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Ambaji, The Bhadrapad Full Moon Fair in Gujarat
Somehow in all this, the allure of the Full Moon seems to be dimmed. Yet there are exceptions in Gujarat and Rajasthan, where this occasion sees the advent of celebrations through the fairs of Ambaji and Salasarji Balaji (Hanuman, the monkey-faced god), respectively.
The temple of Ambaji is located in the foothills of the Aravalli mountain range in north Gujarat. It is the principal shrine of the goddess in Gujarat. It is recognised as one of the original 52 Shaktipeeths in India, important power centres manifesting the divine cosmic energy in the form of the Goddess on earth.
While all Full Moons of the year are celebrated with gusto at Ambaji, the Bhadrapad Full Moon is one of the four most important festival days of the year, when people from the farming communities in the surrounding areas visit the temple in thousands. There is a large fair on this occasion, while in the evening, performances of Bhavai, the folk-theatre common to this region, are held. Women participate in large numbers in the traditional garba dancing programmes during the fair. It is estimated that over five hundred thousand people visit the fair every year.
Mahalaya Shraddh, The Fortnight of Feeding the Ancestors
The holy part of the month ends with Anant Chaturdashi, and the next day marks the beginning of the sixteen-day Mahalaya (Great Dissolution) period of shraddh. This is the time of placating the spirits of all the ancestors of each particular clan or family, through the offering of ritual oblations and consecrated food.
The first day of this period is known as the day of Pratipada Shraddh. All ancestors who died on this lunar day of all the months in the year are offered food, and so on, until the last day of the Mahalaya period. This is the New Moon day, or sarva pitri amavasya, an ‘All-Ancestors’ Day’ of sorts.
To be born human is a rare privilege according to the scriptures, at the culmination of evolution from simple to complex life forms on the earth, and an opportunity to attain liberation from the gruelling cycle of life, death and rebirth. Most souls must bide their time in other dimensions, until such an opportunity presents itself. The price of being permitted birth in a particular clan or family is to also to take on its duties, obligations and shared karmic burdens. Many departed souls are stuck in painful limbo until someone from among their descendents performs the rituals that will set them free. Many worthies with strong material desires and attachments at the time of death, turn into ghosts and suffer a lot of pain and anguish. They are known to create major blocks in the lives of their descendants, until the attachments are pacified in symbolic offerings of consecrated food.
The shraddh ceremonies are dutifully performed in the knowledge that we are a part of a long chain of humanity, in karmic bondage to our particular lineage. It is the performance of sacred duties and vows that ultimately leads to liberation from this unending cycle of death and reincarnation on the earth plane.
- Sahyog Promodak
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