggestions, feedback are really appreciated. Thanks a lot :) Hope you visit again!
If you have asked a question, please give me at least 2 days to reply back. Thank you :)