1. Sharada Mahotsava In Mangaluru
Have you read about how the town of Mangaluru comes together to host the Sharada Mahotsava every year during the puja season?
Inspired by Tilak's Ganeshotsav, the Acharya Mutt in the 1920s began the tradition of worshipping the Devi in the form of Sharada as a community event.
But why Sharada?
Because it was the Goud Saraswat Brahmins who kickstarted the festival and they chose the goddess that reigned in their homeland - Kashmir.
Deeply inspired by patriotism. The festivities begin and end with 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' - Sharada as Bharat Mata as Sharada!
A portrait of Bharat Mata that adorns the top of the pandal where she sits.
There are no pre-made moulds - every year a new murthi is hand made out of clay.
Three generations of sculptors have now shaped the Sharada murthi.
Over 4000 students are felicitated during the festival, a fitting way to celebrate the goddess of learning.
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2. She Fights And Delivers Victory For The Devas, And For Each Seeker
Deva-karya-samudyata: She who manifests herself for fulfilling the purpose of the Devas. This is the fifth name of the Goddess in the Sri Lalitha Sahasranama.
Meaning behind the meaning: In the immediate Puranic context of this name, the Devas are beseeching the goddess to come and release them from the tyranny of Bandasura.
However, scholar-saints have consistently maintained that this name describes an inner battle within each mortal as much as it describes a Puranic war.
A word about Puranic time here: Though they may or may not contain what happened in the historical or physical time, the Puranas are not intended to be past histories.
The bifurcation we see between mythology and history in Western culture and global academia is a result of the history-centric approach.
The Puranas on the other hand can be understood as a concept analogous to the ‘dreamtime’ (Tjukurpa) of Australian aborigines.
In that, they are not recollections of a primitive mythological past, but an ever-present spiritual reality that regenerates itself and thus connects the past, present, and future.
In the Puranas, the old becomes the new.
The Devas and Asuras too, also do not literally refer to separate ‘races’ at war: Rather, it refers to the two dominant natures inside humans.
For the sake of brevity, Devas represent that nature when a person is aware of the Self and is not ignorant; Asuras represent that nature when the person is in ignorance and has complete faith in radical materialism.
Knowledge, self-control is a sign of the Devas; seeking of indulgence and pleasure is a sign of Asuras.
And the battle between these two natures rages on inside every human being.
With the blessings of the Goddess, not only does a person become aware of this inner-conflict but also in time realises that he needs the Goddess to carry him to victory.
Si Ve Radhakrishna Sastri explained this succinctly:
The self bound by ignorance is Bandasura. When ignorance serves selfishness, it takes an Asuric form.
Each sense organ is associated with a Devata.
When the self becomes bound by ignorance then these organs cannot reach their divine potentiality and thus are oppressed.
The Goddess emerges so that the ignorance is annihilated and the seeker is liberated and the organs become free of the bondage and accomplish their fullness.
The core of the meaning: It is She who fights the war for the devas.
A war that happened in the primordial ages and happens today inside innumerable seekers. It will happen again.
And the Lalitha Sahasranama is the description of that battle and the victory over the self, that She delivers.
Arush
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