ANYTHING in the name of GOD?
Shivratri 2018
Ours is a country of culture, traditions and celebrations. Every year, hundreds of festivals are celebrated across the nation on the basis of the values, stories and parables passed on to us over the generations. Behind every festival lies a virtuous story of Gods and Goddesses and we celebrate it to keep the message alive, the victory of good over evil.
Sawan Shivratri is one such festival which is devoted to the remembrance of Lord Shiva. According to Hindu Puranas, the poison came out before Amrita which started destroying the world. To prevent this, Lord Shiva inhaled the whole of poison, the negative energy of which started to act upon him. It is said that, Ravana –Shiva’s devout follower did meditation and sent ‘kanwar’ to bring holy water from Ganga. The kanwar’ poured it on Shiva’s temple in Puramahadev and redeemed him.
In the memory of this sacred event centered at redemption and purification, millions of pilgrims clad in saffron called ‘kanwar’ bring water from the Ganges or local equivalents during the annual monsoon season and carry it across hundreds of miles in containers suspended on either side of a pole to dispense as offerings in their local Shiva temples.
Earlier, the Yatra used to be a small affair undertaken by a few saints and older devotees but it started gaining popularity with time. Today, there are thousands of Kanwar groups each constituting hundreds of Kanwariyas who travel on foot, bicycles, motor cycles, scooters, mini trucks or jeeps to commence the ceremony.
But unlike in earlier times when enthusiastic participation at massive scale would be a glorious observation, for the saffron-clad pilgrims would cheerfully walk the roads lost in the bhakti of Shiva, today’s scenario is just upside down.
Not only the devoutness has gone away, even human sentiments have vanished from the eccentric souls who ‘pretend’ to be pilgrims.
Since Monday when the yatra started, news started flashing about the onslaughts of Kawariyas victimizing the office goers on busy roads during peak hours. The first incident reported was of Moti Nagar in Delhi on Wednesday where Kanwariyas wrecked a car of a couple and toppled it over when it allegedly ‘touched’ one of them. They, who call themselves ‘shiva bhakta’ had brought base ball sticks to put locals and authorities on their toes during the full fortnight of the pilgrimage.
Another disappointment came from the police which stood as a mute spectator during the whole episode. They were merely ‘helpless’.
Isn’t this enough to raise a question on the sanity and solemnity of the Kawariyas? Despite being allotted separate lanes by the authorities, why did they wreck havoc with the chock-a-block traffic, and advertently gave rise to conflicts?
Going ahead in their insane mentality, they gave rise to many other conflicts. In Greater Noida, two Kanwar groups entered a conflict over donation collections in the village and the bhandara (community feast) leaving 11 of them injured.
By the evening of Shivratri, social media was flooded with the videos of their presumptuous conduct. One showing a Kanwari girl smoking cigar along with other Kawariyas. , the other showing two kanwars making pegs on the roadside, and the rest showing glimpses of their violent outbursts. In one of them, they were stoning a policeman!
On one hand, was the sound of massive population resonating in the honks on roads and on the other hand were slowly crawling vehicles of unscrupulous hypocrites with a pride of having conquered the world.
That is how Shivratri is celebrated in modern time – traffic jams, people hurling abuses and lathis on each other, alcohol and the smoke of cigarettes, which sums up into something to be called as sheer mockery of God!
The festival has ended, the pilgrimage is consummated that would have left all Shiva shrines overflowing with holy water. But with this has also ended up our pride to call us noblemen of a sacred country like India.
We have upgraded ourselves in the quality of living, but not without sacrificing the quality of life – our moral values, our sanity and wisdom. Show off, just show off! Not a speck of spirituality exists. We need to ask ourselves,’what have we become?’
May God Forgive and Give Wisdom to Us.
