Sat Ma­haraj

To­day, thou­sands of Hin­dus in T&T will join their coun­ter­parts across the world in their an­nu­al pil­grim­age and pu­ja (wor­ship) to ob­serve Kar­tik Snaan. The eighth lu­nar month of the Hin­du cal­en­dar is known as Kar­tik and this year it be­gan on Oc­to­ber 13. Kar­tik Snaan (al­so called Kar­tik Na­han in Trinidad and Guy-ana) oc­curs each year on the full moon day of this month. Kar­tik Snaan is viewed as the cul­mi­na­tion of months of in­tense and sus­tained prayer and de­vo­tion for the Hin­du. It be­gan with the ob­ser­vances of Kr­ishen Jan­ma (the birth of Lord Kr­ish­na), Ga-nesh Ut­sav (the 12-day fes­ti­val of Lord Ganesh) in Au­gust, fol­lowed by Pitra Paksh (an­ces­tral wor­ship) and Nau Raa­tri (nine days of de­vo­tion to the fe­male as­pect of God) in Sep­tem­ber and then Ram­leela (the play of Ram) and Deep­awali (the fes­ti­val of lights) in Oc­to­ber.

The Pad­ma Pu­rana (a Hin­du re­li­gious text) out­lines that dur­ing the holy month of Kar­tik, one who bathes ear­ly in the morn­ing at­tains the pun­ya (re­li­gious mer­it) of bathing in all places of pil­grim­age. It is al­so wide­ly be­lieved that tak­ing a holy dip on the aus­pi­cious Kar­tik Snaan will help in at­tain­ing Mok­sha (sal­va­tion) and wash away sins com­mit­ted. There­fore, where­as the ob­ser­vances from Au­gust to Oc­to­ber sig­ni­fy a spir­i­tu­al or in­ner cleans­ing of the devo­tee, Kar­tik sym­bol­is­es the phys­i­cal or out­er pu­rifi­ca­tion. As such, on this Kar­tik Snaan day, devo­tees will vis­it the var­i­ous beach­es and rivers to per­form their pu­jas, make their of­fer­ings and, most im­por­tant­ly, have their spir­i­tu­al bath.

Some will wor­ship Lord Shi­va and Gan­ga De­vi (the god­dess who pre­sides over the Holy Rivers) while oth­ers will wor­ship Lord Satya­narayan (a form of Bha­ga­van Vish­nu). A few devo­tees al­so wor­ship Lord Kar­tikeaya (the broth­er of Lord Gane­sha). This month of Kar­tik is ac­tu­al­ly named af­ter Lord Kar­tikeaya. The leg­end is that when Lord Gane­sha (ele­phant-head­ed) was des­ig­nat­ed as Pratham Pu­jya (the first de­ity to be wor­shipped), his younger broth­er Kar­tikeaya in­quired as to what would be his role and po­si­tion. It was de­ter­mined that a month in the year would be ded­i­cat­ed to Kar­tikeaya and this month would be called Kar­tik.

The month of Kar­tik al­so rep­re­sents a time when the Hin­dus reaf­firm in a tan­gi­ble and res­olute man­ner their com­mit­ment to en­vi­ron­men­tal aware­ness and pro­tec­tion. Oth­er main­stream re­li- gions as­sert that plants and an­i­mals, that is na­ture or the en­vi­ron­ment, were meant for hu­man be­ings to use as sus­te­nance for their sur­vival. They pro­pose that man has do­min­ion over these plants and an­i­mals. Hin­duism on the oth­er hand, through its scrip­tures and prac­tices, un­equiv­o­cal­ly demon­strates that hu­man be­ings must co-ex­ist with na­ture and the en­vi­ron­ment. The month of Kar­tik em­phat­i­cal­ly high­lights this point. The month of Kar­tik be­gan on Oc­to­ber 13 and ends to­day and dur­ing this pe­ri­od var­i­ous ob­ser­vances are un­der­tak­en that il­lus­trate Hin­duism's per­spec­tive of the en­vi­ron­ment.

The Pu­ranas (an­cient tra­di­tion­al scrip­tures) out­line that the month of Kar­tik (Oc­to­ber-No­vem­ber) is loved by Tul­si and on the spe­cif­ic day of Kar­tik Shuk­la Dwadashi (the 12th day in the bright half) of this month there is a tra­di­tion when Tul­si plants are beau­ti­ful­ly dec­o­rat­ed with struc­tures made of sug­ar cane, man­go leaves and flow­ers and then a pu­ja is of­fered. Here the di­vine in the form of a plant is wor­shipped. Most peo­ple are aware of the cel­e­bra­tions and ob­ser­vances of Di­vali, but few are aware that the day af­ter Di­vali is just as sig­nif­i­cant to the Hin­du. On the day af­ter Di­vali, Hin­dus wor­ship God in the form of Goverd­han (moun­tain) and Gow (cow). In Bha­ga­vat Ma­ha Pu­rana, Lord Kr­ish­na ex­plains that on Kar­tik Shuk­la, Pra-tipa­da (the first day in the bright half of Kar­tik) devo­tees should wor­ship the Goverd­han moun­tain and the cow as these are the sources of all sus­te­nance. Here once more the di­vine is wor­shipped as land and an­i­mals.

Dur­ing this month of Kar­tik Hin­dus al­so wor­ship Gan­ga De­vi, the god­dess who pre­sides over the holy rivers and ocean. This there­fore rep­re­sents the wor­ship of the di­vine as wa­ter. It can be clear­ly seen from Hin­du scrip­tures, prac­tices and tra­di­tions that dur­ing the month of Kar­tik, God is wor­shipped in the form of plants, an­i­mals, land and wa­ter-all as­pects of na­ture and the en­vi­ron­ment. The in­her­ent philo­soph­i­cal think­ing of Hin­duism is that if na­ture or the en­vi­ron­ment is re­gard­ed as man­i­fes­ta­tions of the di­vine per­son­al­i­ty, then hu­man be­ings would show their love, ap­pre­ci­a­tion, care, re­spect and con­sid­er­a­tion for the en­vi­ron­ment.

This trans­lates in­to prop­er man­age­ment and use of nat­ur­al re­sources, the adop­tion of pre­ven­ta­tive and pro­tec­tive mea­sures to safe­guard the en­vi­ron­ment and, most im­por­tant­ly, main­tain­ing a har­mo­nious bal­ance be­tween hu­mans and the en­vi­ron­ment. Since 1952 when the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha was cre­at­ed by Act No 41 of 1952, Kar­tik Snaan has been ob­served with Man­za-nil­la Beach as the ma­jor Kar­tik venue. Tem­ple groups from north and east Trinidad cov­er­age at the 41-mile post, to­geth­er with their pun­dits and devo­tees, from ear­ly morn­ing. Old­er devo­tees still hold im­ages of a bare-backed Bhadase Maraj and Sim­boonath Capildeo chant­i­ng the San­skrit mantras in the Man­zanil­la "co­conut."

• Sat­narayan Ma­haraj is the sec­re­tary gen­er­al of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha

THOUGHTS

• Kar­tik Snaan is viewed as the cul­mi­na­tion of months of in­tense and sus­tained prayer and de­vo­tion for the Hin­du.

• It is be­lieved that tak­ing a holy dip on Kar­tik Snaan will help in at­tain­ing sal­va­tion.

• Dur­ing the month of Kar­tik, Hin­dus al­so wor­ship Gan­ga De­vi, who pre­sides over the holy rivers and ocean.