Friday 7 September 2007

Krishna tales, mela and merry making….

With Janmastami around , Rajkot is fully lit, with loads of fun fairs and melas hosting hundreds of food , toy stalls etc. People seem to gain untamed energy when its Janmastami . Every nook and corner of the city boasts of beautiful depiction of an event in life of Krishna through the way of idols and posters etc. People spend days together to prepare floats carrying decorated Krishna images through the city roads on Janmastami.
For sure , this is a medium for people to enjoy, recreate, run away a bit from their daily life, but does that celebration carry an essence forward to what exactly Krishna had to educate the mass?

People are in full spirit to celebrate Krishna’s birth, which happened ages ago, that’s what mythology says. Don’t know if Krishna ever took birth in real life , as it could possibly be a marvelous creation of Ved Vyasa. (controversial , same could hold for other religion gods also ).

The question then is, should greater importance be given to pomp and show, as what is given in today’s context to religious events?
The pomp and show would cost Municipal Corporation crores of rupees, but again that will be recovered from the stalls put at the municipal ground. Religion has become a business. There shouldn’t be any time spent to look beyond what brings in business – that’s what is taught today. Who cares for all the litter made of the food stalls, who cares for the pollution caused by vehicles which move unnecessarily from here to there to make rounds of the mela or for that matter the floats carrying the images of gods throughout the city? Litter creators who have a habit of throwing litter almost everywhere apart from the dustbin, must have never given a thought to the cleaners appointed, who would spent ample energy to clean off the ground full of litter.

Krishna must have never told to celebrate his birthday like this, but who knows he might get impressed this way also.

Everything in moderation is good, extremism and fanaticism is always difficult to handle and lands one nowhere.

6 comments:

Bhavesh said...

good analysis and completely agree with the last statement.. ati sarvatra varjayet (everything in access should be avoided)

chinmai said...

yep totally agree wid that statement..

Kanan said...

After reading your post I got many feelings but the one I was reminded of after reading the first paragraph was the best one! I remember my dad telling me stories of Janmashtami in Rajkot at Shri Ramnath Mahadev temple and on this day they would have swan shaped glider things climb down from top of the fort (? I think that's how he describes it) with each containing a pair of dancers - one Kaan (Krishna) and the other Gopi - and after they glide down, they do raas in the praangaN of the temple. I am not sure whether they still do it or not, but my wish is to experience a Janmashtami in Rajkot one day.

Celebrations and social functions are good and keep us all connected to our society but cleanliness and discipline in behavior are also important like you said. Good thing is, people are becoming more aware of these issues and working towards resolving them, little bit at a time.

chinmai said...

Kanan , i myself ve not seen and may be not heard also of such a celebration at rajkot .. may my parents may be knowing.. theres one such way of celebration during navratri where dancers sit on garuda which glides from as high as 3-4 storey to ground and then these dancers perform the garba .. but i guess thats during navratri, m not aware if it happens during janmastami also..

Kanan said...

Do they call it the "garbi" the kind of garba they do during navratri?

chinmai said...

yeah thats called garbi , and its during navratri.. come over some day during navratri, wud take u to see that , where it happens.. :)