On Fri­day, No­vem­ber 15, 2024, 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 Fri­day, Oc­tobe 18. Kar­tik Snaan (al­so called Kar­tik Na­han in Trinidad and Guyana) 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 be­gins with the ob­ser­vance of Ganesh Ut­sav (the 12-day fes­ti­val of Lord Ganesh), fol­lowed by Pitri Paksh (an­ces­tral wor­ship) and Nau Raa­tri (nine days of de­vo­tion to the fe­male as­pect of God), and then Ram­leela (the play of Ram) and Deep­avali (the fes­ti­val of lights).

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 Oc­to­ber to No­vem­ber sig­ni­fy a spir­i­tu­al or in­ner cleans­ing of the devo­tee, Kar­tik sym­bol­is­es 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 baths.

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). The leg­end is that when Lord Gane­sha (ele­phant-head­ed) was des­ig­nat­ed as Pratham Pu­jya (the first de­ity to be wor­shipped), his younger broth­er Kar­tikeaya would al­so be wor­shipped.

The month of Kar­tik al­so rep­re­sents a time when the Hin­dus reaf­firm their com­mit­ment to en­vi­ron­men­tal aware­ness and pro­tec­tion. Hin­duism, on the oth­er hand, through its scrip­tures and prac­tices, un­equiv­o­cal­ly demon­strates that hu­man be­ings must co-ex­ist with na­ture and the en­vi­ron­ment. Dur­ing this pe­ri­od, var­i­ous ob­ser­vances take place that re­flect Hin­duism’s view of the en­vi­ron­ment.

Na­ture can­not be de­stroyed with­out hu­mans be­ing de­stroyed. Rev­er­ence for na­ture and its cre­ation is a uni­fy­ing eth­i­cal prin­ci­ple. All liv­ing things are sa­cred, con­nect­ed to a re­li­gious pur­pose; they are all part of God, as in the nat­ur­al world.

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 sug­ar­cane, man­go leaves, and flow­ers, and then pu­ja is of­fered. Here the di­vine in the form of a plant is wor­shipped.

The Tul­si Vi­vah cer­e­mo­ny, mark­ing the sym­bol­ic wed­ding of Lord Vish­nu and Tul­si De­vi, sig­ni­fies the di­vine union and is be­lieved to re­move past sins and en­sure a pros­per­ous and peace­ful life.

Tul­si is re­gard­ed as an avatar of God­dess Lak­sh­mi and there­fore the con­sort of Lord Vish­nu.

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 Bhag­wat Ma­ha Pu­rana, Lord Kr­ish­na ex­plains that on Kar­tik Shuk­la Prati­pa­da (the 1st 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. Ob­serv­ing Kar­tik with de­vo­tion and sin­cer­i­ty opens the door to im­mense spir­i­tu­al re­wards.