INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

has interestingly demonstrated this diversity in their study of Hindu festivals in
Shanti Nagar. On the day of Divali the male leader of a Brahmin household prepared
a fire ceremony (havan) for worship of eight deities, of which the goddess Lakhsmi
was given special attention. In the same village the leather workers worshipped their
personal guru by offering food and passing a hookah around a fire, whereas the
nearby sweepers lit candles and sacrificed a cockerel to their ancestors. 674 Although
Divali will present plenty of space for ritual and discursive variations, the outstanding
features of celebrations among the Sikhs in Varanasi tend to give primacy to
Lakhsmi, the goddess of good fortune and wealth, and two narratives of Hindu and
Sikh origin: the mythical triumph story of Ram and Sita’s return to the city of
Ayodhya in the Ramayana epic and the commemoration of Guru Hargobind’s return
to Amritsar after his imprisonment at Gwalior Fort in the seventeenth century. The
three rationales for Divali came forth in the interviews with local Sikhs and, as we
shall see, people seem to live quite comfortably with the fact that they blend Hindu
and Sikh practices during the festival.
In the days before Divali, street vendors in Varanasi are busy selling clay lamps
and colorful plaster statues of Lakhsmi and Ganesh. Traders are carefully cleaning
their shops and preparing for the annual closing of accounts. Families whitewash and
decorate their houses and buy new clothes and utensils. As the goddess of wealth and
prosperity, Lakhsmi is said to arrive on the night of Divali to dispell the darkness of
the moonless night and bring fortune and welfare to all categories of people. 675 To
lead her towards the businesses and private spheres people light candles and lamps
on the outside and inside of buildings, and at night leave the doors or windows open
for her entrance. Lakhsmi is thought to be extremely careful about cleanliness and
comes to places where there are lights. To clean spaces and please her with worship
are the means by which her approval and favors are won. Since Lakshmi brings material
wealth she is popular among merchants. Almost every shop-keeper in Varanasi
will host a small shrine for Lakhsmi and Ganesh at some elevated place in the store.
To merchant castes, like Khatris and Aroras, Divali marks the new year when accounts
are closed and new ledgers and books are opened. The peak of the festival is
the traditional Lakshmi puja which in Varanasi is celebrated in shops and in private
houses. The statues installed and worshipped usually depict Lakshmi seated or
standing in a lotus with money flowing from her hands. The goddess is always accompanied
with Ganesh, the son of Shiva and Parvati, as he destroys obstacles on the
way and makes sure her blessings will reach her worshippers. Shopkeepers may
invite local Brahmin priests to perform the puja for their business while families get
together in the evening to offer Lakshmi and Ganesh incense, food, water and money
and perform Arti before their manifestations.
674
Freed & Freed 1998: 96 – 101.
675
Lakshmi’s birth from the churning of the milk-sea and her intimate relationship to her spouse
Vishnu is narrated in the Vishnu Purana (Wilson 1979 (1840)).
418
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008