Kolkata/Varanasi/Guwahati/Kanpur/Bareilly, Oct.22 (ANI): A festive fever prevailed across India on Sunday and Monday, as devotees thronged aesthetically designed theme based pandals to celebrate the festival of Durga Puja.
In Kolkata, pandals, housing beautiful idols of Goddess Durga, were seen.
A devotee, Biswajeet Das, said the Hindu community expresses devotion to the deity.
"The devotional, some amount of spiritual feeling comes. I think today is the only time we formally pray to the goddess. The rest of the time, it is more of celebration. We started looking at pandals (makeshift tents) right from 6 am in the morning," he said.
In Varanasi, devotees travelled far and wide to witness the Durga Puja celebrations.
A devotee, Vikas, said he had specially come from Delhi to participate in the celebrations.
"I have specially come from Delhi to witness the celebrations here. I found it to be better as compared to Delhi. It is decorated very well and the size of idols is huge," he said.
Security arrangements have been in place in Guwahati, Assam, with police officials and CCTV cameras installed at prime locations in the city.
"Security officials have been posted at several gates and CCTV cameras have also been installed at the pandal. It is a wise decision, since no one can predict what will happen during this time," said Sanjay Goswami, Secretary, Geetanagar Pooja Committee.
In Kanpur, a huge crowd of devotees was seen at an ancient temple of 'Chinnmatika'.
'Chinnmatika'is believed to be one of the ten Tantric goddesses and a ferocious aspect of the Goddess Durga.
The doors of the temple is opened only twice in a year for the devotees, during the nine holy days of Hindu festival of 'Navratri' and 'Durga Puja'.
Krishna Kumar Tiwari, an organiser at the temple said that the devotees have been coming in thousands and are queuing outside the temple all night.
"Thousands of devotees have been standing from last night in a queue to get a chance to see the goddess. They are continuously walking inside the temple and praying to the goddess to make their wishes come true. This temple was built in 1860," he said.
In Bareilly, devotees offered special prayers to Ravana, the mythological demon-king.
The devotees believe that Ravana was an intellectual man of his times and this is one of his rare temples.
"This is a very sacred temple and people from far-flung places come here and their wishes come true after they pray here. It is very crowded during 'Dussehra' (Hindu festival) as many devotees come," said Aditya Shukla.
Legend has it that "Asuras" or demons from the underworld invaded the heavens after a hundred years of war with the gods.
The Hindu trinity of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu created Goddess Durga, the most powerful of all gods and goddesses to vanquish the demons, hence the term 'Durga Puja' which means worshipping the Goddess.
It is believed that the Goddess makes her annual visit to the world and the festivities are meant to welcome her.
The festival culminates with the immersion of the 'Durga' idols into water bodies. (ANI)
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