It was the evening of ceremonial good-bye today for the Watak-Raze seated in our houses gloriously in the corner of a room for the last three days. All these days mornings and evenings were busy in the Puja and today’s evening was actually the occasion for a brief ceremony on a river bank (Watuk Parmuzun) but in the absence of any such flowing water there is a changeover in the custom and the ceremony is completed inside the house or in the open compound if situation allows. The specialty for today is eating of soaked walnuts given by Watak-Raze with hot roties made out of rice floor after the ceremony. From tomorrow the hectic job of sending the soaked walnuts, the auspicious Prasad of Hayrath, to all friends and relatives will commence and continue up to Taila Ashtami, the eighth Tithi of Phalgun Shukla Pakhsha. Thus the festivities of this festival end for this year.
Such celebrations no doubt lead to spiritual upliftment, purification of soul and self discipline. All festivals add zeal and zest to our lives and help in keeping certain time tested customs alive. Kashmir has been a seat of spiritual and cultural strength since time immemorial. Kashmiri Pandits are Shaivite Pandits and deeply rooted in their purest cultural traditions. The worship of Lord Shiva and Parvati is deep rooted in her tradition. The sanctity of this festival finds place in almost all authentic ancient Sanskrit texts of the valley. In Shivastotravalli of Utpal Dev written in Eight century, and Kalhana’s Rajtarangini there is a special mention of Shivratri. The great Kashmir Shaivite scholar Abinav Gupt has paid special salutations to Lord Shiva and Shivratri. We worship Lord Shiva in His both forms of Shiva and Shakti. Shakti for us is the Goddess Raginya, Sharika, Kali or Durga, who are the energy aspects of Lord Shiva. Worshipping Lord Shiva leads to the cosmic mother, who offers solace, protection and divine grace to one and all..... (to be continued)
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ReplyDeleteRespected Bai Jaan,
ReplyDeleteNamaskar and Herath Mubarak to everybody
While the common perception of a miracle might most of the time be an imagination about some task rare and uncommon - probably somebody floating in air, or walking on water etc - which nobody seems to have witnessed so far…..but I feel that miracles are happening every day in and every day out, in common Man’s life.
One such miracle is the Grit and Determination with which our community is carrying forward our precious Centuries old traditions despite the hardships innumerable which it has been subject to.
During my Schooling years, I happened to come across a book ‘History of Kashmiri Pandits’ by Justice Jia Lal Kilam which. This was an eye opener for me and I could actually visualize hardships our community was subjected to and how they still managed not only to survive but also to stick to their traditions which have trickled down to us- Shivratri being a major one. This book also had mention of our great ancestors, who did excel in the academics and every sphere of life… which are doing till date. We all should be proud of the never-say die sprit of our community and make sure to take this our next generations which it will no matter what.
At the same One segment of our brethren actually feel pessimistic about this tradition being carried forward probably due various reasons and detour from our values. Even I was having the same notion until 14 years back when I spent a couple of days with one of my relative Migrant Camp in Muthi. During the day I felt a lot of bitterness when I saw plight of some elders who had nothing to do but to play cards on wayside, the kids roaming like street urchins, and so on….. I retired to sleep with thoughts that it was end to our Majestic tradition and the journey would end soon.
Next Morning my sleep was interrupted at about 4 AM, with sound of Temple Bell and chorus of children reciting Sanskrit Sholakas. I hurried up to see this and found a gathering of Men Women in the Temple nearby. And a Group of children in age group of 4 to 15 reciting Shrimad Bhadwad Gita……………
That day onwards, I never worried about the seemingly deterioration but believed that yes we are going to Carry our tradition no matter what.
Sincerely
SUNIL BHAT
Socrates is very right when he says that we see a miracle each day in some form or the other depending on what we perceive as a miracle.But frankly I really dont understand why we need to be so possessive of any tradition..........If traditions are beautiful they withstand the test of time or else values change and so do traditions.After all life itself is so dynamic in this era of globalisation.Let us not be acutely possessive about are own culture as it may lead to a myopic vision with respect to all the diversity around us.
ReplyDeleteThe view presentd by Shalini is really worthwhile. It's good to respect our particular regional traditions but better to be more realistic and try to be part of the global culture as a whole. That's the clarion call of our times. Let's try to respect it!
ReplyDeleteBeing possessive about our traditions!!! I think that was not on my mind.
ReplyDeleteThe greatness of our comunity always was the ability to adopt to situation and land. We continue doing that....but that has a flip side, which has lead to dilution of core....
Well may be I misperceived it!!!I would be glad if you would be kind to explain the connotation of the following statement to facilitate clarity on the subject-
ReplyDelete"At the same One segment of our brethren actually feel pessimistic about this tradition being carried forward probably due various reasons and detour from our values."
A part of community members are not too optimistic about the traditions lasting too long.
ReplyDelete