Na tatra suryo bhaati na chandra tarakam
nema vidhyuto bhanti kutoyamagnihi |
tameva bhantam anubhati sarvam
tasya bhasa sarvam idam vibhati ||
Sun cannot illumine him, nor the moon, nor the stars
Lightning cannot, much less this little flame I wave |
Verily, when he shines everything is illuminated
By his light alone all of us shine ||~ Kathopanishad II v 15
In addition to the Ganapati Puja (devotional service to the divine), we also celebrate the Gauri (Gowri) Puja at home. This puja is performed by women, to invoke the blessings of Gauri – mother of Ganapati. The Gods are invoked in these prints, decorated with black beads, glass bangles and ornaments. This is also called “Vaina Puja” amongst Konkanis.
As part of naivedyam, we offer various foods to the divine Gods. At the end of the service, we accept these as the joy and blessings of the divine and share them with family and friends. Here is the lunch offered to the divine, spread on a traditional banana leaf.
Jalebis as Prasad! Yumm!
Don’t miss our prior Ganapati greetings
- Video: Best of Mumbai Ganapati Street Dancing
- Flower Sellers at Dadar
- Ganesh Chaturthi – Preparations from the Day Before
- Ganesh Chaturthi 2009
- Ganesh Chaturthi 2008
- Ganesh Chaturthi 2007
- Ganapati Bappa 2005
- Saraswati Lakshmi & Ganapati
- Dadar Flower Market during Ganapati
Arun Shanbhag 
yes the pic of the neivedyam and jalebis is soooooo inviting…. we pray to gauri ma on karwa chauth day….
Thanks for sharing the festival snaps here. The pics of jalebis and the lunch spread on the banana leaves are mouth watering :). We don’t install the idol at home but we do pooja on the occasion. Belated wishes to you, M and little M :).
Thank you Poornima:
yes, I am now in Boston and missed those foods terribly. Tried NOT to look at the pics closely 😦
Thank you for your wishes, and hope your puja was very satisfying.
Best
Arun
thanks
Great festival, am from goa, always wait for these 5 days whole year
You are fortunate to be from Goa.
Yes indeed and great festival and worth waiting a whole year for.
Wishing yo uthe best,
Dev Barae Karo.
Arun
Thank you for sharing this, I love learning about the richness of India.
Thank you Leslie for perusing this post.
One of our favorite festivals.
Best Wishes to you.
Arun
Lovely red flowers all around Him in this artistic assemblage.
Thanks fro sharing ab Gauri pooja too.
I’m from Brazil and Ganesha Chaturhti is not widespread here, all my celebration is solo and improvised, really love watching it all around the world!
May Ganapathi showers His blessing upon us all!
Thank you Clelia for your kindness and appreciating this important festival that is close to our hearts.
Ganapati loves red flowers and you will always see a lot of red around him 🙂
Very few families perform the Gauri Puja and thought of adding a little bit of that as well. Wish I had more time (and pictures) to share about the Gauri Puja. Perhaps next year.
And to you in Brazil, as we would say in Mumbai ~ Ganapati Bappa Morya!