Pooja offering in Villages

Hi, Friends sorry for late updates from my end.

Like every year this year also I went to my village for Holi celebrations. Holi is the festival of colors, and in the villages very year people celebrates the festival and make special pooja for their ideal deity  or I can say every family has one traditional deity which family has been offering pooja for generation to generation.

There is one strange tradition for making pooja offering goat sacrifice.and this pooja takes place two times in a year, so every year more than 40 goats sacrificed. I asked personally with locals and this is what tradition has been following for long time and by seeing this new generation adopt this.

But what I notice there that young people are not very much interested while goats were being sacrificed they moved out from there, because they could barely see this.

I talked to the older persons of my village regarding stopping this tradition and they replied me by saying that their deities are like this they want blood in offerings,which can not be stopped.

Vasant Panchami

Vasant Panchami (वसन्त पञ्चमी) is a Hindu festival celebrating Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, music and art. It is celebrated every year on the fifth day (Panchami) of the Indian month Magh (January-February), the first day of spring. Traditionally during this festival children are taught to write their first words and most educational institutions organise special prayer for Saraswati. The color yellow also plays an important role in this festival, in that people usually wear yellow garments, Saraswati is worshipped dressed in yellow, and yellow sweets are consumed within the families.

Every one pray goddess Sarswati to increase the knowledge of their particular area of work .this is the festival which is celebrated by everyone. Students get the statue of goddess Sarswati in school and they make a special pooja which last for two day.

It is believe that by worshiping goddess Sarswati people gain intellectual power and wisdom. And special kind of prsad is offered to goddess. This is also the beginning of spring

In Varanasi Holika is kept at a place which will be burnt by social community just before the day of  Holi. from this day people get palnts and wood to this place and make it big until the day of burning so this is the a starting part of the Holi.

Goddess Saraswati

Her expression is so serene and calm even as She is majestic. She is seated on a white lotus in Padmasana, adorned by a pure white silk sari, has a book in Her lower left hand, Her lower right hand showing the chinmudra, Aksharamala in Her right upper hand, and Amrithakalasam in Her left upper hand. Both eyes are full of compassion. The vehicle assigned to each of the three goddesses also symbolically represent their special powers.

Goddess Saraswathi is the consort of Lord Brahma (Lord of Creation) and is the Goddess of wisdom and learning. Saraswati is the one who gives the essence (sara) of our own self (swa). She is considered as the personification of all knowledge – arts, sciences, crafts and other skills. She has a beautiful and elegant presence, is pure white in colour, clad in a white sari, seated on a white lotus, representing purity and brilliance. She has four hands representing four aspects of human personality in learning; mind, intellect, alertness and ego. She has the sacred scriptures in one hand and a lotus (a symbol of true knowledge) in the second. With her other two hands she plays the music of love and life on the veena.

She is dressed in white (sign of purity) and rides on a white goose (swan). The swan is known for its peculiar characteristic of being capable of separating water from milk, indicating that we should possess discrimination in separating the bad from the good. The seat being a lotus or peacock implies that the teacher is well-established in the subjective experience of truth. When sitting on a peacock she reminds us that wisdom suppresses ego.

हिंदी विद्यार्थी

अंकुर वारधवान एक हिंदूस्तानी लड़का है जो कि अपने माता और पिता के साथ आस्टरेलिया में रह्ता है ! वह  एक हिंदूस्तानी कंप्नी के लिए काम करता है ! जैसा कि वह बता रहा था की उसके परिवार मे उसको छोड़कर सबलोग हिंदी बोल सकते हैं ,इसलिय वह हिंदी सीखने के लिए बनारास आया था !

उसके माता और पिता मुम्बई के रहने वाले हैं ! लेकिन वह आस्टरेलिया पैदा हुआ है तो इसलिये उसको हिंदी नहीं आती थी !

वह बनारस में सिर्फ दो हफ्ते के लिए था, इसलिए हर दिन दो घंटे सीख रहा था !

Hindi Lessons

Shalom and Rachael they are husband and wife from  Mexico.They were traveling India for four months so they decided to learn Hindi before they start traveling in India.

They got my contact Information while browsing in internet and wrote me email requesting for Hindi class.I responded them and then wrote me back for conforming the class.

They were doing very intensive Hindi course three hours of lessons each day in two sessions.Rachael was originally from India so she picked up faster than her husband.

One day I asked them why they decided to learn Hindi with me their respond was they wrote emails to few people but my respond was fast enough and they continued  for two weeks.

Bharat Vikas Sansthan

June is the student of Anthropology  from Australia .she came to Varanasi to learn about the children Parliament in Varanasi and also for learning Hindi.She was staying in Ganpati Guest House in old city of  Varanasi.

She was in Varanasi for two weeks and  taking two hours of Hindi lessons  everyday.One day during the class she told me that she wanted to visit NGO Bharat Vikas sansthan in sigara area.she was struggling to get  clue for this NGO. however she had a little idea about this NGO.

I had allready taken some students at this NGO  in past so I know the founder Rajeev Srivastav of this NGO. I called him and took appointment for her .Next day we went to Bharat Vikas Sanshthan  where she met the Rajeev Srivastav and other staff.

She had seen on the television in Australia about children parliament election so she was very much interested in talking in Details about this organization.we sat there for a while and had a nice talking with children.The elected member of parliament was on internet.

Meanwhile I had to go to mountain with Bridge Year Princeton Programme so I could not continue with her but she used to come to meet my wife for reviewing Hindi what he learnt with me .

Hindi Lesson

Molly was the student of AIIS programme of Jaipour.her field study was allotted in Varanasi there for she was here.She was working on Muslim rituals at mosque .

She was very much focused on two type of Muslims shiya and shuni. what are the difference ways of praying in the mosque.

She came to know about me through one of the student of Wisconsin programe as I was working for her as research assistant.

Molly also wanted to improve her Hindi in conversation so she started class but meanwhile she went to krishnamurti foundation at Rajghat so it was difficult for her to come at assi everyday .

we decided to meet three days in a week because she used to come to interview some Muslim in shivala area.She had already learnt  grammar she needs to to speak.

we were mostly making conversation class and she was translating interview for the class

N.R.I.hindi vidyarthi

My guruji Virendra ji introduced me to Rishi sidhu who is non residents of India and at present he is living in Boston in America .Since he is studying international development particular for India.He came to Varanasi on 14Th of January for learning Hindi all though he has already studied Hindi by himself and in Mussoorie .He is taking every day one hour lesson .in his learning he translates lyrics of Bollywood movie song and make conversation on issues in India,culture,poverty and education.

New hindi student

Patricia Om shanti came to Varanasi from Bunes Airs, the capital city of Argentina. She is the follower of Swami Ramanand who is a great saint of Kerala. As she came to Varanasi for pilgrimage, she is very keen to recite Bhajan and chanting Mantras. Therefore she was learning some Bhajan at Dashashwamedh ghat (main ghat) with a artist who used to sing for the daily evening Aarti in an organization of Babu Maharaj, President of Gangotri Seva Samiti. Babu Maharaj introduced me with her as she has motivation to learn Hindi. She has very less time just two and a half week so she opted for intensive crash course. She used to learn two hours everyday. As her mother tongue was Spanish but she did well in Hindi and could speak basic Hindi.

Hindi Classes in varanasi

Pooja Olstho from Neatherland is doing volunteering in varanasi in some NGO organisation. one day i went to my guruji house (virendra ji) . he told me about her and gave me her number as she is staying in near main ghat I called her and introduced my self as I work with virendra ji as assistant teacher .she started taking hindi lesson from november 26th . as she is teaching in slums in Beniyabag for Asmita an organisation for education for children and empowerment for the women.I go to teach her at her place in main ghat for every alternate day