Ganesha and the Ganapati Festival

My travels to India have coincided with two major events - Independence Day and now the Ganapati Festival. Since the festival started yesterday, I thought I'd give you some info on the festival and on Ganesha.

First, let's talk about Ganesha. Shree Ganesha, or Ganapati as he is also known, is one of the most well-known and venerated representations of God (Brahman) to the Hindu faith. He is the first born son of Shiva and Parvati. You'll have to look them up to get a better understanding of the relationship.

As you can see, Ganesha is depicted as a big bellied, one tusked elephant and is often either sitting atop a mouse or accompanied by one. Ganesha is a much beloved and frequently invoked divinity, since he is the Lord of Good Fortune who provides prosperity and fortune and also the Destroyer of Obstacles of a material or spiritual order (for more info consult Wikipedia). I've noticed several of my friends have a Ganesha sitting on the dashboard of their cars.

The festival started yesterday and will culminate on September 6th with the immersion of countless Ganesha statues into bodies of water all over India. The statue pictured above is the largest in Hyderabad. We were told "It's crowded and crazy, don't go" by the hotel staff, but I was joined by two fellow Americans who were determined to see it. So we hopped in an auto and cruised over to the area. It was packed. And we were the only three non-Indians in the crowd, so were greeted with smiles and a few odd stares of curiosity. After wading into the masses, we stopped to pay our respects to the statue, took some pictures and headed down a side street.

Now you might be asking about that immersion thing. There has been much discussion about the idea of putting tons of statues into already polluted waters and they've tried to address the problem. All of the statues have to be degradable. I don't say bio-degradable because clearly the paints and lacquer they use aren't good for any fish who might be living in the lake or ocean. On the 6th, the road around the Hussein Sagar will be packed with people watching the cranes lift the Ganesha statues and submerge them into the water. I've already been warned that I shouldn't go due to the crowds. So I'll just watch it on one of the 11 news stations I can choose from.

Ok, back to my story. After the visit to the statues we stopped in front of a small temple. We could see the lights and hear the music from inside. Out of the blue, an older gentleman appeared on the street and said "Please come in. This is a JainTemple and you are welcome." So off went the shoes and we joined the devotees in song and clapping. Well we clapped and listened, but did not attempt to sing. It was a fun experience.

After finding an auto driver willing to take us back to our hotel, we decided to head back. At that very moment, the skies opened up with torrential rains. Now the hotel has a strict rule about letting autos (rickshaws) past the front gate. They're simply not allowed. But given the rain, we told him to just ignore the rule and that we'd pay any fine the hotel tried to hit him with. The security guard at the gate tried to stop us, but when he saw it was three stupid Americans, he waved us in. As we rolled up to the front door, right behind a very nice Mercedes, the hotel staff took one look and just laughed.

Good times.