I should have written about this incident long, long time back in one of the Puja musing series last year. But somehow it skipped my memory. Strangely it was while watching the Anna Movement on TV that suddenly my mind rewound and like a bolt of lightning the event flashed in front of my eyes.
It was Navami – the ninth day of the Puja. We were a bit late in reaching the Pandal. As we walked in we found a small crowd gathered in the middle of the Puja Park a little away from the dias where the deity was placed. On nearing the group we were surprised to see a little girl not more than six or seven years old dressed up like a bride seated on a chair. Her mother was standing right next to her decked up from head to foot. The father was busy taking snap shots of his daughter and wife from every possible angle.
There was a bevy of ladies of all shape and age surrounding the child, busy touching her feet and fondling her cheek. After much patting, pecking, kissing and pinching they would, with much ado, snuggle some money into the girl’s tiny hands which promptly got transferred into the mother’s increasingly bulging purse. This went on for some time till I realized what I was witnessing was part of Kumari Puja which usually takes place during Durgashtami. But today was Navami. Then how come the ritual was being celebrated on the wrong day?
In the meantime, the crowd kept on swelling. The child looked more and more harassed. The ladies while shuffling the money into her hand insisted that she blessed them wholeheartedly. The mother kept on crooning and reciting into the child’s exhausted ears what she was supposed to say while blessing the ladies much much older to her. Soon the child started whining, complaining and wanting to get away from the badgering crowd.
I was struggling hard to make up my mind whether to join the bandwagon. Somehow neither the proceeding appealed to me nor did it evoke any bhakti bhaav. I raised an eyebrow questioningly towards my nephew who smirked openly with detest and looked away. That settled the issue. Soon after, we left the Puja Pandal.
Getting back home the first thing I did was to dial my aunt’s (father’s sister) number in Kolkata to know more about Kumari Puja. Age had rendered her memory weak. The only thing that she could remember was that the ritual was started by Swami Vivekananda at Belur Math. My mother is extremely spiritual by nature but completely anti-ritual. So, it was futile asking her for any further information. The best option was to Google search on the subject which I did.
I found out that Swamiji during Durga Puja would make it a point to worship several Kumaris as they were deemed to be the purest manifestation of divinity. It is said that Thakur Ramakrishna Paramahansaji, whom Swamiji revered as his Guru, would always bow before little girls as in them he saw the perfect and unpolluted embodiment of the Divine Mother. In continuation of the same belief and spirit, Kumari Puja is still followed in all the branches of Ramakrishna Mission and elsewhere too on the eighth day of Durga Puja i.e. Ashtami.
However, the question was whether the post puja pomposity witnessed by us in the Puja Park was part of the sacred rite? Could divine blessings be bought or bartered like that? I do not think so. There are many forms of corruption in society. But the most heinous of them all is the one which plays with the emotions, devotion and chaste values and beliefs of the people. It was most perturbing to see how a pious religious ceremony had transformed into a commercial venture. As I grieved, my nephew’s succinct remark summed up the situation aptly. He said, “What you saw was the process of degeneration over a period of time - a sacred ceremony gradually turning into a sham.”
I could not agree with him more.
