Homecoming
@ Sarada Cottage, IA of Mother DURGA
Revd. Gurudev, Swami Dayatmanandaji Maharaj (Prior head of
Ramakrishna Vedanta Center UK; now retired) taught me to do Durga Puja in a
simplified manner. A little background on how it came about follows.
Mother Durga had Herself wished to come to Sarada Cottage in
guise of an offer from the Hindu Temple of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Temple
organization was renovating their shrine and Mother Durga’s image would not
match the size and ashtadhatu (8 metal)
material proposed for the shrine. Mother resides in a 6ft image resplendent in
the glory in Mahishashurmardini form. Her image is made of styrofoam and thus
very light. In this image, She is not accompanied
by her 4 children Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth), Saraswati (Goddess of Knowledge,
learning), Karthik (God of Valor) and Ganesh (God of remover of all obstacles
and giver of success).
Mother was worshipped by the local Bengali Community in this
image until they got the typical image of Mother accompanied by Her 4 children
in position of slaying the demon Mahishashura. So, this regal image was donated
to Hindu Temple when the temple did not have any image of Mother Durga. Associated
with this transfer, a funny anecdote of this incident that we got to hear is as
follows. Being predominantly of south Indian culture with Venkateshwara and
Ganapathy as the main deities; at first, the Temple committee was reluctant to
accept such a big image of Mother. However, a witty Bengali professor (Dr.
Sukumar Ghosh) cajoled them into submission using the irrefutable argument:
“Durga being the Mother of Ganesha, how can She not have a place in the Temple
where Her son is installed?”
However, the time had come to find a new home for Mother and
the temple committee thought of the Banerjees ...! I was extremely excited and immediately
called Gurudev. He advised to agree but with no condition. Surprisingly the
Temple Committee members did not impose any conditions at all.
The previous year, the
Banerjee couple (Nandini and Tirthankar), had performed Durga Puja for the
local Bengali community and were having regular classes on Swamiji’s Complete
works. One may think: ‘Oh, that’s why!’ But NO, these or anything can never ever be the criterion for
choosing anybody.
Mother Herself wished to shower
Her blessings on us.
So, She
Herself took a ride to Sarada Cottage in 2007 where She has set up her abode
until now. (Couple of temple officials brought Her to Sarada Cottage on the
back of a pickup truck).
She graces the shrine and is
worshipped during Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Class which occurs every Sunday.
Revd. Maharaj (SwamiD) did the Praan-Prathistha
(Installation of Divine Life in the Image before worship) of Mother by Chanting
Lalita Sahasra Naamam using Kumkum. That very year we did simple Durga Puja
with 108 flower offering.
Here is my Mother:
© Nandini Mitra
Banerjee Nov 7, 2018
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