Attending a Hindu Ganesh Puja with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
One day as I was going through Florence’s weekly parent papers from her Waldorf School, I found an invitation to a Ganesh Puja.
I knew the children were studying mythology and world
religions at school and this optional activity supported that. I was happy someone invited us to their home
to participate in this activity. I
wanted to go, and my husband agreed that it would be a good introduction to the
culture of India.
I liked getting the invitation, but it took some time to
decipher. It read as follows:
-
You are cordially invited for Ganesh Puja and
Resurgence (Visarjan)
-
4 pm
-
Puja, Bhajans, and Potluck
We were to give our RSVP to the school office.
I asked Florence about Ganesh, the elephant god.
“We have been writing stories about him and drawing pictures
of him,” she said.
“Typical Waldorf,” I thought to myself.
“He helps people get their dreams,” she continued.
After that comment, I looked up Ganesh in one of my
mythology dictionaries and saw that he was described as “the remover of
obstacles.”
I closed the book and talked with Florence. “Your mom and dad are your Ganeshas. We’ll do all we can to help you get your
dreams,” I said.
“How would you like to eat at an Indian restaurant before we
go to the Ganesh Puja?” I asked.
Florence knew the restaurant I was talking about and wanted
to go, because I did lunches there with my writing group. (I love chicken vindaloo, naan bread, spinach saag, and
eggplant bartha.)
When we went to the Indian restaurant, I felt like I was
Indiana Jones on an icon hunt. I did not
have to look very long to find a Ganesh decoration that I had overlooked on my
previous visits. Right at the entrance,
the restaurant had a large stained glass window with Ganesh in it.
I showed Florence the stained glass window and said, “Look how
Ganesh is dancing on the rat’s back. The
rat stands for your enemies,” I said.
“It does not,” Florence snapped. “It stands for evil – bad stuff.”
I laughed and said with an increasingly high-pitched voice,
“Mom is mean, scary, and heinous just like the Wicked Witch!”
“You are. Be
nice. We’re in a restaurant,” Florence
said as we were shown to our table.
Florence ate tandoori chicken that had been baked in a clay
oven and naan bread. She drank a sweet
mango laasi made with yogurt and mangos.
Ganesh mom, me, had her usual order with nimbu pani to drink. Nimbu pani is a sweet soda with spices
sprinkled on top.
I asked Florence what the words on our Ganesh Puja
invitation meant.
“Pujas are prayer rituals,” she said. “We made clay Ganesh elephants to throw in
the Carmel River as part of the puja,” she continued.
“Mud in the pebble stream,” I thought of our
drought-stricken river.
“What are bhajans?” I
asked as I got another mango laasi for Florence.
“They are songs. They
tell about Hindu gods. Our teacher sings
them in Sanskrit and no one understands them,” she said.
I wanted Florence to learn about world religions and
mythology to be a world citizen, but I also wanted to know exactly what went on
in the classroom, too. I was going to
look at her drawings and “textbooks” that she wrote herself after that. I trusted her teacher (he had a master's degree from Stanford), but I have always
believed that parents should do things outside of class to support the
curriculum.
We finished our Ksatriya caste warrior-king meals with rice
pudding and got ready for the Ganesh Puja the next day. We arrived at the appointed hour at a private
home in Carmel.
We took off our shoes in the entry hall. We looked at framed photos all around the
house of bare feet in silver trays of water with flower petals strewn on
them. An altar with statues and flowers
had been set up.
The puja began at 4 pm.
We sat on the floor and bhajans were said in Sanskrit. The bhajans lasted two hours.
At the end of the bhajans, our host told us Ganesh broke off
one of his tusks so that humans could write.
Writing and literature are still very important in the culture of India;
I loved knowing the origins of Indian literary culture. After a question-and-answer period, we set
out for the Carmel River to toss in the Ganesh clay figurines.
I was thankful for the opportunity to be part of a
home-based religious ceremony. I wanted
to know more about India, because I knew it was becoming the world’s most
populous country. I wished the Indian
community would do cultural festivals at Monterey’s Wharf like the Greeks,
Turks, and Italians, so I could learn more about the dancing, art, food, and
music of the country.
Most of all, I wanted adults to have the opportunity to
learn about other cultures and not just children.
By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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