A weeklong celebration of the birth of our beloved Lord Shri Ganesha

Shri Ganesha, the elephant faced god, who is also the first child of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi was born on the fourth day of the Bhadrapada Month (according to the Indian Calendar), which generally falls in the month of August.

After the grand success of Krishna Janmashtami, a few weeks ago, Shiva Vishnu Temple organized a week long Puja program for the temple deity as well as some special Ganesha idols brought from India.

Devotees flocked the temple on the first day of the celebration, called the “Sthapana” or “Prathishta” (consecration), where the Lord is invited to reside in the idol through a select set of vedic rituals. Through the chanting of vedic hymns and the procedure, the energy of the Lord is established in the idol and then prayers are offered via the so-called “Shodashopachara Puja” or the 16 essential services culminating in food offerings, devotional songs called Kirtans and Bhajans and a fire ritual called Arati.

In India, it is a general practice to keep the idols and perform daily services to the idols for a period of 3, 5, 13 (Ananth Chaturdashi) or 21 days. On the last day, called, Visarjan, the Lord is requested to leave for his abode via a set of vedic rituals followed by devotional songs and Arati, but with a pompous ceremony of farewell where the idol is finally immersed in a waterbody (lake, river, sea) and a humble request to return again next year to bless the world. We immersed our idols in a large vessel of sanctified water.

No words can capture the true color and joy of the event. Be there with us next year, to experience it yourself. Until then, stay safe and say “Hari Om”