Editorial

Invite the Mother

Durga Puja this year will be a your worship.” From Saptami onwards and also different experience. Even if at the Sandhi Puja, during the time of arati, devotees go shopping for the Puja, Hriday had the blessed vision of Sri visit relatives and friends, and hop from one Ramakrishna “in a luminous body standing in Puja pandal to another, their joy will be tinged ecstasy beside the image” of the Mother. When with a sense of fear and sadness created by the he returned to Dakshineswar, Sri Ramakrishna pandemic conditions. And for many devotees, confirmed the vision stating, “I went along a the only wise option is probably to worship the path of light and was present in your worship Mother in their own homes. hall in a luminous body.”

After the first Durga Puja in image at In October 1885, Sri Ramakrishna was Belur Math, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi who staying in Shyampukur, Kolkata, undergoing participated in it had said, “Mother will come treatment for his throat cancer. Surendranath here every year.” Truly, this blessing applies to Mitra, a close devotee, was celebrating Durga every branch centre of Belur Math where the Puja at his residence; he was very sad because Mother is worshipped. So, not being at the Math Sri Ramakrishna was unable to join the during the Puja, in the living presence of the celebrations at his home. On the Ashtami Day, Divine Mother and the Holy Trio, is a very in the evening, Surendra sat in the courtyard in painful prospect for our devotees. front of the Mother and wept loudly like a boy

But every adverse circumstance has a crying out ‘Mother’ ‘Mother’ for over an hour. At hidden opportunity. Devotees unable to come the same time, Sri Ramakrishna had entered to the Math for the Puja, can invite the Divine into a deep Samadhi. When he returned to Mother and Sri Ramakrishna to attend the Puja normal consciousness, he told the assembled at their homes! devotees, “I saw that there opened a luminous

In 1868, Sri Ramakrishna’s nephew path from here to Surendra’s house. I saw, Hridayram decided to worship the Divine further, that attracted by Surendra’s devotion, Mother at his house in Sihar, near Kamarpukur. the Mother had appeared in the image and that He wanted Sri Ramakrishna to accompany him. a ray of light was coming out from Her third But Mathur Babu held Sri Ramakrishna back eye. I also saw that rows of lamps were lighted because he wanted him at his own residence in the front verandah and Surendra was sitting during the worship. When Hridayram was and weeping piteously in the courtyard in front about to leave with a sad heart, Sri of the Mother.” Sri Ramakrishna then sent Ramakrishna consoled him saying, “Why are Swami Vivekananda and other devotees to visit you pained? In my subtle body I shall daily go Surendra’s house. to see your worship; nobody except you will see This Durga Puja, let us with a childlike me! Have as the Tantradharaka a Brahmin to faith call the Mother as Sri Ramakrishna often dictate the mantras to you and perform the advised us: “Cry to your Mother with a real cry, worship yourself according to your own O mind! / And how can She hold Herself from devotion. Instead of keeping a complete fast, at you?” When She comes along with Sri midday drink milk, Ganga water, and the syrup Ramakrishna, let us pray for strength to of candy. If you perform the worship in this way, overcome all the challenges that She is the Mother of the universe will certainly accept throwing at us these days.

The Durga Puja

SISTER NIVEDITA

This article is from Studies from an Eastern Home, a posthumous publication carrying a collection of Sister Nivedita’s writings. Here, Sister Nivedita, one of the foremost disciples of

Swami Vivekananda, outlines the different dimensions of Durga Puja and the coupling of the

Divine Mother’s worship with the worship of the Motherland. “A nd there was war in Heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the Dragon; and the texts that are recited over and over again from one end of Bengal to the other, with worship and fasting, throughout the great nine days, Dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed from the new moon of Ashwin, until Dussera or not, neither was their place found any more in tenth day. Here and there are those—monks in Heaven.” Archaic sentences here and there in their monasteries, perhaps, or Brahmins in the world’s scriptures tell us of the wars that their homes—who recite the whole of the were waged in Heaven before the beginning of Chandi again and again. But for all alike, time, and of the heritage—dim, prehistoric, whether they do this or not, there is but one supernatural in the natural — that was left object of contemplation—the wars that were in from them to men and gods. Heaven; one hope, and one alone—the

What is it that makes this element of conquest of the demons by the gods. mythology so clear, what force has raised it in Everywhere in India the feast that this one case to the significance when it attains corresponds to the Durga Puja is military in in the Chandi portion of the Markandeya character. Perhaps fundamentally in Purana? This is, above all others, the Purana of consequence of the fact that, in the North at Bengal. But here the central figure of the drama least, the rains are just over, the first seven days is no archangel, mighty in power and beauty, are spent in the cleaning and display of but the Mother herself, personification of the weapons; and on the tenth occurs the creative energy, focus and centre of the visible prostration and exhibition of skill in arms. Very Universe. Back and forth amidst the applause curious is it at Nagpur on this day to see the last of Heaven does She pursue the ever-changing scion of the Bhonsles set out on the stately demons, and at the moment of her triumph, promenade that was, to his fathers, the when, ten-armed, pedestaled on the living lion beginning of a freebooting expedition, and long and sword in hand, She subjugates her foe for long before that, a hunting party. ever, She is portrayed as the image of Durga. But domestically, in Bengal, it is a very Such is the story told by the scripture— halfdifferent element in the festival that determines epic, half-liturgy—from which are taken the the feeling of the home with regard to it. The

child to whose afterlife each flash of a waterfall is to carry its reminder, more or less vivid, of Durga with crown and sword, does not in its childhood itself conceive of Her as the cosmic energy, appearing from amidst the ten points of the compass. For the Mother of the Universe shines forth in the life of humanity as a woman, as family life, and as country. Here She is the maiden, perfect in beauty, nun-like in holiness, whose past and future are a glorified wifehood, on whose rapture of devotion the eye of the Great God Himself has fallen, and who enters the Indian household, goddess and queen notwithstanding, as, after all, the little wedded daughter, returning for a ten-days’ visit to her father’s house.

True, as the lad draws nearer to manhood, he must realise that the father of the guest is no less than Himalaya, and his daughter, therefore, the spouse of God—according to the legend, Mother India herself. But this only gives continuity and ductility to his idea of the myth. First Durga, the ten-days’ visitant;’ secondly, India, as Uma Haimavati; and lastly, MahaShakti, the Infinite Force; but always and increasingly as his power of recognition grows, that ceaseless energy which works without and around him towards the due subordination, by the forces of life and nature, of all that is vicious and unjust and out of place.

With what tenderness and intimacy, then, does the Bengali child learn to conceive of his country and of God! It is a tenderness and intimacy which, beginning with the use of images, may become inherent in a language and characteristic of old races. The Mohammedan boatman of Eastern Bengal is not in his own person a worshipper of Durga, and yet the words “With folded hands before the Mother” may carry as much to him as to the Hindu heart. Beyond a doubt, however, it is its higher theological meaning which lends to the Durga Puja its overwhelming elements of civic pageantry and national comprehensiveness. Those who have studied religions as factors in social and political development must be conscious of the great variety of threads that are united in any single religious practice. What was it that made the Semitic races worshippers of God the Father, and India the land of the worship of the Mother? Can these vast tangles of social and geographical conditions ever be completely unravelled? And even so, does India stand alone in her personification, or is it not more or less common to the whole of Eastern Asia? Regarding this last point, it is perhaps the fact that what exists elsewhere in fragments and survivals has been preserved and developed in India as a coherent whole. And within India itself, customs and doctrines bearing on this worship, in more or less of mutual un-relation, in many provinces, are in Bengal gathered together and woven into a single perfect piece. Who shall say how old was the Chandi in this region when it was fitted into and accounted for, by the Markandeya Purana? And where can we go, outside the province, that some echo of the old-time Mother-worship does not fall upon our ear?

Amman, the Mother, guards every village of the South. It was Bhowani, the terrible

Sister Nivedita

Mother, who led the Mahrattas to victory. The Mother, again, was worshipped by the Sikh, using his sword as her image. Kali was the patron goddess of Chitore. To this day the great birthday is marked, in the Punjab and throughout the North-West Provinces, by the Ram-Lila, or miracle play of the Ramayana. To this day, in Mysore and all over the Deccan, Dussera Puja is the chief festival of the year. To this day. in every part of India, the nine-days fast is performed by some member of every high-caste household. To this day, in Madras, in Behar, and among families of military tradition everywhere, is Virashtami, the solemn eighth day, the occasion of the worship and the tribute of the sword.

In Bengal, however, all these elements— social, military, and theological—are combined and rationalised in the characteristic conception of the Divine Mother as Durga-KaliJagadhattri : Durga, the divine energy, making and destroying, defeated and again conquering, impersonal and indifferent to personal desires; Kali, mother of darkness, wielder of destruction, receiver of sacrifice, whose benediction is death; and, finally, Jagadhattri, the tenderness of the heart of God, who shines in good women, and from whom came forth the Madonnas of the world. It is in Bengal, too, when the image of the Mother has left her children for a space, when the nine days of worship and of charity are ended; it is in Bengal that the great tenth day is kept as that of the reknitting of human ties, and the Vijaya greetings of the family reunion go out throughout the length and breadth of the land. For are not all bonds of kindred indeed sanctified and renewed year by year at the feet of the Divine Visitant? Is not the whole of the country at one in the presence of the Mother?

It is more than thirty years since Bankim Chandra Chatterji, the great Bengali romancer, sang the vision of the ended Durga Puja as the

Bharat Mata. Painting by Abanindranath Tagore

hour of the Motherland’s need as he saw the image plunge beneath the waves. That the poet spoke the innermost thought of his countrymen, interpreting the yearly drama that belongs to each one in a national sense, however distant he may be in the sectarian; that he voiced in his poem what each household and each individual had known already in the heart, is proved by the history that has gathered round his song. Every year that goes by, the images of the Mother become more and more deeply, each in its turn, entwined with the thought of India to the Indian heart. Mother and Motherland— where ends the one and where begins the other? Before which does a man stand with folded hands, when he bows his head still lower, and says with a new awe: “My Salutation to the Mother!”

First Durga Puja at Belur Math

SWAMI VIMALATMANANDA

The Durga Puja, and the associated

Kumari Puja of Belur Math and also of the other ashrams of the Ramakrishna Order have become a great cultural and spiritual heritage of our country. Every year lakhs of people come to the Math to witness the worship, pray to the Mother and fill their lives with Her Grace, which gets specially manifested in this worship.

This article describes how the first Durga Puja in image was celebrated under the guidance of Swami Vivekananda. Originally published in the Oct 1989 issue of The Vedanta Kesari, the article is reproduced here with a little editing and abridgment.

That was in October of 1901. The considered themselves ‘custodians of autumn festival was being held for Hinduism’ gave up their animosity and the first time at the Belur Math attended the Puja. They became convinced that which was consecrated only three years before. the sannyasis of the Ramakrishna Order were That was the first Durga Puja in image at the truly ‘Sanatani Sannyasins’. According to Sarat Math. It was, however, not the first occasion Chandra Chakravarty, (a lay disciple of Mother Durga was being worshipped by the Swamiji), Swamiji’s main purpose in conducting Ramakrishna Order. Swami Shivananda, the this Durga Puja was to remove all unsavoury 2 nd President of the Order, said, “Swami doubts and scepticism from the minds of the Vivekananda introduced the worship of Mother orthodox. Durga at the monastery at Baranagore. Of Swamiji had not seen Durga Puja for a course, the worship used to be performed in a decade. He intended to see it that year. The consecrated pitcher (ghata) in those days.” But decision to celebrate Durga Puja in image at the the worship of 1901 had one distinction— Math in 1901 was his own. He had cherished Swamiji had introduced for the first time in this idea since several months before. He asked Belur Math the worship of Mother Durga in Sarat Babu to bring the book Raghunandana image. Smriti, which deals in detail with the

Many orthodox pundits and Brahmins of ceremonial forms of the worship of various the neighbouring places used to criticise gods and goddesses. Swamiji read the book Swamiji and the other sannyasis of Belur Math thoroughly. On being questioned, Swamiji for their innovating and liberal ideas, their said to his disciple, “This time I have a desire modes of work, and especially their nonto celebrate the Durga Puja. If the expenses observance of the customs regarding caste and are forthcoming, I shall worship the food. Even these bigoted people who Mahamaya.’

But Swamiji did not speak of his intention to anybody till only a few days before the date of worship. Four or five days before the Puja, Swami Brahmananda, (a brother disciple of Swamiji and the 1 st President of the Order), was sitting in the Math verandah facing the Ganga. He had a vision of Mother Durga coming over the Ganga from the Dakshineswar side and stopping near the Bilva tree (now, in front of Swamiji’s memorial temple). Just then Swamiji returned to the Math [by boat] from Calcutta [now Kolkata] and asked, “Where is Raja (Swami Brahmananda)?” On meeting him, Swamiji told him: “This time make all arrangements for the Durga Puja by bringing the Pratima (image) to the Math.” Swami Brahmananda hesitated for a while, for there was very little time to make all the necessary arrangements. Then Swamiji disclosed the vision he had had. He had seen Mother Durga being worshipped in image at the Math. Swami Brahmananda too then described his vision. These visions were greeted with great joy and cheer by the sannyasis and brahmacharins of the Math.

Br. Krishnalal (later Swami Dhirananda) was immediately sent to Kumartuli (a t r a d i t i o n a l p o t t e r s ’ q u a r t e r i n northernKolkata), to see if an image could be procured. Fortunately, one image was available, for the person who had placed the order had not turned up to take the delivery. Swamiji was informed; he and Swami Premananda (a brother-disciple), went to the Holy Mother Sri

Invoking the Mother’s presence Sarada Devi’s residence at 16A, Bosepara Lane, Kolkata, and sought her permission to perform the Puja. The Holy Mother gladly consented. Swamiji at once ordered the image to be brought to the Math. Soon the news spread all over the city and the devotees joined the sannyasis to make the celebration a grand success.

The image was brought from Kumartuli a day or two before Shashthi (18 October) and was installed in a temporary pandal erected for the puja in the courtyard between the old shrine-building and the Math building (which has Swamiji’s room); the pandal extended up to the mango tree which still stands there.

Swamiji felt it imperative to have the Holy Mother’s presence at the Math during the Puja days. Along with her lady companions the Mother came and stayed at the near-by Nilambar Babu’s garden-house, which was rented for one month. Every day the presence of the Holy Mother and her lady companions in the puja gave immense joy to everybody. In the presence of the ‘living Durga’— the Holy Mother — the image throbbed with life and the whole atmosphere was surcharged with divine bliss. It is said that Swamiji himself worshipped the Holy Mother in the Durga-mandap. All the devotees enjoyed the holy company of the direct disciples like Swamiji, Swamis Brahmananda, Premananda, Adbhutananda, Saradananda and others.

The arrangements for the whole celebration were personally supervised by

Durga Puja in Belur Math

Swami Brahmananda. Br. Krishnalal was the worshipper. Sri Ishwarchandra Chakravarty, father of Swami Ramakrishnananda and a devout brahmin well-versed in worship, was the Tantradharaka, (the director of the worship in strict accordance with scriptural injunctions.) The 5-days Puja lasted from Friday, 18 October 1901 (1 Kartika, 1308 B.S.) Shashthi, to Tuesday, 22 October (5 Kartika Vijaya Dashami).

The sankalpa-mantra was uttered in the name of the Holy Mother, for Swamiji declared, “We are all penniless beggars; the worship won’t be done in our name.” Moreover, as sannyasins are debarred from performing Vedic and Pauranika rituals, the worship was performed by a brahmachari of the Order. This custom is still being followed. On Shashthi, the rites connected with Adhivasa, Bodhana and Amantrana were performed under the Bilva tree (the spot in front of the place where Swamiji’s Temple now stands).

On the night of Saptami, Swamiji had an attack of fever. So he could not join the worship the next morning. But he came down to the pandal at the time of Sandhi Puja, the most important and solemn function of the whole Puja at the junction of Ashtami and Navami and offered pushpanjali at the feet of Mother Durga three times. The Sandhi Puja began at 6.17 a m. and ended at 7.05 a m. on 20 October.

On Ashtami, the Kumari Puja was performed. At Swamiji’s request, Gauri Ma, a lady disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, made the necessary arrangements. Swamiji himself worshipped nine little girls as Kumaris. He placed flowers at the feet of the Kumaris and offered sweets and Dakshina in their hands. He then prostrated before them. One of the Kumaris was a very small girl and Swamiji was so absorbed in the thought of the Divine Mother that, when he put red sandal-paste on her forehead, he exclaimed, “Ah! Have I hurt the third eye of the Mother?”

On Navami night, Swamiji sang in the worship pandal a few songs to the Divine Mother — the songs which Sri Ramakrishna loved and himself sang on such occasions.One day there was an open-air drama performance (yatra) named ‘Nala-Damayanti’. The drummers and the flute players played sweet music at intervals.

On Vijaya Dashami, the image of Mother Durga was immersed in the Ganga. At the time of immersion Swami Brahmananda danced like a boy; Swamiji and Swami Premananda watched from upstairs. At the end of the Puja, Swamiji gave Rs. 25 as Dakshina to the Tantradharaka through the Holy Mother.The Holy Mother was highly pleased with the way the Puja was conducted and remarked, “Mother Durga will come here every year.” She returned to her Kolkata residence after blessing the sannyasis and brahmacharins.

A number of orthodox Brahmins and pundits of the nearby Bally, Belur, Uttarpara and Dakshineswar were invited and they all enthusiastically participated in the celebration. One of the main items in this celebration was the feeding of the poor. The devotees had Prasada in the north-western portion of the courtyard, in the space between the existing jackfruit tree and Sri Ramakrishna’s new temple. Everyone without any discrimination was warmly welcomed and entertained by the sannyasis. The atmosphere of joy could be palpably felt at Belur Math during the Puja days. The total expenditure was Rs. 1,400.

From 1902 to 1911 the worship of Mother Durga was conducted not in an image but in a ghata. As a devotee promised to pay the expenses for the Mother’s image, the worship in image was resumed in 1912.The tradition continues.