The Durga Puja celebrations that had begun on September 30 at various temples and community puja pandals in the city ended on Saturday with the immersion of the idols of goddess Durga and those belonging to her constellation — lord Ganesha, lord Kartikeya, Goddess laxmi and Goddess Saraswati in the river. The immersion was held with the devotes chanting mantras in tune with the traditions continuing since time immemorial.
Devotees attired beautifully were seen gathering at the puja pandals in their hundreds since the morning to participate in the immersion. Before the idols were taken out of the pandals the women played the traditional Sindur Khela- smearing the deity and one another with vermilion, praying for long lives of their husbands- an important part of the Durga Puja paraphernalia.
The deities were offered paan (betel leaves) and sweets by the devotees by way of bidding farewell to the Goddess. Devotion and delight were palpable in the air, though a note of sadness was unmistakable because the festivities were ending with the Mother Durga being about to embark her journey towards the Himalayas, the abode of lord Shiva. Mother would come again next year-that was the theme of the day as the devotees bid adieu to the Mother whom lord Rama invoked before he embarked on his mission to conquer lanka to rescue Sita from the clutches of Ravana.
“We are, of course, sad as we are bidding adieu to the Mother for the year. But there is no end; there is only beginning. This is, what we believe, forms the quintessence of the religion. The seeming end heralds a new beginning,” said Prabhat Kumar Ganguly who was present at a puja pandal in Dehradun along with his family to take part in the immersion festival. Some women were found teary-eyed when they were doing the ‘barana’ with “dahi (curd)-chidwa (dried rice) and the like.
The Raipur Puja Committee additional general secretary Tapas Chakraborty said hundreds of devotees had taken part in the celebrations with customary gaiety and fervour.
“The immersion is symbolic. The Mother holds the cosmos in the divine order, presiding over the annihilation of the Asuric forces to ensure that the divine forces reign to lead the humans from the lower to the higher planes. With the immersion underway, we are waiting for the advent of the Mother next year,” he said.
He further said the idols were taken in a procession to the river Saung near Maldevta, where they were later immersed.It should be mentioned here that at some places, Dashami Puja was held at several puja pandals with traditional gaiety on Friday.
The idols were immersed the same evening. However, most of the community puja idols were immersed on Saturday. Police took measures to ensure trouble-free immersion.