Ayudha Puja

At this time of year in South India, there is no shortage of religious festivals and rites. Just last month we celebrated Ganesha Chaturthi and yesterday marked Ayudha puja, another interesting celebration. Sometimes known as Durga (a manifestation of the divine mother Kali) puja in the north, in the south they call it Ayudha puja, which marks the worship of whatever implements one may use in one’s livelihood. The ancient practice comes from Indian mythology where Kali slayed the Mahisahsura (buffalo demon) and other demons by Chamundeswari temple in Mysore, Karnataka. After doing so, it is said that there was no more use for her weapons, so they were kept aside and worshipped (sounds a bit like Narsil in Rivendell) and this has been celebrated for many centuries in India. The idea is to make a conscious effort to see the divine in the tools and objects that one uses in everyday work, and through this effort, it is more possible to see one’s work (or not) as an offering to God. As well, it is meant to help one to maintain constant mindfulness of the divine. In contemporary times, we don’t have swords and weapons to pay our respects to, but things like cars and more ‘tools of the trade’ like computers, cooking utensils, etc. Starting from yesterday, the streets took on a whole other visage with all the cars decks out in garlands and banana leaves. It is quite a sight to see.

So for us at home, we have been building our puja space to closely resemble a typical Indian home. Joyce is very religious, so she has been more than happy to help in this regard and she helps to maintain the area with fresh picked flowers and oil in the lamps. It is really beautiful and smells great. So, like with Ganesh Chaturthi,. We asked her and Sekar to help us observe the holiday and, like before, it was a very memorable experience.

After being here for nearly 10 months, Kaia and I are getting accustomed to the procedure for going to the temple and/or paying respects to the gallery of deities in Hinduism, but this does not diminish the curiosity that comes with each new celebration. Joyce gave Sekar a list of everything that he needed to get and he returned with full bags of this and that, and our favorite—fresh banana leaves (right). They then went on to fully decorate the puja area with streamers, flowers, fruits and powders.

Once the area was setup, Joyce went around the flat, putting dots of sandalwood paste and red powder on all of the things that we needed to honor on this day. This meant the fuse box (for the electricity), the cutlery and even Kaia’s motorcycle (left)! Sekar, meanwhile prepared the large green gourd for smashing outside of the home by cutting a hole in top, mixing in red powders and small change, and placing a cube of camphor on top. Kaia, meanwhile, enjoyed the poori mix while cruising around on his newly blessed bike (left).

Additionally, this day is also to ask for blessings in one’s studies—how every convenient for me. Along these lines, you need to bring all of your books and important documents to the puja space as well, for them to be filled with the heat from the ritual. This is what you can see stacked up on either sides of the puja area (right). After everything is setup and in its proper place, you light the oil lamps, start the camphor burning and ring the bell. Each person, in turn then pays their respects to the divine—even little Kaia, who now knows the prayer and bowing positions well. Let’s hope that my laptop got with the program.

Finally there is the adornment of the car, which involves a garland on the grill, flanked by banana leaves, sandalwood paste splattered all over, and limes to be crushed under the tires for good fortune. All cars should be so fortunate to have such décor, even once a year. I wonder if the accident rate in India goes down for automobiles on this day…

Why I Love this Time: Because we would never be able to have this kind of father-son experience in the United States…