What is Visarjan ?

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By Dr Sandeep Sadanand Chaugule , 23 September : In India particularly in Hinduism an idol or a pooja (worship) comes to an end after certain duration, and the main deity is immerse or removed from the festival place. This process is called as Visarjan.

Every year Ganesh festival ends with such visarjan process. Some people do visarjan of Ganesha after 1.5 days, some after 3 days, so and so forth traditionally it is done after 5, 7,9,10 or 11 days, depending upon the family tradition.

Let us explore the real meaning of this Visarjan concept.

Vi-Sarjan is made out of two sanskrit wards “Vi” and “Sarjan”.

First let us explore the meaning of Sarjan. Sarjan mean creation. There is similar word in Sanskrit Srujan which means origination. Sarjan is usually used for things which are manmade, created by human being.

Sometimes the creative ability of human being is called as Sarjan-sheel in Sanskrit.
Sarjan or creative power is a gift by nature to human being, however human needs to nurture it and take it to the level he can replicate nature through the creation.

Sarjan is to create and Srujan is to get created or originated. Hence in Vi-Sarjan the maning of sarjan is creation.

Now we will see what is “Vi” in visarjan. “Vi” is among 20 pre-fixes used in Sanskrit. “Vi” is a pre-fix to many words, “Vi” has multiple meanings in Sanskrit. “Vi” 6 major meanings
1) To
2) To get away
3) To get separated
4) Opposition
5) To get stronger
6) To get totally changed

In Ganesh visarjan, “vi” is used for “to get stronger” as meaning. The process of Visarjan is a typical process. People worship the lord for last time during festival season, offer flowers and rice. And say following mantra
यान्तु देवगणा: सर्वे पूजामादाय पार्थिवीम ।इष्टकामप्रसिद्ध्यर्थं पुनरागमनाय च’ Meaning, oh the lord who is in form of an idol (parthiv), please accept my offerings and to provide me blessings and complete my desires come in the form sooner.

This is not an end, it is beginning. In Hindu philosophy nothing has an end it is cyclical. Hence the creation gets dissolved and gets recreated in better form. It’s a cycle of Creation- Dissolve- Recreation.
It is the time to bid adieu to our lord Ganesha, so that he will come in idol form sooner.

I will be back with a series of information/ blogs on Devi in Navaratri. Till then गणपती बाप्पा मोरया !!!!!

 

Compiled by: Dr Sandeep Sadanand Chaugule

You can follow the author on Twitter @sandipchaugulle