GANESHA BLESSED OUR NATIVE WELL

 




“The invariable mark of wisdom

is to see the miraculous in the common.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

In the village I grew up (in Mangalore), Ganesh Chaturthi was known as ‘Chauthi’. Our house was surrounded by many families of different faiths. Days were simple and innocent – trust in each other was pure. I remember, on every important Hindu festival like Chauthi, Krishna Ashtami or Deepavali, our Hindu neighbours would send us their delicacies, and on Christmas, Easter and Nativity Feast (Mother Mary’s birthday), our family would do the same… This tradition was started by my grandparents, continued by my parents and, today, the family of my eldest brother and his wife (who live there) still follow it… There is great pride and simple joy concealed in this act…

The flowers from our courtyard had, always, reached Hindu households to adorn Lord Ganesha, Lord Krishna and Lord Rama… Our GSB neighbours, year after year, immersed their Ganpathi idol in our well… “Our well water is Holy water,” my Mom would tell everyone proudly…

How simple can be faith, trust and devotion… How innocent!





For last several days, not far from here, I see many young boys, girls, kids and adults of a roadside slum so busy and excited… setting up a humble pandal just outside their slum… My heart smiles and my mind wonders: “Which one would Ganesha be pleased with more – the one celebrated at Ambani’s Antalia, or here at this slum?”

Well, it’s blasphemous to ask this question aloud… I know. Lord Ganesha is everyone’s Lord, and He lives everywhere… They say, He lives in our hearts more than anywhere else… In our native well, too, as my Mom would proudly say!

Lord Ganesha Himself taught us this truth with His legendary wisdom: While His brother Karthikeya mounted on the peacock and tried to complete three rounds around the Universe, our baby-elephant God, knowing his limitations, decided to win the race by taking three rounds around the very centre of the Universe - His own parents (Shiva and Parvathi)…

Wisdom wins… Wisdom and worship can be so simple, innocent and accessible for all of us… Ganesha taught this to us.

Six years ago, when I was battling after my surgery, I found a Rosary underneath my pillow… A dear one had quietly left it there, without saying a single word. Touched by it, I have done a similar act several times after that… yes, quietly leaving behind a little Ganesha to the worried soul…

My Ganesha, my Krishna, my Jesus, my Lord is, always, the one I can meet, talk and embrace freely… He is as innocent as I am… He is there everywhere, in the simplest and the most ordinary things and places… I do not have to travel around the Universe three times to meet Him… He is just there around the corner… right here…

Yes, Sir… Yes Sir…




May Lord Ganesha bring to all of us wisdom and protection…

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pics: 1. Pixabay (Sonika Agarwal)  2. Pixabay

Video: Meir Kay

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