Shubho Bijoya

Ma Durga with (l to r) Ganesh, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Kartik.

Today was visarjan and Ma Durga has returned with her children to her husband’s home. After visarjan, people wish each other Shubho Bijoya. So Shubho Bijoya to all.

For Bengalis, and a few other Indian communities, Ma Durga’s annual visit to her maternal home is an occasion of great celebrations. She visits with her children: sons Ganesh and Karthik, and daughters Lakshmi and Saraswati.

The Bengali iconography depicts the 10-armed Durga riding a lion — her vahan — in the act of slaying the ferocious asura Mahisasur. In this form, Durga is known as Mahisasurmardini, the slayer of Mahisasur.

As it happens, this form of Durga is not the most awesome; for real awesomeness, there’s Kali. Kali is the out-of-control incarnation of the feminine principle, Shakti. Shakti means power. Kali starts with destroying evil but her fury becomes indiscriminate and then to stop her from destroying the whole world, her husband Shiva lays down in her path, and she steps on him, realizes what she’s doing and comes to her senses.

So then, Ma Durga has been bid farewell for another year. Interestingly we Hindus refer to our devis as Ma (mother) such as Ma Durga, Ma Kali, Ma Lakshmi, Ma Saraswati but never to the devas as fathers. I suppose it’s because we are closer to our mothers than our fathers.

Well, that’s about it for now. As usual, I listen to some raga Durga songs. Here is one:

Be well, do good work and keep in touch.

 

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Author: Atanu Dey

Economist.

One thought on “Shubho Bijoya”

  1. Shubho Bijoya to you too, Atanu. Some random thoughts:

    1. I too listen to Raag Durga for about a month leading to Durga pujo. One of my favourites is this one by Ajoy Chakrabarti (https://music.amazon.in/albums/B007VONF96?marketplaceId=A3K6Y4MI8GDYMT&musicTerritory=IN&ref=dm_sh_a28FibuFoznYSAirLrh8jt3GA&trackAsin=B007VONG8Q)
    2. This Durga pujo was a dark one. The RGKar incident in Kolkata, torture on Bengali Hindus in Bangladesh clouded the festive joy. But I thought that maybe I should use the Pujo to harden my resolve to do something about the general Bengali-Hindu situation. (Not that I made any great stride on that front. Suggestions welcome).
    3. Maybe many Bengali males are always waiting for loving-ma to solve all their problems, rather than solving some problem for Ma and ‘loving’ her back.

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