Wishing all our Marathi brothers and sisters a Happy Ganesh Chaturthi! May you have a peaceful and joyous day with your family, friends and community at large.
In Mauritius, Ganesh Chaturthi is a National Festival celebrated annually. The celebrations take place in a spirit of sharing. Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated by Hindus around the world, who are devoted to Lord Ganesha, the remover of obstacles.
In India, Lokmanya Tilak who rightly believed that it would help to bring all Indians together, during the freedom struggle started celebrating Ganesh Utsav on a large scale.
Pursuing to their ancestral tradition and culture, the Marathi Community in Mauritius has been celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi with great zeal and devotion since many years. Traditional typical dance, named as Jhakhree is performed to venerate Bappa on Ganesh Chaturthi. Ganesh chaturthi starts on the fourth day of Hindu luni-solar calendar month Bhadrapada, which typically falls in Gregorian months of August or September.
Lord Ganesha appears before beginning of important task like creation of the world. This means that he is eternal and presents himself to remove any obstacles during the process of creation. Lord Ganesh is prayed before starting almost any work. He is worshipped first in all rituals in almost all streams of Hinduism. In fact, Lord Ganesha has become synonymous with the beginning. One can often hear people saying – “We will do Shri Ganesh of that work soon”, this means that they are going to begin the work immediately!
We always wish to complete our work successfully without any obstacles or hitches, Ganesha gives the fruits of all our works or actions whether they are material or spiritual. This is the esoteric reason why we should pray Lord Ganesh, before we start any endeavor and to achieve success without any obstacles. Lord Ganesh is also worshipped for his capacity to bestow wisdom and to destroy all evils.
Among all anthromorphic deities in Hindu pantheon of divinities, Ganesh incarnates the God of learning and knowledge and His devotion teaches one to be responsible and be farsighted enough to differentiate between good and bad. The younger son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati is known by 108 different names and is Lord of arts and sciences and the deva of wisdom.
The ritual of immersing (visarjan) the idols reinforces the understanding that God is not an idol, it’s inside us. Lord Ganeshji is the Lord of all good qualities in us. So when we worship him, all the good qualities will blossom in us.
Ganapati Bappa Morya…
Mangal Murtee Morya…
Purchya Varshi Laukar Ya